Family Hires 'Professional' to Take Pics. What Photographer Actually Gives Them Is Unreal
It’s a time-honored tradition, and one that grandparents will cause family divisions over if not fulfilled: family photos.
We’ve all been there, whether we were on the organizing side or just wondering when we could stop smiling and standing so close to everyone.
One family wanted the ideal images: something that could grace their own walls and the walls of their immediate family.
So the Zarings set up a photoshoot at Forest Park with a professional photographer, donned their Sunday best, and smiled for the camera.
Mom, dad, grandma, two kids, two dogs. Nice park. Lovely day. Should’ve been a straightforward process.
That was in May 2017. When the family received the photos just recently, they were shocked. And then they immediately took to Facebook to reveal their high-quality portraits.
“Ok. This is NOT a joke,” started Pam and Dave Zaring’s post. “We paid a photographer, who claimed to be a professional, $2-250 for a family photo shoot.”
Ah, that little phrase “claimed to be” — eleven letters, three words, and complete disaster.
“Please see these FOR REAL photos she delivered to us,” continued Zaring. And please do. You’ll never be the same.
As one surprised viewer commented, “Well… The dogs look better than the people! Hahahahahaha!” That’s a lot of “ha”s, but this picture really earned it.
Every image posted displayed rather disturbingly cartoonized faces, superimposed on the family’s mugs.
Nothing was sacred. Not even grandma.
Surely there must be some reason for this artistic license? This isn’t the sort of thing that just automatically happens… this “photo enhancing” took time and thought. Someone worked on these.
Lesa Hall, the name on the carefully placed watermarks and presumably the photographer, reportedly told the family that the shadows on their faces had been really bad and that “her professor never taught her to retouch photos.” I’ll say.
Of course, the family is a good sport and has been able to find humor in the whole debacle. “I literally have not laughed this hard in YEARS!!!!!” wrote Zaring.
In fact, plenty of people are getting in on the fun, whether it’s by laughing along and trying to come up with the most apt descriptions and commentary or by creating troll Facebook pages claiming to be (there’s that fun little phrase again) the now-infamous photographer herself.
The level of traffic this post is getting has raised some questions, and some have wondered if this could possibly have been as genuine a misstep as the Zarings are claiming — but the original post says it all: “You can’t make this stuff up…..again, this is NOT a joke – final product.”
And who knows? Maybe the Zarings have stumbled across a new trend.
Why get everyday photos of tranquil families in serene settings when you could get something that will really stay in people’s minds? Present one of these bad boys in a gilded frame to grandma on Christmas and you’re sure to have a holiday to remember!
We’re glad the family’s good sense of humor prompted them to share their joy with the rest of the world — $250 is no chump change, but it’s not bad for amusing (so far) nearly 300,000 Facebook users.
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