To hate modern 'class' photos?

[plantsitter]

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...)

I don't mind the poses but I've so far had photographer (same one) come to nursery to do my DS (comes every 6 months). Each time the pictures have been dreadful - badly lit and slightly out of focus - although second time he did actually manage to get a sort of smile from my DS who readily smiles when cameras come out but if not sure of a strange person (never mind if holding camera or not) - looks at them in a 'what are you like' kind of way and that's exactly the face he took the first set which was the week after DS started nursery.

I bought a 'copyright free Cd' of photos for obligatory Christmas cards (had really cheesy Christmas fireplace photoshop background - excellent for inflicting on rellies) and when I took them to photoprint people at local Tesco to print out - even they said they couldn't believe it was from a 'so-called professional photographer, they're so processed/colour sats not set up correctly' - (their words!) I'd have done a better job myself to be honest and next time....I'm not going to be a mug because if next set are just as hideous - not only am I not going to buy - I'm going to tell the photographer directly why....

What a relief, I thought I was the only person who detested the new modern class photo! I complained the first year, said it was disjointed and impossible to get a frame for....... headmistress said 'we have to move with the times'! The second year they decided not to put the teacher in, just 4 or 5 groups of children...... I moaned again, my dd had been bullied for years prior to this one and the current teacher for that year was the one who sorted everything out for us, he was very important to dd and her best ever teacher to that date...... headmistress quite tersely told me that the CLASS photo was about the children, not the teacher! I disagreed, but to no avail, the hideous unhangupable 'contemporary', disjointed, fake, staged photos continue. I am an old nostalgic, so have to buy them to feed my need to provide nostalgia for my children in their adulthood. Blooming waste of money though as no frames even fit them! Grrrrrrr!

They're awful, and they make staff "get involved" and do hideous poses at my school.

My 3 had both types at primary school, and generally both OK, although I prefer the modern ones on balance. The more formal ones were taken looking up at the stage where the kids stood, so slightly unusual perspective, with teachers in the corners posed like prison guards. No nose-picking, tears or anything, but some grumpy looks. The more relaxed modern ones had more varied expressions, and tended to be of the kids in groups, rather than the whole class or year (two classes), which meant more detail visible. I wasn't very taken with any of them when new, but after a few years I get quite nostalgic looking at them, recalling Miss Jezebel, snotty Tommy who bust his lip on our trampoline and never complained (nor did his Mum!), plain Jane and her goofy teeth with whom DD2 was best mates but whom we haven't seen since they both left primary school ...

And the hairstyles, especially the girls. My, how they change in a few short years!

Each kid has a box with things personal to them in it, for when they are adults. Stuff like naff christening presents, the odd milk tooth, Head Teacher's Certificates ... and school photos.

Great fun.

We've had good photos at Max Spielman - white background, props if required - where you only pay for the prints/canvases/mugs etc you want and can have different shots on different items. Of course the quality of the shot isn't as good but it's good enough and better than I could do at home!

I hate them! They did that with dd once for a "school calendar". God, it was awful! Staged, fake smiles, all "playing" with god-only-knows-what. Having said that it's thrown in the back of some cupboard one of my favourite pictures ever

My dd is 14 now so I have a mix of the traditional school pics and one of these new versions. I still (after 6 yrs) haven't found a photo frame to fit the extremely long class photo, which is still rolled up in its tube!
I much prefer the traditional group pics, but with a bit of personality... Something my dd has to spare, and usually ends up pulling random faces/purposely having little things poking out of her blazer... Last time it was a rather rude badge

Our school only do them in Foundation Stage and Y6 - the rest of the year groups have traditional ones. I think it makes a good comparison for the beginning and ending of primary school life - plus they're fun to create in school!

I just googled as had no idea what they looked like- they're bloody hideous! So awkward and embaressing for everyone involved, just looking at them makes me cringe! I was never a massive fan of the old style ones but seriously hope this trend passes by the time my DD is in school!

Oh yeah bruffin, I never thought of that! -I work in a school-

The school mine went to did the traditional ones, swapped to the white background stupid pose ones for a year or two, then reverted when parents expressed their disapproval

Poor DS1 had one where he was crouched on all fours with a girl he dislikes sitting on his back. Terrible

We had a random parent/photographer offer to take the photos one year.

He grouped children. And let them choose their own - awful when older boys all did the 'dude' handsignals or wanted to hold pretend guns or cross their arms and lean back into each other, rapper stylee - I was meanie teacher for not allowing my boys to do that, or for my girls to lift each other up and risk dropping them, or flashing one of group's pants at the camera.

Then he randomly photoshopped different groups to make them fit. So some children were enlarged to fit a gap and were suddenly HUGE next to their friends.

And the headteacher was kneeling and he superimposed her into everyone's photo. In some it looks fine. In others, it looks like she has no legs below the knee and is floating.

This year we had the normal company back in to do the standard on benches/sitting/kneeling photo that we know and love.

I hate them. Ours are really long in length which are difficult to store and they eventually bend from being kept in the cupboard. The photographers photograph a group of children making them do ridiculous poses which they don't want to do and then photoshop them altogether in one photo. I would love to see a nice traditional normal sized photo back at our school!