Jeeze, what a pain this was. As I blogged earlier, this seemingly easy and quick photo undertaking turned into a two day hassle, mostly due to the kids lack of cooperation, and mostly my daughter.

Above you can see the final result, but there was a long road leading up to that. First, I wanted to keep the look we've used in the past...Santa hats and sunglasses. Should be easy enough, except that my daughter's sunglasses are prescription and only get dark outdoors. So, outdoors we went. I found a shady area of the yard but of course it was still too bright for her sensitive eyes even though she was wearing sunglasses. Everything itched, her back hurt, her brother touched her...etc. This went on for about 15 minutes before I finally just gave up. Below is a typical capture from the many I took that day. Not usable: 

It was probably better that I didn't use these anyway. You can see my reflection up on the ladder in Joey's sunglasses. Would have meant lots of Photoshopping.

So the dilemma now was how do I move this indoors with her wearing prescription sunglasses that only get dark outdoors. Well, you don't. I needed regular sunglasses for Julia. What I haven't mentioned is that I've been trying for over a year to buy her a pair of sunglasses that she likes. They're always too tight, too loose, too small, too big...always too something. So, in an act of desperation, I broke down and bought her a $5.00 pair of sunglasses so we could just get this picture finished.

As expected, they were too tight, gave her a headache, etc. I convinced her just to wear them one time. The kids got into position (I also had them both wear white shirts this time) and I began shooting. Julia closed her eyes every single time the strobes flashed. I couldn't get her to keep her eyes open a single time. Again, I just gave up.

I took a look at the pics afterwards and really wasn't happy with any of them. I decided to go with the one I was least unhappy with: 

First step was getting the softbox reflection out of Joey's sunglasses which was pretty easy. Then converted the image to black and white while leaving the hats in color (Photoshop). Chose a card for the pictures and we were done.

I already know how I'm going to do next years card...both kids standing next to each other with the hats pulled over their eyes. Eliminate the problem.  

Again, I need to emphasize, this NEVER happens when I do photo shoots involving kids...unless they're my kids.