On picture day for my ds he came home with his shirt buttoned all wrong. That is not how he was sent to school and so I asked him if his shirt was buttoned wrong for pictures. Being the little "man in training" that he is, his answer was of course that he had no clue.
I thought to myself surely his teacher or at least the photographer would not have let him have his pictures taken with his shirt like that...yes they would.
So now the question is retakes or no retakes...with as long as it took for the pictures to get back and as anal as I am about getting Christmas cards out I am opting to not have retakes done, after all it just adds a little character to the picture.
LOL, other than the shirt his 1st grade picture turned out great and I am just making a mental note of pullover shirts from now on for picture day.

So what is your favorite school picture memory?

By Kate on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 06:42 pm:

Retakes for sure!! My experience with retakes is that they take a lot less time to get back than the originals.

Our pics this year are way too 'red' in the skin tone. The pics from prior years are normal skin color....I don't know WHAT they did to them this year but I'm not pleased with the processing. My kids are pale, not pink dolls.

By Rayelle on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 06:48 pm:

Last year my ds had a big ring of grape juice all around his mouth! The one before that he had this wild crazy look in his eye and the biggest smile ever lol! I don't purchase the school pictures in the fall since I don't get proofs but they do them again in the spring and they do have proofs. I do get the kids a yearbook so the fall picture is in that.

By Kaye on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 07:12 pm:

I learned you buy the small fall package and then buy your real pictures in the spring, where they print them and you actually get to see them first.

That being said, I look back at my school pictures (of me) and the ones where I have character are the ones that make me smile.

By My2girlygirls on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 08:06 pm:

One of my mom's favorite school pictures of my brother when he was in 2nd grade (he's 40 now) was one that he had wiped his nose on the front of his shirt so there is snot on his shirt. He was wearing a navy blue shirt by the way. At the time she was devastated but now she loves to look at it :-) :-)

By Karen~admin on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 08:12 pm:

I think my favorite picture memory is of a class picture when Jen was in K - she and another girl decided together to make faces and stick their tongues out, and the photographer actually snapped the picture and used THAT one. THAT is the group picture that each kid from that class had. LOL I was horrified at the time, but now it's a great laugh.

By Bellajoe on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 08:40 pm:

That's a cute story Karen!

I like my son's picture from last year, first grade. He had one front tooth and the other had not come in yet. You could see his tongue in his mouth in that "window" where the missing tooth would have been. So cute!

Another I love, although it's not a school picture, was when he was 3 months old we had his picture taken. He smiled with his tongue sticking out.

I do love the first grade photos of both my kids because of the missing teeth!

By Dramamamma on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 10:46 pm:

I would just let it go as it is... Brendan's very first Christmas picture I had his shoes on the wrong feet, then the next year at Easter he had a price tag on the bottom of his shoe. Those little baby shoes always gave me a hard time. lol...

Years from now you and Joe will laugh about it. :-)

By Dramamamma on Thursday, November 6, 2008 - 10:49 pm:

And my favorite school picture of myself was when I was about 8 years old and had the HUGE glasses thing going on with fly away hair. We call it my ET year because of the grin on my face. lol...

My middle sister tucked her arm in on her preschool picture so it looks like she's missing an arm, the following year she's shooting the "bird" on the pole of the merry go round they had them sitting on.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Friday, November 7, 2008 - 06:21 am:

I say keep it and send it out in your cards.. Most people understand that once the kid walks out the door they are known to do the oddest things. I honestly think it sounds cute, I can just see a proud smile and a messed up colar.. LOL

My favorite pictures period are the ones that don't look staged, the imperfections give them character.

DS is a Junior and my girls are in 6th grade, I have pictures of Dill in a sweatshirt and 4 years later Emily in the same sweatshirt. It was Dill's favorite sweatshirt and it then went on to be Emily's when he out grew it. It has since found the trash but we have a record of how much the kids loved that shirt forever.

My 5th grade picture, I have no front teeth and a huge smile, a bad perm (fuz head) that makes my head look huge and my eyes are closed. Used to hide the picture when people would look through the album. Now it is my favorite picture. Oh and, I was a tomboy from birth, one year (1st grade) my mom thought it would be cute to put me in a dress and tights for my school picture. We had recess before pictures and I managed to snag the knee of my tights... Mom was so mad, now she says it shows who I was at the time.. My 8th grade picture I am wearing bright purple eye shadow and my hair has static. I look like a raccoon that went through an electrical storm.. LOL Those pictures are who I was, it is fun to look back on them now and see where I came from. To see the progression into the woman I was to become. Imperfection is perfect if you ask me..

By Mom2three1968 on Friday, November 7, 2008 - 06:59 am:

Our favorite picture of my ds who is now 12 was taken when he was 5, he had his arms folded in front of him, his head turned to one side and a big sh*t eating grin on his face, it was so darn cute, it was like he was saying in the pic, you don't know want to know what I've been up to! That was my inlaws favorite pic my son and when my father-in-law passed away that pic went with him!

By Mara on Friday, November 7, 2008 - 08:00 am:

I'm not too pleased with my 3 kiddos pics. this year either. My oldest, 11yrs. decided that he wanted to do a "half smile" and that's exactly what we got LOL It is so goofy! I do wonder why they take those shots! LOL My middle childs, 9yr. pic. he has this fake grin, showing no teeth at all..not a very good pic of him either. My little one ,5yrs, her pics she looks huge! She is a little on the chubby side and in the picture they have her looking down a bit and it looks like she has a huge second chin! I dont like it a bit. I won't be doing retakes cause although I don't like them now, I will look back and giggle about them I'm sure.

Mara

By Melissa on Friday, November 7, 2008 - 12:15 pm:

In 5th grade my dd thought she would look better with bright red lipstick for her picture so she took some we had used for a halloween costume and put it on just before the pictures. We did retakes. No one at school said anything to her either. I knew about it before the pictures came back b/c she told me about it that night, she was feeling guilty I guess.

By Bellajoe on Friday, November 7, 2008 - 03:55 pm:

When my ds was about 2, I tried to get his picture taken. Probably for his second birthday ( his b-day is in November). I dressed him in a nice shirt with a sweater over it. The bad thing was that the photo studio was stifling hot! He did not want to get his picture taken, didn't want anything to do with it, probably because he was roasting.

We took several pictures but none of them were good. I kept handing him things to hold, but he didn't care. Then I gave him this golden star (probably a Christmas prop). He LOVED the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". So he held the star and I started singing that song for him. He looked up and smiled and "CLICK" the person took the picture. And it's SO CUTE. At first I didn't like the picture because" why would he be holding a star?" but after I thought about it for a while, I realized it was perfect because that's who he was. That was his favorite song and now I have that story to go along with the photo.