Patience and perseverance.  Or when all else fails… Photoshop.

A little preface here.  Little Jack did an AMAZING job during the whole shoot.  This was one of the last shots I was trying to capture.  I wanted a fairly classic pose of the three of them on these front steps.

Here he is trying to tell everyone he’s done.  I just kept shooting and hoping.

Here’s Dad trying to tell him where to look.  I kept waiting and hoping.

He’s about to jump off the stairs in a minute.  I kept hanging in there and hoping.

I said. Ok.  Mom & Dad, let’s try to first get a good usable shot of you two.  Soooo, look at me and smile.  Jack thinks this is his chance to sneak away.

I was still hoping but at least I got a safe shot of the parents.

You DON’T want to know what I was doing to get him to look at me JUST ONE MORE TIME.  The hoping and praying led to him actually waving, which I thought was super adorable.

Now the fun begins.

Knowing I had enough shots to make this last series of the day, turn into a usable photo of the family.  I got in front of the computer and plugged away.

Mom’s pose and head was taken from the photo two up from here.  Dad’s head was put on the body of the photo one up from here.  Jack then was put together with new dad and mom.

Then to finalize the photo and make it as close to perfect as I could in this location, I “modified some of the surroundings.  I First took out the sidewalk lamp, then extended the siding on the house to the right of the photo.  I took out the siding because it added another vertical “stopping point” line at the right side of the photo and would visually off center the photo.  I took out the lamp because it cut dad’s foot in half and made his toes look like they were just “hanging” there.  Then little Jack.  It drove me nuts that I couldn’t see his feet.  I’m not a fan of having limbs chopped off in photos.  Especially at the joints.  (A HUGE photography NO-NO) So, I took his feet and pants from another photo, completely unrelated to this series.  (One earlier in the session)  To replicate the steps under the bushes I copied it piece by piece from what was existent in the photo already.

So the photo below is how you get a great family photo with a cooperative one year old.