Christmas Photo Tips
It’s getting super busy around here. How about in your household? As women, we’re the ones who generally take on the responsibility to make sure everything goes smoothly so everyone can enjoy it, and sometimes that means that we stress ourselves out and don’t enjoy Christmas Day ourselves. And I refuse to not enjoy Christmas! So this year I set the schedule. I guess I do every year and everyone just goes with it. But today it came up while my husband and I were at lunch.
Let me preface this story by saying that Roger is the kindest, gentlest, most considerate man in the world. We have been married 6 years, after his late wife passed away after over 30 years of marriage. He knows how to do the marriage thing well. One of his talents is seeing what people need and hopping to it to help. So this story in NO way is meant to portray him in a bad light. He’s pretty awesome.
He got a phone call from one of his kids who we don’t see very often and who will be here on Christmas Day, we hope. You know how it is with adult kids—their schedules and plans don’t always align with one group of parents or another! Anyway, during the convo they mentioned that it would be more convenient for them if we had dinner at noon. Ladies, I had a mini panic attack! We’re talking palms sweating, heart pounding, the shakes, stomach lurching. And my first thoughts were “OK! I’ll have to make it work. How can I make it work? I can be cooking instead of being with the family while they open their gifts. I can wait and clean up the sticky bun mess while I’m cooking dinner. I can cancel Christmas Eve plans and do everything except the roast ahead of time…” etc etc. All of this flashing in my head in the space of a few seconds.
And then came the clarity, a moment of insight.
Why should I set aside my enjoyment of Christmas Day, spending all day in the kitchen panicking trying to get everything done and then kicking myself later when it didn’t happen because it COULDN’T? So I told him that there wasn’t any way I could have dinner prepared by noon unless I didn’t do anything else. No traditional sticky buns. No spending Christmas morning with the family. Frantic all morning trying desperately to make it happen. No way. And I knew that if the guests knew that eating early would cause all of this they wouldn’t want me to do it anyway. So I explained how it would effect my day.
“We always ate early in our family, I guess,” says he. To which I said, “Probably while you and the others were all enjoying relaxing, opening presents, and enjoying being together your mom and later Marcia (his late wife) were stuck back in the kitchen, right?”
He looked at me. Blinked. Light dawned. It was a beautiful thing.
So. We’re having dinner when I can prepare it without running around like a madwoman, and guests are welcome to come earlier and leave earlier if they need to, and we’d love to see them BUT…I want to be able to spend time with them, too, and it’s not gonna happen if I’m stuck in the kitchen!
Sometimes people just don't know. And they’re not going to know if we twist ourselves in knots trying to please everyone and in the process put what we need or how we feel at the bottom of the heap. We’re kind of conditioned to do that, aren’t we? Ladies, we really need to be better communicators so we don’t become resentful, bitter, biddies! How can we expect people to just know what we need if we don’t speak up?
But I digress.
Like I was saying. Christmas is busy. And it’s also a time when cameras come out in full force. And we all know how much we LOVE having the camera turned on is—especially since we’re probably a little bit frantic trying to get everything all done, so we might not think that we’re particularly put together. At least that’s how I feel, and I’m assuming I’m not alone.
But like it or not, people are going to want to take photos of us. And we should let them without a fuss, because someday they’re going to look at those photos and remember the memory of being with us. So without further ado, here are a few tips on what to do when the lens turns our direction. I would put some photos with this showing before and after so you can see what these things do. And might some day, but right now I have wrapping to do so…it’s just gonna be some tips. And a photo of lovely Pam, who followed posing direction perfectly. Done is better than perfect, right?
So without further ado, 5 quick posing tips:
1. Turn your body about 45 degrees away from the camera and put the weight on the foot that is furthest away from the photographer. That way your hip won’t pop toward the camera, which makes behinds look bigger than they are. Instead, your hip will be further away from the camera, giving a nice curve to your back and minimizing the size of the keister. It works great. Try it in front of the mirror!
2. Bend the forward knee a bit to give some shape to your legs.
3. Turn your chin to the lens and keep your chin and top of the head level. Don’t try to reduce any double chins (more on that coming up!) by putting your chin up. The picture will be a wonderful shot of the inside of your nose. Don’t put it down or it’ll look like you’re glaring at the world. Level is best.
4. And now this is the super slick magical tip. Keeping your chin level and your back straight and shoulders where they are. move your forehead and chin towards the camera. Kind of like a chicken does when it walks. ha! Be sure to keep your chin level, though, or it’ll be nose hair time again. Take a minute while you’re brushing your teeth tonight and practice. It’s like a miracle way to get rid of jowls and double chins.
5. Arms and hands. The thing to think about is keep them from being straight in front of your body. An easy way to do this is touch fingertips together in front of you at about waist level so your elbows are bent, or put the forward hand on your thigh and then slide your hand up a bit so your elbow bends, leaving a bit of a triangular gap between your arm and your body.
BONUS TIP: If you are slender, angle your front shoulder forward a bit, kind like a model does, and move your chin towards your shoulder, imagining that there is a line pulling your chin towards it. It looks kinda cool. If you’re on the more curvy side, you’ll want to lengthen the look of your neck, so try to drop your shoulder a bit towards the camera. It kind of fakes the camera out a bit and lengthens the line of your neck and arm. Don’t overdo either of these shoulder tweaks or it’ll look weird, but done just a bit they’re a powerful thing!
And that’s it! Now smile with your eyes!