We are entering our second year as school age parents, our son is a first grader, and yet again I find myself rebelling against the ancient ritual of yearly school photos. For the price of one of the lesser packages you could buy yourself a very decent used camera. Even my arch nemesis the camera phone is becoming a legitimate means of taking decent photos. A little practice, some trial and error, and a Pinterest account and you could take some very nice pictures for a fraction of the price and they'll probably be better quality as well.
One of the things that really bugs me is photos that are edited to the point of fantasy. A little tweaking of light and shadows is fine and necessary, but unless you are a graphic artist making an original work, artistic license can be taken way too far, especially when the photos look fake. When I was a kid it was actual film and what you got you got, and everyone got photographed in front of that drab gray background, but it looked like a natural photo, or as natural as you get in a portable studio setting. My son's photo last year looked like a two dimensional cardboard cut out pasted on various cool backgrounds. My husband was all excited about the one with the map on it (being a geography nut) until I reminded him that we weren't buying pictures for the background!
Instead, we took a family mini-trip out to one of our favorite spots and snapped a bunch of photos of not only the schoolboy but also of the entire family and we got a bunch of great shots and had a blast too. It also showed him in his natural habitat looking like, well himself, rather than something with all the interest and expression of a passport photo. Some kids take great shots for strangers, but mine gets about as excited and cooperative as if he were getting a mugshot done. So we are countercultural and take our own school photos, it may not work for a lot of people, but for us it is actually one of the highlights of the new school year!
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