Our son Felix has a couple buddies about the same age as him. With the cool autumn weather here and some leaves on the ground, we decided to grab some group photos of all the boys at a local arboretum.

I learned a valuable lesson that day: Trying to do group photos of kids under 2 is like herding cats. Worse, actually. Just getting all 3 of them in the same frame was a challenge enough – let alone looking at (or near) the camera, smiling, or posing in any fashion.

Our shoot couldn’t really have been more poorly-timed; it was mid-day with bright, harsh sunlight. I tried to play it safe and find a nice shady spot and go for an easy one-light off-camera flash setup. To be honest, it was kind of a disaster from a photographic standpoint. The shade was mottled with sun, my off-camera lighting was working but not how I wanted, and getting it all set up and working with fussy toddlers was a challenge to say the least.  To top it off, pretty fall leaves weren’t as abundant as I’d hoped.

Still, it was a lot of fun while it lasted and we managed to get a few good shots before the kids completely melted down. I’m sure by this time next year they’ll all be mugging for the camera like pros

Thanks to Brad, Tara, Mike, the Jessicas, and of course, the boys. See the complete gallery & order prints here.