Traditional K-12 Photos vs. Our Method
Updated: Sep 29
As a parent of two K-12 children, (and a previous K-12 student myself), I've had a long-standing Love-Hate relationship with traditional School Photos. I never planned on getting into K-12 photography. I was perfectly happy staying with my daycare and preschool age groups. But then my son started preschool, and we received his school photo. It had a terrible fake smile. Of course, I could just take more photos for myself, but this was his "official" photo that would wind up in the school records. I was upset, but not ready to do anything about it.
A year went by, and his Kindergarten photo was even worse. His fake smile was so bad that his neck muscles were popping out, and the hair we had so painstakingly combed over that morning had fallen flat. Wanna see it? Here ya go...
I started asking around to other parents about their thoughts on traditional K-12 photos. Like, dislikes, etc. And I got 3 similar themes to their dis-likes:
Lack of choice
Attention to detail / Lack of caring
Price
Below, you'll find explanation of those 3 themes and the way that we address them at Genesis Photography to improve the photos themselves and the overall experience for the parents & schools.
Lack of Choice
For the vast majority of traditional K-12 photographers, the process is to get one non-blinking photo of each student and move on. As a parent, you don't get a chance to compare multiple photos and choose the one that best represents your child. I understand that K-12 photographers have to move FAST in schools, and even spending 2 minutes with each child at a school of 400 kids means you'd be there for over 13 hours if you were the only photographer. Most schools want the photographers in and out before lunch time. You can bring more photographers, but even if you bring three and start at 8:30am, you could only spend an average of 1 minute and 21 seconds with each student.
That being said, it IS possible to get multipe unique images in a short time-frame, including different expressions and poses. It's not always easy, and it's certainly the path of higher resistance, but with skilled photographers and digital photography, there's no reason why you can't, as a parent, have at least a few images to choose from. Why don't the legacy companies typically offer this? Because money is time, and efficiency is Priority #1 for them.
At Genesis Photography, we only used seasoned photographers who are willing to give a little more time and expertise to each student in order to give parents a choice. With very few exceptions, each child's gallery should have multiple images to choose from.
Attention to Detail / Lack of Caring
I remember being a student on the dreaded day when our photos were handed out in those clear-front envelopes. They'd be passed back from our teacher and through the hands of every student who was sitting in front of me. It was like a unique form of torture, knowing that all those kids got to see just how awful my photo was. I remember thinking, "THAT'S how I looked?! Why didn't someone tell me, offer me a mirror, or something?!"
This is a HUGE issue for parents, and it's the result of multiple factors. Factor #1: Time & Available Resources With such little time available for each student, it's often not possible for the photographer to find and correct every stray hair, runny nose, and wrinkled collar. On top of that, they don't necessarily know how a parent likes their child's hair combed, etc. To address this, we take multiple approaches: --> Mirrors at each photo station, so the students can do a quick check before photos
--> Tissues & wipes at each station to make any quick touch-ups --> The option for parents to send us a note before Photo Day, requesting that hair be combed a certain way, buttons be buttoned, etc --> Editing software that can help clear up any missed runny noses, crumbs, stray hairs, and more
Factor #2: The Photographer
I don't want to throw every big photo company under the bus, but I know from experience that many of them pay their photographers a low wage and, as a result, need to hire relatively un-skilled photographers. Have you ever had a minimum wage job? Did you always feel motivated in that job to go "above and beyond"? I certainly didn't. :)
At Genesis Photography, we only hire skilled, professional photographers who have been in the industry for 5+ years, specifically with children. They know and love the genre, and they're willing to go that extra mile.
Price
This is a multi-faceted complaint and means something different to each parent. Often, it means one or more of the following: Quality of the photo Parents don't necessarily think that $30 is too much to pay for a photo of their child, but that it's too much for what they get. In other words, the quality of the photo didn't match the cost. The quality may be lacking for technical reasons, like incorrect cropping, bad lighting, etc. It may also be because the quality of the expression of the child. If they photographer didn't take time to get a real smile, then the photo's not worth the money.
Add-on costs If a parent would like some editing touch-ups to be made, (like acne, runny noses, etc), that is often an extra fee that they have to pay.
Separate orders for each child
Many parents have multiple children who are students, and traditionally, each child has to have their own order. Parents can't combine photos from siblings into one discounted package, which makes the total cost more and may also mean they have to buy un-wanted extra items for each child.
At Genesis Photography, we address these concerns by striving for technical excellence & genuine expressions, including basic touch-ups at no added cost, and allowing parents to combine photos from siblings into one order.
If you'd like to reach out and see if your school would be a good fit for our approach, I'd love to hear from you! Bonnie Sindelar Owner & Lead Photographer hello@genesisphotog.com
