Photograph of a Unicorn Taken by My Mother

Photograph of a Unicorn Taken by My Mother (2001)

Today and tomorrow feature images celebrating Mother's Day.

There's a long running joke in my family about my mother's abilities as a photographer. Every photo she snaps seems to either sever heads just out of the top of the frame -- turning us into the Robespierre Family -- or, more likely, manages to capture only the crowns of everyone's heads, so each shot looks like a Rogaine commercial.

There are some advantages, I suppose. There's never a red eye problem to digitally fix -- and the folks at One Hour Photo never confuse our pictures with those of another family.

The in-joke eventually became so prevalent that we began to pose with our shirts pulled up in mocking self-decapitation, as if such a pre-emptive gesture could conjure up a hex to ward off the camera guillotine. Or, perhaps, as seen below, my brother and I were just resigned to the inevitable:

We used to tease her that if she ever stumbled upon something mythical with her camera, like a unicorn or Bigfoot, she'd only manage to capture their scalps on film, and the legendary creatures would still be safe from hunters and the tabloids.

This one's for you, Mom...