I don't really HATE having my picture taken, but what I don't like about it is when flash is used...when the flash is used, my eyes automatically close, due to my visual defensiveness. And then when the photos are developed/looked at, everyone is like, "AAaaaaaww, LtlPinkCoupe, your eyes are closed!" It's just another instance in which I get the blame for something I have no control over.
I was in a ton of photos when I was a little kid, tho - and nearly all of them show me with at least one or two of my stuffed animals/coping items. I think for the slice-of-life photos, that was just because I always had at least one or two with me, but for the ones my mom took me to a place like Sears to get taken (like for Christmas cards) I was given a stuffed animal by the photographer because that was probably the only way to persuade me to stay quiet and still for as long as was necessary.
One of my favorite baby pictures is one of me taken around my first Christmas that shows me in a little plaid dress holding a stuffed Pooh. My dad tells me that before the photographer gave me the Pooh, everyone was trying to get me to smile, and I seemed confused and didn't know what was expected of me, trying to climb down and crawl away, etc. Then the photographer gave me the Pooh and since Pooh was one of my first "character obsessions," I settled down with him and started grinning away. Then when the photo shoot was done, the photographer tried to get his Pooh back from me, and I didn't understand why.
There's also a photo of me from when I was about 3 or 4 holding a brown teddy bear, and a couple others from the same year where I'm holding one of my coping items in each one...in one, a toy of Lowly Worm in his apple car from the Richard Scarry books, and in the other, a seashell.
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I wish Sterling Holloway narrated my life.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!" "Life isn't fair, Calvin." "I know, but why isn't it ever unfair in MY favor?" ~ from Calvin and Hobbes