Portrait Time

This past weekend we took Carter to his first formal photography session. Although we have taken hundreds of snapshots of Carter, I was itching for something a little nicer to go in the memory books and possibly hang on the wall. We decided to visit Portrait Innovations – it had been highly recommended by Aunt Susan as a quick and inexpensive option for decent pictures – exactly what I was looking for.

The Portrait Innovation experience was a bit overwhelming at times, but in the end we walked away with all of the pictures you see above in less than 2 hours and for less than $50. Here is how it works. We arrived, changed Carter into his first photo outfit and the picture taking began. We did the standard portrait shot with a black background and good lighting and then it was time to let Carter do his thing on the floor while mommy and daddy embarrassed themselves making silly faces and jumping up and down behind the photographer. Anything for a good smile, right? Carter was mainly uninterested in our silly moves – we probably got more laughs from Mimi in the background. Once Carter quit smiling, we took a break, changed his outfit and did the same thing all over again. This time we had to let him keep a toy – he was done with the whole ‘sit on a blank white floor with no toys in grabbing distance’ plan. But, the toy turned out cute in the picture so it worked.

After the photo session the pictures were loaded on a big screen tv and we had to narrow the 100+ pictures to our favorites. This is where they try to make the big bucks. Of course there were several adorable pictures of Carter – but somehow – probably because Adam was there – we managed to leave with only two poses, one in each outfit. We got the Portrait Innovation special for our favorite pose – 1 10X13, 2 8X10, 4 5X7, 4 3X5, and 32 wallets – all for $9.95! Pretty good deal, huh? After that deal, the prices go up considerably. Plus, you can only do that deal once every 3 months. We ended up with enough pictures of both poses for the memory book and to send to our family – so grandparents be on the lookout!

The pictures were ready for pick-up 30 minutes later. Quite a process - but they have it pretty well organized. Many thanks to Mimi for entertaining Carter while we were staring at the big screen picking out our favorites.