<p>Thanks so much, everyone for all your suggestions. I love this Parents Cafe. You’re going to help me get through the next 11 months.</p>
<p>We took our son to a local store and had his senior picture taken. It was an O.K. picture. The surprise was that at graduation when kids were handed the diplomas and crossed the stage a special photographer took pictures. We parents didn’t know this until graduation day! Those pictures were beautiful! I know many parents were wishing they hadn’t spent so much money on senior pictures so they could have spent money on the kids in their caps and gowns.</p>
<p>Sidebar issue - but our principal did the weirdest thing last year. The girls wear the drape for the senior yearbook photo in our district. Even though they moan and groan about it, it really isn’t that bad…it’s black velvet and off the shoulder (but no cleavage) and the girls look lovely. Our principal, who was new, decided she didn’t like the off the shoulder thing and made Prestige turn the drape backwards! It looked terrible, like a really ill-fitting, black velvet mock turtleneck. And what made it hard was the fact that ours was the only high school in the district required to do this. So during sittings which were held for all district high schools at the same studio, our girls would have to watch girls from other high schools get to wear the drape properly, and look NORMAL…while they were forced to wear theirs backwards. Do you have any idea how it feels to sit in a room full of really mad teenage girls…lol!</p>
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<p>Holy cow! This is so reminiscent of my high school senior picture (1971)! I didn’t think that any high schools out there still used the old (ours was lacy) drape.</p>
<p>ha! We wore blue fur…I told my d, when she was fuming about the backwards drape, things could be MUUUCH worse…lol!!</p>
<p>For some reason my niece’s studio chose to put the proofs online…do they seriously think that just because we can’t copy & paste that we can’t download those pix?
My D just paid the $20 sitting fee for one (just OK) shot for her yearbook. She also got her headshot professionally done that year for much cheaper than a lot of the yearbook packages, so I brought the CD with her chosen shots on it and had them reproduced by a local portrait studio so her prints looked like everyone else’s. She gave her color headshot photos to friends & family.</p>
<p>Our HS charges for the sitting fee for the yearbook shots, too. We’ll do that and get the bare minimum order to have the “tux pic” if it’s decent. We know folks who went to JCP for the informal senior pics and were very happy. We need to get family portraits done anyway, so we will probably incorporate DS’s senior pics with the family sitting.</p>
<p>Blue fur here too in 1972. Our HS drapes the girls in some black thing now.</p>
<p>I saved on these pics by being a very bad mama and forgetting to order them. But they weren’t great anyway. We had to pay about $25 for the sitting fee.</p>
<p>For pictures to send to all, I used the photo graduation announcements that my local grocery store (also walgreens, etc.) makes. They were about 40 cents each, including an envelope, and the film department guy took about 20 minutes to work with me getting the lettering the color I wanted, and photo cropped and enlarged to fit the frame. They were very nice, and the graduation announcement also served as invitation to our open house graduation party. We bought the very basic minimum package from the official year book and senior class photographer - it was way overpriced, but it was good to have at least one picture in tux and cap and gown.</p>
<p>We had to pay $32. Ridiculous! I had no intention of buying any of her photos, but we had to go back to choose a yearbook pose. Thank goodness she didn’t care for any of them. She barely could find one decent enough for the yearbook. </p>
<p>Later we’re going over to a cheap-o photo studio in the mall to have her senior photo done like I did with my grown daughter. They have special graduation packages for the fraction of the price of what the local photographer charges. They have a monopoly. 
The schools have used this business for years. Sure, I like that it’s local and that they were born and raised here. They also have a nice garden setting that most of the kids use. BUT, they charge too $#@!&! much!</p>
<p>A family friend is a professional photographer. Took hundreds of digital shots of my D at the barn with her horse, in the garden, etc. etc. I had no idea people at other schools didn’t have a choice of photographer and had to deal with this BS. Our school gives the kids certain parameters and that is it. This is the age of digital photography. If I still had kids in high school I would fight this thing tooth and nail. Backwards drape? Are you kidding me?<br>
Both my kids senior pictures are priceless memories. I have no idea what the photographer charges because he would never let me pay. When D’s were taken I did pay the assistant because I knew he had to pay her.<br>
As long as all the shots are head and shoulders and fit the space in the yearbook the kids and parents should have the freedom to choose.</p>
<p>I teach at a community college that houses an alternative high school for kids who have been unsuccessful in traditional schools. The photographer who does their senior pictures offers several packages, including one where you can be photographed with your baby!</p>
<p>My daughter and her friends took each others pictures for the yearbook and with their cap and gown. I am glad that we had that choice because they were better than any traveling photo outfit.</p>
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<p>This might work for a relatively small graduating class, but it could be a nightmare for a school the size of ours (or even larger). There will be ~530 seniors in the yearbook this year. The yearbook portrait was taken by a single photographer (black drape pose for girls, tux for guys). The yearbook portrait was free, but of course other poses and prints were offered. </p>
<p>This method is easier for the yearbook staff – files are delivered electronically and easily placed into the layout. Can you imagine the record keeping and effort necessary to collect 530 portraits taken by multiple photographers? Plus, having the kids in “uniform” makes for a very pleasant look when you leaf through the senior section of the yearbook.</p>
<p>We contacted several local photographers - ALL of which were much more reasonable. We ended up with a CD of 4 poses for each of our two seniors for $100.</p>
<p>My Ds high school does the usual where they go to the professional place, they take several poses and then they offer you the outrageously priced photos. You have to pick one that will be in the yearbook (if you want to be in the yearbook) and all we paid was a small sitting fee. We did not buy the pictures, the smallest package was about $150.</p>
<p>I recently made my daughter an appt for May 1 at JC Penney. I have a coupon (LOL) for a free sitting and something like an $8.99 package. I don’t see why they wouldn’t photograph her in her cap and gown which we are bringing. I am going to call soon to make sure. But why wouldn’t they. I think the $9 idea makes so much more sense…and of course, we will snap a few that day with family ;-)</p>
<p>We did an 8x10, 6- 5x7 and 50 wallets. It was about $600 and they made me guilty for not getting the 20x30 canvas, etc. Granted the finish on the final product was great, but this is ridiculous and for S2, I am going to find someone with some talent to take 100 shots…one or two are bound to be decent. Then I will photo shop them myself.</p>
<p>I didn’t buy many but it happened that the picture was beautiful, so I bought some.
The Seniors were required to sit for the pictures ($5 fee) if they wanted to be in the yearbook. D’s best friend didn’t buy any of the pictures, she went to a local chain studio and got lots of pictures for about $100.</p>
<p>Do you know anyone who is a fledgling photographer? My D is a singer and had done quite a bit of theatre work locally. One of the director/producers in the group has always wanted to be a phototgrapher and has taken many great pics of D. When it came time for the senior pics last year, I approached him and it it turned out that was in the process of renting some small studio space. We spent a wonderful afternoon while he took the requisite head shots for the yearbook, full-body gown shots to accompany her applications, some really fun evening gown shots with props and great casual-jeans, barefeet and her favorite books- pics. He was pleased to do them for nothing, other than the chance to be able to use them for his studio walls and his sample portfolio!
You might want to check with any local colleges which have photog.majors- posting a notice on their bulletin boards on on-line could net you something similar as good shots are always needed for portfolios…</p>
<p>^^^ That’s what we did. My daughter had a HS friend who is a good photographer. He took her senior photos for sending out with graduation announcements. We did pay him, but he was very reasonable ad they had a fun day out. They were not the year book ones though as everyone was required to use a particular photographer. </p>
<p>My son realized he had worn the same tee shirt for yearbook pictures his freshman/senior years. So he decided to make a point of wearing then his junior & senior year. The photographer we were made to use was at least able to edit out some faded spots and a small hole!!</p>