I received a flyer last week telling me that my children’s school would be hosting “picture day”….the strange thing about the flyer was that I received it just TWO DAYS before picture day was scheduled to take place. I’m not sure who is to blame for the poor planning, but I was unimpressed that a state-wide photography chain couldn’t give parents more notice. Although I personally had money to pay for a package of photos- I was annoyed at the fact that I know that other parents are hurting for money to put food on the table, let alone school pictures….so I thought it would have been nice for them to have a little more advance notice than just two days.
I’ve never been particularly impressed with the quality of school portraits. I will say that I feel that school pictures overall have improved from what they were like when I was in elementary school with neat backgrounds, props, and better ‘posing’ styles….but since I’m a photographer myself, and a ridiculous perfectionist- I’d much rather do my children’s school portraits myself.
Today, I got my kids home from school, dressed them up and brought them all down to the Footbridge area in Belfast….even the baby (who is obviously not in school yet). There was this really neat rock wall that lined the road that I’ve been eyeballing for quite some time, hoping to convince some of my Searsport Seniors to allow me to do their photos against it as a backdrop (no luck yet)…so I used it on my daughter and son who are in Kindergarten and first grade. I was absolutely thrilled with the texture and overall dynamic background it created. My daughter was more comfortable with the rock wall than my son, so I feel that her photos came out looking more relaxed and natural.
Later, we moved down to the public parking area where I photographed each child individually, two at a time and then all three together. I can photograph anyone else’s multiple children at one time with much greater ease than I can my own children. Our son has ASD, which makes it incredibly difficult for him to even desire to look in the direction of the camera. Our oldest daughter is incredibly photogenic and just plain beautiful. She looks good no matter where you put her. Then there’s the baby….and she is……an almost two year old mind-of-her-own little ham who will say “cheese” until you’re about to lose your mind….but she will ONLY look toward the camera when SHE wants to: which means that most of our shots of her are “action” shots. Oh well, I guess I can’t complain. Better than not having any photos of her at all.
When the day was done, we walked away with quite a few nice photos. I just thought I would share a few with you! 
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