Crack A Smile!

Have you ever made a complete fool of yourself? Okay, I hope the answer to that for EVERYONE is a resounding YES! It's good for our humility to humiliate ourselves now and again, am I right? ;) BUT, have you ever made a complete fool of yourself on PURPOSE, and been PAID to do it? I had that experience this past weekend while photographing this sweet family:

See that look on the baby's face? The "I-don't-know-you-but-you-expect-me-to-smile-?" look? He's good at that look. It's his favorite expression. His parents told me that he doesn't like to smile. Especially in pictures. In fact, they said, if I could get even ONE shot of him smiling, everyone they know would be shocked.

Is that a challenge??

I think so!

So, we started with the "playing peek a boo" bit, the animal noises routine, the toys dancing on my head stuff.

Nothing.

Really? Come on. I make a mean monkey sound!

What we discovered was how much baby LOVES his daddy, and how easily daddy can make his smile. Hmm....

But, when I get in front of him. Nothing. Even after 20 minutes... I was getting some of this:

So, daddy comes behind me and makes his goofy sound. The one where you loosen up your cheeks and shake your head side to side so your cheeks jiggle. That one. The one where, if you do it too much - you'll pass out. Did it work? It got this shot!

 

Yay! So, we got one with his adorable smile! I knew it was in there. There still remained one problem. I wanted a FAMILY shot with him smiling. Impossible? I don't know the meaning of the word! (okay, yes I do, it means: hopelessly unsuitable, difficult, or objectionable, utterly impracticable: an impossible plan, not to be done, endured, etc., with any degree of reason or propriety: an impossible situation, not possible; unable to be, exist, happen, etc.)

I admit I had already made quite a fool of myself up to this point, but I knew I could do better. I had so much more foolishness to give. So, I started in with the jowl shaking, head numbing tom foolery. Just at the point of passing out, I got this one shot:

See it? That little grin? Success!! Nothing like acting like an ape and getting a pay cheque for it. After all - if you are good at something, never do it for free! ;)