The I Can't Smile in a Hat Picture Club . . .

[portolan]

I think I am going to found a club, a kind of a benevolent society for those of us seemingly unable to smile in a hat picture. My wife sets me up to take a picture and says smile . . . I think I am grinning deliriously and then I look at the picture . . . the smile is nowhere to be found. No matter how I try, the smile is not there.....some contorted pursing of the lips maybe, some fraudulent frown-like frolic, but no smile like RBH or Jimmy or Gene exude.....

I have heard of Club Owi Wan.....am I a club of one in this regard? I want to smile, I really do.....my wife even says nasty things to me (at least for a Mennonite minister's wife).....but no smile results.....Is there a cure? Do I need steam, spray starch????

Look at this picture.....I thought I was grinning uproariously.....

I can think of several other FLers who may qualify for the club, but I think that this should be a self-nominating process.....

 

[scottyrocks]

I dont seem to be able to smile, either. My gf is forever telling me, 'Teeth, teeth!'

 

[Lensmaster]

I can usually get a decent smile in a picture. But when I do my eyes look like I'm about to fall asleep. I feel like I'm holding my eyes wide open and the still look half closed in pictures. So I end up with not much of a smile while I'm concentrating on seeing my eyes. My avatar is an exception to the rule. One reason why I use it and don't change it out.

It's good to find a fellow Mennonite on here.

 

[Fatdutchman]

I avoid smiling in photographs. I don't photograph well anyway (the camera adds ten pounds....eight of those go right on my face), and when I smile, I look like a pumpkin.

 

[dschonn]

I've had a practically fool-proof "camera smile" since I was about ten years old and my sister and mother made fun of me for my goofy smile in a certain family portrait. I can make it exactly the same every time now, if I want. It looks very natural, shows all but maybe one or two of my teeth, and I can switch it on and off like a light bulb.

But in hat pictures, it just doesn't seem right to grin like that. The most I ever allow myself is a knowing smirk.

 

[Fletch]

Someone ought to let indycop know about this discussion. He as much as said he couldn't crack a smile in a fedora.

It's OK not to have a broad goofy grin on, or even to remain thoughtfully non-expressive. But you don't have to clench your teeth or jut your jaw. I notice some of the non-smilers doing that, and it is, bluntly speaking, a Man Cliché. You are not about to face down a home invader, wham a runningback, or bawl out a subordinate. You are a human being getting your picture taken.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

I am terrible about smiling for pictures, especially if I'm taking my own picture. My Flickr account is brimming with the evidence, but in the spirit of visual learning, here a prime example.... I thought I was smiling!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27810273@N04/3329940042/" title="VS and Sallah Tie 1 by Fedora Dog, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/3329940042_32b0065ffa.jpg" width="500" height="465" alt="VS and Sallah Tie 1" /></a>

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

I'm with you. Every time I try to smile in a hat picture (or any picture for that matter) it comes across crazed. Some people just look naturally solemn...

 

[KeyGrip]

I feel your pain.

 

[KeyGrip]

Hey Not-Bogart, great tie! I've been wondering what that one looks like in real life.

 

[OddSteve]

I've got the same problem, but with me it's not hat-related, it's camera-related.
I just can't look into a lens and smile naturally.

I remember a Friends episode where Chandler had the same problem... almost laughed my *** off

 

[J.T.Marcus]

I'm most at home on the back side of a camera. When I do my hat shots, I take three to six frames, then pick the one I can best live with. I try to relax, and look pleasant, with a slight upturn at the corners of my mouth. I never clench my teeth or jut my jaw out, although I can see how a picture or two might have given that impression.

For most of us, after a certain age, we lose the ability to know what our mouth is doing, when trying to smile for a photo. After quite a few lopsided smiles and goofy looking grins, we settle for "naturally pleasant."

 

[indycop]

No way I belong in this one!

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

No way I belong in this one!

Ya! And don't tell Douglas either! You guys are way to cheery to be part of this club! lol

 

[portolan]

Naturally Solemn and Naturally Pleasant.....

Wow, nice verbiage....I can live with both of those....naturally solemn...sounds kind of like an undertaker! Well, I did work my way through seminary working for a funeral home.....Naw, I'll take naturally pleasant....sounds much better. - See, I can smile!

 

[indycop]

Ya! And don't tell Douglas either! You guys are way to cheery to be part of this club! lol

I don't know what you mean![huh]

 

[portolan]

Aren't these kinda sorta some kind of a smile?

I think these are close, aren't they??????? Next to the two things I am addicted to....my wife and Dr. Pepper!

 

[Hawkhat]

I get mesmerized by the camera lens if I have to wait too long for the picture (we call my mother-in-laws camera the memory misser), and I can get a little bug eyed. My best smile is when someone makes a comment and I'm laughing while the picture is taken.

 

[Caity Lynn]

I find it difficult to smile when taking a pic in a hat.If I'm with someone and wearing a hat I will, But ti it's just me...[huh]

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm29/Caity_Lynn_Susan/P2130160.jpg

 

[Atticus Finch]

I'm a memeber of the club. But I can't smile if I know I'm being photographed---hat or no hat.

AF