It's official - I am crazy!

I am always frustrated and disappointed when taking pictures of kids. No matter how good my camera is, my skill is sorely lacking when trying to capture their funny faces, interesting moods or peculiar interactions. I always look at the end result and wonder why it looked like a pale copy of what was really going on at the time of the shot.

Here’s one example. Last night I was up until some ungodly hour, I think about 2.30 when I climbed into my bed to discover my cutie (or eggplant if you wish) son lying smack in the middle (leaving me two slim wedges on either side) with his hands under his head. He looked soooo cute (or eggplanty) and peaceful, as if he were lying on a beach getting a tan. As I lay down next to him, I was full of disappointment that I could not capture him at that particular moment. Firstly, I could and most likely would wake him up with the flash; secondly, I could wake up dear husband with the flash and/or baby crying, and thirdly, getting out of bed at 2.35 a.m. to take a picture of the kid who could wake up and take the entire house with him was just plain CRAZY.

And then I remembered, I left the light on in the kitchen! Ta-da. Excuse!!!! I quickly slid out of bed, got the camera, adjusted the flash, made a test shot in the completely dark living room and almost forgot to turn the lights off in the kitchen. Then I quietly climbed onto my bed (as quietly as my rather sturdy frame allows, of course) and prepared to make a shot. I knew I only had one chance at it. Herein lies the problem: it is very hard to take a picture in almost complete darkness. The LCD screen doesn’t show anything, I can barely see what I am doing, the bed wiggles under me, and to add to the list of problems I had to rush before I came to my senses, put the camera down and went to sleep. I had to ride the crazy wave before it was gone. So I took the first available position and snapped. The picture was OK, but definitely didn’t catch everything that it could. I think a few more seconds of proper positioning would definitely produce a much, much cuter shot. Now you would look at the picture and say: did you just go through all of the trouble to capture this? You ARE crazy.

In case you are wondering, I did wake the baby up, though not completely, and I think hubby stirred in his sleep. Then the baby repositioned himself on all fours and fell asleep that way. OMG!!! Yet another great shot! My hands trembled, crazy ideas rushing through my head, but my common sense came back and I went to sleep. Maybe there is hope for me after all.

P.S. Hubby was not surprised at all to find a camera in my underwear drawer. I guess I did wake him up or he is already used to my crazies…