school photos, random grumbling..

[gypsystar]

Does anyone here scrap the professional photos taken at school once or twice a year? ya know, the ones that appear in the yearbook? If you do scrap them, have you ever had any problems having the LOs printed since they are taken by professional photographers?


The proofs of the boys Fall photos arrived today. Tristan's photo is kind of cute. Gabriel's photo is absolutely terrible. He has the most bizarre expression on his face. He looks really ticked off! At least it's better than last years preschool photo. He was crying in that one! He's got special needs and the photographers don't even try to get a good photo of him.

Of course, they also did not bother to mention anywhere in the 10 lbs of crap and paperwork (5 lbs for each kid) they sent home on the first day of school that photos would be taken on the 3rd day of school so, of course, neither kid is wearing clothes I would have liked for them to be photographed in :rolleyes:!

Gabriel's photos are sooo awful I don't want to even order them. I don't want to pay the outrageously overpriced fees for a terrible picture of him. I wouldn't mind ordering Tristan's but that doesn't seem fair to Gabriel. I ordered both kids pictures last year (even though Gabriel was crying in his) because they were actually somewhat affordable but this year the prices seem to have gone WAY up!

Ugh, what to do?

[ColleenSwerb]

Take pictures yourself using a black blanket hung on the wall :)

[ditzyscrap]

Could you take them to WalMart and get more pics than the school offers for like $5? It's something like 101 photos for $5 here. Crazy!

[breakingbrie]

Can you have them taken again during retakes?

[*Kelly*]

will the kiddos have Spring pictures done at school?

[gypsystar]

I may try to do them myself. I just hate to be the mom who doesn't order her kids school pictures LOL!

Wal-Mart has pretty good deals like that but I'm not sure how it would work with two kids.

I'm not sure about retakes. They usually happen a couple of weeks after the first ones are taken and I think are more for kids who missed photo day altogether.

They wll have spring pictures, I don't have high hopes for what those will look like for Gabriel either LOL.

[ditzyscrap]

I may try to do them myself. I just hate to be the mom who doesn't order her kids school pictures LOL!

Wal-Mart has pretty good deals like that but I'm not sure how it would work with two kids.

I'm not sure about retakes. They usually happen a couple of weeks after the first ones are taken and I think are more for kids who missed photo day altogether.

They wll have spring pictures, I don't have high hopes for what those will look like for Gabriel either LOL.
Depends on who you get re: WalMart. Sometimes they're sticklers for the rules, but here they let us just book 2 appts and each kid gets one photo session, you just pay the $5 for one pose for each kid (so it costs you just $10).

[mrs_jb]

I've started ordering the bare minimum packages for my kids (both school photos and sports photos). So normally it's like 1 5x7 and a sheet or wallets or smething. I get them because they do document the passage of time and I like to have them in their baby books, but I don't display them (or scrap them).

I think the prices ar ridiculous, and here, we use two different companies for fall and spring pics. The fall pics are the yearbook ones and those are pre-pay. The spring ones you can choose to send back if you don't like them (but they give you all the pics and that makes me feel SO guilty!

[Julie Billingsley]

I never order the solo pictures from them anymore. I take way better pics than they do! LOL I do order the group pic of the whole class or in Jacob's case, I order the yearbook. Oh yah, and I don't order the sports pictures either- just the group shot. I take the solo pics in the sports gear myself too. I swear twice a year they have sports pictures and twice a year they have school pictures... I'd have 4 sets of photos a year if I did that! That is nuts!

[Mandy]

I just hate to be the mom who doesn't order her kids school pictures LOL! I just hate to be the mom who doesn't order her kids school pictures LOL!

LOL! Well, I'm the mom that doesn't order their school pics. Sorry, but I take better pics than they do. I don't sit them in front of a marble patterned blue background. At least mine show their true characters.
Plus, mine are free. LOL

[ColleenSwerb]

I may try to do them myself. I just hate to be the mom who doesn't order her kids school pictures LOL!

Yea, but they're BAD! So what's the point?? That's just silly! Lol!

[Mandy]

whoa...what happened? lol

[MamaK]

we had school photos last week. I hate the Fall photos because we have to send money in without seeing any proofs at all. Well, I guess I don't have to send money in, I could forgo the photos all together. But I'm a sucker. I like the Spring photos much better, those they send home the preview, you keep what you want and return the rest with the money for what you kept. And the Spring backdrop/styles is always cutest.

I've scrapped with the photos before but never printed them, sorry I'm no help.

[newfiemountiewife]

Sorry, but I take better pics than they do. I don't sit them in front of a marble patterned blue background. At least mine show their true characters.
Plus, mine are free. LOL

DITTO! The pics my DH took today of the kids under the tree in front, are much nicer than the posed shots. I have purchased them each year so far, but to be honest, have NEVER put them up. That makes me think I'll just go with the smaller package this year or forego it all together.

[MelindaH]

I've never heard of spring pictures before ... we always have them taken at the beginning of the year and that's it! Interesting!

[Rae's World]

I hate school pictures!!! They always come out bad. But this year you cannot buy JUST the class picture. You have to buy it with the packet!! The cheapest packet is $18...per kid!!!

[rach3975]

We have to prepay on picture day, so I always order the bare minimum. I wish we got proofs!

I think the goal is to have 1 nice yearly photo of each child to display. I don't think it matters whether you order them from school or have them taken elsewhere. (For that matter, I also think it's okay to order a school package for 1 kid and get them taken elsewhere for the other. If yours are anything like mine, the one who had decent ones taken at school is not going to complain at all that he doesn't have to sit through another photo session!) Personally, I wouldn't order bad photos. Mediocre, I've bought before, but not truly bad. Why send the photographers the message that their lack of effort in even trying to get a good photo of your special needs kiddo was okay?

[gypsystar]

I'm so glad I posted here! You gals make some great points. I'm definitely not going to purchase the subpar and massively overpriced photos this year.

I'm going to try my hand at doing them myself :)! Wish me luck LOL! I don't know why it makes me nervous. It's not like I don't orchestrate mini photo shoots on a weekly basis here at home LOL!

[CA Dreamer]

Hi
I totally understand your frustration. For years at my sons' preschool, they used a really bad photographer. Buying just a class photo alone was $12! I actually didn't buy the package for a couple of years and regret not at least buying the class pic.

I do the yearbook at my son's school and deal with the companies taking the pictures on photo-day. If you are not satisfied with the pics, by all means, retake them on the make-up day! I totally have done that. I would make sure that your kids' teachers know that your kids are retaking, just so that they send them to wherever they take the pics at the right time.

And, I always buy a package because I want the class picture, but I always buy the smallest package. At least one with a 5x7 in it, that makes a good scan. I sometimes scrap the page--I usually scan it and then incorporate it onto a page. So, far, I haven't had any problems with getting them printed, but a friend of mine did have some trouble when she tried to just print a scanned pic--not a pic that was on a LO.

[cheltzey]

My mom was one who didn't buy the bad pictures, and I never felt shafted. And as for the class pictures, they never got looked at once they got home. So I don't really see what the point of spending all that money is. I think you're making the right choice by taking your own. And hey, if they're terrible, it was free! And you get to be the one to reschedule makeups!

[kscwgirl]

I wouldn't buy them either if they are bad. I will probably take mine myself and get their class pic or whatever.

[lovely1m]

Take them to Penneys and get ones you actually like.

[my4boys]

I have been pretty lucky with my pics...We have the option of ordering a CD and it comes with all the different backgrounds/borders so it is kinda cool.....you can also print the pics ANYWHERE off the CD so that is good too. I think it was only around 10 bucks !!

I did not order football pics from my oldest, I figure I will get at least one good pic at a game or something!!!

[Heather Roselli]

I've never had a problem NOT buying the school pics if they aren't good. I do feel bad when I buy for one kid and not the other(s), but I get over it! LOL Last year the photographer at the preschool got a great shot of the twins together which I thought was really great, so I bought it and not the individual photos of them. :)

[junebug]

This will be my first year dealing with school pictures. I hope Chloe cooperates and smiles. Plus, she's a thumb sucker; i better not end up with pictures of her sucking her thumb, lol. I will probably order enough to give to family and a few for us and thats it.

[tuneskids]

I won't complain too much about our school photos. They always send notice home the week before, and I take all the kids down, including my little guy who isn't in school yet. We get proofs before we have to pay, and although the packages are insane, we try to get the smallest deal. But, on a plus for me, they don't normally mark on the proof photo (although it is tiny), so I keep that for the kids if we don't do the packages. In the past, the kids have also gotten mini-wallets for free, and even a child-find ID card with their student photo.

Mind you, I am the bad mom who doesn't have any family pics, well, at least none taken in the past three years, professionally anyways. hehehee Thankfully Kristin will take care of that for me this year. lmao We are gonna go visit her and get some outdoor shots (hopefully the weather improves enough to do that soon!!).

ETA - we don't pay for class photos (with all the students in the class) or school-wide photos (the photographer climbs on the roof of the school and takes a huge panorama of the entire student body of the school!! It's awesome!!), just the individual ones.

[Stacey42]

I've not bought the photos if I don't like them. I just take them to wal mart if I feel I need to have a professional photo.

Last year in fall they sent a pacakge home with a decent selection of photo sizes and a bunch of photo magnets for $18, which was a pretty good deal and the photos were as decent as they were likely to be at WM. The spring package though was almost 2x as much and didn't have the magnets. I wasn't all that impressed with the photos and there were no retakes. So i didn't get those. We were able to buy the class photos seperately, so I did get those.

[AmyM]

I haven't bought school photos since Kindergarten. They were just too blah for me and too expensive for "blah" photos, kwim? Here Kindy ones were cute as can be. I scrapped those.

[Paula]

I never get my kids school photos. I scan them and send them back. We get a big package twice a year. If they are good, I'll scan them and send them back. We usually take our kids to a professional photographer once a year on their birthdays.

[Lukasmummy]

I have never bought any school photos, we get the proof sent home, I keep those in a little book for him so he can see them but there's no way I am paying the insane prices for crappy photos that only come in stupid sizes I have no room for lol. I would rather have the natural ones I take (even if most of them do have his tongue poking out lol). Sorry school photos always make me :cursing: I think they are the biggest rip off ever. Hugs Crystal xx

[mummytothree]

Well I do buy them because in our school you can't just order the "group" shot :sigh: but last year it wasn't a "real" group shot it was just an 8x10 with all the kids individual photos on them and it SUCKED!!! I want "THE GROUP SHOT"!!! So i'm gonna ask at open house tonight and if it's going to be teh same way I'm not ordering them...they can just suck it (the school)!!! :D :D :D

[bellbird425]

we prepaid for dd's preschool one's - i can't imagine how terrible they will look and i hate buying stuff sight-unseen but it's their way or the highway. at least u have retakes and 2 sessions per year - we seem to just have one and if you miss that day, then no one will remember u were even in the class in 50yrs time LOL