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AIBU?

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Original poster

To hate modern 'class' photos?

163 replies

plantsitter · 09/05/2016 16:24

Where's the sense of occasion? Why are they doing cheesy poses in socks? What exactly is wrong with the class in the school hall so you actually know where they are??

(I might be feeling sore cos they grouped my admittedly tall DD with all the shortest kids and she looks like Gargantua...)

OP posts:
2catsnowaiting · 10/05/2016 12:36

Shameless, I second the thing about feet. I had a group one of my 3 done at the nursery which was the only one of the three schools that would do them together and the photgrapher wanted bare feet. I personally thought that would look really weird with school uniform. Babies with bare feet is one thing but kids don't walk around in uniform and bare feet do they??

yellowbirdie · 10/05/2016 12:40

I hear you OP, I hate them. When it came to choosing a school I immediately dismissed a school that had this style of photo on display.

Hulababy · 10/05/2016 12:40

We tried modern versions 3 or 4 years ago. They weren't popular. We've reverted back to traditional style.

TinyTear · 10/05/2016 12:58

www.dspphoto.co.uk/i/primary/HoppingPoster-lge.jpg

oh my goodness, and this one - pink spacehoppers for girls and blue for boys, so there are no doubts you know...

(i just googled, my DD is only starting reception this year)

MadamDeathstare · 10/05/2016 12:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lara2 · 10/05/2016 13:07

Cotswold they never do me any favours! A couple of years ago they sat me on a child size stool and turned me slightly sideways. When the photo arrived all I could see was my ample backside drooped down the back of the stool! I could have died!

BeautyQueenFromMars · 10/05/2016 13:10

Ooh I've only ever bought 2 class photos, and one of them was one of the 'funky' ones. I absolutely love it, my DS looks great in it and the kids all look like they were having loads of fun.

All the others since have been bog standard. I don't even know if they've had class photos since YR3 actually, I don't remember seeing any... Hmm

CotswoldStrife · 10/05/2016 13:25

Not a court in the land would convict you, Lara2.

I have seen a class photo where a teacher is down on one knee, as if proposing to someone slightly out of shot. Accompanied by the apparently obligatory child with hand on shoulder on both sides.

stealthsquiggle · 10/05/2016 13:27

Any photographer who wanted a repeat booking would surely have the sense to make sure the photos were at least tolerable to the teachers?? Confused

Heifer · 10/05/2016 13:39

My DD had one done in yr 6 but thankfully alongside a more traditional one too. So we could pick which one we wanted - although DD wanted both! As it was yr 6 I relented. Didn't bother getting yr 5 as it was the same girls since Reception so I opted out that year.. Did get the one of DD on her own each year which is taken in Sept in winter uniform whilst the class ones are done in the summer uniform (pontastic) :-) Couldnt' tell you where all the photos are right now have to admit - not a big photo displayer...

TrixieBernadette · 10/05/2016 13:40

Ours this year are worse than ever. Individual shots of the kids in poses (stupid hearts with hands, being a monster, crossed arms, thumbs up) all merged together in one montage. With no teacher. And no option of buying just the individual shot.

Is truely awful. Ds2 wanted his picture of him in a pose and was in tears so had to buy the group picture. If I could have got his alone I would have done, but even that's questionable.

I feel a complaint coming on..... Bring back traditional!! (At least our individual ones in September are straight backed side smile like the olden days)

whomovedmychocolate · 10/05/2016 13:50

Why do people do this these days? We all have cameras? Are you just buying them because you are offered them? In which case may I interest you in these five magic beans I have in my pocket.

Besides the fact that class photos are bloody stupid. 30 odd kids, all funny looking because they are going through puberty or growth spurts, with odd stains because they did them after lunch.

And I don't ever remember them asking if they could photograph my kids and send it home with other families either.

Of course I do have PMT, it's possibly I'm being a grumpy baggage. Grin

mammamic · 10/05/2016 13:53

Love them. Outs are lovely. No props but
Lovely composite groups. So nice we have them framed and in the wall

MrsHathaway · 10/05/2016 13:54

They're ghastly.

One year DS1 was in a group with his actual friends, so we bought the group photo but not the whole class one. It's on an envelope somewhere.

Formal traditional photos are fine, and I like the idea of totally natural photos but the sort we're talking about on this thread are the faux-natural poses which look like no child ever.

Shitemum · 10/05/2016 13:59

Our school started doing modern photos a few years back. I hated them - silly poses that the children would never do naturally. More expensive format to get framed if that's what you like to do. I don't and they are a bugger to look at if you have to get them out the tube and unroll them when they've been tightly rolled for ages. Lots of other people didn't like them either so I asked the school if we could go back to the old format. At first they resisted but then they sent out a poll and 2/3 of the people who answered preferred the old format. They went back to the old format.

Madcats · 10/05/2016 14:02

I can't begin to imagine the almighty row if our school did class photos on pink & blue space-hoppers; wow!

I buy these weird photoshopped/grouped class photos (I like watching the kids change as they grow up). DD is in one of those strange "hand on hips/50's model" poses, but her arm is angled badly.

This year's is an absolute classic in bad photoshopping: I think DD has been shrunk down 10% (as in group with v big boy) and the next door group has stretched 15%. It makes all their heads look a bit odd.

Judging by the expressions of some of the group, I think a few detentions/house points deductions had been handed out seconds earlier.

I just wish they asked the kids doing photography exams at the senior school to shoot a few pics with the proceeds going into PTA funds/facilities.

FeckOfffCup · 10/05/2016 14:02

I agree, I hate them too. In my niece's latest one they're all sprawled out with some of them laying on the floor like its a big family photo. It just looks really try hard and 'ooh aren't we modern'
I like the old style ones where it looks serious and formal and there's always one kid pulling a daft face. More amusing Grin

Originalfoogirl · 10/05/2016 14:05

I hate the class photo, have never bought them. I actually hate all school photographs. Our daughter has a walking frame but despite the fact that every other child was standing up in the photo they sat her down. Took away her frame and sat her down. What the fuck is that about? And for three years in a row, I've seen the individual photos of her friends, full length, standing, posing, jumping, or whatever. And I get a headshot. I guess the photographer feels her ugly walking frame just spoils the photo. ( In the same way the Bounty photographer felt her breathing and feeding tubes did when she was first born "I'll come back when she looks better, without all the tubes and wires" she said)

When they did the P1 class photo for the local paper, the children who are in P1 in the enhanced provision unit and are considered part of the mainstream class, came along to be in it. The photographer had the support assistants take all the children out of their wheelchairs and where they couldn't support themselves to sit, they were sat on an assistant's knee. Presumably because, you know, we can't possibly have those ugly looking wheelchairs in the photographs.

Drives me mad. We now get an annual photo shoot done in her school uniform, by a local photographer who loves to work with her in her walking frame.

stealthsquiggle · 10/05/2016 14:16

Originalfoogirl, did none of the staff have the sense to point out how stupid and wrong the photographer was ?

imip · 10/05/2016 14:23

My dds had their class photos last week and said that this is how they were done. So very annoying, in groups of 3, 4or 5. One dd doesn't even know who she was in the group photo with. I like the traditional ones where you can see the whole class and they can look back on all the kids in their class. I'm dreading getting these!!

Bit relieved to know that this was a thing. I'm not surprised if the head has had her image photoshopped in, it's on bloody everything else. Pictures of her on the fridge from the school magnets - bloody disturbing!

neighbourhoodwoes · 10/05/2016 14:34

God dd had these done in year six. I was the only person not to buy them and felt awful but they were hideous!

The teachers pets where all in a big hug with the teacher, the boys all had sports props and the girls had flowers.

Most were in groups. DD was on her own which summed up her time at primary as an SN bullied child.

margewiththebluehair · 10/05/2016 14:46

Our school photos are traditional, but for the life of me, why on earth do they not put the names of the children under it? It is ridiculous and plain lazy.

In the previous school, embossed under the photo were the names of each of the children and the teacher. This year - I have no idea who these kids are and DS is useless as he can't remember anyone's names.

In a few years time you will forget who these people were.

stealthsquiggle · 10/05/2016 14:50

Marge - there is a super efficient answer to that which I have managed to do precisely once - Photocopy the photograph, and write names on, and then attach the copy to the back of the frame.

Fortunately team photos and whole school photos (only done once every few years) all come with names on, so when one of the DC's classmates turns out to be a superstar celebrity in later life, I will be able to identify them and flog pictures of them looking bewildered and holding a hockey stick to the DM

Originalfoogirl · 10/05/2016 15:17

Stealthsquiggle Presumably not. I have no idea why they just allowed it to happen. I certainly would have spoken up, and it's something I've made known to the school photography company too.

When they did it for her nursery one, the claim was there had been no "good shots" of her standing up. Which is strange because she is such a wee poser, every single photo I have of her is standing and most of the private shoots we have done manage to get good standing up shots.

When I looked at the other schools photos which had enhanced provision units, they had done the same in all except one. - Presumably that one had spoken up!

stealthsquiggle · 10/05/2016 16:08

I was trying to think how I would react if my DC were in that group photo, Foogirl. I think my first reaction would be to ask my DC if there was a reason why X didn't want to be in her wheelchair or if Y had wanted to sit on someone's lap - but I guess at nursery age that would be tricky. I would certainly notice and be a bit Hmm as to why it had been done that way.