<p>I remember in my day, getting one picture, wearing an ugly black drape, with the only difference between me and my 100 female classmates being the type of necklace you wore with it (boys had an ugly ruffled shirt and dark jacket). Nowadays we are getting deluged with offers from every photographer in the area for packages into the thousands of $$$, with different wardrobe changes, casula versus formal, indoor and outdoor settings, sports backgrounds, etc etc. It will set us back a few hundred just for the wallets of the basic pic for the yearbook. Is it this crazy everywhere?</p>
<p>If you look carefully, I think you’ll find that you can just have the yearbook picture taken (in whatever clothing the students are supposed to wear for that picture) if you want.</p>
<p>You can also decline to purchase anything, and the photo will still appear in the yearbook.</p>
<p>I think it is that outrageous everywhere, but each of my kids only had the official yearbook-type photo taken and bought only one of the smallest packages.</p>
<p>I’m thinking perhaps the photography industry has to go very upscale to compete with so many good home cameras that people now own, as well as their tendency to take digitals and keep them forever inside their computers.</p>
<p>Our older kids’ h.s., which was poor and rural, just had those guys come in who line up the entire class and provide separate throw-away combs for each kid (to confuse the lice). Maybe $30 and the results showed it.</p>
<p>The younger is in an upscale suburb, but even so they let you slide by with the rock bottom “graduation package” from Sears Portrait Studio, which nonetheless cost around $120 if I recall correctly.</p>
<p>But there must be a market for the photographers you are seeing, Rachacha. Isn’t it crazy! </p>
<p>When I’m very old (not just old) and thinking back on raising children, I will envision an endless line of people with cheesy smiles, all holding out their hands for my money. Each newborn hospital picture was free (one sweet wallet sized lumpkin), but after that everything changed.</p>
<p>My D refused to “sit” for a senior picture. She didn’t want to use the mug shot from her student ID. As pointed out, even the rock bottom, get a decent pic for the year book package-and that’s all you get around here, will cost at least $75.</p>
<p>For the year book, we submitted a picture I took. She did her thing, we spent 15 minutes in the back yard on a nice day and got a couple of decent pictures. They were in digital format, submitted her favorite per the yearbook requirements and she was happy with the results. </p>
<p>We have Kinko’s (now FedEx Kinko’s, I think) where I can take my digital info in and process my pictures to my heart’s content, any size I want. I’ve done some in wallet size and they turned out very nice.</p>
<p>At my d’s high school, you had to use the suggested photographer for the yearbook picture itself, or you wouldn’t have a picture in the yearbook. True, you could go somewhere else for “senior pictures” but they’re all ridiculously expensive, and who wants the hassle? So most kids (including mine) went to the suggested photographer. My d went for the “change of clothes and background” shots, and we bought a package for megabucks - but we had 3 grandparents, a number of aunts, uncles & cousins who wanted shots. </p>
<p>It’s a lot of money, but the pictures are great, particularly with the touchups they did. So I can’t complain too much.</p>
<p>At my son’s high school (private), you had to go to a particular photographer to get your “official” picture that would appear in the yearbook. (Button-down white or blue shirt, school tie, jacket were also required for that picture.) They took 4 or 5 shots and you could choose which one you wanted in the yearbook. There was no charge for this.</p>
<p>Of course, while you were there, you could have more pictures taken – with different backgrounds, props, changes of clothing, etc. for additional fees. And there were an enormous number of photo packages to choose from – which cost anywhere from $300 to $900, as I recall. </p>
<p>We opted for just the free yearbook photo and a few 5x7s for the grandparents. I think it cost about $100. But nearly everyone else we know paid the big bucks for portraits!</p>
<p>I must say that I had senior portraits taken in high school and am very glad I did. While we didn’t get the very, very expensive package, I’m sure we did get enough for the family. So when it came time for my kids, we did have some taken. I think I remember having two outfits (try getting a boy to agree with that) and various poses. Total package came to around $200. I’m still glad we did it. The prices went up to over $1,000.</p>
<p>oD got suckered into some expensive studio senior pics, and the whole package would have cost $750-1000. H refused to pay, so we only bought the “proofs” ($150 for several pics - outrageous!). yD looked at the prices and had a good suggestion: we could give her part of that money for a student version of Photoshop while she was at a summer college session and save the rest.</p>
<p>D had fun changing outfits a couple of times (and we got the rock bottom package) but for my guys, “changing outfits” meant taking the blue blazer off and slinging it over one shoulder. 
It WAS fun for me, however, to watch the photog & assistant make my boys look their man-best.</p>
<p>Gosh, yes, some of the kids had very ambitious photo albums: mood lighting, location shots, various props (including their cars), costume changes, retouching, etc. </p>
<p>We went with a moonlighting school teacher and got one set of shots with son wearing a tie and one set with him in a sweater. They are fine. I don’t know what everyone did with the small pictures that the kids traded and we received from friends and relatives. I don’t have any pics of other kids floating around the house; they were tossed sometime after senior year. One of S’s photos is posted somewhere at S’s HS because of NMS. I have one photo of son in my wallet (and it never fails to make me smile!) and the rest are in a drawer somewhere. I imagine I might frame one and hang it some day.</p>
<p>So, I am pleased with the results and, in retrospect, think that even our modest approach was a bit over the top for the way we actually live.</p>
<p>We have a friend whose D had her pics done (the whole nine yards) by the local photographer at his studio. She showed us her proof album and we were aghast. LOTS of suggestive poses. He took 120 pics – was supposed to be a 60-shot package. Her honest (and naive) response: “I just did what the photographer told me to.” Boy, did <em>that</em> shake up her parents!</p>
<p>There is only so much one can do with a 16 yo boy in a tuxedo. We bought the smallest package we could. Pictures were great, though overpriced.</p>
<p>
My friend’s daughter had the opposite experience. She likes to wear very skimpy clothes and when she came out in a *very *short skirt the photographer refused to photograph her in it saying he was not 'that kind of a photographer’and his name was not Hugh Hefner. I think my friend almost kissed him!!</p>
<p>My daughter’s school they had to have their senior photo for the year book made in graduation gowns by a designated photographer. But for her own senior pics we had a friend of hers take them (he is very good) for $80. What can I say - We’re cheap!</p>
<p>My son’s school you had to have the senior pic for the year book taken by a designated photographer. He realised in junior year that he had had his fist 2 years pictures taken wearing the same t-shirt so decided to wear it for junior and senior year to. It had hole in it and was a bit faded by senior year but the photographer was able to edit the hole out and unfade it a bit. Our son refused to have any other senior photos made - in fact he refused the whole ‘senior package’ - would not order announcements or anything because he though it was all a big rip off (though we would have been paying). I ended up making his announcements (thank you print shop and Staples card stock ) and my daughter loved them so much I had to do the same for her.</p>
<p>Yep…the package through the school was outrageous. We chose to do the yearbook pic only (not very expensive at all) and did get a couple of wallets because DD wanted them. BUT we then had “real” pictures taken with a “real” photographer. They were really terrific, and those are the ones we have in our house.</p>
<p>We’re fortunate to live in an area that has not gone out of control. There is no official photographer for senior yearbook pix. There are a couple, maybe a few, professional photographers who offer packages. These are fairly low key… well, WAY low key compared to some I’m reading about here.</p>
<p>DS didn’t want to do it; asked me to take his pic. I took one with my digital and it came out well, but he didn’t like something about how his arms looked. It went downhill from there, what with the lag on digital cameras between click and actual “take,” and we did not make a good photographer/model team.</p>
<p>So… we hired the lowest of the low key photogs who really knew how to work with a “reluctant” boy. She took a bunch in and around our neighborhood and it was impossible to choose among them. She really captured my kid and many aspects of his personality. The proofs, which we got to keep, were not the “self-destructing” type, so I have all the shots. We bought a package that ran around $100-$125 and I enjoy them every time I look.</p>
<p>We were just having this conversation at home last night. At my son’s school, the yearbook pictures (drape for girls/fake half tux for boys) are all shot by one designated photographer; they appear in the year book whether or not you buy any of them.</p>
<p>But lots of kids go to their photographer of choice to have a lot of pix taken-with band instrument, car, pon poms or whatever. My husband sees no reason to do that, but I’ll get my way and make my son go through the process. I really want a good photographer to capture him as a 17 year old man child, on the eve of going off on his own. Some families go ahead and have a family portrait done at the same time, figuring that this may be the last of the group together.</p>
<p>Anything goes at my son’s HS. I’m NOT a good photographer, but I called in a friend who is. I’d co-parented her son for years–feeding him, driving him to dance class and taking him to NYC for his first Broadway play. She spent a couple of hours photographing him in black and white and color. The results were incredible and cost me nothing. Everything I’d done for her wonderful son, my son’s best friend–priceless.</p>
<p>We just had the dumb for the yearbook picture taken, I didn’t pay for any of the packages, because I didn’t like the pictures. I did pay to get some postcard sized pictures that were taken at the graduation itself. He looks wild in them. With sandals and long loopy geek-fro hair escaping from the mortarboard he looked just like an apostle. I really don’t like formal photos much.</p>
<p>We have a few really good professional photographers who take them…they are not crazy or outrageously expensive if you look around. Particularly now when the photographer does not have to print proof sheets…The one we use is a dear friend…he takes the pictures, you go to his website and choose! Then you can order prints through smugmug…
He took a wonderful senior pic of my son and last Christmas took one of the kids together (first one in about 12 years…). Another time he went out and took a bunch of my daughter with her horse. I can’t say what he charges because he always refuses my money…love friends like that!</p>
<p>at our school the yearbook pic for girls would be the drape and the tux for the guys and that is required. well most students also go and get senior pictures taken by professional photographers and the packages are REALLY expensive. i just had mine done this weekend and i had about 10 outfits with a ton of different backgrounds indoor/outdoor. i just recently found out that it is NOT done like this everywhere but here its kinda the norm. we all pass out the wallets to our friends.</p>
<p>at my school seniors have to submit some kind of photo to the yearbook, so a lot of kids do get the professional whole nine yards. but it’s not the only option- a lot of my friends just bribed their photo-savvy friends with food to do a half hour sitting out in a pretty backyard, and that was that. i did that and i’m delighted with mine.</p>