School Picture Day is an exciting day for any young student, but it's just another day at work for the photographer. These shutterbugs pulled back the veil and share what it's really like at their job.
Switch Up
Shutterstock/Vladimir Gjorgiev
“One time, there were identical twins wearing the same outfit. Let’s call them Doug and Jeff. I had to take a couple shots of Doug and just one of Jeff. Ended up accidentally deleting the pic of Jeff, so I just relabeled one of Doug’s pictures as Jeff.”
Eye On The Prize
Shutterstock/Olinchuk
“I asked a kid to please look at the camera, like, three times. Then I realized… He had a lazy eye. D—. My mom had a lazy eye and my daughter has a related eye problem – it’s hard to tell when looking through a camera lens those nuances of the face. I felt like crap for making him feel like crap. Oh well.”
That’s More Like It!
Shutterstock/bbevren
“A preschool kid was particularly difficult to get a good picture out of, really cute kid but just couldn’t get a good smile. After about 20 attempts, finally he just kinda relaxes, looks off into the distance behind me with this awesome natural smile. It wasn’t until he got off the stool and walked away that I noticed a stain on the back of his shorts and a terrible smell of feces. Still kept the pic, apparently nothing makes this kid smile like a good s—.”
Words Of Wisdom
Shutterstock/Sabphoto
“On a middle school registration day shoot, some kid comes up wearing a Naruto headband. I asked him to take it off and he told me he wore it for religious purposes. I knew perfectly well he was bulls—ting me, but I didn’t feel like making it a big deal, so I just told him he’d probably regret it in a couple years and snapped the pic anyway.”
Whole Grain Weirdo
“I once had a kid who thought it would be funny to have a Chewy granola bar sticking out of his shirt pocket. I told him it would be funnier if he removed the wrapper first. There is now a picture of a kid with an unwrapped granola bar in his shirt pocket in a yearbook somewhere.”
It’s An Honest Mistake
“We were doing photos at a special needs high school. Guy comes up in a windbreaker, corduroy, high water pants, velcro tennis shoes and the thickest glasses I’ve ever seen. I asked him whose class he was in so I could make sure he was in the right group and he said he wasn’t a student, he worked there.”
Could Have Happened To Anyone
Shutterstock/Johnny Adolphson
“I was photographing a 3rd grade class and I got to an adorable little boy and went through my list of instructions: ‘Now turn your head here, shoulders here, oopsie, your right arm there. Wait. Please move your right arm.’ He gave me the saddest little look and showed me the stub on his right shoulder. He had no right arm. I felt like a terrible person.”
Subtle, Yet Effective
Shutterstock/Vlue
“When I was having my graduation portrait taken, the photographer pulled me aside afterwards and, for like 30 minutes, talked about all these new Photoshop and airbrush techniques they could do now.
I played along, being polite. I didn’t really care, but he seemed super hyped about it and how cool it was.
Turns out, it was his subtle way of asking me what I’d think if he airbrushed out my pimples – I had pretty awful acne at the time. Like, holy s—, lunar lander couldn’t find a decent spot to put down in.
He eventually gave up and I left thinking to myself how weird that dude was.
I got the pictures a few weeks later. He did a good job, and completely airbrushed everything out. I showed my Dad, who took one look and said, ‘Who the f— is that?!'”
Only So Much You Can Do
“I did senior portraits and this really nerdy lookin’ kid wanted photos with his two samurai swords. I tried my best to make it look cool but…I just…couldn’t.
Another senior did couples’ photos with her boyfriend. They specifically, earnestly requested a pose where the girl posed all cute on one side of the couch, while the boy sat on the other side of the couch, staring at her while stroking his beard. That one didn’t turn out well either.”
Tell Them How You Really Feel
Shutterstock/Luis Louro
“The worst thing I encountered was multiple notes on the forms parents sent back to us saying, ‘Don’t make my child smile,’ or ‘They have a bad smile, don’t make them smile.’ How terrible is it to tell strangers you hate your child’s smile?! I understand some didn’t want big toothy grins because they were missing teeth, but that’s part of childhood. They’ll never be like that again. Why not enjoy it?”
Photoshop Can’t Work Miracles
“The photographer who did my senior photos told me the weirdest request she had gotten so far that year was a girl who very specifically wanted just one arm photoshopped to be especially thin. It ended up being a girl in my class and I noticed the second I saw her picture in the yearbook. She had one normal arm and one very, very, very skinny, twig-like arm. She didn’t seem to notice how weird it was. She was one of the more popular girls, so of course everyone looked at her picture and noticed. She had no clue. She only focused on the arm that was closer to the camera. I was torn between feeling bad and wanting to laugh hysterically. I chose both.”
It’ll Look Great On The Mantle
Shutterstock/Ronnachai Palas
“I’m not a photographer, but I probably gave the one who took my second grade school photo a weird feeling. I’d just moved from a different country and didn’t speak a lick of English. I had no idea what a soda can was, much less the hallowed tradition of Picture Day.
So, when my class was directed to shuffle down the hall in an orderly line to the gym, and I saw all those abstract-y, bluish background canvases that looked like X-ray images all over the gym… and that we were all going towards a spot directly in front of it, one at a time, in this solemn fashion –I thought we were all, one by one, having a medical procedure done to us.
And that’s why I look a little teary and very, very stoic in my second grade photo.”
Blinkers Beware
Shutterstock/JPC-PROD
“Spent 15 min with a guy because he blinked every time I took the photo. I tried everything in my book, making him close and open his eyes before snapping the picture, delaying the flash, shooting without flash, taking the picture while talking to him so he’ll be distracted. Nothing worked.
Ended up taking his picture with a cellphone, because apparently what made him close his eyes was the shutter/mirror sound.”
Hazards Of The Job
Shutterstock/katfox.art
“I asked a 4th grader if she hurt her foot. ‘Uh, I have a prosthetic leg.’ She was wearing sandals and, sure enough, rubber foot.
A kid told my assistant that they ate their pet rabbit the night before.
I asked a kid to sit down. He sat down on the floor. I told him, ‘Not on the floor, on the chair. Please point your knees at the computer.’ He got up and touched his knee to the computer. I said, ‘No, sit on the chair and turn your knees; point them at the computer.’
I asked a kid if they wanted their hoodie to be in the picture.
‘No.’ Ok, take your hoodie off.
‘No.’ Do you want your hoodie in the picture?
‘No.’ If you don’t want your hoodie to be in the picture, you have to take it off or it will be in the picture.
‘Oh, I want my hoodie in the picture.'”
Bit Of A Mix Up
Shutterstock/Felix Mizioznikov
“I tapped a kid on the shoulder from behind and asked where the teacher was. She was the teacher and I had known her for almost 20 years by that point. Another time, I asked a teacher if a severely disabled student could sit by themselves on the bench. The student couldn’t and there was a pretty hard thump on the gym floor.”
Well, That Was Rude
Shutterstock/karelnoppe
“About six months ago, I had to do a shoot for an all boys’ school. The day went normal, majority good shots, a few clowns but, ya know, that’s what I come to expect. But something happened that I will never forget.
A kid comes out, and I have no clue what’s wrong with him, he seems really nervous. I take a few shots and he seems really disengaged. On my final shot he starts scratching his arm rapidly. Then he yelled at me, ‘Delete the photos!’ At this point I don’t know what to say…I pretty much said that I’ll go and talk to my superior and walked away. My supervisor said I could, so I did.
I came back to the kid and I told him I deleted the photos. He says that he doesn’t believe me and stands up. I showed him my camera and he freaked out and threw my camera to the ground, somehow breaking it. This child then ran off…”
Way To Go, Dad!
Shutterstock/altanaka
“I used to work as a children’s photographer, not for schools but for sports teams. We mostly worked in small rural towns. During one shoot for a kid’s baseball league, this one kid was next up to have his picture taken. Right before he goes in front of the camera, he pulls a can of Skoal out of his pocket and hands it to me. He says, ‘Here hold my Dad’s chew.’ I took it from him and proceed to take his picture, then he asks for it back.
I tell him, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to give tobacco to a minor, get your Dad and I’ll give it to him.’ He gets his Dad and I tell him all about the situation. The Dad takes it and just gives it right back to his son and tell’s him to keep it in his pocket. Some people.”
Total Accident
Shutterstock/Billion Photos
“Did a shoot at a primary school for a calendar and they had the obligatory big group photo of all the classes. We did this first, as they were all outside having playtime. I needed to be in an elevated position to get everyone in so I asked would it be ok if I got onto the flat roof of the kitchen. The caretaker said it was fine, totally safe as it had only recently been re-covered and he’d been up there only a few weeks previously. I got up via a ladder and had all the settings ready on my camera as the teachers were arranging the kids into a big group. I’d noticed there were a few footballs (proper footballs, as this is the UK) up there so when I’d taken the group photo I said would they like me to pass them down, some of the kids egged me to kick them off and I gladly obliged, they thought it was great, until I kicked one of the balls a bit hard and it hit an unsuspecting teacher on the back of the head. It wouldn’t have been so bad (to be fair it was bad enough!) if she hadn’t been holding her favorite cup (it had been a present from her class the previous year!) which she dropped and smashed on the floor. I really felt bad about it, but she assured me it was ok, she had a lot more cups at home. Plus side of this was that all the photos I did of the kids later were great due to them all smiling and constantly talking about the ball-roof-cup-smash incident which I hope will go down in their history.”