Photo Shoot Hell

Oct 21st 2009
LoriHandelandGoddess Classics & Lori Handeland & On Writing!

45 Responses to “Photo Shoot Hell”

1. MizMacgyver on 21 Oct 2009 at 4:10 am #

   Those are great and thankfully I don’t have to do things like that because the camera and I are sworn enemies. Not only do I look old I look fat as well. I haven’t had cheekbones in years now.

2. Judy F on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:18 am #

   WOW I think you look great. Love your hair.

   I avoid the camera. I don’t photograph well at all.

   The last time I had a formal picture taken I was 30 so its been a while.

3. Dee on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:23 am #

   I love the pictures!

   I don’t like being in pictures at all. I believe the camera adds 5 pounds to my body and 5 to just to my face. I loved being a camera hound until I think I hit my late 20s.

4. Freshechelle on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:25 am #

   You brave soul. But from the looks of the pics, you had nothing to be bother by. They look great I’m at a work meeting with my team and former team and the cameras are constantly out. Cringe. All that smiling is giving me crows feet and laughlines.

   Congrats on your great picture. You look like a million bucks.

5. Kathy on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:33 am #

   they are GREAT pictures!
   I’m usually the one behind the camera. I don’t mind photos taken of me, but when I see them I’m a bit shocked as I never see myself has having that much- um- mass.
   The last time I posed for pictues in a studio, it was with friends who at the time were still in photography school. a good 17yrs ago. We did the experimental thing, playing with lace and odd angles.
   the most uncomfortable position gets the better shot. ouch!
   I did a fun photo shoot a little over a yr ago with the girls I used to look after. We had fun and they loved looking more grown up.

6. Kathy on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:34 am #

   they are GREAT pictures!
   I’m usually the one behind the camera. I don’t mind photos taken of me, but when I see them I’m a bit shocked as I never see myself has having that much- um- mass.
   The last time I posed for pictues in a studio, it was with friends who at the time were still in photography school. a good 17yrs ago. We did the experimental thing, playing with lace and odd angles.
   the most uncomfortable position gets the better shot. ouch!
   I did a fun photo shoot a little over a yr ago with the girls I used to look after. We had fun and they loved looking more grown up.

7. Kathy on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:43 am #

   huh? how’d it come up twice??
   one thing I wanted to mention Lori- you have HAIR! beautiful hair at that. surprised me as I always have a frozen image in my head of all you and they are usually the ones in the blog/ book covers

8. Kim on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:44 am #

   Great photos!

   I think the last time I had an “official” photo was high school graduation.

   I do NOT photograph well. All you see is my long face…and now you see all the crows feet and see all the fat too. *Shudder* I prefer to be on the other side of the camera, taking nature pictures, thanks.

9. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:48 am #

   that’s how I usually feel about the camera, MizM. Sworn enemies. My dad was a prof photographer so I have tons of great pics of when I was a kid. Then I hit “don’t photograph me!” age and nothing for a while. But having the camera in my face all of my life, I’m not a fan. I don’t like to take photos either but I make myself or I’d have none of the kids.

   Thanks, Judy. Been growing my hair out for a few years so it was time for a new pic.

   I lost my joy with the camera long before my late 20s, Dee. By then I had kids so I could turn it on them. Heh heh, heh.

   I’m with you, Fresh. All that smiling is tiring!

   Sounds like the photo shoot with your friends would have been fun, Kathy. And the younger girls too. Kids are into cameras. It’s sweet.
   Had to get a new photo because of the hair. No one was recognizing me anymore!

10. Cail on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:56 am #

    Lori, you look great! I remember when I met you in DC I was all confused, cause like kathy, i had this frozen image of you with short hair. That happened with Rachel too.

    I have a friend whose DH is a prof photographer, who last time their fam visited, he took tons of pictures of me and the DH. I have to admit, I love being photographed. What I hate, is pictures that are taken of me without warning. Then I usually look bored and awful. If I know a camera is in the room, I tend to make sure I’m smiling. I just hate candid photos. hate them.

    Fresh, I’d rather have laugh lines than frown lines. I just started to notice wrinkles on my forehead a few months ago. that TOTALLY freaked me out.

11. kay on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:59 am #

    You have hair!!! Great photos. I used to enjoy getting my photo taken, because I used to be young and looked good in photos. Now, I hide when I see one coming.

12. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 6:06 am #

    Nature pics sound like fun, Kim. My FIL does that. He gets some great ones up at our cabin in N. WI.

    Thanks, Cail. How nice you got some great pics of you and DH. There are very rarely any pics of me and IV anymore since one of us is running the camera. It was great when my dad was alive because we had tons of great pics and we never had to bring the camera along.

    Same here, Kay. Maybe the reason I’m behind the family camera so much is so that I’m not in front of it!

13. SuzyQ on 21 Oct 2009 at 6:16 am #

    I think the pictures came out great Lori! Like everyone else I love your hair! I am usually the one behind the camera but I don’t mind being in front of it either. The last time I sat for a formal session was with my family at a school fundraiser. The photographer came to the school one weekend before the holidays and turned one of the classrooms into a studio. It was really nice – no waiting – and the pictures came out great! If your school ever needs a fundraiser check with some local photographers because it really is great for holiday photos.

14. Freedom Writer on 21 Oct 2009 at 6:39 am #

    Lori I love your pictures. I, however, prefer to be the one behind the camera not in front of it. I sat for a family picture about 8 or 9 years ago, but for individual pictures it was over 30 years ago when I posed for my senior pictures. I don’t have a big problem with sitting for portraits when I have primped and look my best. It is the candid photos that I avoid. It seems that my hair is sticking up or the shirt I’m wearing has a grease stain on it or I look as if I am about to murder someone, probably the one with the camera.

15. Lisa H on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:06 am #

    Lori, I love this blog!!! While I cannot relate to being the model for the photo shoot, the thought of taking my three children for their Christmas Photo is enough to give me heart palpitations!

    I like the lowest photo of you, you are very photogenic and I cannot imagine why think you look old or scary. You look beautiful!

16. TrishD on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:16 am #

    Great pictures!! To use your words, you may have had a day of “photo shoot hell” but the efforts paid off. If my pics ever turned out that great I wouldn’t run from the camera. The last time I sat down for formal pics was 10 years ago, before I was married, had a kid and packed about… ummm… yeah… let’s just call it a considerable amount of weight on my body. I love my skinny pics, especially the ones of me on the beach in FL, hate every picture taken of me now.

    I escaped the formal pictures at my nephew’s wedding this past summer but I was caught in a few candid shots. I didn’t know they were taken so it was only when I saw them that I was scarred!

17. KarenC on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:19 am #

    I think the pics look OUTSTANDING! Go with the close-up w/leather. Can never go wrong with leather.

    Pics of me are very rare. I’m not particularly averse to it. I’m just always the one behind the camera, for my family yeah, but I’m also the one taking pictures at camp, for 4-H, etc. Coming across a pic that actually has me in it tends to shock me. Finding a shot of me wherein I’m not wearing a uniform of some sort…Well, I’m sure they exist. In another world in the multiverse maybe.

    Sat for a family portrait 5yrs ago and scheduled for another in 2wks. If I don’t start thinking about what we’re all going to wear, we’ll end up in our Def Leppard concert t-shirts (hey, we’d match, LOL), thereby cementing my brood as the trashiest family evah.

18. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:21 am #

    SuzyQ-they have those fundraisers here too but we’ve never gone. I always think about it and never do it.

    In candid photos I’m usually caught frowning or with my mouth open or my hands flailing wildly, Free.

    Remember, LisaH, there were 63 pics taken and only 4 that were good enough to be airbrushed. Seriously, the first 10 I saw nearly killed me. I thought about keeping a few to show y’all on the blog, but instead made the guy delete them before I left the studio.

    Thanks, Trish. I’m just glad a few turned out so well.

19. Pesky on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:27 am #

    I think you should be kinder to yourself! You look wonderful in the pictures! Definitely worth the time spent.

    I’m so bad about having pictures taken that I’m known as “the phantom”. I get around it by being the one with the camera.

20. JudyPatooty on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:28 am #

    Fantastic pictures, Lori!! I think you actually look younger! No kidding. I mean it.

21. Madeline Hunter on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:51 am #

    I think they are really good pictures!
    I take horrible pics. Dreadful. So bad that kind and generous family members have been known to destroy them before I see them. I am not making this up. My DH can’t believe how bad my pictures are. Maybe he just gazes upon the reality with eyes of love, and a pic is merciless?

22. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 7:58 am #

    Everyone should be kinder to themselves, Pesky. You’re so right.
    The phantom! Love it!

    Thanks, Judy.

    Ain’t that the truth, Madeline? IV went with me to the shoot and thought ALL the pics were great. Gotta be blinded by love, right?

23. Kim on 21 Oct 2009 at 8:07 am #

    Lori-they look great! Love them!

24. SheridanLA on 21 Oct 2009 at 8:14 am #

    I think you look absolutely beautiful.

    Being the nature of my work… photography… cameras are always around. I am not overly fond of them, but I am pretty photogenic when I know a picture is being taken. Not conceit, but I am trying to be kinder to myself (good words of wisdom, Pesky)

    Lori, 4 out of 63 is good and I am sure had you let someone else edit them, there would have been more.. when we have professionally made-up and casted talent in the studio, we take literally HUNDREDS of photos and might only get a few that are usable. Don’t be hard on yourself, we are always our own harshest critic.

    Head shots are always the toughest to take. I think you got some great shots (that goes for all the goddesses and pics of people I have seen from this board.)

25. elsiehogarth on 21 Oct 2009 at 8:31 am #

    Lori, those pictures look great. You look great.

    Over 15 years ago, my sister and I did Glamour Shots as a present for our parents and to be honest I don’t know how models do it. All the make up, change of clothes, look this way, look happy, excited etc., shoulders straight, lift up your chin etc. I remember after we were done we went home and took a nap before taking off all the pounds of make up we had on.

26. Rachel Gibson on 21 Oct 2009 at 8:44 am #

    You look fab. Love the leather.

    I HATE my picture taken. I am always the one in group photos who looks like the inbred cousin.

27. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 8:59 am #

    Hey, Kim!! Thanks!

    That makes me feel better, Sheridan. Everyone should know that models have that many photos taken too. I didn’t realize.

    Did anyone see the photo spread a few years back of Jamie Lee Curtis where she posed in her underwear and showed both that photo and the retouched one. A big eye opener. What guts!

    What a nice idea for a gift, Elsie. I would like my boys to get a prof photo done of the two of them together. Haven’t had one since they were little. But I don’t think they’ll go for Glamour Shots.

    Rachel–LOL! As usual you crack me up!

28. Amy Scott on 21 Oct 2009 at 9:02 am #

    The pictures are wonderful!

    I take horrible pictures, most of the time. From time to time I shock myself and take an alright picture. I think my problem is I can’t fake smile and make it look natural. My eyes also tend to close once the flash goes off. I am either bug eyed trying to keep them open, or I have half closed eyes and look drunk. My best pictures are taken when I am unaware of it.

29. Suzanne Enoch on 21 Oct 2009 at 9:17 am #

    You look great, Lori! See that gorgeous hair? That’s why when we first met in DC I almost walked right past you. Now that lovely gal looks like you.

    As for taking pics of me, all I can say is thank God for dramatic shadows and soft focus. *g*

30. Nicole Jordan on 21 Oct 2009 at 10:22 am #

    Fab pics, Lori!! I’d say all your pain was well worth it.

    So much depends on the photographer. I hated getting author photos done until I found a wonderful photographer. That can make all the difference.

31. Nicole Jordan on 21 Oct 2009 at 10:24 am #

    Ps. has your hair been growing out for a long time? You have gorgeous hair!

32. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 10:41 am #

    There were several pics in the discards that had me with eyes closed or half closed, Amy. Hard not to with all the flashes.

    Here, here, Suzie.

    I agree, Nicole. I’ve had the same photog for my last two pics and he also did my son’s senior pics. Love him.
    I stopped cutting my hair about two years ago January. It grows pretty fast. Usually I wimp out when it gets around chin/shoulder length because it looks so crappy and I can’t do anything with it, but this time it worked out. Now I’m leaving it like this until it’s all white!

33. Sabrina Jeffries on 21 Oct 2009 at 11:09 am #

    You don’t look old OR scary! You look fabulous! I hate photo shoots myself, probably for the same reasons you do. My current pic was taken after my surgery. I’d lost a total of 60 or 70 pounds at that point, and I STILL looked the same in the face (at least to me). It was very discouraging. It’s finally showing in my face, but I was very depressed by that shoot.

    And despite my “helmet of hair” (love that term), I had to redo my hair three times throughout the 6-hour shoot. I hate my hair.

34. Karen Hawkins on 21 Oct 2009 at 11:55 am #

    Lol! What Suzanne Enoch said, Lori — we didn’t recognize you in DC but with these pictures, we would have. You look GORGEOUS! Love the hair, the jacket, and especially the smile!

    I’m with you, though — if a camera comes out, I hide. My guy isn’t as camera shy, though, and doesn’t understand why I just feel like a fool in front of the camera.

    I haven’t had a studio shot for oh, three years. It’s about time to do it again but I haven’t recovered from the last time yet, so it’ll have to wait.

    Honestly, Lori, you look AWESOME in those pictures! Kudos to you for going through the misery of it all!

35. SheridanLA on 21 Oct 2009 at 12:36 pm #

    ha.. you all ought to pop out to LA.. we could have one heck of a photo shoot with wine, silliness and mayhem.

36. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 12:46 pm #

    I thought your new pics looked great, Sabrina. You have a smile that lights up the whole internet.

    I think the last studio shot I did was four or five years ago, K-Ha. It took me that long to recover.

    See, Sheridan, I should have had the wine DURING the shoot instead of after. Duh.

37. SheridanLA on 21 Oct 2009 at 1:07 pm #

    we start giving my boss martinis as we set up when we shoot the Christmas card. Definitely makes things more fun.

38. Margaret on 21 Oct 2009 at 1:59 pm #

    Where did you find that picture of me on the right side of the page? Oh wait. That’s not me. Just my image of me. One reason not to sit in front of a camera. In this digital camera age, everybody and their dog has both a digital still camera and a cam corder. There is no escape!

    I love your hair. The pictures are great. My favorite is the middle one. You look like a young sprout in them.

    I think the last time I posed for a formal picture, Eisenhower was president. ‘Nuff said.

39. Paula on 21 Oct 2009 at 2:45 pm #

    I love the phots Lori. I did a double take as I didn’t realise that it was you in the phots!! Love the hair.

    About 3 years ago My DH and 2 boys and I had some professional pics done and we’ve been talking about having more done this year as the boys have grown and changed so much.
    I am usually on the wrong (or IMO the right ) side of the camera!!

40. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 3:07 pm #

    Thanks, Margaret. Young sprout! Love it.

    I would like to get a prof pic of the whole family too but I keep saying it and everyone keep rolling their eyes at me. I may have to pull out drill sergeant Lori. Hut, two, three, four. March to the photo studio!

41. Judy F on 21 Oct 2009 at 3:15 pm #

    Lori I did see those Jamie Lee Pictures. Kudos to her.

42. Janae on 21 Oct 2009 at 3:37 pm #

    Great pictures Lori! I love your hair.

    We just took the first professional family pictures in IDK how many years last month. For whatever reason my children decided that they weren’t going to smile, or if they smiled, it was without teeth. One of the IDK how many pictures taken, turned out. We bought it. We’ll try again next year since it’s $30 with half of that going to the school, and I forget what percentage of the picture purchase going to the school.

    Since we’ve had children I don’t think we’ve sent out a single announcement, Christmas card, etc, that hasn’t been photoshopped. It’s hard to get little kids to look at the camera; add two kids, it’s impossible to get them both to look at the camera at the same time. We’ve sent out cards where the head came from one picture and the arm from another. Or there’s our dd’s birth announcement photo, where my dh took out her Frankenstein looking stork bite that’s about 2″ long starting at the inside of her left eyebrow and running left. Fortunately, it’s faded alot, and she has bangs to cover it.

43. Tina on 21 Oct 2009 at 5:25 pm #

    I do not mind pictures.
    Only time had professional photos was for Senior Year.

44. Tina on 21 Oct 2009 at 8:03 pm #

    PS
    We discovered at my mother’s funeral, that we had only about 30 pictures of her because mom usually took the photos.

45. LoriHandeland on 21 Oct 2009 at 9:07 pm #

    I never thought of photoshopping, Janae. We always have the same thing here with someone not looking good on this pic, someone else on that one. What a great idea to “fix” them.

    Ain’t that always the way, Tina? Mom’s always behind the camera. In my case it was my dad. I have one pic of him and it’s from when he was in the air force.