Christmas Card 2012.

This year, I wanted our Christmas cards to have a vintage, "yesteryear" kind of feel to them.

...With just a touch of "creepy."

To get this look, Eric and I created a studio setting in front of the living room drapes. A lamp, minus the lampshade, was placed directly behind us to give backlighting. We also used a spotlight, borrowed from Eric's friend Kevin, to make sure we had enough lighting on our scary beautiful festive visages. My mom came over and helped out behind the camera.

Once we had selected the optimal photo, Eric ran some coloring effects. This gave it the worn, aged look. (The photo, not my face. That's worn and aged for other reasons.)

I found the card template online by doing a search for vintage holiday cards.

While Eric and I look completely smashing, the real star of the show is Pearl's front tooth. Or lack of, I should say. She lost it RIGHT BEFORE we started taking our photos.


Feast your eyes...

ON THIS!

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Things I Hate: Generic Family Photos

Eric and I were talking the other night about family photos. Specifically, the fact that we need to take a picture for our Christmas cards before Christmas has come and gone and we're sending out Christmas-themed Easter photos.

The conversation quickly reminded me how much I hate certain types of family portraits. That "certain type" being the staged, contrived ones where everyone in the family wears a white button-down shirt and jeans/ khakis because that's what lame-brain photographers tell them will make them really "pop" and that these photos will be "timeless."

In case you happen to live on another planet, allow me to show you exhibits A, B, and C:

(This is also Xzibit. But this pic doesn't really apply to the scenario above.)

I don't usually use stock watermarked stock photos, but I opted to this time in order to avoid photographers suing me for talking shit about their dumb photos.

I know where photogs are going with this advice- it's an easy trick to make the subjects stand out. 

I still think it's generic. And when I see photos like these, my laser eyeballs automatically hone in on the crazy matching outfits, not the subjects' faces.

With that said, I love family portraits. I love studying the faces and seeing which characteristics were taken from which parent. I love seeing portraits that span several years of time because then you can see how each person has changed. I love holiday-themed portraits that show the change in seasons or decor. I love seeing portraits from generations past and recognizing fashion styles that have rerun over and over, like old episodes of Gilligan's Island. 

But I really dislike the cookie-cutter, lack of creativity, boring Webers-bread'ness of these white shirt portraits.

If you have family portraits like these, I apologize for pooping all over them. 

Does anyone else feel the same...? I realize I could be way out in left field here and maybe this template for photography is really the best thing ever invented.

Also, if I receive any holiday cards that use this template, we'll pretend this conversation never happened.

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