We have received several comments on our family photo this year, so I thought it would be interesting to write a post on its production.  Ever since our family outgrew the Walmart photo studio, we have taken our own family photos.  This year’s is by far the best we have done.  Thank you, David, for all the labour you put into this!  Jonathan, thank you for being his assistant!

     Many times we have taken our family photo in picturesque outdoor locations such as in front of the cedar hedge, against the “pierre du champ” wall of our house, or even simply by the spreading weeping willow by the road.  The reason for these being taken outdoors is primarily the fact that indoor pictures are very difficult to take due to lighting problems.  During this past year, however, we learned a bit concerning lighting from various sources.  So, David made the great attempt: a studio-style indoor family photo!  Accomplishing this feat required quite a bit of planning and preparation.  Our house does not afford any convenient photo background walls, so a background was constructed using a white sheet.

     Then the lighting needed to be arranged…  Nathanael’s construction light came in handy as did a motion detecting light that was at one point mounted on the barn wall and a worklight of sorts made a number of years ago from scraps of lumber, aluminium foil, and a halogen bulb.

     Then came the picture taking…  We probably took dozens of photos.  The camera was giving us some trouble with getting the colours right.  Shadows were also very difficult to eliminate.

After a while, we decided to change the background colour to black by using some Geo-textile left over from the construction.

And then the photo-taking session resumed…

Here is the finalist.

But even still, our expert photo manager had to do some alterations to perfect it.

     “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” Psalm 127