Documenting our first year of marriage

I've talked before about how different mine and my husband's personalities are from one another, and it doesn't just end with personalities. One thing that we really differ in opinions on is photographs. I want to photograph and document everything, where he could really care less about it. It used to hurt my feelings, but I've come to accept that's just the way he is, and there's no changing it.

 

Even though he doesn't give two toots about photos, he knows they mean a lot to me, so every now an then he'll agree to taking some nice photos with/for me. I really wanted to have professional photos done around our anniversary (and this is something I hope to continue every year) but since he isn't a fan of photos in general, you can only guess how he feels about spending money on photos. When I informed him it would be about $400 for an hour with a photographer, he put is foot down, pointing out that I have a very nice digital SLR camera with several lenses of my own - why couldn't I take them myself.

 

I whined a bit because I didn't think my photos would turn out very good, but in the end I agreed, feeling that he would definitely be more comfortable with a camera on a tripod rather than posing for a stranger. We only ended up spending about 20 minutes at a location less than 10 minutes from our house and I think the pictures turned out great! Take a look for yourself:

 

It was a tough choice on this one but I ended up liking the black & white version better.

We used this photo for our Christmas cards, I love it!

 

 

All in all, I'm really glad we decided not to pay for a photographer. While I don't think my photos are exactly "professional quality" they definitely serve for the purpose I wanted - to use for Christmas cards and to get at least one or two good ones for framing/gifting purposes.

 

Do you/your family take annual photos? Have you ever done your own or would you rather hire a professional?