Picture perfect present

In her three years on the job, Carrie Phifer has been in some harrowing situations: She's been screamed at, bitten, even whomped on the head with a baseball bat.

Such is the life of a family-portrait photographer.

"The baseball bat was a plastic prop," Phifer said, resting in the Sears portrait studio Monday between sittings. "But it still sort of hurt. We see a lot of things in here."

Parents want pictures of their kids all year, but the demand grows in mid-December. That's because parents line up their dolled-up children in droves to get pictures taken in time for Christmas presents. Sears had about 225 sittings in the past week.

"We're extremely busy," Phifer said. "We see them every 15 minutes, four an hour, sometimes more."

It's the same story for other photographers. Pat Patterson, who owns a studio on Bloomfield Road in Cape Girardeau, said he's doing more Christmas photos this season than in years past despite the sluggish economy. The Sept. 11 tragedy is on his clients' minds.

"Everybody is getting together as a family because they're thinking about those people in New York and Washington who lost their relatives," Patterson said.

And while there's no one right setting or theme for a Christmas photo, he makes a few simple suggestions: Wear solid colors to keep the focus on faces, and don't get too stressed.

That will make the situation easier to handle and make the pictures better for parents like Diane Brunk of Fredericktown, Mo. Brunk had her two children -- Morgan, 3, and Gunther, 1, -- at JCPenney Monday afternoon.

Morgan was no trouble as photographer Bailey McCanless used toys and noises to elicit smile after charming smile. When it was her brother's turn, however, Gunther wasn't so eager to cooperate.

The tears welled up and he howled, reaching for his mother. But McCanless went to work, using a light-up Santa and Baby Bop doll to the delight of Gunther.

It worked, and soon Gunther was all grins.

"Now you're getting into your ham side," his mother beamed. "I knew you had it in you."

Six-week-old Sierra Woodall presented a problem of a different sort for Sears photographer Sara Zaitz. She lay completely still and didn't fuss -- she was asleep.

Zaitz squeezed a duck and made a clicking noise with her mouth but finally sought assistance from another photographer who made a soft but high-pitched, bird-like whooping noise until the newborn raised her sleepy eyes.

"Sometimes open eyes are all you can ask for," Zaitz said.

War-torn and weary

But not all children are so good, leaving photographers war-torn and weary after seeing dozens of kids each day. Not to mention the often picky parents who force shot after shot.

"Sometimes it gets like that," said Jill Cisco, studio manager at JCPenney. "Parents say, 'I don't know how you do this all day.'"

Patterson remembers one frazzled mother who threatened to spank her two children if they didn't smile for the Christmas photo.

"Immediately, they started crying," he said. "We didn't get the first shot off. She ended up pulling two crying children out of the studio and never came back."

Phifer said that despite all of it, most of the children who come into the studio are well behaved and a joy to work with.

"I love my job," she said. "To get those smiles, these are people's memories. They last a lifetime."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137