School photos… a rant.
They are not my favorite thing.
The boys’ school has 2 photo sessions every year. One in the fall & one in the spring.
The one in the fall requires payment upfront, before the photo has even been taken.
Who pays for photos that haven’t been taken yet? Still? In this day and age? How does that business model even work anymore?
Frankly given digital technology I expect them to email me my kid’s photo for my approval within minutes of having taken it.
OK, I’ll give them an hour or so to get enough photos for a bulk download and email.
Heck, I’ll give them 2 days to retouch and then email.
And it can be low res and have SAMPLE printed across my kid’s face in watermark fashion to make sure I don’t sneakily print it out myself for nothing.
I would pay for that service. That would be worth the price these companies charge for photos.
There is no reason on God’s earth these days why anyone should find paying for photos sight unseen acceptable.
So I don’t. And I write my my reason why I don’t in large friendly letters across the top of the order form.
“THIS IS BOGUS! NO WAY AM I PAYING FOR PHOTOS WITHOUT SEEING THEM FIRST”
Because I think companies benefit from knowing WHY they are losing a sale.
The spring session lets you see the photos before paying for them. They send home 6 sheets of 2 poses in assorted sizes plus one ‘collage’ sheet.
OMG!
I realize that as a digi scrapper I am biased but GEEZ! It’s 3 photos on one 8x10 page with ‘blended’ edging around them.
Regularly $45!
But if you buy all 6 of the other sheets, it’s only $25. ACK!
The sheets themselves start out at $15 for one, $22 for 2, etc and the whole lot, with collage is $75.
You see what the envelope says?
Priceless? Really? I can get mediocre shots of my kids at home for free.
Granted I don’t have a stunning faux garden backdrop and fake fence like they do.
But still, I have currently several thousand photos of my kids. Many of which are posed and posed better. I have a perfectly good grey fleecy blanket to use as a backdrop should I want that ‘professional portrait look’ and unlike the school photographers I have endless time and only two kids that I can bribe or threaten endlessly so I can take all the shots I need to get a good one.
Don’t you love the look on Mayhem’s face?
And that was the better of the two poses. He looks quite pissed in the other one. And I suppose in it’s own way it is somewhat priceless.
Havoc’s is decent. But I could get an equally decent one from Wal Mart’s photo center and for $22 could have all 6 sheets and several poses.
But not the collage.
Last year I didn’t buy them. I only bought the class photo because that cannot be duplicated and really is priceless in future years. This year the boys were all “Can we get all 6 sheets? How about the collage?”
I love my kids but I’m not paying $150 for mediocre photos. We compromised on 2 sheets each and 8x10 each and one with different sizes on it to give to my parents & brother.
How much do your school photos cost? Are they really worth this amount of money and I am just cheap?
It’s ok, I don’t mind if you say I am cheap. I can be quite cheap about some things.