The Cheese Factor

“A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks.”

Charles Gordy

I captured better photographs of Fig before she could speak.

At some point, somebody, (it couldn’t possibly have been me,) taught Fig and Pip to say, “cheese,” when a photograph is being taken.  Now every time Fig sees me with a camera, (which is quite often,) she scrunches up her face and pronounces her version of “cheese,” which seems to involve far more tongue activity than necessary.

Fig’s big blue eyes practically disappear, her nose wrinkles and she becomes all mouth.  I’m not saying that there isn’t a degree of cuteness in Fig’s cheesy smiles, but it’s not representative of what she typically looks like.  The only time we see her wearing this expression, is when she’s ‘cheesing:’

Cheese in Profile

You see what I’m up against.  Fig’s ‘cheesing’ has definitely reduced the number of natural looking photos I’ve been able to take.  It’s not easy to discourage such a young and eager cheeser.

(By the way, isn’t Fig’s vertical mono-bang impressive?  Don’t attempt to achieve this look with your hair unless you’ve also been blessed with double cowlicks.)