Family photos, part 1

It seemed easy enough, at first.

“Hey, everybody, let’s take a family photo!” I said, standing in the backyard of my parents’ home. We had all gotten together for a going-away party for my brother.

“Yeah!”

“I’ll get the tripod!”

“OH MY GOD, THIS IS THE BEST IDEA OF OUR ENTIRE LIVES!”

That’s what I expected to hear from my family. After all, that’s the reaction we always got from my wife’s family. They are a bunch who are so in love with family photos it’s unseemly. (examples can be found here, here and here), but my family is a bit... different.

The reaction I got from my family was more of the “just pretend you didn’t hear him, maybe he’ll change the subject” variety.

But after pleading for a bit we finally got everyone to put down the potato salad and pose for a family photo.

This family photo, to be specific:



It’s a cute photo, but it's not really a photo that reflects my family. My crazy, strange, “I’ve never made sense a day in my life” family.

So after much teeth pulling and begging I managed to get everyone back in place.

“This’ll be quick. Just one photo,” I said. “A silly one. Something fun.”

It took some persuading, but we did finally get them to agree to it...

...And then we accidentally took a photo before everyone was ready.

It almost ruined everything.

Finally, though, we did get the photo that I wanted:

 

This is the kind of family photo I had hoped for. Something fun. Something that said “We’re a family, and we’re having a good time.”

But, you know what? This photo doesn't really reflect my family, either.

Looking back over the photos from that day I was a bit disappointed. These photos were fine but they weren’t what I wanted.

I wanted a photo that says: “This is who we are. We eat pumpkin pie for breakfast, watch Murder She Wrote on DVD and have a weird infatuation with pigeons, fish, dogs, cats and the public library. We don't like cable television, but we love cable television shows. We live in Troutdale, Oregon and we are Pursingers."

These photos were fun, but they weren’t it.

And then I found this one.

It's the photo that we had taken accidentally. It’s a bit out of focus, and nobody is ready for the shot. Only about half of us are smiling and Katie didn’t even make it into the photo because she was setting up the camera.

But this?

 

This is the photo I want hung on my wall.

Nobody looks quite like they are expecting the photo to be taken and I’m not sure I know what my dad is doing with his arm, but this is exactly what I wanted.

This is my family.

And this is a great family photo.

Looking for Family Photos, Part Two?