"Out Takes"

All of my life I have always loved photography, I had no choice, it surrounded me every day since my mom was a photographer.  The other day I came across old pictures that my mom had taken of my sisters and me.  She used to dress all of us girls up in Victorian style dresses, set up her back-drops, and would have a staged tea party.  Looking back now, as annoyed as we were at those times when we were younger, those pictures are something that all three of us treasure.  My favorite pictures are the ones my mother would call "out-takes" which consisted of us girls laughing, one of us picking their nose, not looking at the camera, or one us having our eyes open when we were instructed to keep them closed. 

"Out Takes" are often the pictures that we do not like because we are not looking at the camera, it's our bad side, our eyes are closed from laughing too hard, or our smile is too wide.  The emotions and joy behind those photos are often not displayed or admired, and are usually pushed to the side or deleted for no one to ever see.  I wish more people took the time to appreciate those pictures and those emotions because those are true moments.  When I am really happy... the right side of my mouth goes up a little higher than the other and while I hated this smile showing up in pictures, I have come to appreciate that flaw.  Because when I see a picture where my smile is a little higher on one side, I know that in that moment I am at my happiest and I cannot help but show it.

Here is one of our famous tea party pictures that my mother still has in a frame in our house.

Everyone smiles in the same language.  ~Author Unknown