The staged surprise

Original non-fiction-style practice text.

The photographer asked my aunt to open her retirement present again. Her first reaction had happened while he was changing a lens. We arranged ourselves, held our smiles and watched her discover a teapot she had already thanked us for. The second photograph was technically excellent. Everyone looked as though they were being surprised very carefully.

I do not object to moving a chair or asking people to face the light. A photograph is an arrangement as well as a record. Yet this small repetition crossed a line I had not known I possessed. It replaced the awkward first moment with a better-shaped account of it, then invited us to remember the replacement.

My aunt chose a blurred picture taken on somebody's phone. The teapot's handle nearly disappears, but her hands are in the air. I understand why she preferred it. We had given her a present, not an examination in looking delighted.

Assess the writer’s attitude towards the photographer’s request to repeat a surprise. Use three details from the text to support your answer.