School photos - Daylight robbery

My son has had his annual photo done at school by the "professional" "photographer"

My oldest son appears to have no arms or legs, and the new lad appears to be a doll with no legs laid inanimately on a wooden bench. Having managed to chop half of each one off and capture them at their most tense, they've then set to it with photoshop, not just to make the lads look even less natural, but also to superimpose a fake background in.

And for this, I'm expected to pay money. Not a little bit of money, but upwards of £30, for something I don't want to look at, but I'm told by the wife, I have to "because its the school picture".

I could have done a far better job myself with the camera on my phone. How on earth do these people get away with making a living? Maybe I'm old fashioned but I thought you had to be good at something to make a career of it.

 

Come back in 34yrs time I'm pretty sure I have shares in the company by now!

 

Don't listen to the wife, probably only about 50% take up the offer to buy and most of those are doting grandparents.
Is the lad pressuring you to buy? Or isn't he bothered? Well, then.

 

No disrespect intended to the estimable Mrs Clue, of course.

 

I agree, our Nieces every year want us to buy a photo, but they are rubbish, most with forced smiles. and nervous looking kids.

I would rather take my phone / camera and take a snap when they were more relaxed and having fun, catch them as they are coming out of school, call their name so they look at you and capture a natural smile as they see uncle or aunty.

 

My son has only just started nursery so we have had none yet,but we took him to a professional photographer when he was about 6 months old and it cost us about £350. So what we do each year is take him to a Max Speilman shop and have photos done there. They cost about £15 for about 8 photos of varying size. We then send/give these to family members. They take about 40 photos and you chose which ones you want. You could always dress them in there uniform and try this way, and if I remember correctly there is no obligation to buy. Although we always have.

Rusty

 

Same here @clueless1 . My lad his done when he finished nursery in July, but to tell the truth they weren't too bad. I told the missus that we have loads of better quality pics I could print out.
She still paid for it because she said I never get round to getting them printed!
That put me in my place
Like yon say the price is scandalous.

 

Personally, it is the price which is the major deterrent here and not the photo's per se (in my opinion).

From a photographic point of view (and yes, I enjoy the natural smile snaps too), this can build up into a very interesting portfolio of your child and how they change, develop, evolve, through their most rapid developmental years. For example, all those natural shots will be taken in a different place/situation and are not immediately comparable in the same context that a "sat" portrait photograph is.

Equally, with the best will in the world, Mr & Mrs Average (and I count myself among them) are not able to come close with their snap & shoot cameras vs professional lighting/lenses.

It's a judgement call, obviously. I chose to purchase the cheapest packs I could, when I could afford them.

 

The photo studio down town does a much better job for a much better price. I've been planning to a family 'portrait' done for a while. We have one pre-New Lad, so we need another one now.

I have no qualms at all about paying for quality, for something that I couldn't possibly achieve myself. I'm not willing to pay for something that just isn't any good.

Again under typical circumstances, I agree, but this is not typical. I'd show you the preview photos but they're awful. They look like something I might do if I was bored, had an hour to kill, and was sat in front of photoshop while I was in a stupid mood. They're on a par with the time I turned my dad into a spaced out hippy, or when I turned myself into a demon. They might have been funny but they're not even good enough for that. They're just dire. I know it will be my duty in a few years time to accidentally on purpose find the photos out when young ladies start appearing at my house accompanying my sons, but these photos aren't even fit for the job of causing embarrassment. They're just really bad.

 

The final school photo of my (now) Mr Lincoln bears a striking resemblance to "Stay Puft" but, I reasoned, you can only ever have *one* "last" school photo

 

Do they still do this?
I can remember being dragged out and photoed while at school once a year.
We all had the same pose but that was in a different era.
People didn't take many photos then and I bet some parents didn't even own a camera.

If they photoshop it refuse to buy it on those grounds, if the bloke cant take a decent pic without resorting to that kind of rubbish, he shouldn't be allowed out on his own.

 

I did that to myself and tried to convince myself I was being "artistic" ....

 

What did you change?

 

My scarf