That’s how you look

When you’re looking at a picture with someone else and that person says, “Oh, that’s a terrible picture of me,” your first instinct is to say, “No, that’s a good picture of you.”

That’s not what I say.

I say, “You’re right. That IS a bad picture of you. You look much better in person.”

Because if you say “No, that’s a good picture of you” then you’re basically saying that they look like that all the time.

I posed for a picture with a pregnant friend at her baby shower and when we reviewed the shot she said, “Oh my gosh, I look huge!” I had to laugh because she DID look huge in the picture. So I told her, “You DO look huge in that picture! But that’s not how you look in person.” It was true.
Frank, on the other hand, has a different approach. When I say that I don’t like a picture of myself he says, “That’s how you look.” He says it very matter-of-fact so you can't tell if he's saying, "that's how you look and it's not good" or "that's how you look and it is good" but I suspect it's the former.

His theory is that the camera doesn't lie. At least he's honest. Because, really, when other people say, "No, that's a good picture of you" they're either lying or they're essentially saying, "That's how you look."

And by the way, if someone looks at a group picture and says, "that's a bad picture" they really mean that THEY don't look good in the picture. They just looked at themselves. In fact, they probably didn't even look at the rest of the people. The others could have perfect expressions but if their own eyes are closed then they'll say, "Oh, what an awful picture." Or is that just me?

With this picture, Frank had a different reaction, though. He said, "Leo looks cute. You look crazy." Thank goodness. I don't think I could have handled a "That's how you look" for this one: