Finally, I asked her what she wanted to wear. I think she picked a great outfit that I would not have thought of. Unfortunately, it meant doing laundry last night. There were a few other options in the load, so I let her make a final choice this morning. She stuck with the outfit she had asked to wear.
We were lucky with her preschool to get great photographs for two years. The first year I was really concerned laying out the money without seeing the pictures. That year I was 90% thrilled. The 10% disappointment was that I had not realized it was going to be a fully body shot and had sent her in school shoes for the playground instead of nicer shoes. I learned for the second year and sent her with a pair of shoes for pictures and a pair for the playground. I was 100% thrilled with the pictures that we received. Her preschool used Jack's Portraits from Adrian. He takes the pictures in a fall theme and with actual props - last year she sat on a stump, had (fake) leaves covering her feet, and pumpkins around her instead of a flat background.
This year, she is in Kindergarten so it is a learning curve again. Her school is using SchoolPictures.com. There prices were lower than Jack's Portraits and they also return a percentage to the school. I hope the pictures turn out great. All of the promotional materials show pictures from shoulders or mid-torso up, so I didn't worry about her shoes (which is good because she really needs new fall/winter shoes and not her summery shoes). I also asked a few parents with older children who said it was the "traditional school pose" and not a full-body shot
So far I am really liking SchoolPictures.com. I was able to place my order online instead of sending in a form. I do wish there were more options to customize my package. For example, I use 8x10s for us and the grandparents and 5x7 for her aunts, uncles, great-grandparents, and my husband's office. We don't use the 3x5s, the 2x3 wallets or the smaller exchange prints. I wish we could have swapped them for the extra 5x7s that I needed instead of having to add to my order. Ideally, I would like to see the packages offered as 5 sheets, 4 sheets, etc. and letting you pick which size combinations you wanted. I guess with the way they price it they get people to order extra sheets.
SchoolPictures.com offers one of 6 backgrounds that is chosen when you place your order. I decided to wait until this morning to place my order so I knew what she was wearing before selecting the background. After she and dad left for school this morning, I placed the order and discovered that on picture day you cannot select the background online and need to send a note or they use the default stone gray background which will not match her dress very well.. Fortunately, my husband drives her to school so I was able to call him and have him put a note in her bag. Hopefully it makes it to the photographer. Had I realized that before she left for school this morning, I probably would have used the paper order form this morning to ensure we got our background.
So what are my picture day tips:
- Find out what type of picture they take - full-body shot, head shot, shoulders up, etc and dress your child accordingly
- Find out the picture background - color, theme, etc. so your child matches it
- Have your child eat breakfast before getting dressed to minimize the chance of any spills on picture clothes
- If you are ordering online, order before the day of so that any options for picture taking are known ahead of time
- Make sure the picture outfit has been tried on (if new) and is clean at least the day before picture day
Any other tips? What do you do to have a successful school picture day?
