To dislike her first school photo

[Downandout21]

It really is awful.

I was so excited about her first one but it just hasn't turned out great.

I'm thinking about taking my own photo of her in her uniform, but how do I then get them printed in the school package form?

Most of the ones we had were crap, don't think I ever liked them.

I remember being bothered by it at the time & feeling the need to buy them to gift to grandparents etc but now the kids are grown the early pictures are packed away.

Take your own photos. They will be more relaxed with you than with a stranger taking their picture while their class line up watching them.

That company that did photos and my kids’ primary school had a policy that you could go into their studio if your child missed school photo day or you didn’t like the photo and get a photo done in uniform for the same price as the standard school photos with all the different print size options. Check yours doesn’t do this.

My DS is autistic and he will rarely sit for the photos. So we bought a background sheet from amazon same style they use for school photos. It was about £20 I think.

Now we get great smiley photos at home that look just like the school photos without the stress for DS.

Yes, time to get back to the grindstone instead of wasting a few minutes of a primary school year having a photo taken. In fact, ban play times and any kind of fun while you're at it - all that lost teaching time! 🙄

I'm glad I'm not the only who has thought this too 😆

My son's when he was about 10, he wasn't smiling and they told him to smile, told him to show his teeth. He's showing his teeth but not smiling it is so bad that I can't believe they actually sent it to me, but I bought it because it's so bad it still makes me laugh every time I look at it 2 years on.

@Butteredtoast55

Are you ok? I said ban pointless photos not playtime. Maybe go get a coffee?

Individual school photos are like something from another era. I think we only even consider buying them because we remember them as a thing from our own childhoods. Imagine if it was a new business idea now- you know how you have eleven million pictures of your child? Well, how about we take one more but make them look like they’ve been replaced by a low grade replicant, then sell it to you in a range of sizes for £60?

My DD is 20 and in her first school photo she looks deranged. I absolutely love it. She had a weird smile and her hair is chaotic.

I also have a hilarious picture of all three of mine where the eldest (after I had left for work) had redone the lovely neat hair I'd created and they all look terrible. It's my favourite.

@OldChinaJug

It does not take 10 mins to photograph 30 kids individually plus group photo 😂

They are never very good. Some local photographers do school photos if you want a re-do.

I'm fine, thanks.

I’ve never bought one, they’re dreadful and so expensive. Imo they’re from the days when people didn’t have good cameras and aren’t really needed anymore.

I wish I'd bought my son's first school pic from reception. It was horrendous and he looked like he'd been jump scared or electrocuted. He's nearly 15 now and getting to the end stages of school, very serious and doesn't like people taking photos of him. I'm considering the faff of getting the original image with the watermark cleaned up and printed just so I have his origin story.

I buy them because they are some of the best photos of my children. The photographers they've had have had some kind of witchcraft that's made them sit nicely, smile in a relaxed way but still semi-formally and captured a lot of their characters.

Don't know if we've just been lucky but they're great.

Agree. There is no obligation to buy them. We have a handful of our three but we often didn't buy the school photo. The photos we take ourselves are better.

What do you mean by the school package form?

You can buy cardboard frames from lots of places. Lots of printers print different sized photos and key rings. We have a snappy snaps that will take a photo for you to.

I might be unusual in this too...but I don't get anything from a forced sitting, formal school uniform photo anyway. I don't have any particular affiliation with the local schools...they are just bog standard and where the kids go. I don't moon over how smart they look or anything like that. Ties are pointless.
The photos we capture ourselves are so much more natural, flattering and revealing.

i am suprised they still do them especially the price of them which is ridiculous. years ago when films and cameras were dear I agree they had a use no matter how good or bad they were but now rather outdated idea,
do they still have those photo comps things in baby shops depts etc i used to hate all those long lines of mums with screaming babies desperate not to be photographed then pressure to buy and enter

You’ll look at it in 10 years time and love it because it’s so odd looking! You know what your DD really looks like and will have plenty of photos and memories of her true cuteness, and this one will be a cute laughable memory.

I didn’t buy my eldests first one- I take way better pictures of her every day. It’s not the 1980s you don’t need a school picture for a lack of other photos.

I guess your children are just better than ours.

They usually are gruesome. 😉

I got a 8x10 one every year and stuck them in one of those self adhesive albums from reception to Year 11. It’s a great way of flicking through and seeing how they grow up. I can see the difference in personalities and the awkwardness of teens etc. Some are more aesthetically pleasing than others but all are telling a story. The DC love going through them too - and tell stories about that year and the hairstyles etc. I think the difference is they are not ‘displayed’. And I think the fact that they are not all ‘perfect’ is what makes them.

This is actually a nice take on school photos.