Picture Perfect - NO WAY

Have you ever looked for a photo of yourself? One you might actually want people to see? Well it's not as easy to find something as you might think.

I have a couple of photo-phobias.

1) Keeping my eyes open.

I know, I have lots of pictures on my blog but a lot of those were taken when I didn't know they were being snapped. But, if you put me in front of a camera and tell me to smile. . . well, it's not always a pretty picture.  I just have the worst time keeping my eyes open when someone snaps a photo. No kidding. I just went to get my passport renewed and the guy had to take five pictures because I had my eyes closed in all of them. On the final photo, I only have one eye open. The photographer said, "That's good enough."

I'm just not good at posing - in fact I'm horrible. My eyes are always half closed.

Plus, I'm a card carrying Starbucks fan - so my teeth aren't as white as they should be. So . . .

2) I'm always worried about showing my coffee-stained teeth. So most of my smiles are with my mouth closed.

Anyway, I tried putting on a little makeup so I'd look a little better than usual . . . but my husband said I looked like a ghoul with those ruby red lips and said I should wash it off.

And, I have super thick hair so I tried to style it. . . a little, I mean I didn't want it framing my head like a giant horsetail so I put some mousse in my mane to tame it but my son said it made me look like I was trying to look like a teenager leaving a rave.

So, I just asked my oldest son to snap a couple pictures. He did, but when my younger son looked at the photos he said he wouldn't even recognize me looking at those pictures.

I almost gave up. But finally I picked one photo everyone was happy with - well, maybe happy isn't the right word. I was able to find a photo no one complained about  . . . too much. I put a headband on my hair to hold it back and wah-lah Mom-Mane.

So, how 'bout you? Any photo fails for you?