For years I’ve received portraits of my scholars taken by Stomping Ground Photo Inc. Between having little kids or sometimes simply not having an opportunity, I’ve never volunteered to help them with picture day. This year, one of my kid’s schools did make a post to ask for volunteers. I was excited to see how they pull this off so I signed up.
During the school year we had remote school, there were no pictures. The next year, the elementary school asked me to take group pictures. The year after that, they asked me to take individual pictures of each scholar plus group pictures. The middle school asked me to take group pictures while Stomping Ground took individual pictures. Then they asked me to take individual pictures of the two grades Stomping Ground wasn’t contracted to photograph. So, I’ve taken a lot of school pictures.
High volume photography isn’t something I really want to make my business. The idea of seeing how they produce so many shots so quickly with multiple photographers producing a uniform look totally interested me. Before any kids showed up, we talked about a bunch of things that needed to be taken into consideration, like all the things that are hard to retouch. Volunteers needed to pull back ties to cover the top button. Whereas I had my volunteers clip the tie in place, Stomping Ground cautioned that would mean removing the clip in post. It was fun to see the way they would tell kids to smooth out their shirts or tip their chins down when I remember being a 7th grader who no idea what the photographer was trying to tell me to do.
My job was to take pictures of each student in the team’s app so their faces could match up with the portraits later. No one needed a QR code like I’d heard other companies do or holding up a sign with their name and ID number on like I did. I thought it was genius. The kids were a little confused that those pictures would never be seen again, but we had fun.
Meeting so many parents I haven’t talked to before and working together to prep all the kids and push for them to give expressions parents want to order in pictures was such a good time I reach out to my other middle schooler’s main office. (I have two middle school students who go to different locations.) I’m looking forward to picture day in March.
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