A Moment

After three years, we finally did it.

We got our family photo on the beach.

We figured we couldn't waste the rare opportunity. We live 10 minutes from the ocean. This would be our only chance in the forseeable future.

After negotiating with our professional photographer/friend we decided our backdrop would be the beach behind the Pacific Islands Club Hotel. We knew it wouldn't be easy - getting three kids to do anything together is hard, let alone look at the camera and smile at the same time. We've been parents long enough to know that our job is to just hold our smiles and look at the camera while the photographer does everything she can to make the kids look at her.

She knew what she was doing. First we took the collective family shots while everyone was new to the scenery and fresh. It was at 5 PM, when the light was best. The sun had already gone behind the ridge the hotels are built on, giving the ocean a soft, warm glow. After a few family shots we got Melissa to "model" next to a stone wall. She can be so photogenic when she wants to be.

Our photographer probably took several hundred shots and will post them online for us to review. Amazing how digital photography revolutionized an entire industry for the better. No more film, developments, proofs. The photographer gets instant feedback on her shots and can instantly make adjustments to perfection. To me, that takes a lot of the guesswork out of photography and makes the art more accessible.

The magic really came when we stopped posing and just let the kids be themselves. That's when our photographer was able to capture their unique moments. The children, my wife and I will never look like this again. All of us will age, and eventually the children will grow and the magic of their early innocence will disappear.

At least we can now hold on to this memory forever - an enchanted moment of a young family playing on the beach at sunset.