Smile! You're on candid camera!

I like to take photos.... and I've fallen into the unfortunate habit of not warning people before I pull out my camera. I am a huge fan of candid photos because I'm more likely to get photos that actually resemble the person, instead of something manufactured.

Sometimes I suspect my family groans internally when they see me pull my camera out yet again. "I'm just eating ice cream! How is that photo-worthy? What do you want from me?!" But aren't those the random kinds of memories that we want to remember? People who love each other just hanging out and doing normal things?

And then there are those people that you actually ask to smile, who give you a quasi-smiling expression that doesn't really look like them.

My best example of this is my gorgeous grandma:

The smile I want

I'm not sure why, but most times when I pull out my camera she gives me the luke-warmest smile I've ever seen, like so:

The smile I'm likely to get.
Note: One of my nieces has adopted
this smile in response to my camera

But when I take candid photos at unguarded moments, I get this:

This is how Gram actually looks

I guess I shouldn't judge Gram and my other loved ones for being cautious. I HATE candid photos of myself, especially since the embarrassing photos are the ones most likely to show up on other friends' Facebook pages or blogs. I've been known to untag myself from the worst ones. I'm vain that way.

(I'm still sad that I don't have a cast photo from Earnest where we're all just looking at the camera and smiling.  I adore the in-show photos, but I always like to have that portrait where we all get to be ourselves. Oh, well.)

It is for that reason that, candid or planned, I take a bajillion photos and delete all of those that the subjects might hate... I am very conscious of making sure that people know I won't post ugly photos of them anywhere (unless they're intentionally trying to be ugly, then all bets are off). I'd hope they'd do the same for me!