One day, my grandmother decided that she would like to have a family picture of my two cousins, my aunt and uncle, my parents, my brother and me as a gift. At first, we thought it would be a good idea to have a portrait artist do a portrait painting of the family; however, since we all do not live in the same city, this was just too much of a challenge to coordinate, so my aunt and my dad thought it would be a good idea to just hire a photographer to take some pictures. It turned out it may not have been the smartest thing, in the end.

My dad and my aunt thought it would be best to take the pictures on the day that my family was coming up for my cousin’s high school graduation. We got to my aunt and uncle’s house to discover that no one in their house was ready, so we waited while my cousins picked out clothes, trying many different outfits on before finding the right ones. Finally we were ready to drive over to the outdoor area that had been picked to be the sight of the pictures.

When we arrived at the place where the photos were to be taken, my aunt told my dad that the original photographer she hired was unable to make the appointment, so he was sending a replacement instead, that he promised would be just as good. This new photographer, however, was not on time to the appointment. He also did not offer any kind of remorse for his tardiness. He was not very prepared either because he kept needing to run back and forth to his van several times to get the right equipment. Sometimes he did not even have the items he was supposed to have to take the photographs.

It took a very long time to get these pictures taken because we had to wait on the photographer to get everything that he needed and to try to search for the items he did not have, but needed. It was hard to get some really good pictures because the sun was so bright and it kept shining in our eyes. Also, my brother and I were getting hungry, since we had not eaten lunch. My family had been in the car for a long time before these pictures so we were all pretty tired too. Needless to say, these pictures did not turn out the way we wanted.

Finally, it took an unusually long amount of time to get the pictures back for us to see and for my grandmother to pick some to keep. When my grandmother and the rest of us saw the final products, we were really upset. Some of the pictures had a glare in them and it was much more difficult than it should have been to find a picture where everyone was smiling, since some were squinting and a few people had their eyes closed from the bright sun. It was really troubling to see that my grandmother was disappointed because the only thing she wanted was a picture of the family and it really didn’t work out very well. Hopefully, the next time the family makes an effort to get a family photograph, things will go much better!

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