Senior Portraits

[KSUViolet06]

Senior pics are the norm here. You usually did like 4 outfits and a variety of backgrounds/poses. When you went to get your pics taken, you made sure to get a headshot because that would be your yearbook photo. You also made sure you got plenty of wallets because those were signed and passed out to your friends. Must be a midwestern thing.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Senior pics are the norm here. You usually did like 4 outfits and a variety of backgrounds/poses. When you went to get your pics taken, you made sure to get a headshot because that would be your yearbook photo. You also made sure you got plenty of wallets because those were signed and passed out to your friends. Must be a midwestern thing.

Yep exactly! Often one would be a sports one if you were an athlete and I had my dog at the time in one too. Standing in water is popular right now but I didn't feel like standing in a pond...

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Yep exactly! Often one would be a sports one if you were an athlete and I had my dog at the time in one too. Standing in water is popular right now but I didn't feel like standing in a pond...

The popular thing when I was in school was the "outdoors on a swing" pic.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Hmm, if you ever see just individual teenagers in pictures in those, those would probably be the senior pics. We all took them and passed them out. But you got your senior pics done at the beginning of the school year (so you could put your head shot in the yearbook) and the yearbooks at the END of the school year (or beginning of the next ). IT was more about writing a note to friends than anything. Midwestern tradition? I'm not sure.

Interesting. I rarely see individual teenagers in those pictures -- they're all (1) family, (2) kids and pet, (3) engagement or (4) wedding.

And as far as I know, nobody around here puts their own headshots in the yearbook -- a photographer comes to school for that. But I'm sure photographers are changing that -- right up there with wedding planners for creating things people "have to have."

Well I could be dead to you, but then who would set the time on your VCR?

What's a VCR?

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Interesting. I rarely see individual teenagers in those pictures -- they're all (1) family, (2) kids and pet, (3) engagement or (4) wedding.

And as far as I know, nobody around here puts their own headshots in the yearbook -- a photographer comes to school for that. But I'm sure photographers are changing that -- right up there with wedding planners for creating things people "have to have."

What's a VCR?

Oh I'm sorry, it's like a Betamax but better.

Kind of like those big black CD looking things your generation had for music but for video instead.

[honeychile]

Don't worry, MC, it seems to be a younger trend (so if you're old, I am, too). My kinda cousin had her senior pictures taken by a photographer who was on a list of twenty-some that the school gave her. Yes, she had the floral swing (I think I developed a slight case of diabetes from that one), headshots, body shots, BODY shots, and at least ten outfits. Color pictures, black and white pictures - you name it. You could almost call them by name - Hollywood, halo, good girl, bad girl, naughty girl, baby girl, etc, etc. And being an only grandchild, they got plenty of all of them.

I think we had 8-12 poses, all in the same outfit. Top, actually, since they were all head shots only. I remember that the (school chosen) photographer freaked because I used a curling iron just before my picture was taken, and it cost him a whole five extra minutes! And because our yearbook editor was doing some sort of Hollywood glamour theme, we had to have all black and white pictures. So, while I think the current mega-shots is over the top, I guess it's better than what we had.

[33girl]

As a former yearbook staffer, I can't imagine how awful the yearbook must look with such a variety of pictures. We could get ones done by the "cool" photog for handing out but everyone had to have their pic taken by the photog the school hired or it wouldn't be in the yearbook.

You have to remember this is the generation whose parents were told that professional photos every 1-3 months were as essential as vaccinations. I was a spoiled only child and other than school pics, my parents only got professional photos taken TWICE. The 3 year old ones are ok, but the 6 month old ones make me look like Jabba the Hutt. I like Mom33's picture taking skills better, thanks.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by 33girl

As a former yearbook staffer, I can't imagine how awful the yearbook must look with such a variety of pictures. We could get ones done by the "cool" photog for handing out but everyone had to have their pic taken by the photog the school hired or it wouldn't be in the yearbook.

You have to remember this is the generation whose parents were told that professional photos every 1-3 months were as essential as vaccinations. I was a spoiled only child and other than school pics, my parents only got professional photos taken TWICE. The 3 year old ones are ok, but the 6 month old ones make me look like Jabba the Hutt. I like Mom33's picture taking skills better, thanks.

Senior pictures are normal in WNY - I went to the photographer that did my brother's and then later (in 2006) we went back and had a family photo done, pictures of just my mom and dad, and my brother and his (future) wife had engagement photos done the same day.

Most seniors had a headshot done for the yearbook, then a bunch of wallets. I think I ended up with 4 good ones, 2 different outfits. As part of my package they gave me a little book that I could put my friend's senior portraits in and there was space on all the pages where those people could sign. I think there were 10 slots or so so it was mostly the really "close" friends.

The yearbooks looked fine - the photographers generally sent one (chosen by the student) to whatever school and usually cropped any that weren't a headshot into as close to one as they could get, so it was pretty uniform. Because this was SOP for most schools in the area, they had it down to a pretty fine science and the 3 years I was on the yearbook committee we never once had a senior with no portrait (unless they transferred in mid-year - nothing you can do about that).

Seniors also had the option to have pictures taken with the rest of the student body, free of charge, if they didn't want to or couldn't afford a session of their own. The school photographers generally made an extra effort for seniors, giving them more shots so that they'd get the best possible picture.

My parents never took me for "baby" pictures.

[KSUViolet06]

I'll admit it, I was the oldest and my parents were really excited to have me. So I had pics taken every 3 months-ish until I was two (then only twice a year after that). Once my brother was born, then they changed to only doing Easter and Christmas, lol.