Friday, August 15, 2008

Senior Pictures

So, Beth is a senior this year, and someone has convinced all these kids that the thing to do is get senior pictures taken. Never mind that she 'hates' school and can't wait to get out of there. Beth had to have senior pictures, too. Now, I have a camera. It's digital. I can shoot lots and lots of pictures and probably come up with one or two decent ones, at least. I said I'd take her picture, but she would have nothing to do with that. And when Beth makes up her mind, whether she's right or wrong, there's no budging her. She was not going to cooperate with that at all, even just to see what we might come up with.

So, she made an appointment at Glamour Shots - makeup, hair, photo shoot, and a coupon for 48 wallets for $48 with any purchase. She even took her friend Kayla along so they could have some pictures taken together. All that took about 3 hours, while I waited, and waited. At least I had a book with me, so I did get some reading done. Then, we had to wait some more before we could look at the pictures. They downloaded the pictures to the computer and put them into a slideshow, with music even, so we could look at them and decide which ones we liked. Then she added everything up, and it came to $2300.oo or so, (with 19 poses selected). Nobody in their right mind would pay that much for pictures! And nobody really needs that many poses or that many pictures, seriously. Anyway, we narrowed things down, and it still cost way more than I really wanted to spend, but I ended up buying the pictures anyway. Kayla said it was cheaper than what her pictures are going to cost, and she isn't getting as many. They really did turn out nice. We got 4 different poses, and one of those was of the two girls together, a 5x7 for each of them.

I've been doing some looking online tonight (yes, I should have done this before but I didn't) to get an idea of what senior pictures cost, and, from the pages that actually gave some prices, I guess we came out OK. However, I really would rather have taken some myself, and I see I'm not the only one who thinks so. Here's a great article on do-it-yourself high school senior portraits. Yeah, just what I said - if only that daughter of mine wasn't so stubborn hard-headed picky opinionated determined.

Hopefully next year Cory will let me take his pictures. If we don't get anything he's happy with, then we can look for a place to get his pictures taken - or just buy him a plane ticket and send him to Oregon so his uncle can take the pictures.

5 comments:

  1. Buckle your seat belt: this is going to be an expensive year for you. Ha ha--I have been there!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I did my son's graduation pics myself and they came out fantastic. Everyone we know was upset that they spent so much and got the same results we did.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We had to go with a professional chosen by the school or they wouldn't put the picture in the yearbook. Rip off if you ask me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow that is a LOT of money for pictures! I got a few years before Aurora has to get those done and good thing to because it looks like I would have to save up for them at the price.

    ReplyDelete
  5. kathieb - Help! What else am I going to have to pay for? Should I have taken out a 'senior year loan'?

    nessa - I think boys are less picky than girls, and hopefully I will get away with that next year. Actually, he's already talking about having one of his friends take his pictures, and that would work, too.

    karen - That definitely sounds like a rip off. I have been reading, though, that most of the studios will take your picture for the yearbook, even if you don't buy any of them. However, there's probably still the 'session fee' to be paid.

    tammy - start saving now! Or convince Aurora to let you take some. We only ended up spending around $400. I think they quote that really outrageous amount first so that the final total doesn't seem so bad. It still seems bad, but the girls kept saying, 'this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing' and 'this is the last time you'll get pictures taken of her.' Yeah, right - but I caved.

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments! Keep them coming.