3 kids, never bought them. 2 now in college. Nk regrets at all and i'mm generally sentimental

We always buy them.

I’ve never bought them. DS has never seemed to care.

I buy them

I don’t buy because they’re ridiculously expensive. $39 to download the digital file? No thank you.

Anonymous wrote:They are so gross and cheasy. Why don't they have white or black backgrounds?? I refuse to buy them. I would have bought the class picture, not sure why that isn't ever an option.

We take family pics 2x a year with a professional photographer and I love those.

Oink

When my dd was in kindergarten, she brought home the flyer for spring portraits. We’d already bought school photos in the fall. I wondered aloud who would buy school photos twice a year. Then dd replied, “Our teacher says it’s so you can see how much we’ve grown and changed, like if we’ve lost a bunch of teeth.” Guess who was missing both front teeth when the spring portraits were taken? I had to buy another package. I told dd she’d better have a big smile to document her missing teeth.

When my other dd was in kindergarten, I received two portait packages and they clearly weren’t the same photo. (Obviously, I had only paid for one package.) I asked dd if she’d had her picture taken twice. She said yes. I asked why. She said her class had lined up to get their pictures taken, the photographer took her picture, then she had to go to the restroom. When she returned, a bunch of kids told her to get back in line, so she did, and the photographer took her picture again. 😂

Our school changed companies too, and for kindergarten they left FOOD on her face! I took a picture of the photo, and edit it myself. And again, these last ones crappy too. I sent them a message. I've had it For $90 TRY. MY GOSH! Lifetouch did a better job than this HR Imaging Co.

No smile. Hair a mess. Wtf. I can (and have) done better with my android cell phone...and "they" are the "professionals".

Anonymous wrote:

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!

If they are really bad, we order extras of the magnets so everyone has one at their house!

We buy them in the Fall (plain background) and skip them in the spring (hate the fake trees, bridge, etc)

School pictures have always been bad. They are so bad, they are good. I have a picture from 35 years ago where I am wearing an American Girl dress (as in “dress like your doll”, and my doll was Kirsten), and practically growling at the camera, in front of a laser background.

Last year, my son had his picture taken in front of the same laser background. It warmed my heart.

I buy the smallest package, and let my kids choose their own background and outfit, to add to the craziness. Then we do a mini session in the fall with a real photographer, and use those for the holiday cards.

I'm sorry but how terrible they are is the BEST part of school photos. This year, my DD had an adorable fall picture and for some reason I still don't understand, got sent down on picture re-take day and the re-take was amazingly hilarious. I had to call the office and make sure they use the old photo in the yearbook, but oh man, I am going to treasure that re-take and you'd better believe her future partner is going to see that one!

I bought the class picture. Yes, individual picture is worse than candids/pictures where she poses for me -- but not as bad as you're describing! Our school doesn't use LifeTouch.

Anonymous wrote: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.

I'm a teacher so I see tons of school pics and some of the Lifetouch ones are really good! Much better than the photographer my kid's school uses

They are so gross and cheasy. Why don't they have white or black backgrounds?? I refuse to buy them. I would have bought the class picture, not sure why that isn't ever an option.

We take family pics 2x a year with a professional photographer and I love those.