Professional pictures or snap shots?

I like the school pictures. Most often is it set up the same way and when you place on year after the other, you can truly see the changes happening to them through the years. Other than that, I have been the photographer for the family for a very long time. I have even done portrait photography for schools. So doing my own pictures here at home set up and candid are more treasured to me. But because also having seven children, taking everyone to some places for a professional family portrait is just not feasible. So, I prefer again to do it every year myself during the holiday seasons. In my own home and where the comfort level is best to get the natural family feelings.

I use to get my kids photo taken professionally also. I did this every 3 months the first year of their lives. I then did every 6 months until they started school. Now the only professional pictures I get are the lovely school pictures. I think it captures more of their personality when you take snap shots with my camera. Last year I finally purchased a digital camera with a dock so I can print them right from my home. I love it!

Awww...cute picture! My favorite though, is your avatar! It is such an amazing picture that captures the peaceful emotions of her and the environment. :) I love the photographs taken at home. Those are normally more meaningful than the ones taken professionally. They bring more life into the photos! :D But, I also like the professional/school photos taken because it shows how much one has grown over the years...or just over the school year(because there are two pictures taken, one in the beginning of the year, and one near the end. I always seem to look really different from the both of them!). :)

Yes I value both ways.I do not beleive in going out and spending lots of money on pictures every 3 to 4 months though.One time in thier 1 year span would be enough.I usually go to Wal-mart to get my kids pictures done.They turn out pretty good almost like the professional and expensive ones.I think I only spent 6.12 on thier pictures together,You can get extras if youn want which I think I got extra pictures that costed me 30.00 extra.But its alot cheaper than the expensive pictures I guess if people had the money to do that then I guess thats okay .I perfer to go to Wal-mart though.I also like taking pictures on my digital camera as well and capturing cute and funny pictures.My husband,I and the kids in May of last year visited his sister and her husband and daughter and his sister wanted to get pictures of the them all together at Sears.Well the photographer when she would get one to laugh the other one didnt want to sit and smile.The photographer had to have them all smiling and in that pose that she wanted.We got fed up and told her just to try taking them the best she could.I know thats thier job and they are trained that way but not all kids can sit still for very long.

My daughter is only 10 months & for her first year we are taking monthly photos, we haven't really thought about professional ones at all! I can get some really nice ones taken coz she'll sit there for me & smile! I think when we've finished our family we'll get a family shot taken professionally but i probably wouldn't worry about it until that time. To me it really doesn't seem to be worth it, it's a lot of money for something you can probably do yourself anyway - put up a background, put a nice rug down & sit the baby on it!

I love both snapshots and professionals. I love the ones you get at home because you actually get photos of kids being kids. Getting all dirty and hamming it up. But I also like professionals because it shows another side of your child. My daughter loves to get her photo professionally taken. I don't make that big of a deal. My children wear their favorite outfits, do their own hair, and bring whatever props they want for the photo. I have been known to keep some of the photos that the photographer didn't like because I thought that that photo showed who my child really is.

I have about a thousand picture of our family. Only once were they taken professionally. Back when our 7yr. old was still a newborn. Digitals are great. Never having to worry about running out of film. Never having to make sure it's a perfect picture. Not sure? Take twenty of them, pick the best later. Force

I think that crazy might be a stretch...

We do a lot of both. We don't take the baby to a real professional that costs a lot of money, but we do take him to the Walmart portrait studio. We took him every month during his first year. We're getting ready to take him again this month, he's 15 months old. We're going to go every 3 months this year. And then probably 2 or 3 times a year after that. The price isn't bad at Walmart. You get a lot of pictures for just a few dollars. It's probably cheaper than if I printed off all those pictures at home, and the quality is a little better from Walmart, too. I also take pictures at home of him almost every day. I don't print a lot of them out. I email some to my family every week. My husband is military and we are stationed almost 1100 miles from home, so that's the only way my family gets to see him most of the time.

I definitely prefer snapshots, especially now with a digital camera. We took our older daughter to have her portrait taken when she was 9 months old. Never took my younger one to have hers done. Then, when they were 2 and 3 years old, we got a professional picture done of the both of them together. Cost us 65 bucks! But with snapshots, I have the most memorable pictures. There's one picture that my mother-in-law took of my daughters when they were about 3 and 4 years old. They were standing on her porch out in the country. My younger one was still in diapers and my older one was wearing just her skivvies. It was raining outside, and the picture that she took is a classic. They didn't know that their picture was being taken, and they are standing there on the porch, with their little hands sticking out into the rain, and the looks on their faces were pure wonder and amazement. I enlarged it, framed it, and brought it into my office to put on my desk. I had so many comments and compliments on that picture. I don't think we'll ever do professional again, except for school pictures.