Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for October 09, 2020

Dad should be proud of how smart Calvin is.

Dad just wanted to see his son smiling for a while .

Back before modern cameras, you didn’t want to waste film on bad pictures.

Why does Dad have to say “One, two, three”? Why can’t he just take the picture?

Calvin would make a great photo bomber.

Try clicking the shutter on “two.”

Calvin’s been down this road all too often to fall for THAT.

I once watched a (very clever) photographer get a dozen or so pretty good photos in about 3 dozen minutes, while we were waiting our turn. She had fuzzy animals to attract the youngest ones’ attention, and then she’d “hide” it behind the camera and when it popped up, she’d grab the smile. From slightly older kids she’s say things like “Okay, I want a smile on the count of three: One… Twoooo… Poop!” With adults, she’d use “Okay give me a frown. No, a REAL frown. Really. Knit your brows, turn those corners DOWN. Geeze, you’re SO hard to work with. Okay I give up. Think of turnips.” Somewhere in there, she’d get a smile and grab it. She had at LEAST a dozen others. Group shots took the longest of course, but even with a family of five, she’d get five good smiles at once with only three or four tries. I was in awe!

And this was in the days before digital camera s, wasted film was wasted film….

Dad shouldn’t have counted to three, which told Calvin that the picture would be taken on the third click.

C’mon Dad, I got years of experience and yet you still think you can fool me? Bring in Mom to give me a real challenge.

Dad should already know how futile this is.

Nice try, Calvin’s dad. But once again, Spaceman Spiff remains victorious.

I guess this would ruin the joke, but dad really isn’t a child photographer. If you get a really nice smile from the kid then take the picture! Don’t say hold it, start counting, one, now don’t make a funny face .. two .. stop thinking about sticking your tongue out, you hear? don’t think about it .. no funny face …. four.. oh sorry, I meant three, click.

And then when Calvin’s older, he’s going to wonder why there aren’t any good photos of him…

Reminds me of my own kids… sigh…

Dad is thinking, “A puppy would never do that to me.”

I’m actually guilty of this in my grade 4 school pic…lol

Seriously, Dad, you always take the picture on “two”.

Thanks to digital photography, you can edit how you want the final products look. Dad could change his son’s faces into… oh, I don’t know… an iguana.

Calvin smart kid, dad timed wrong.

Dad has a tell. He sticks out his tongue.

Hubby’s nephew, who was a smarta$$ most of his life, always made a point of sticking out his tongue in any picture, even group shots. I once pointed out that when a person dies, the undertaker asks for a photo to see how the person looked when they were alive. “You know, of course, that you will go to heaven looking like this. . .” And I stuck out my tongue at him.

I was trying to take a picture of my twin grandsons with a 35 mm. camera and they kept making funny faces. I manually flashed the attachment and they immediately started smiling—-click,gotcha.

calvin you have ears like an elaphant

It appears to me that the trigger for Calvin was not Dad counting to 3 – after all he said Click twice after the count, indicating two fake picture. It looks like the trigger was when he stuck his own tongue out in concentration that Calvin knew when the real picture was coming.

By the time he heard the click, the photo would have been taken. However, it is amazing how these little rascals can anticipate it.

The tongue is the tell.

These days with a new digital camera Dad could put the sound on silent and fool Calvin.

Heh, Calvin knows better than to fall for his dad simply saying “click.” Now if the dad were saying “Ki-chi!” that might work.

Calvin was on to him from the start.

Was trying to get a good photo of my two for the Christmas cards, but they were goofing off. “Ok,” I said. “Pretend you like each other.” I got a charming photo of the elder looking sweet and the younger looking at him suspiciously. Made a GREAT Christmas photo.

This is funny, I don’t care who you are.

Here’s what my wife and I used to do. Whenever we wanted a nice picture, mom stood behind me with that big thick yard stick of hers and looked the kids right in the eyes daring then to make a face. Worked every time!

Both Calvin and Big Nate are having camera troubles today!

Ah, timing is everything.

Dad never had a chance there.

This is a dated reference now, back in the day this was published cameras needed film, you only had so many shots and every one cost you money, now cameras are digital, dad could sit there and take however many hundreds of shots he needs to before Calvin gives up out of sheer exhaustion, he would probably even be demoralized seeing his dad simply delete the bad picture and go right back to it.

next!

There are real good reasons Calvin’s an only child.

Does any photographer say “watch the birdie” anymore?