A Lesson in Saying "Cheese"

My mother is a sports photographer for the local high school district. And while she's great at capturing those quick action shots, and even those senior portraits, she'll need a little help to transition to couple pictures.

So for her birthday last weekend, I gave her some self-serving presents:

Wedding photography books!

Now, she won't be our official wedding photographer, but she is going to shoot us some engagement pics during out Christmas scouting trip to Hawaii. The books are pretty interesting, actually. The book on the left is simplified, but highlights all the important aspects like lighting, composition, candids, perspective, etc. The book on the right is much more technical, and gets into the nitty gritty camera settings and photoshop techniques.

See, I even tried making her a bookmark!

I hope she finds them useful. I told her she can leave the high school business and become a wedding photographer someday. My dad met me with an empathetic "NO", not wanting to add to her already huge work load!

Using friends or family to help take your pictures? How are you (subtly) letting them know what you want?