Portraits in the Park

 Every few years I try to get family portraits done by a professional, which used to be quite easy. Expensive, perhaps, but easy because I had a tried and true photographer working close by.

So I would save and save, and every few years we could ensure that we had captured those magical ages of our boys lives, with those innocent smiles or goofy faces.

Someday there will be yearbook photos and team photos. Photos with a cap and gown. Photos with girls. At a first dance. But this stage is so fleeting, gone so fast. Any day now Philip will be smiling a gap-toothed grin. Nate may begin objecting to hats. And then the growing up begins.

As much as a photographer may cost you, I believe they are worth every penny, and here's my proof.

We met up with Gyuri in late April for an outdoor sitting, right before it got way to hot to move, at the park behind the Queen Sirikit Convention Center (my favorite running space.) Now, I have to tell you what a good sport he was, between trying to meet up with me to discuss the theme I had in mind, to listening to my bizarre request. As we sat down to coffee one morning, I told him I wanted something different. While most families want their photos to be cheerful and vivid, their children's eyes to be bright, I wanted something washed-out. Drab, even. We were going to give this feel of another era, something along the lines of a family picnic in the 1940's, and I was trying to decide how far to go with it.

Fast forward a month later, and we were trooping through Bangkok's steamy heat in the park, trying with great care not to get too sweaty. Or grumpy. Gyuri knew time was key-no six year old or two year old would last very long in the heat without eventually unraveling. We quickly shifted from site to site in the park, smoothly laying down a picnic blanket or adjusting a shoe here and there.

And here's the end result. Some of the coolest photos I have ever seen-my little mop-headed boys don't look even mildly bothered by the heat, and I seem to have lost a year or twenty.

There are those cheeks on N that just beg to be smooched. And Little P's way of trying to be helpful. Or run the show, depending on what we are doing.

Oh, and don't forget the quilt my mother made, which has traveled all over the world with us.

Thanks again, Mom.

Now I just have to decide which ones to hang up, and bring them to our super wonderful framer over at the EOB. Love this place!

Photos are by Gyuri at 
Szabo photos
www.szabophotos.com
(66) 81 838 6401