Family Pictures 2013

This year I had to take our family pictures. Yep-you heard right. I had to be on BOTH sides of the camera, and it was RIDICULOUSLY hard, but we just can't afford anything else at the moment so.....I set up the camera with different shutter speeds, etc. posed the family, shoved the camera at my mom and told her to NOT MOVE from said spot or lighting would be completely off, run & put myself in the shot, have mom snap a few, leave everyone there and run to the camera to check all of the above-including kids faces, hands, etc. Then tried it again if necessary. EVERY. SINGLE. POSE. at EVERY. DIFFERENT. LOCATION. Gah! Thank goodness my mom was ok with me bossing my leadership qualities ;) that evening! We were losing light, as the sun was going down (it is best to shoot at dusk on the beach because the sand is too reflective during the day, etc.), the kids weren't in the mood because they just wanted to PLAY on their beloved beach....Blah, blah, blah. But we did it-I'm good with how they turned out & best of all-they were FREE!!!!