Mum - take 1184...or thereabouts!

Went to visit my dad today, who was very happy to receive the baked goodies and who repaid us by cooking lunch :-)

While we were there my mother and stepfather dropped by to see us and the boys. I used the opportunity to continue my mission to get a 'good' portrait of my mother. Now my mother is a good-looking woman...she still draws admiring glances from the opposite sex when we're out shopping; she's an intelligent woman, and in all areas of her life she's confident and poised. Point a camera at her however and she crumbles. She has two camera faces: the 'worried-witless frown' and the 'crazy-lady grin'. Every time we're together I try to get a natural portrait of her and every time I fail disastrously and add a few more worried frowns and crazy-lady grins to my ever growing gallery of worried frowns and crazy-lady grins.

Today I told her that we'd try a new approach. 'Try a neutral expression and don't look at the camera,' I said...in what I hoped was an encouraging tone. The worried frown appeared...followed by the crazy-lady grin, followed by full on giggles...followed by the worried frown...followed by the crazy-lady grin....get the picture? Normally I give up at this point because the memory card is full of 500 high resolution duds. Today though I persevered and gradually she managed to relax so I could capture her. So here she is...no frowns and no crazy grins...just mum.

Bob thinks it's perfect and I like it too. Mum, I'm sure, will hate it because she hates all photographs of herself. Tough...it's taken me several years to get a proper natural photograph of you mum and I'm blipping it for posterity.