The "Professional" Photographer

I've decided that on occasion, I may cheat and use a picture that I already have for my picture of the day. Then I decided this totally counts and is not cheating. Hey, my project, my rules.

My entire family was here for Christmas. This means my parents, my oldest daughter, my brother, his wife, and their daughter Makenzie who is four, plus the husband, the two children that still live with us, and me. Total of 10 people in my house for a week. Actually, my parents and daughter arrived on Dec. 21st, and my brother and his family on the 23rd. They all left on the 30th. I was very happy to have them here. I was also happy when they left. That's a lot of people to have in your house.

We did a lot of fun things while they were here. Two days after Christmas, we took a family ski trip to Echo Mountain. When I say a family trip, I mean all four kids and my brother and sister-in-law went skiing and I took pictures. My husband, who has had a knee replacement, is not an eligible skier. Neither is my mother, who is 73. My father stayed at the house...to keep the dogs company, I suppose.

We also took Kylie and Makenzie to a place called Jump Street, which is a whole place full of trampolines and bouncy things. We went sledding at Sledding Hill Park. We went to Denver's Zoo Lights. And when my sister-in-law, who will hereafter be referred to as "Susan", because that's her name, discovered we had a Chipotle at the bottom of the hill? Lunch was in order. A few times.

We also wanted to get a family portrait taken. And when I say "we", I mean Susan. Don't get me wrong, I like her a lot. We have fun, she likes to drink, 'nuff said. But I wasn't so much up for a family portrait, but it's just one of those things you do.

About a week before their arrival, Susan called me and asked if I would mind if she hired a photographer to come to my house and do pictures, instead of all of us going to Sears. That way, the kids could change clothes, take pictures with the dogs, or out in the snow, or whatever. I said sure, whatever you want to do is fine.

So on Christmas Eve day, a professional photographer came to our house, who was basically a nice lady with a nice camera. The deal was, Susan paid her for an hour of her time. I don't know how much and I didn't ask. She took a big group shot, my kids, Susan's kid, our family, my brother's family, my kids with dogs, playing in the snow, etc. What was supposed to happen is that this woman would go home, Photoshop the pictures, adjust light, blah blah, and send us CDs. That way we could use Shutterfly or Target to make our own prints. Sounded good to me.

So she came, and took pictures. When she had the kids set up, Susan and my mom were also snapping pictures with their cameras behind her. This whole story led up to the picture I wanted to show you today, which was one of my three girls:

This picture was taken either by my mom or Susan, I'm not sure which. But I know it wasn't taken by the professional lady. You know how I know that? Because we don't have these mysterious CDs yet. We had these pictures done on the 24th, which was a Thursday. She was going to "work on them over the weekend", and mail the CDs to my house on Monday. Since she lives here where I live, we were expecting to get them on Tuesday. No dice. Wednesday? Nope. That's the day everyone left, and we agreed that when they came, I would just mail them to everyone. Thursday? Nope. Friday was New Year's Day, so no mail. Yesterday, I didn't check the mail, so there is always the possibility that they are sitting in my mailbox, frozen.

There's also the possibility that this whole thing was a scam. Pay her for an hour to take pictures, and then she disappears with the money and a digital camera full of pictures that we won't ever see. I'm really hoping that's not the case, as the lady seemed very nice, and I wouldn't want Susan to have been cheated out of however much money she paid this woman.

Steve's going to the store, I think I'll have him stop at the mailbox. More later on the saga of "The Professional Photographer"...

ETA: Ok, so the CDs were sitting in my mailbox from yesterday. Surprisingly, not frozen. Dear Roberta from ****** *********** Photography...I apologize profusely. Some of the pictures turned out really great. Especially some of Danni that she took next to a tree in my backyard, with a snow background. THAT looks like a senior picture to me, so the company in AZ who wants $500 to do a senior picture package? Can suck it.