THANKSGIVING FAMILY PHOTO SHOOT
One Thanksgiving weekend when we were all together in Nashville, I arranged a family photo shoot. Ashley was a young colleague downtown who had a nifty new camera and I hired her to take photos of us that Saturday morning. She asked us to meet her at The Factory in Franklin, where she had done other photo shoots. There were lovely old brick walls inside that made great backgrounds and outdoor benches outside.
The kids all really liked Ashley and were very happy to pose in various settings. She took lots of shots—of the four little cousins together, individual shots of each of them, and family portraits. The photo above was one of the foursome—Charlotte in her pink dress with the bunny rabbit, and the boys in their Christmas sweaters. Eli and Charlotte took the prize for “missing teeth” smiles. Sam and Eli were 8, Charlotte 7 and Ezra 3. So much cuteness.
By the end of our time together, Ezra was tired and it was more challenging to get a picture with everyone smiling. It was delightful to get all the edited digital photos from Ashley the next week and then to have prints made for everyone. I kept my framed photos—both the individual and group shots—on my living room shelf for several years.
This was the photo of me with the four grandkids that day. By this time, Ezra was a bit squirmy and Sam was beginning to look tired of smiling. They are certainly much more grown up now, but they still love being together and don’t mind being photographed occasionally. I’m still wearing the sweater I have on in this photo—they certainly aren’t wearing the same clothes this Thanksgiving, tall as they all are.
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