If you want to take a good picture, take lots of pictures

On a warm day in late October, we rounded up our rugrats and attempted to take our annual Christmas photo.  On a good day, our kids are (how can I say this nicely?) quite active, so getting them to all stand still, look at the camera and smile (without blinking) is always a chore.  Fortunately, our photographer that day was my friend Andy Dykstra, who not only has a lot of talent, but also has a great camera.  He took about 55 shots of us in a span of five minutes.  Only two of them were "normal" shots, portraying us as a nice, calm family with well-behaved children.  But, upon further inspection, our favorite photos were the ones that were "screw-ups."  These shots of kids goofing off, not following instructions and making faces actually were a more realistic view of how the Downeys operate.  Here's our Christmas card to show you what I'm talking about.

So, what about you?  Do you have any photos that you originally thought were "bad" but turned out to be among your favorites?