A real couples photo shoot

"Couples photo shoots" seem to be a hot trend in photography. I see them popping up all over my facebook page. I'm not talking about wedding photos, or even engagement photos, which I can almost - almost - understand.

I'm talking purely narcissistic, we're in a couple and isn't it wonderful, type photos.

Blech.

I probably sound bitter; I assure you, I'm really not, but you're free to think what you like. These people are in love and happy and want to show the world, and I think that's all very lovely. But aren't there enough real opportunities to capture your life as a couple? Parties, weddings, concerts, vacations...heck, you can even have your photo taken on amusement park rides! Aren't photos better when they capture honest, true moments, rather than moments that are created, and then propped and posed?

Not to mention - if you're trying to capture your love and life together, shouldn't the photos be taken in places you actually go? How many of us really spend time lying around in a meadow, with or without our SO?!

I may not be in a couple (yet), but I have been one-half of a couple more than once in my life, and I know a thing or two about how couple-life really works. So, if couples really want to take these photos, and truly celebrate their life together, I've come up with a few suggestions:

Lights should be tangled, and half of them burnt out.
There'd be no smiling, or hugging.
Source



* In the woods...covered in mud, clothes torn, one of you holding a compass and map (or a smart phone) with the other yelling, crying, and looking out for bears.



* Racing through an aiport, luggage falling open, screaming wildly as you try to make your connecting flight.

* Cooking a big holiday meal. Someone should be covered in flour. One of you should be struggling with an obviously under-cooked turkey while the other casts a panicked look at the front door, showing that your guests just arrived 20 minutes early.

* One of you should be standing in front of the TV, coat on, remote in hand, watching a final play - while the other stands by the door, coat on, checking watch, because you should have left the house 30 minutes ago.

* If you want to do the sexy, in the shower photo, fine. Capture the moment when one of you slips and falls, taking down the shower curtain and bar. There should be soap in your eyes, too. Very sexy.

* If you want to take the reading in bed photo, also fine. Capture the messy sheets, messed up hair, no makeup, dirty underwear on the bedroom floor, and you should be arguing over a section of the paper.

* That outside, in the snow nonsense? Sure - but skip the snow angels on the sunny afternoon. Hold shovels in the dark, and pretend you're up at the crack of dawn trying to clear your driveway so you can get to work.

That is the life of a couple. When you look back on your life and relationship, you won't remember that time when you just stopped and smiled at each other across the room (or a meadow).

You will remember those little arguments, and the rushing around, and the family dinners gone wrong. When you're with the right person, those moments are just as full of love as any other.