{"id":5738,"date":"2009-08-03T21:19:09","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T02:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/?p=5738"},"modified":"2009-08-17T21:24:40","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T02:24:40","slug":"the-family-portrait-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/the-family-portrait-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Family Portrait Contest…UPDATED!!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

*We are THRILLED with the response the contest has gotten so far! I love hearing which portraits you would choose and your reasons why. Continue to tell your friends how they could be entered to win a FREE family portrait! Also, new posts are being added BELOW the contest post, so scroll on down to see new sessions. Thanks, Y’all!*<\/p>\n

Do you remember a month or so back when Collin and I went to his parent’s ranch in Missouri? We attempted a family portrait…Remember? Well, we wanted to give it another shot at the beach a few weeks ago. Collin and I were dreading it. Oh, who am I kidding…all 4 of us were dreading it. We put it off until the very last possible night we could have done it. At the farm, we had Collin’s parents, who were quite funny, try to make the kids laugh during the session. This time, we enlisted the help of my Uncle Carl, seriously one of the FUNNIEST guys I have EVER met. Also, he’s the father of four boys so he “gets” kids. There was no way Makgill and Clara Beth were not going to smile this time. I was CONFIDENT.<\/p>\n

Anyone want to take a guess as to how it went? It. Was. DREADFUL. Abysmal. Uncle Carl stood behind the camera and kept saying “Smile!” HUH??? SMILE?!?! Trust me, “Smile!” does not work for this photographer’s kids. My Dad walked out there and yelled to my uncle “Hey, Carl! You went from a truly funny man to a guy who just stands behind the camera yelling Smile!” Hands down, best line from my dad ever. So then, Carl gets the idea to lift his shirt to make the kids laugh. Pure genius. The kids immediately started lifting their clothes, too. At that point it was OVER. Beyond over. Collin and I were DONE with the children. Carl was DONE trying to make them laugh and look at the camera. There was much grumbling from us all and a declaration from my uncle that you could never pay him enough to be a portrait photographer.<\/p>\n

Did a single image come from the 100 that were taken? Nope! And, by the way, my uncle knows that I’m completely joking with him. It was NOT his fault! And he really is the funniest guy I know! Our frustration was 100% directed at our sweet, toe-headed, bright blue-eyed little cherubs. It’s not that they just didn’t smile. It’s the complete lack of respect and obnoxious attitudes that they display every time we try to photograph them. It’s like they think it’s cute to behave that way. Trust me, they are never allowed to behave that way in any other circumstance. I have no idea why they think it’s acceptable when they are being photographed. At that point I was more than fed up with their behavior. I’m not going to get into a parenting lecture on the blog, but Trust me…there was some SERIOUS parenting going on back at the beach house that night!<\/p>\n

Okay, moving along to Sunday morning. Sunrise, Sunday morning. Yep…we were going to try it again. We woke our babes from their nice warm bed and got them dressed. Mean Momma? Maybe. But, hey, they deserved it after the two previous attempts we had at a family portrait. This time, they were warned in no uncertain terms of what the consequences of a bad attitude would be. They were reminded of the “parenting” that occurred a couple of nights earlier as a result of bad attitudes. My mom agreed to stand behind the camera and click click click. And that she did! She took over 500 images in a little over 20 minutes. From those, Collin has been able to piece together 4 portraits to choose from.<\/p>\n

So, why the long background explanation of our family portrait saga you might ask? Here’s where YOU come in…Collin and I want you to choose the next family portrait that hangs above our mantle. And if you help us out with this, we will give back to you. We want you to leave a comment on the blog including your name and email or the best way to get in touch with you, along with your choice for our family portrait. When you do that, you will be entered into a contest to win a FREE Family portrait session and wall portrait!<\/p>\n

Collin and I feel so strongly about family portraits. They are the most needed and neglected session out there. Really, what matters most in your life? Chances are, it’s your faith and your family. Everything we do in life is for our family. Yes, our sessions were stressful, but I know without a shadow of doubt that when that portrait is hanging on my wall, I will look at it and laugh at the funny memories that came from it. I will see those three other people that I love most in this world, and I will be THRILLED that it is up there.<\/p>\n

So, there it is. You help us choose our portrait, and we will give you the chance to win one for free! Oh, and just so you know, most family sessions at Collin M. Smith Portrait photography are not nearly as stressful as ours was! Most are even…dare I say it…FUN!!! And I can guarantee it won’t take three attempts!<\/p>\n

You do not need to live in Florence area to enter the contest. I know we have several Charleston, Charlotte, Atlanta, Greenville, Columbia readers…Bring it on!!! Comment away! And don’t forget to tell all of your friends!<\/p>\n

Option1<\/p>\n

\"famport09-001\"<\/p>\n

Option 2<\/p>\n

\"famport09-002\"<\/p>\n

Option 3<\/p>\n

\"famport09-003\"<\/p>\n

Option 4<\/p>\n

\"famport09-004\"<\/p>\n

Option 5<\/p>\n

\"famport09-005\"<\/p>\n

Option 6 (same as 5 just in b&w)<\/p>\n

\"famport09-006\"<\/p>\n

Thanks, y’all! We are headed out of town next week, so the winner of the contest will be announced on Monday evening, August 17th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*We are THRILLED with the response the contest has gotten so far! I love hearing which portraits you would choose and your reasons why. Continue to tell your friends how they could be entered to win a FREE family portrait! Also, new posts are being added BELOW the contest post, so scroll on down to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"pp_embeds":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-portrait-project","category-families"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5738"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5840,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738\/revisions\/5840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}