Maxwells had a photoshoot

[WonderingInWA]

The end photo just looks really clumpy to me.  Like a photo you would take at a family reunion.  I don't really see the color match/Garanimal system working for them this time.  I am having a hard time seeing red as a fall color -- like they should have chosen orange or red but not both.

And a blog comment from "Sue" says it was quite an accomplishment to get such a great photo, everyone looking at the camera, even the kids.  Sarah's smug response was "Maybe it helps that they’ve grown up around cameras".  Somehow that just rubs me the wrong way.  Honestly, she could have just thanked the commenter for the compliment but instead she had to provide another "we do it right around here!" kind of response.  Ugh.

 

[Elegant Mess]

And a blog comment from "Sue" says it was quite an accomplishment to get such a great photo, everyone looking at the camera, even the kids.  Sarah's smug response was "Maybe it helps that they’ve grown up around cameras".  Somehow that just rubs me the wrong way.  Honestly, she could have just thanked the commenter for the compliment but instead she had to provide another "we do it right around here!" kind of response.  Ugh.

 

Indeed, this was my reaction as well when I saw Sue's comment.  Once again, the Maxwells have displayed their mastery of condescension, and I'm having an increasingly hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that there are people out there who still believe in the Maxwell brand.

And Maxwells, seriously?!  You do realize that lots of people these days carry around smartphones that have cameras built into them, right?!  People are now taking pictures of themselves and their families all the time!

As far as the actual family portrait goes, it reminds me of an Olan Mills photo!

[Fascinated]

Yeah, no one else takes photos of their kids these days.  If only the rest of us had cameras, too, or maybe if they could put cameras into our phones, or something.  Then we could all be like the Maxwells and get one or two successful photos of our kids and grandkids. 

[LurkerOverThePond]

By the way, why is GiGi NEVER in the family picture???

[happy atheist]

"Grew Up Around Cameras" and "Wielding the Possessive Claw of Matrimony" are our newest post count titles!

[anjulibai]

By the way, why is GiGi NEVER in the family picture???

She's not a Maxwell. 

What I find so strange about all the Maxwell busy work is that they could easily find more productive things to do with their time. They choose not to, for whatever reason. Heck, even the Moodys do more than the Maxwells. 

[Ali]

Do they not realize that some kids have so many pictures taken of them that they have gotten tired of pictures being taken of them? Of course it would never be acceptable for a Maxwell to feel that way.

[Hane]

From the photoshoot blog post comments: 

Yet another condescending gem from those Great Conversationalists^TM ! 

[OT] I will never forget the time I was able to pwn Stevehovah,the Great Conversationalist. A little boy had posted on Tits2 with a compliment on the Moody books, and mentioned how he liked to write stories, too. Stevehovah's reply was something along the lines of "Kthxbai." I sent Stevehovah a message saying, "That little boy literally pays your bills. Would it have been that difficult to say something kind and encouraging to him?" And voila--suddenly the post changed into something gracious and friendly. A major coup for FJ![/OT]

[Naga Viper]

"Grew Up Around Cameras" and "Wielding the Possessive Claw of Matrimony" are our newest post count titles!

Yay, I always wanted to score a post title! Thanks, HA!

[Fascinated]

"Grew Up Around Cameras" and "Wielding the Possessive Claw of Matrimony" are our newest post count titles!

'Grew Up Around Cameras' is so incredibly fantastic I can hardly contain myself. Imagine someone reading that. They'd be like, what the hell does that have to do with fundies or, really, anything?  And it captures the fundie superiority in all things great and small so perfectly. I SEVERELY love it. 

(I do love all our titles, though.) 

 

[desertvixen]

I hate to break it to him, but "grew up around cameras" is not a Maxwell-specific experience.  I'm one of the camera happy moms, and my kid is a total ham because of it.  It's actually encouraged her to have a (gasp) personality!

[ViolaSebastian]

I hate to break it to him, but "grew up around cameras" is not a Maxwell-specific experience.  I'm one of the camera happy moms, and my kid is a total ham because of it.  It's actually encouraged her to have a (gasp) personality!

I know, it's almost like they can be purchased cheaply or made part of an electronic device that people can carry with them in their pocket.  Incredible, in this day and age, that a child is familiar with what to do when a camera is pointed at him or her!

[Rear Window]

I think Mary's forehead was mentioned unthread, but it looks like she just came from a chemical peel. Her skin looks pink and way too shiny.

And I wish they'd stop the layering shirts. It actually draws more attention to their chests with the contrasting colors. 

[anjulibai]

I grew up around cameras. My dad worked for Kodak back when they were the camera company. He always had a camera out taking pictures.

I hated it. I got tired of posing, always smiling, waiting for dad to get multiple shots. It felt like I was a performing monkey. At a certain point I just kind of balked and began telling dad to put the camera away. 

[ViolaSebastian]

I grew up around cameras. My dad worked for Kodak back when they were the camera company. He always had a camera out taking pictures.

I hated it. I got tired of posing, always smiling, waiting for dad to get multiple shots. It felt like I was a performing monkey. At a certain point I just kind of balked and began telling dad to put the camera away. 

Off topic, but I really wonder how this generation of children whose parents are bloggers and make millions off photographs and videos of their children will fair.  I suppose they'll be the child stars of our time.  

[apandaaries]

I grew up around cameras. My dad worked for Kodak back when they were the camera company. He always had a camera out taking pictures.

I hated it. I got tired of posing, always smiling, waiting for dad to get multiple shots. It felt like I was a performing monkey. At a certain point I just kind of balked and began telling dad to put the camera away. 

I was crazy with the camera for years.  Around 4-5, my daughter was OVER IT.  One vacation, all I got were pictures of her back as she was running away from the camera.  I joked that the mamarrazzi had ruined the poor girl.  She's begun to recover, but she's no longer interested in the camera for the most part. 

@ViolaSebastian I'm guessing it could go either way.  Some love it, but others despise it deep within their souls. 

[blessalessi]

I think Mary's forehead was mentioned unthread, but it looks like she just came from a chemical peel. Her skin looks pink and way too shiny.

 

 If you zoom in, all their faces have a similar effect.

I have produced something similar myself when I have relied on Photoshop to deal with photos taken in insufficient light. Or on a mobile device when using a crappy photo editor that auto-bightens a picture. In those instances, I tend to diiscard the photo and start again, but in Maxhell, dilligence is prized over the end result.

 

[Pretzel]

The Maxwells could easily buy older houses, renovate them and sell them with profit, couldn't they? We all know the Maxwells are great at doing carpentry and other trades, but doing something useful with their time is probably making an idol of living space. 

[nastyhobbitses]

I just had an aha moment. Maybe efficiency planning is actually fun for them. It gives them a productive, non-sinful, family-oriented  challenge to work towards. It's not like they are allowed many hobbies, and as we've read between the lines over the years, they seem to always be creating work for themselves to fill up the time.

I can understand the fun of setting up personal efficiency challenges for yourself. For instance, my Dad puts a lot of thought and effort into changing how he drives (his routes, his mph, etc.) to maximize his standard car's gas mileage. It saves a little money but also is another challenge for his very active brain.

But the Maxwells just have to take it all to the Max, don't they.

Except they don't seem to do things very efficiently. The family holiday meal shopping list blog entry is a perfect example; the kidults apparently have such a dearth of critical thinking skills that they don't think to buy lettuce for a BBQ unless Teri puts it on the list...which she apparently forgot to do for like two years despite people noticing a lack of lettuce. The Moody hiking story, if it's as mostly-autobiographical as we suspect, reveals that despite being so amazing at planning, the Maxwells don't plan or remember to bring basic first aid supplies or extra socks on mountain hikes. For all their talk about scheduling and efficiency and planning everything, they really kinda suck at it.

[LurkerOverThePond]

Except they don't seem to do things very efficiently. The family holiday meal shopping list blog entry is a perfect example; the kidults apparently have such a dearth of critical thinking skills that they don't think to buy lettuce for a BBQ unless Teri puts it on the list...which she apparently forgot to do for like two years despite people noticing a lack of lettuce. The Moody hiking story, if it's as mostly-autobiographical as we suspect, reveals that despite being so amazing at planning, the Maxwells don't plan or remember to bring basic first aid supplies or extra socks on mountain hikes. For all their talk about scheduling and efficiency and planning everything, they really kinda suck at it.

This.

Back in the day when they were touring with Uriah (RIP) they forgot to take passports with them (they were heading to Canada) and had to send someone back home to retrieve them. Of course that could happen to anyone but these are the people who sell books, software, and conferences about scheduling and making lists! Once there was a picture of one of Teri's to-do lists and the caption said something like "Mom is amazing with her lists!". Yeah, right, I would definitely follow someone's advice who, despite of her fucking amazing lists, forgets to take passports with her when heading abroad  

[blessalessi]

It is the same with their new web development business.  They claim to make "awesome websites", but they have a trail of crap around the internet from their previous failurd businesses, and many of them are difectly linked to the new site, or to their Linkedin pages.

They have been brought up to be "dilligent" in making lists and reviewing every damn thing they do, but they rarely learn from their mistakes and clean up after themselves in order to present a clean, professional image to their potential new customers.

And they overexplain every.damn.thing as though that is a good thing.  I wonder if it is a symptom of the fear Steve puts into them, that they are so used to being lectured and called into meetings to discus their behaviour, that now it is just an ingrained habit and they can't imagine that other people just want an honest job done without a minute-by-minute account of the process by which they are working.

[nastyhobbitses]

This.

Back in the day when they were touring with Uriah (RIP) they forgot to take passports with them (they were heading to Canada) and had to send someone back home to retrieve them. Of course that could happen to anyone but these are the people who sell books, software, and conferences about scheduling and making lists! Once there was a picture of one of Teri's to-do lists and the caption said something like "Mom is amazing with her lists!". Yeah, right, I would definitely follow someone's advice who, despite of her fucking amazing lists, forgets to take passports with her when heading abroad  

How do you plan a trip to a foreign country and not have BRING YOUR GODDAMN PASSPORT as the Priority One, Do Not Forget, number one thing on your to-do/packing list? When I was getting ready to drive to the airport to go to Iceland and then London, I triple-checked my purse to make sure I had my passport, printed out flight confirmation, printed out hostel confirmation, and my wallet because I had a tight schedule for getting to the airport and making my flight and didn't want to get on the road only to forget the most important thing.

[blessalessi]

The Maxwells could easily buy older houses, renovate them and sell them with profit, couldn't they? We all know the Maxwells are great at doing carpentry and other trades, but doing something useful with their time is probably making an idol of living space. 

Steve said somewhere that they chose to pursue IT because labouring is hard on their bodies, I think.

My guess is that IT is preferred by him because it can mostly be done without leaving the house. John is the only one to have pursued more manual work, and he is the one that has fallen away the furthest.

My guess is that John needs to be more active than the others.  They have hinted that he could have been labelled as having a learning disability if he had gone to school, and the problems they had were around him not being able to sit in his seat, dawdling with work, talking back, joking around, which sound as though they were thinking he'd be labeled ADHD.

 Whether or not that is the case, ( I tend to question why the other 7 children tolerated Steve's control freak behaviour more than why one rebelled!), John seems to have self-selected jobs where he is busy with physical work, or being out and about meeting people.  He seems to be the only one capable of striking out on his own, as a result, so well done John.

 

 

[Palimpsest]

I just had an aha moment. Maybe efficiency planning is actually fun for them. It gives them a productive, non-sinful, family-oriented  challenge to work towards. It's not like they are allowed many hobbies, and as we've read between the lines over the years, they seem to always be creating work for themselves to fill up the time.

I can understand the fun of setting up personal efficiency challenges for yourself. For instance, my Dad puts a lot of thought and effort into changing how he drives (his routes, his mph, etc.) to maximize his standard car's gas mileage. It saves a little money but also is another challenge for his very active brain.

But the Maxwells just have to take it all to the Max, don't they.

I think they rely on the schedule and lists so much because they are all incredibly absent-minded  focused on God.  Any efficiency planning they do is so that they can have more time with the Lord.  At least, that's their story.

Teri is no Lillian Gilbreth, that's for sure.

[Fascinated]

I took a photo yesterday of a few family members. I thought I would share the behind the scenes action. 

I picked up my phone and opened the camera app. Then I arranged to leave my son and daughter-in-law where they were positioned on the couch. I studied them and asked them to keep their baby where she was already, and informed them (more by the action of holding the phone out in front of them than by words) that I would now be taking a photo. Incredibly, they all three faced my phone and smiled.

 It did take several seconds, but I think it was worth the time investment.