Marcel loves pictures but is ambivalent about being the subject. I didn’t expect that.

My youngest sister’s daughter loved being the subject of pictures when she was Marcel’s age. She would literally bring you the camera. We even have a picture of her bringing a camera to the photographer so that she could have her picture taken! Now THAT’s a ham.

We don’t have any pictures of Marcel bringing anybody cameras, but we do have a picture of her going ga-ga over a pile of magazine pages torn out by her mother for inspiration on fashion or furnishings.

Also, the two photographers in her life, my dad and her Southern Belle godmother, also happen to be two of her favorite people.

So because of her genes, early behavior, and obvious preferences, I thought she’d love to be photographed. But she’s not so hot on it.

She does love pictures. When the camera comes out, she’s quick to look beyond the lens to examine the camera. We have plenty of pictures…great pictures…of that. And she loves my dad and Southern Belle as much because they let her look at the picture display on their digital cameras as because they’re family that love her back. But if you’re trying to take her picture to teach her how to be a ham instead of to show her the picture, like my niece (that I’ll call Hammie) does, then she won’t necessarily be cooperative.

For instance, Marcel’s first daycare had picture day, recently. School pictures are important to everyone, right? They certainly were for my wife and I and, so, we were very excited that Marcel was about to take part in this great American tradition for the first time. I was particularly excited because I got to pick out her clothes and dress her. Marcel, however, wasn’t so excited. She pouted throughout the entire photo session and not one picture featured her with a smile.

The session wasn’t a total waste though. The daycare has a great program where, for free, they put the photo in a digital database that police can access if Marcel were to get kidnapped. They gave us a photo id card that features her picture and an ID number that we can give to the police so that they can quickly track the photo down. For that purpose, this glum picture is perfect! In that picture, Marcel’s expression simply shouts, “Will somebody save me?!?”

There was no saving her from Hammie, though, who, like all the women in my life, is pretty damn resourceful when it comes to having her way. Hammie had this ingenious plan to use Marcel’s growing excitement over learning new words to trick her into taking better pictures. Thus, the directive to smile, “say cheese”, would be camouflaged as instruction on a new word.

Unfortunately for Hammie, Marcel is pretty damn resourceful, too. She knows how to have her cake and eat, too, by both learning a new word AND avoiding those hated photo shoots. Thus, when Hammie held the camera up and directed Marcel to “say cheese”, Marcel responded with a wave and a curt “No cheese”, then walked away.