A picture can tell a thousand lies. Or at least a few. I had been trying to orchestrate family photos for more than a year. It was nearly impossible with two teenagers who were either working, training, hanging out with friends and/or having bad hair moments and acne. I’ve had my share of the last two as well, thinking the photos couldn’t happen until a breakout cleared or until after I had visited Dallas (my hairdresser, not the city).
The last time the kids and I tried to get photos was July, 2021. Our friend Carrie met us at a beach entrance near home off Papamoa Beach Road. Fiona and I had done our hair and makeup and Finley put on a clean shirt. The weather that day had been iffy – gray skies and low clouds. It hadn’t rained, though, until the three of us stepped out of the car. Drippy drops turned into a steady torrent, and the photo shoot was over before it started.
As the date of Finley’s departure for the States and Fiona’s departure for Auckland neared, I felt the urge once more to try to get the damned photos done. I picked a Sunday late last month and asked Carrie if we could give it another go. We crossed our fingers and hoped the weather would cooperate this time.
It did. We were treated to an impossibly July azure sky on a cloudless, wind-free day. We met Carrie at the same beach spot with Ally in tow for her closeup.
There’s a reason they say never work with dogs and children. It’s hard graft. Ally barked her bloody head off for most of the shoot. We got some photos with our beloved canine before Fiona deposited her in the car to wait out the rest of the session.
Carrie was a great director, using the gorgeous natural light to capture our family and the beach setting. She suggested we recreate a couple poses from our last family photo shoot in 2011, when the kids were five and seven years old. If only it were that easy. Fiona was game, but Finley complained. “No, that’s dumb. I’m not doing that,” he said, when we suggested he do his haka pose, the one he learned in primary school that came at the end of the Maori war dance.
“How about if you kids get on either side of your mom and give her a kiss on the cheek?” suggested Carrie. “What?” said Finley, glaring. “You don’t even like me. You like Fiona better. You treat Fiona better.”
And on and on... I might have cried, but I didn’t want to ruin my mascara.
Finley threatened to leave several times, starting towards the middle of our roughly 40-minute shoot. After some walking on the sand and sitting in the dunes, we were finally done.
Despite the miserable process, I love the end product. The photos capture our family at a pivotal moment, possibly the last time the kids and I will live together in New Zealand. Before Fiona left for university. Before Finley left for Ohio. I brought my two most important people to the other side of the globe to try life-after-death in a new place. Now it was time to let them find their own place in the world.
Until they boomerang back home.
omg yes I feel your pain!! Family photos are a nightmare, but totally worth it!! xxx
Thanks for sharing Dawn. Oh the journey we are on. It was sweet to see reflections of Sean in both of them.