Family Photo Shoot Goes Horribly Wrong: These Ghoulish Pics Are the Stuff Of Nightmares

Family photos are a fact of life for countless families throughout the world. They’re a way people document the growth of their children and their family over the years.

Of course, it only works if your family photos don’t turn into a cruel joke.

That’s what happened to Pam and Dave Zaring after hiring someone they apparently believed to be a professional photographer. Instead, they got this:

Sweet breakdancing Einstein, those are awful.

Speculation is that the photographer was trying to get rid of some shadows and somehow got rid of their faces. Then, trying to cover it up, added features back rather than just undoing whatever hellspawn feature she’d used on this one.

Of course, we see how well that worked out. At least the dogs look normal.

By now, the Zaring’s horrible photographs have traveled the world as people share the horrors.

Seriously, someone could have made a set of Sims-like characters that looked more like the family than these abominations. And where does someone get off charging hundreds of dollars for photographs if they don’t know how to touch them up? Wouldn’t this be the kind of thing you should at least be taught during photography courses?

I ask, because, while I’ve done a bit of actual photography, all of that was in the days when it involved at least some time in a pitch-black room with chemicals and prayers that you didn’t screw up the film. Digital photography is different, supposedly easier, and then this happens.

Unfortunately, this is just one of likely an endless number of photographer horror stories out there. Far too many people buy a digital camera and decide they’re a photographer, so they hang out a shingle saying they’re open for business, despite not really knowing what they’re doing. They might be able to take a decent picture, but they don’t know all the backend stuff, like how to deal with shadows.

We can’t even chalk this up to a case of “you get what you pay for,” either. There are cheaper alternatives out there, and it’s likely that none of them involve digitally deleted faces.

Luckily, the Zarings seem to have a sense of humor about the whole thing. Then again, how can you not? It is what it is and there’s not much you can do about it except laugh.

And maybe demand your money back, but mostly laugh.