Holidays are the worst time to be a photographer. At any family get-toghether you will inevitably be "asked" to take various pictures of family members — because "you're the photographer" (of course for free, effectively turning your holiday party into work). The simple solution: NEVER BRING YOUR CAMERA TO FAMILY EVENTS (this also applies to office parties, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, bars, restaurants, bookstores, bus stops and sidewalks)
How about: Solution Number Two
I’ve found extreme creative license works here, photographing relatives at their worst, really gets them off your back. Try askew horizon lines and out of focus, severed heads Bloated Aunts with snoring, vomiting Uncles. Fighting, drinking and pistol waving etc
Works for me.
Well sure, this is great if the only reason you shoot is for money. Luckily not everybody operates in that mode though; or else, in my opinion, most good photos would never be taken.
So only the good photos come from family events where you just want to enjoy your time with your family without having to take 82 portraits of various awkward family and friends for over an hour (as your turkey and gravy gets cold) as they "ask" for just another shot for Uncle Ricky)? We must run very different worlds of what "good" photography is.
I'm sending this to my wife. She doesn't understand why I'm so "uninterested" in documenting family events for her. *sigh*