Bad school photos are part of the charm. My kids have a good laugh about their wind-blown hairstyles, strange outfit choice, etc.

I don't buy them both because they aren't great, and because they make you buy a huge package that you don't need. I basically need 4 copies of a 3 x 5, and they won't offer that without paying for a bunch of other items.

Anonymous wrote:I buy them BECAUSE they are terrible! That’s what school photos are supposed to be. I don’t buy many, but I now love the awful photos of me in elem school and want my kids to have them too.

Is no tradition sacred??

agreed!

We also buy them BECAUSE they are so bad. I have no idea what they say/do but my kid's picture day fake smile is one of the most hilariously awkward things I have seen. Almost like they tell him to chant smile in his head. It's delightfully heinous and what makes it more funny is that it is the only time he smiles like that. Family photos, random requests to smile at events, etc all great smiles but these things well, epically horrible would be an apt description.

Anonymous wrote:We buy them because the class pic goes in the yearbook, so I make sure my kids are photo ready. And also it sucks to be that kid that didn't get any pics when they are passing them out. Like your parents don't love you enough to buy them. I only order the cheapest package.

Ours are mailed directly to us, they don't pass them out in class anymore.
Even so, my kids are upper middle class, it's really not so terrible if they have this kind of experience once in a while.

I always skipped them. They're terrible and I pay for good photos. I don't have fond memories of my own terrible school photos. Online high school yearbook photos of me make me cringe.

We just got ours back and they're shockingly good. Must be an excellent Lifetouch photographer, because our child has the worst fake smile on the planet.

Yes OP. We used to always buy them and now they are so bad we never do.

Anonymous wrote:I always buy the smallest package and let my kid plan out exactly what they want to wear. Yes, some are bad and some are not. And I love all of them. They are a tiny peek into my kid at that age. We have formal photos too, but these are different. Love them.

Now that I have read further, I think I know what you mean OP. In the initial photo opportunity, it's basically a cattle call with kids being whipped through. If you get a bad photographer, they won't even wait for kid to get into a good pose. I've helped out at school when my kids were much younger and saw this. I always make them go on retake day. There are fewer kids and the photographer is usually more interested in getting a flattering pic.

Ours are always great. Nice smiles. Great clothing. New poses. It’s a nice way to compare from year to year at the same time. We buy the small packet.

Nope. We buy yearbooks every year, because my kids love them, so we have the photos for posterity there.

The photos themselves would just sit in a drawer, so I don’t bother.

I guess your kid is fugly?

I always buy the smallest package and let my kid plan out exactly what they want to wear. Yes, some are bad and some are not. And I love all of them. They are a tiny peek into my kid at that age. We have formal photos too, but these are different. Love them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We buy them because the class pic goes in the yearbook, so I make sure my kids are photo ready. And also it sucks to be that kid that didn't get any pics when they are passing them out. Like your parents don't love you enough to buy them. I only order the cheapest package.

WTF? I hope my kids are secure enough to not let 25 seconds of passing out photos determine their worth in my eyes?

I buy the pics, but I only order the digital copy so I can make my own prints. It's way cheaper that way and I can get all the 5x7s the grandparents want.

WTF indeed. I guess you've never been the only kid to stand there and not get the envelope handed to you while all the other kids did. Guess 7 year old me wasn't secure enough. I wonder why?

OP here. They put the photo packed in the "for home" folders in their bags -- they don't pass them out like that. I also think last year we wound up ordering online and they mailed them? I don't think it's like when we were kids anymore.

Anonymous wrote:I buy them BECAUSE they are terrible! That’s what school photos are supposed to be. I don’t buy many, but I now love the awful photos of me in elem school and want my kids to have them too.

Is no tradition sacred??

OP here, and I thought that's how I felt.

I wish I could post the photos we got this year because I can't explain -- they are bad in the wrong way. Like I have some extremely bad/dorky school photos from when I was a kid that I now look on fondly. But these are not that. They are not merely awkward, they are just BAD, like you pull back your head a little or don't want to look at it anymore because it's such an unpleasant photo.

We have bought them in the past and they aren't like glamour shots, just normal-bad school photos. This year's are something else, and the green screen thing is part of it.