Waiting on Santa Claus

A few weeks ago, we once again had the fun privilege of being the photographers for a gathering with Santa and Mrs. Claus at the home of some of our friends. It is always a fun time, and we enjoy being there with everyone. We missed last year’s event because of a schedule conflict, so it was nice to be back this year.

Of course, we can’t help playing around a little as we are setting up lighting and such. I always have to take some test shots to make sure I have everything set right, and you never know how that is going to go.

This year’s first test shot started out pretty normally, with Laura being my test model for the lighting:

You can’t tell it here because I worked on the photo a bit in post production, but this one was somewhat dark. Always good to be able to test that out ahead of time and adjust the settings. That’s why we do these lighting tests before everyone gets there, because no one wants to wait around while you fiddle with the camera.

The next photo happened as Laura said something along the lines of, “Hey Maggie, let’s do our fishy faces!” And this is what happened next:

For whatever reason, we tried to get a little more serious after that, doing a more traditional pose with Laura and me sitting in the Clauses’ chairs:

Fortunately, they didn’t come in and get mad at us for sitting in their chairs. That would be bad if they threatened to only bring us coal this year. Surely sitting in the big guy’s chair isn’t a major offense, though. It isn’t like I put on his coat that was behind me.

Soon, the Clauses came in for their photo time. Before everyone got there, we had time for a photo of Jaylin with the Clauses:

He is almost too big to sit on Santa’s lap now, but he is also almost too tall to fit in the photo with them sitting there. Maybe next time we should bring along a stool for the big kids to use, just in case. Because you are never too old for a photo with Santa, right?

Lastly, here is a photo of all three of us with Santa and the Mrs.:

Apparently, I thought I needed to lean over to be in the frame more, when in reality I wasn’t anywhere close to cutting off my head. Just one of the hazards of using your camera remote and not being able to see what is in the viewfinder. Fortunately, I took photos the old fashioned way the rest of the night.

After that, people started arriving and we started taking lots of photos. There were a few criers as usual, those who are afraid of Santa, no matter how nice he tries to be to them. Some of them come around later, once they figure out everything is okay, and some of them still keep their distance. But most everyone is more than happy to see the Clauses, including us.

Thanks to the Jamersons for the opportunity and the fun time!