A perfect picture isn't always the picture that's perfect

Earlier today I had a client tell me that she has wished her hair hadn't ruined so many of her and her husband's pre-deployment pictures.  I shared with her a realization that I have come to over the years both with taking pictures and with life just in general.  When we have pictures done, we all hope for that picture perfect moment where the smiles are just right, our hair is exactly in the place, all the kiddos are looking at the camera and smiling their best smiles. 

The reality is that's not how things happen.  Often times those perfect moments may be caught for a split second, but most the time they don't happen at all.  A few hairs, if not a chunk of hair is out of place, the kiddos are looking in twenty different directions or when they are looking at the camera, they have a cheesy smile that is not at all what was envisioned. 

The session this lady had been talking about was a pre-deployment session as her husband is preparing for his first deployment.  From past experience, I have learned that the moments when you need those pictures the most when you are deployed - you appreciate the ones where things weren't perfect, because it reminds you a memory.  It may make you think of a smell or a situation, either way, outside of letters and the occasional phone call, those are what get you through the deployment. 

I'm just as guilty as anyone of trying to make the picture just right, but the short conversation that I had with this lady made me think of my son's session last night.  I had planned on taking him to the park and doing his pictures outside, but he has allergies and they were bothering him - so we ended up doing the studio setting.  He wouldn't let me take his binkie and he wanted to hold his comb.  After it was all said and done, and with a little help from my husband, we got the binkie and the comb away from him and got a few smiles.  But in the midst of the rest of the pictures are him crawling away and trying to climb out of the little Radio Flyer he was in... and you know - that's ok...  Because in a few months when he's walking, I'm going to think back on the days he was crawling and be happy I have those less than planned pictures to hold on to.