Ruba Family Photos

You would think having an “enthusiast DSLR” (as Nikon describes my camera) would mean beautiful family photos at the touch of a button. Believe me, I wish it were that easy! The hardest part when it comes to our families is actually getting the entire family together. For our Ruba family, Paige lives in SE Iowa, Jess and Ryan and I in NE Iowa and Mom and Dad in NW Iowa. Quite the stretch of land! Usually it takes a holiday or a planned event for all six of us to be together. Crazy to think how you grow up living under one roof and only get to all be together a few times a year as adults. Sad face. I know as we continue to get older and our lives change, it will continue to get harder and harder. But, until then, we enjoy our time together and occasionally try to capture a group photo.

This Thanksgiving, the plan was to get photos of the six of us. Typical with this time of year, the weather was COLD! So, there’s one reason why getting the photos are difficult. No one wants to go outside (myself included). The second is finding a time to do it. Obviously I want to work around the sun and the ideal lighting time. That doesn’t mean that time of day is ideal for the family. Then, we’re working to fit it in among the activities we have planned. Reason # 3. It is really hard to drop everything to take some photos. Needless to say, all these factors led to us squeezing in our photos Sunday before us kids hit the road. Luckily, it was a cloudy day with slightly warmer temps (around 33 degrees! Woohoo!). This eliminated me having to work around the sun and minimized the complaining of the participants! Taking the photos is a bit of challenge, too, since it is done with my tripod and wireless remote. Although the remote has really helped (who remembers our blooper photos from two years ago?), I lose the view of the composition that I get when I’m behind the lens. However, I still think we ended up with a couple good photos. Thanks to the family for being good sports! Now, time to order some prints!