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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

NOT to want to pay £29 for a school photo???

187 replies

PiedWagtail · 26/03/2012 10:04

My school has got Tempest to do 'modern' class photos - long thin ones with the kids in small groupings with props - they cost £12.50 for a print, or £29 framed. They're awkward to find a place for, too big, too expensive (to get both my ds's class photos would be £58!!) - who can afford that?

Just emailed the school sec with my feedback and she said they have just had positive feedback Hmm - so AIBU??

What are your school pics like and how much are they? I just want a record of my dc in each school year, and their friends, and don't want to pay a fortune for it!!

OP posts:
LunarRose · 27/03/2012 09:20

Hate all school photos on principle. They're expensive and a total waste of time. my daughter never stays tidy for them and my son never smiles (if he even looked a the camera for them it would be a miracle but then he does have ASD).

I do have a whole wall of photos taken of them at home or on days out. May take hundreds of photos to get one of my son smiling, but up on the wall there are a few!!! And it doesn't matter if my daughter isn't looking her tidiest when in the photo she's up a tree. Grin

Animation · 27/03/2012 09:32

Melika - good idea!!

dietcokehead · 27/03/2012 09:52

My one year old has just had her first lot of nursery photos. Apart from the fact they were taken after snack time and she could have done her face being wiped, I am Shock at the price, and Confused at the 'pack' system. As Vivian says, in this day and she why can't you go online and pick the combination you would like, in the same way you do for wedding photos, for example.

We have decided not to buy any, after all have rather a lot of photos of DD (PFB), including a beautiful photo book DH made for me showing highlights of my pregnancy and her first year. Still feel a little guilty for not purchasing her first professional photos though- ridiculous I know- but it did get me wondering about all the money being made from parents buying photos they don't really want 'for the record'.

ibbydibby · 27/03/2012 11:02

DS1 had "whole school" photo done when he was in reception (he is now 15). We bought the non-framed rather than the framed version, and every so often he/we loves to get it out and "spot" people. Am sure that if we had bought the framed version we would have tired of it hanging on the wall, so would have regretted buying it, eventually. Plus we have moved away from area so it is less relevant - but still good to get it out and look at it. Ours was supplied in cardboard tube with lid, but am sure that if they don't come with a tube these days, would be not too difficult to buy something fairly cheaply.

Re single and class photos, I have bought these every year for both DS1 and DS2. They are in 2 albums, in chronological order ie single child in reception, class photo of reception, single child in Yr 1, class photo of Yr 1. Again we love to look at these now and then, and I am glad I started this when DS1 was in school nursery class. It is getting expensive now, and it annoys me to have to buy more than I want, sometimes, to get the correct photo for the album. But it is a lovely record of their school years.

noramum · 27/03/2012 13:31

I never buy the photos. We did a lovely photo of DD on her first day at school and I will do one when she leaves school as well.

I hate traditional poses, I just find them boring. I hated my school photos though as well.

We also never bought the nursery photos either.

sherbetpips · 27/03/2012 13:34

i've stopped buying the group ones, I have the end of infants, 1st of junior and I will probably buy the last year juniors but nothing in between - no point as they just sit in a drawer and DS couldn't care less about them.

Cherriesarelovely · 27/03/2012 14:48

I agree, they are awful and very expensive. We didn't buy the one of DD's class, they look so staged and naff.

toomuchmonthatendofthemoney · 27/03/2012 15:00

Ds primary school,does the traditional class photo, tall kids at the back, littlest at the front, all in uniform and with shoes. Thank the lord, and long may it continue. "arty" shots I've seen of others are all naff/hideous.

toomuchmonthatendofthemoney · 27/03/2012 15:02

Meant to add its a tender once a year, in a cardboard mount. Ill write names on the back and put away for future crime watch etc.

CuppaTeaJanice · 27/03/2012 17:25

If you save all the long skinny awkward sized photos, then in a few years you could buy a standard sized large frame (A2, A1 etc) and mount them all together.

Ample · 27/03/2012 18:06

Those prices sound much the same as what we pay here. Personally I think it's a huge rip-off and if you have more than one child...Shock

I buy one print and frame it myself.
I miss the old-style school portraits

ShowOfHands · 27/03/2012 18:15

£29? Just got ours and they're nearly £50 for a framed one.

DD is standing there with arms spread looking bemused while 3 smaller children kneel below her. It's the last bloody supper gone horribly wrong.

Original poster
PiedWagtail · 27/03/2012 18:21

Op again Thanks for all the replies! The more I look at dd's pic, the worse it looks - there are 5 distinct 'groups' of kids, so it doesn't even look like they weer all taken as a group. Plus, she's right on one end of the photo, looking tall and awkward, and her elbow is missing - it must have been photoshopped out for some reaon Shock Bizarre!!!!

OP posts:
oldsilver · 27/03/2012 19:44

It's what they do - take separate group photos(several attempts), take the best of each group and then stick them all together in a line! My old school photos they had two goes and that was that .... done, sorted, not so arty farty - hardly cost anything. Perhaps that was just insulting to the creativity of the photographer Hmm

AphraBehn · 27/03/2012 21:02

Our Primary has been doing these new style photos for a couple of years now. I won't buy them, mainly because they tend to place DS (tallest kid in the year) leaning awkwardly on the shoulders of one of the short kids. He looks like an escapee from land of the giants.

I did buy eldest DS's year group photo for year 11 though, just so we can point and laugh at their hairstyles in 20 years.

WittyTitle · 27/03/2012 21:09

In so glad its not just me that doesnt want a photo of everyone else's kids! Some days i don't pArticularly like my own!

DownyEmerald · 27/03/2012 21:32

Last year the school put out a new stylee photo and a trad stylee photo (for the class shot) and we voted. Trad won luckily.

How much do the school get, hadn't crossed my mind some went to them?

cobwebthegrey · 27/03/2012 22:28

Pied, just to put it into context, the photographers equipment is likely to be of a value in excess of £5k, with the editing equipment and pc/mac he or she uses potentially doubling that...and this equipment changes relatively regularly. They may be 'school' photos, but the people taking them are business men and women trying to make a living.

I guess you should pay the price or decide it's too much for you and take one of your own. Bloody hate the bandwagon modern shots though, much rather have a single one of dc, which is why I haven't bought ours for the last two years.

BexieID · 27/03/2012 23:56

Our school only do the class photos for P1 and P7, so i went for a set with photo in tube, 4 bookmarks and a memory book for £20. I do like the traditional group photos as well, but can sometimes be a bit of a 'wheres wally', like my whole year photo in last year of secondary school.

What I didn't like, was Toms individual photo last year. Horrible navy background, stupid pose and they hadn't bothered to fix his tie!

SmileSchoolPhotos · 08/04/2012 21:05

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Snapper99 · 29/11/2012 18:07

Noramum ..... as you never buy photos, can I suggest you and all others who feel the same, request that your child isn't photographed in future. This will save time on the shoot and reduce costs (the proofs are quite costly to produce).

IMHO school photos are good VFM. (but then I would say that as I am a school tog)

In order to critisize the prices, you need to be up to speed on what's involved in producing school photos.

It's certainly not a liscence to print money. Many school togs go out of business.

valiumredhead · 29/11/2012 18:08

Don't buy the £29 one then buy the print for £12 and frame it yourself.

Pandemoniaa · 29/11/2012 18:11

It's certainly not a liscence to print money. Many school togs go out of business.

I'll ignore, for a moment, the ghastly use of tog (but please don't tell me that this is how professional photographers refer to themselves because I am one, and the majority of us don't!) but would suggest that if many school photographers go out of business, it might well be because they aren't providing a service that combines any sort of quality with value for money.

This combination not being mutually exclusive.

craftynclothy · 29/11/2012 18:18

Our school uses Tempest too. I've not bought any as Dd1 has always looked awful on them.

Was planning on buying this time around as Dd2 is in the nursery and thought it would be nice to have one of the two of them together (they do sibling shots). However, the original date (Weds when all nursery kids are in for part of the day) was cancelled and it was rescheduled to a Monday (when Dd2 isn't at nursery). So no pictures this time either.

ParsleyTheLioness · 29/11/2012 18:36

Zombie thread..