To be upset over ruined photo shoot?

Put them up for adoption. 😉

Hope you have had a better day today OP. I have my fingers crossed that there is something salvageable from the shoot but I don’t blame you for being disappointed.

I remember once I was on holiday with my children, lively holiday with waterparks and days out. During the holiday was my birthday and for some unknown reason each of my three children choose that particular day to be a horrid brat. I remember feeling so confused and disappointed so I can kind of imagine how upset you are feeling when for one day it was supposed to be something nice for you.

My children are usually fine and lovely btw, no idea what got into them that day.

I can understand you’re sad now, but you’ll remember that photoshoot for life. I’m time, you’ll laugh about it.

The Sisterhood can be fickle when there isn’t a man to blame :-)

Ohhh I’m sad for you OP, and don’t think you deserve some of the comments here. I’d be feeling the same so I’m sending you a hug. I have a posed photoshoot of just my kids every Christmas because I love seeing how they’e grown and one year they were all a bit crap 🤣

When my second was born we had a family photoshoot in a studio, but the family shots were disappointing and quite forced by the photographer. Also I felt and looked like crap. Fast forward 5 years and we had another longer, outdoors shoot and the photographer just got the kids and us and we have some stunning photos from it. Suppose what I’m trying to say is there will always be times when the kids don’t play ball and it can be really rubbish and disappointing 🥺 hopefully there will be a couple you like and you can plan / save for another in the future which will hopefully be better!

How’s your Mother’s Day gone @iamjustgutted ? Did DH do anything to try to get you out of this slump about the photos?

Well surely planned photoshoots arent natural either.

But you would know it's photoshopped and not real.

I'm not sure what the point of it would be?

It's like that advert when your phone allows you to insert yourself into a picture with others. It's not the same as actually having that moment together.

With photoshop you can do anything now.

See my further comment 🙂

Has op even seen the photos yet???

Hey, I wonder if you approach the photographer, and say how disappointed you were. Of course, not photographers fault, but maybe they could have helped a bit more - If they would be willing to take a few extra shots - minus the logs
It might be a positive thing for the photographers business
Happy Mother’s Day, hope you have a fun day with those lovely DC.
More happy memories to come.

Except OP doesn't want photos just of her children - of which she has loads (photos, that is, not children) - but her with her children

Hi OP,
just w anted to say that it’s ok for you to be upset about looking forward to a day that you had lovely expectations of, that you “went without” in order to pay for the event, and then it didn’t work out in the way you hoped.

Maybe you could have a chat to the photographer, coz if they are being paid as a professional, surely they should have enough talent (especially when working with children and/or animals), to be able to get the children to behave in a reasonable manner.

Many years ago, I had a mum/dc type session, and I was scared that it would all look a bit staged and unnatural… Our lady photographer brought out the best in all of us, made us “relax”, and she was snapping away, even when we didn’t realise she was.

We came away with half a dozen pics that I continue to love to this day…

The photographer was happy to discuss anything that I wasn’t happy with, so hang in there, as there might be a “better than you think” outcome.

In the meantime, have a grumble and a moan, coz although it obviously doesn’t bother some of the other posters, it’s what bothers you that counts.

Wishing you a FABULOUS Mothers Day… you might be lucky to get a half brewed tea, and some burned toast, but hey… that’s love 🧡

I get it OP. When my DCs were small we did a family photoshoot. MIL was terminally ill and we wanted a whole-family shoot to create some keepsake pictures. It involved me, DH and our two DC, SIL, BIL and their two DC, MIL, FIL and my parents in various groups. We had a photographer come to the house. On the day my youngest DD, who was about 4, had a strop and was crying lots. She wouldn't pose at all at first and in the later shots, you can see from her face she'd been crying. Poor MIL looked as poorly as she was. A few of the photos were ok but MIL passed away a few weeks later so the thought of printing photos got put aside and eventually forgotten. I found the proofs recently and, having lost my own dad a few years ago, decided to contact the photographer to see if he still had the negatives (yeah, it was 20+ yrs ago and he used a 'proper' camera 😅). Sadly he'd moved house and the negatives were lost, so I only have the proofs with the photographers watermark going across them. It makes me sad, because I have lots of photos of my kids, but few with me and the DC, and ever less of me and my dad, but c'est la vie. It was not meant to be ☹️

You won’t look back and laugh about this, you’ll look back and think god I blew that massively out of proportion over a photoshoot. This is quite clearly the straw that broke the camels bacK after a rubbish week.

You sound like a mature mother to me who deep down knows a photoshoot down the park wasn’t going to be smiles and butterflies. Kids associate parks with puddles, mud, sticks and slides not poses and restrictions.

FWIW my son behaved like the devil himself on a photoshoot for grandparents. The moody photos of him are outstanding and remain on their wall 8 years later. It’s surprising what a good photographer can do.

Have a brew. Stop winding yourself up and wait for the proofs.

Thanks. This was exactly my intention.

You haven't lost £80.

The photos will show your kids having fun. We did the same when the kids were 3 and 8 as I wanted some photos. I just had a laugh with the kids and the photographer took some photos of family time, not necessarily posed. It showed me having fun on a family day out. Surely you want to have pics of your kids enjoying themselves rather than forced to pose??

Hopefully they got some nice ones of you having fun with your kids, unless you spent the entire shoot being uptight and stressing as they weren't doing what you wanted.

Our non posed family fun photos turned out great! DS2 is autistic and she even got some lovely photos of him playing.

If the photographer specialises in outdoor photoshoots with families then hopefully they are very experienced in working their magic to produce something great. Perhaps not what you had envisaged, but something that captures the chaos of family life in a lovely way.

Ok, I get that. I don't really like having my photo taken, I'm not in many if any photos either. I'm usually the one taking photos.
(Trying to remedy that lately though due to personal reasons)
Get somebody to take photos of you with them in a more relaxed environment such as at the beach or down the park. Such as a relative you're out with, a friend, DH/DP or whoever?
A formal photoshoot is recipe for disaster in my experience as small kids are far too whingy and uncooperative 😁

First post nails it. Thinking back to when mine were small, it would have been an absolute pointless nightmare to get them to behave and sit still long enough to have a nice "hashtag making memories with the famalam" photo shoot 😁
Just enjoy the simple things in life. A bunch of daffodils, a homemade card, and chill out.
If you're wanting photos, try and do it spontaneously when no-one knows you're taking one. More chance of success.

I agree, thats how i read it too.

So have a conversation with your dh.
Explain that.
Tell him that you want him to take some photos when your dc are snuggled up with you - at story time, or if you sit and watch a programme together, or when you are playing together one day.

You asking the internet if YABU, then being SO snippy and downright rude to posters who are trying to console you and cheer you up is not helping you at all.

Don't be ridiculous.

Photograph portraits you see in museums are rare moments.

In 2026 we can take hundreds of photos every day. I've taken 26 today and haven't been at any special event or with any cute babies or toddlers.

We have two photos on my Grandmother (born in the 19th Century) before cameras became more popular in the 2nd half of the 20th Century, from when we still only have a couple of dozen (as before digital) - 1 as a girl and 1 as an adult. She didn't even have photographs at her wedding in the 1920s.
In 2026, with cameras on smart phones which so many of us have on us all the time, and with digital photography so you can take dozens and just choose the best, it is a completely different scenario.