Say "cheese"

This photo taken from www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com does not fit what we "traditionally" see for a family photo. However, a few things are similar to what we would normally see. I will start with the few things that are common in this picture and most other family portraits.

All the family members are wearing the same type of outfit so that they are dressed the same. They are all wearing a type of white shirt and blue denim jeans. The dad and the boy children all have short sleeves while the mom and daughter had 3-quarter sleeves. They all chose a common background color of blue. This is about all that is normal about this picture.

What first struck me as odd about this picture was that two of the boys were sitting on the floor while everyone else was standing, then I noticed that they are grasping their parents legs. This is not a normal set up. The boys look as if they are holding on for dear life and they are definitely in my opinion too old to be holding onto their parents legs for any reason. Let alone posed like this. My attention then went to the third son who is leaning on his father as if the father is his backboard. Then he too is grasping and interlocked with the fathers arm. The whole "holding on for dear life" thing again. The father however, does not even seem to notice that his sons are attached to all his limbs. Another thing is that the father is the center piece this is not uncommon but what is, is that the rest of the family is all surrounding him and holding tightly to him rather than just standing next to him. He is standing with his arms on his hips while everyone else is holding onto him in some way. The lighting used is somewhat normal it appears to be just inside lighting with a backdrop which is used often for portrait style pictures but it looks like there are shadows behind the standing children? and that is weird you normally do not see shadows in an indoor posed photo. There is just something odd about this picture to me.

I would never want this to be my family photo and have to be one of those middle aged boys holding onto my parents legs.