@jellybean5 lots in our neighborhood do pricey yearbook photos too. We are cheaping our and doing our own. My d22 has taken some really awesome headshots of d19 with her iphone8+ which has just a bit nicer camera than my iPhone7+
I do have a couple of friends who live elsewhere and do professional photography and they have offered to do needed editing when we are ready, but d19 loves some of the pics we have managed so far.
My son had his senior picture taken last week. He had dive practice, came home and took a shower and brushed his hands through his hair and voila! The picture came out great. Amazing what a faux tux can do.
@JenJenJenJen you should email the GC with some questions. This is probably a slower time of the year than fall will be. We have a meeting with our GC later this month and Iām trying to wait to ask questions then, but I really want to know āwhen are the June ACT scores going to show up on Naviance?ā I want that blue circle thingy to be in the right spot.
@me29034 - Same here, the senior portraits are via the school, taken in the auditorium for the yearbook. They did the fake tux shot plus one or two other pics with āregularā clothes. Some folks paid extra for an all-out shoot, lots of wardrobe changes, etc. We skipped that, might have our godson photographer do a shoot in the fall if none of the school ones come out as worthy of being on the grad announcements lol.
So here we are at the mandated school photo appointment. About the glamour shots, I mean, I could do it. I was an art major and actually took a photography class in college. Back in the day of film that had to be developed, ha ha. So thatās my beef with it. We never bought a nicer camera, we did try, but we were never happy with the pictures we got for indoor volleyball, which was Dās sport. For that you need a huge lens, the bad lighting and quick movement is a recipe for disaster. I might finally be up for it since we donāt have to worry about that anymore. All of the money Iāve saved by not paying for club ball could pay for a decent camera!
Am currently waiting at a hair salon while S gets his hair ādoneā. A friend gave us a gift certificate for a free hair cut and color, so I think heās actually going to do something to the color. Good grief. Heās usually very low maintenance and cheap but likes to wear funny things he finds at Goodwill. Senior pics are at the high school next week so weāll get the cheapest opton and then do our own photos. DH has very nice camera equipment so that makes it easy do do our own thing. Hope the hair isnāt too crazy!
@JenJenJenJen Our counselors technically donāt work in the summer but I have had one respond to me over breaks. I think itās ok write if you start with something like, āI know you may not be answering emails over the summer and I donāt want to be a bother but hereās a list if questions for whenever you have timeā¦ā.
@JenJenJenJen definitely contact the GC. Thatās what they are paid to do. I donāt think they will find it bothersome.
@elena13 LOL on hair coloring. Good luck with that, hopefully he doesāt choose blue or something crazy. Maybe he could color his hair to match the colors of his #1 school choice, ha!! Maybe write an essay about that.
@RightCoaster, would not be surprised in the least if he came out with some blue streaks. I usually donāt buy yearbooks, especially for middle school, but one year after middle school yearbooks came out one of my friends said to me, āI didnāt know S wore glassesā Me: āUm, he doesnātā. :))
The biggest expense for son19ās photo shoot was probably the goo he puts in his har. Heās got one of those trendy European Soccer league type haircuts at the moment, lol. He loves it.
Our school doesnāt do fancy photoshoots for the yearbook, most kids get it done right at the school from a photography company the school suggests. Itās like 50 bucks maybe. Show up, bring a couple of shirts. Take a few poses with different backgrounds, 10 minutes done. There might be some girls that also do a fancy photo session but I donāt have any girls so I am oblivious to that whole world.
@me29034 Iāve been following the 2019 3.0-3.4 thread for months! Havenāt posted though. Wasnāt sure about doing so given that S19ās GPA is high. But yes, many of the schools mentioned over there are the similar to the ones we are targeting. Will pop over and say an official hello. 
Okay, youāve convinced me, forum board! Iām gonna email D19ād counselor and well, sheād better get comfy cuz a have a buncha questions!
@RightCoaster I have two daughters and am therefore more broke than you.
@JenJenJenJen good luck with your GC, You might spend more $$ on girl photo shoots but youād probably die if I told you how much money son19 requires for sports shoes. He goes thru them like mad. Itās crazy. Soccer cleats cost a lot of money. Track shoes, running shoes, etc. He is the Imelda Marcos of sports shoes. At one of our interviews he actually asked about getting free shoes from the school, LOL!! He seriously wanted to know what color they were. Oyyy.
LOLOL
Lol about emailing the counselor. I called ours the other day and her voice mail said sheās out of town āat a conference until Sept 10th.ā Like what? Itās July 11 and we start school on Aug 15th.
I was able to get a hold of her manager and got my questions answered.
I guess we are lucky with GCs at our school. I had to stop in unexpectedly last week to get something at school and there were several GCs on duty that week. They invited me in to chat and I got a few things resolved. I think they actually like helping the kids, even if they have a full load of kids to handle. At the least, they are a friendly bunch.
@RightCoaster Sounds like my sonās school photoshoot right down to the hair goo. He also has 19 pairs of sneakers, but they are all for skateboarding!
I assume our GCās donāt work in the summer, but I would probably try to contact her if I had burning questions. S19ās GC is running an application workshop in early August that he āforgotā to sign up for so Iāll consider her āon dutyā at that point. He needs to follow up on a request to change his science course, but he doesnāt think she has any clue about helping a prospective music student with a list. He is probably correct about that!
Just found out that Dickinson dropped its supplement if anyone here cares. One less essay to write!
And @RightCoaster weāre right there with you with the shoes. Has your son ever been to Sneaker Con??
D had her yearbook photos taken at school then if they donāt like them they can schedule a retake over the summer for $20. D is so picky about how she looks in pictures I was sure she would do a retake (didnāt prep for the in school picture at all) but when it came time to book the appointment she said she was fine with the first pictures even though she didnāt love them - I was so surprised! Maybe because she knows there are almost 900 kids in her grade and her picture will be tiny anyway. That was one fun thing about going to a tiny high school - each senior (about 75 of us) got an entire page in the yearbook and we got to design the page however we wanted. There were so many creative pages back then before we all had computers - lots of collages, hand lettered quotes, art work, etc.
S23 would dream of going to sneaker con - his entire Christmas list this year was sneakers. Very expensive sneakers! 
OMG I also have a sneaker connoisseur. Some are functional (basketball and running) but most are just for fashion purposes. His entire Christmas list is also sneakers.
@me29034 I had to get the GOAT app to even decipher most of his list - it was like a foreign language!
Oh, and for anyone who is into sneakers check out the Bodega store in Boston or LA. It is a cool little hidden spot where the front looks like an actual bodega. You walk into a small room that still looks like a bodega complete with a guy behind the counter then there is a āsecretā automatic sliding door that opens to reveal a shoe store. You are not allowed to take pictures inside at all but some people have snuck them and you can find them online.