Top 6 Reason to Buy Your Child’s School Pictures

This is a great article that was written by Jenn White.  Her & Stan White generously allowed me to re-post it here.  It’s a reminder to everyone what a great service we offer as school photographers.  It’s something to share with your staff when so they have something to refer to when speaking with parents and schools.

She wrote it in reference to her scrap booking audience on her blog here.

Top 6 Reasons to Purchase your Child’s School Pictures:

6. Create a Record – the photos are taken the same time, every year.  The photos are usually styled similarly – in the fall you get a classic portrait (they do this for the yearbook) and in the spring a casual portrait.  When put together over the years they create a nice, cohesive record of your child’s growth and maturation. No need to remember if you took photos at Easter last year, or was it Bobby’s birthday in February?

5. No Fuss – no making an appointment, dragging everybody to the studio, waiting around, sitting through the sales pitch, waiting for your prints to be delivered, going back to the studio to pick them up, and paying.  No being hit up over and over again with pitches from the studio to do it again for every season and holiday.  Twice a year you get a form, fill it out, and it’s done.

4. Group Pictures – I guarantee you won’t remember that boy who sat behind you that you crushed on for all of fourth grade until you saw him pick his nose. Until you see him in the class picture.  Even though many schools do yearbooks, a class photo is a moment in time that is worth saving.  If you don’t buy the individual package, at least get the class photo.  Can’t get that at your local department store.

3. Cool Stuff – my kids BEG me to get the keychain tags from their class photos.  They trade them with friends, collect them, and the grandmas love them.  You can order all sorts of gifts and things now through your school photographer, effectively taking care of Christmas, Easter, Mother’s and Father’s Day and birthdays with one order! (See #5 No Fuss.)

2. CD with copyright release – this is the only way to go!  Digital scrapbookers know that doing it digital is the most frugal way to preserve your memories.  When you buy the CD with copyright release, you can take advantage of the 50 free prints at Snapfish to print portraits to put in your Christmas cards, or use the coupon for 10 free prints at Walgreens for the grandparents’ copies.  If your school’s photographer does not offer this service, ask for it.  Call the company (you may have to get a number from the school) and ask politely.  Most photographers would like to have business from you and will accommodate you gladly.

1. Support your School – Do your school pictures seem expensive?  Almost all photographers share as much as HALF of the price of the package with the school.  It’s a FUNDRAISER!  Photographers and schools have done a poor job publicizing this, but your purchase goes to support programs and supplies for YOUR KIDS!  A lot better for the waistline than a bakesale!  And much more useful than another candle, roll of wrapping paper or tub of cookie dough.

For my buck, school pictures are a great value!  So don’t be foolish, be frugal!  Support your school, buy the pictures, and digiscrap up a bunch of great memories!

© 2009 Scrappers Workshop –  All Rights Reserved. Contact Jenn White at jenn@scrappersworkshop.com for permission to use.

Yearbook Design Software – YearbookFusion by Lumapix

If you’re looking for a great solution to produce your own yearbooks & need software to do so, take a look at Yearbook Fusion by LumaPix.  Everyone who I have spoken with regarding this software finds it simply unbelievable.

YearbookFusion is a software package specialized for yearbook layout.
It streamlines the process of creating yearbooks, church directories, and other database-driven album types.

YearbookFusion enables a yearbook advisor to

• Install a layout application with branding and page size defaults matching the publisher that provided the software
• Create a multipage album project with all pages stored in a single file
• Import a PSPA CD, building a database of students and faculty
• Perform database operations, such as moving students from one grade to another
• Create panel pages automatically
• Customize the panel page ‘look’ (knocking out frames, reshaping the grid, etc)
• Lay out the rest of the yearbook with candid pages, collage pages, etc
• Upload the results to the publisher for printing

YearbookFusion is targeted at publishers, labs and printing companies that work with multiple customers (either directly with schools or with photographers that work with schools).

Business advantages of YearbookFusion for publishers include:

• Locked templates matching publisher album specifications
• One-click uploading to the publisher facility
• Branding reflecting the publisher
• Superior ease of use
• Simple bulk licensing pricing and licensing

Click here for a video demonstratingYearbook Fusion.

The company who licenses the software may distribute it to their schools and can create a pdf file of the yearbook and give it to any printer they choose.

The software is priced bewteen $100-$190 based on volume.  Contact Bob Winkler at 1-888-753-4647 for more information.

An Unusual Request???

Most everyone has probably heard the story about the stretched necks, body swapping, and other modifications made to the images of McKinney High School to fulfill an ‘unusual’ request made to their photography company.

As quoted from CNN:
The high school had required their photography company to make heads the same size and eyes at the same level in all student photos, the photography’s spokeswoman said Saturday.

The request was “unusual and definitely very particular, but that’s not to suggest what happened here is acceptable,” she said.

This wouldn’t have happened if they were using ImageMatch by PhotoLynx! ImageMatch is designed to allow photographers to align head sizes to make them look uniform in the yearbook.

Watch students scramble to redo their yearbook »