To be upset over ruined photo shoot?

The description of your son picking up massive logs sounds hilarious. A proper moment and his personality capture much better than some posed bits could do.

I really think they will turn out far better than you thought. SIL asked us to join a photoshoot they were doing and we politely declined. Just not our thing and DH and I would have been far more awkward than the kids and probably ruined it for them. The results are nice, they look like the professional photos they are but still very staged and I don't get the point of it.

Exactly. It was a question, not a statement. Not an unreasonable question, either.

You need to get a sense of humour. My mother was a humourless martyr when I was growing up and now wonders why 2 out of her 3 children have bugger all to do with her.

This reminds of when my mum bought us a photo shoot session with DH and our two dogs - as we were sat on the floor in a pose, one of my dogs got excited at something (that wasn't even there! It was his imaginary spacebats!) and he leapt up and knocked me onto my back and dragged me across the studio floor on my back as I still had hold of his lead.
I was mortified at the time but I look at the photo from the session (where he finally stopped seeing his spacebats and sat down) and I laugh every time, because that memory comes into my head.

OP - I understand how you feel and I hope it becomes one of your life's funny stories. There's nothing wrong with wanting a photo shoot for Mothers Day and hopefully one day, you'll look back on today and grin.
I hope you have an amazing day tomorrow

Sorry this has happened to you.
Maybe ask DH to take some more casual photos of you and the DC.
it might be more relaxing for them. I know, it’s not the same, but with phone cameras these days, you might be surprised.
Plus it will be fun, maybe a day out for you all.
Good luck, and Happy Mother’s Day to you.

I voted that you were BU, but not to make you feel bad or anything.

Wait until you get the photos. Sometimes the photos we think will be dreadful can turn out to be actually quite good. When you are out and about in future, make sure to ask your husband to take the odd photo of you with the children (the joy of mobile phones!)

We often offer to take photos of families when we are out for walks (we live near three major tourist attractions, that also happen to be really good walking areas) so don’t miss out on that opportunity either if you get the chance.

Don’t dwell on the £80 spent anymore. Enjoy Mother’s Day with your family tomorrow, and get one or two informal photos of yourself and the children if you get the chance.

I reckon you’ll be surprised at some of the photos you do get but I would talk to family about trying to get more natural photos of you and the kids, my DH was rubbish but as the kids have got older they take them more, as others have said some of my favourite photos are the imperfect ones because of the memories. Sorry it didn’t go to plan…

I also wasn’t intending to be rude to you @iamjustgutted , my kids are now adults but my favourite photo of our eldest was taken in Greenwich park in the winter and he is running towards me with his arms out and I’m going towards him with my arms out ( he was about 18 months old/ 2) and my husband caught the photo from behind me . It’s a very simple photo but to me it exudes energy and love and is much better imo than any of the professional photos we have . Perhaps going forward you should start trying to take a selfie with one or both of your children on outings or just ad hoc that is what I’ve done with mine ever since camera phones came into being and I still do it now when I go out with either of them .

No, I really don't. It's just a question, isn't it?

No one said that, though. Someone asked whether or not anyone does - possibly as a prompt, as although people around us don’t always think to do things like that (certainly true for me!), we can ask them to.

The best photo of me my mum has is from school when my hair is a complete mess, I'm not looking directly at the camera & I'm missing some teeth. She absolutely hated it when I brought it home but my dad made her buy it. She wanted one where I was all polished, not a hair out of place & very 'posed'. She now says its the best photo she has of me when I was young as it actually captures 'me' & what I was really like!

Ive got a similar one of my 2 oldest DC when we won a photo shoot. The best photo in the collection is when they are both laughing at each other and not looking at the camera. Again, not what I had in mind but its honestly a gorgeous photo of them both. Also had lots of action shots as they wouldn't sit still or smile! The end result was so much better than I had hoped it would be from the shoot though.

If you used a good photographer they should have been able to get some really good action shots that you will love.

Thank you. It certainly wasn't my intention, I apologised anyway, but I'm baffled. People's supportive responses to this, just underline it.

How old are they? Was their behaviour rare behaviour?

I agree, there was nothing patronising in the post. OP came across as incredibly touchy in her reply to you.

So sorry @iamjustgutted .
I'd be gutted too.
Our ds wouldn’t stand still for a photo until I told him to hold his favourite teddy as we wanted a photo of the teddy.
Worked a charm. He’s 40 now and we laugh at how many photos have teddy in when he was little.

I'm kind of baffled by some of your responses, @iamjustgutted . I don't see anyone trying to rub salt in the wound for you?

It's understandable to be upset about a wasted £80 though. Maybe you could tell DH that you want him to make more of an effort to take photos of you with your children?

Ahhh OP yanbu. But in 10/20 years time when DS is a Big Serious teen/man those enormous logs might make you smile seeing the little log loving boy he was.

I have a staged childhood pic of my GPs' GC, we all look nice but I look at one of my cousins and always remember the ball just out of shot and the fact she kept wailing and wiggling, it always makes me smile when I see it.

I hope you get some good ones OP. We did an expensive photoshoot when my boys were 3 and 9 months. Lord knows what we were thinking. The 9 month old commando crawled round the studio at top speed and the 3 year old threw Gordon from Thomas the Tank Engine down the photographer’s loo. My main memory of the day is fishing Gordon out of the bog. 😕

My boys are 20 and 17 now and we have the most beautiful photo from that day of DS2 shoving his fingers in DS1’s mouth and them beaming at each other. It still hangs over our fireplace. Not quite what I was expecting but it captures them at their loopy best.

Gordon was promptly thrown away.

I'm with you OP.
DH never bothered to take photos of me with the kids. There are hundreds of him with the kids. Even though I reminded him. He just couldn't be bothered.
We had a photo shoot. Luckily the older ones were great. The baby was grumpy. Im glad I have some nice ones.

If the photos are not good (hopefully a good photographer will have managed to capture at least some nice ones) I'd book another shoot.
And get into the habit of taking selfies with the kids.

How old are your children?

You wanted an soft focus image of your children

You got their reality in all their mucky real life glory. Enjoy the photos and chuckle about it

Don’t panic yet OP until you’ve seen the photos. Took my DGS to an outdoor photo shoot and it sounds similar to your experience! He was grumpy and throwing things and I didn’t hold out much hope! But there were some absolute beauties - she caught him the second before he threw a stick and it looked great!

I absolutely hear you. Photos are all we have of some relatives (my mum & dad) perhaps you could see if you can go out with a friend and take some pics of each other? I hope you got some good ones x

Agree with this - have lots of pics, but none with me in them either. At the risk of sounding maudlin, so many of my adult friends have lost their mums in recent years and are heartbroken to find that, when they sort their things there are no pics of them with their mums as children. It is always the mums taking the photos.

So I can totally understand the desire to have a picture with your kids, @iamjustgutted but perhaps you could ask your DH to take some this weekend while the sun is shining?

Thank you!

OP, that sounds quite funny and you may end up with some memorable, amusing shots. The other bigger issue is why you have no photos of yourself. You need to get people around you to take photos at every opportunity. Even if you had the perfect shoot today, this is just one day in their lives. You want other memories of the rest of the years ahead. So focus your energy on ensuring that those around you take photos of you with the children in it. And hopefully you’ll get some good funny shots from today as a bonus.