It’s confession time…. My family, the Larmour Family, have never had professional photos taken of us. I hear glass shattering, the gasps of shock and screams of horror around town…. I promise it’s not for the want of trying… twice I’ve contacted photographers in the UK and tried to arrange shoots when we’ve been there… and twice I’ve been let down – lessons in how not to run a business let me tell you…. I’ve also tried a few times when we’ve been travelling, but again to no avail… so this summer this stops…….

no more of these self timer pics where I press the shutter and then sprint to get in position…..

Or of handing my camera to people who I mistakenly think might know what they’re doing…..

pic on left taken by someone with a D700 – the same camera I shoot with – really, I thought he might have a clue…. but he chopped our feet off and overexposed us…, pic on the right taken by someone with a Canon 5DMkII – clearly he had no idea how to work focus points on a Nikon and focussed on the no entry sign behind us….. yup this is the disappointing number of family photos we have to show for our trip to Cambodia last summer…  (lesson to be learned, not everyone with a fancy camera knows what they’re doing with it! and yes, unfortunately that also applies to some people passing themselves off as photographers!) 

Or of a friend snapping a quick one but none of us is really engaged in the photo (to be fair, it’s the Rugby 7’s so not really the idea time for a family photo but it’s the best one we have from the whole of 2011!!!)

And no more lovely photos with either Mr Larmour, or me in….. he does an OK job, but he’s missing and that makes me sad…. 

No, no, no, no, NO….. this summer this stops….. and this summer I’m going through the same worries and stresses as my clients – what shall we wear??? What if the kids don’t cooperate??? Can I lose a few more pounds??? What if I get a zit???

And I’m telling you none of this matters – what matters is my girls are growing up, far too fast, they’re 6 and 4 and I have albums full of beautiful photos of them… but I’m not in them… and we aren’t together in them and that matters, that really matters to me – I can’t keep putting this off till next year, I don’t care if the extra pounds are still there, the zit can be photoshopped and hell, we’re lucky enough to have a wardrobe full of lovely clothes, EACH… if we can’t find something we like it’s a really poor look out…. what matters is that someone, who knows what they’re doing captures us.. and our love for each other and our family togetherness – so no pressure Sarah, but I really, totally, absolutely can’t wait until our photo shoot in PARIS this summer!!!! 

PARIS BABY!!!! Bring it on!

Kirsty xx