I frequently get little notes from readers, friends, colleagues; “Wow! I love that picture!” or “Great picture today!” Like most moms, I take a LOT of pictures. Like most moms, I keep my fingers & toes crossed there is one good one in the bunch.  Sometimes, no matter how many pictures I snapped, or how long I kept fingers & toes crossed, there is not one good photo in the bunch.

We are in the prime of Fall over here (Black Forest, Germany).  It is absolutely spectacular and breathtaking.  For weeks I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect spot to take gorgeous Fall photo’s of my kids.  I needed the light to be just right, because I am just a mom, I can’t create magic light with a fancy set-up and I needed the trees to be in their full autumn glory. Yesterday was the day.

Under protest I packed all three little ones up into the van, nobody wanted to go hike around a farmers field so I could get my perfect photo.  I bribed.  Shoot me, it’s wrong, but I was willing to pay for a perfect photo.  It’s rare I get all three on a perfect day, with perfect light, and perfect trees.  I was willing to pay.

I want to take a moment here and comment on farmers fields.  There is a reason farmers wear sturdy, plastic, boots.  This lush, beautiful, green field was, in reality, ankle-to-knee deep mud.  When  you walk on it & look down, it’s not so much green as brown.  That green?  Total optical illusion. I haven’t figured out yet how they do it. I also haven’t figured out how to clean my favorite walking clogs, or three pairs of tennis shoes whose owners blame all the mud on me.

Remember where I said I was willing to pay, after 200 shots, a lot of hollering, screaming, running away, weird faces, upside down bodies, sideway bodies, magical flip kicks and posing only by the daughter, I gave up.  No paying happened. This is the best photo of the bunch.  I told you our trees are stunning right now.

23OCT13