School photos - is it cruel not to buy them?

splishsplash

I would buy them. That expression sounds completely priceless, why on earth would you not want to capture it for posterity?? It's what makes your son unique and captures his personality far better than a bland posed 'perfect' picture.

Jorell00

I think is crazy to spend £28 on school photos. Especially when we nearly all have digital cameras or more importantly mobiles to take better photos, pictures of our kids having fun rather than staged photos . My kids always looked awful in school photos pulling unnatural looking forced smiles. I'd much prefer photos taken myself when they are having fun with genuine smiles and not forced ones . My mum bought some school pictures of me when I was in junior school and they all awful (especially when I had lost my front teeth and I had massive gaps), Staged pictures where I always look awful with a horrible fake smile, I understand her buying them back then because we didn't have access to decent photography equipment .
But for £28 (which is not particularly cheap) ,.I'd rather put that towards a trip to the cinema or some other treat.
Just my opinion
Jorell00

barbiedoll

Don't feel that you have to buy the ghastly school photos, they're expensive at the best of times and if the photo isn't great, what's the point?

You could always take a photo of the school pic, using your phone or camera, then if he wonders why you haven't got the original, you can show him the evidence and tell him that it's so precious that you're keeping the original in the loft/shed/at granny's house, etc!

[Deleted User]

barbiedoll wrote: »

Don't feel that you have to buy the ghastly school photos, they're expensive at the best of times and if the photo isn't great, what's the point?

You could always take a photo of the school pic, using your phone or camera, then if he wonders why you haven't got the original, you can show him the evidence and tell him that it's so precious that you're keeping the original in the loft/shed/at granny's house, etc!

For the last few years our school photographer did a very poor job at securing his website.. to the point you could download ok-res non-watermarked versions if you happened to look through the website's code.

Just saying.

maman

I don't think you're cruel at all
I think you could explain to your son that he's making funny faces. Take some photos of him yourself to show how different they are.
I'd just take the school photos back. There's no compulsion to buy.

*max*

Well this is an eye-opener! I had no idea school photos were so expensive! :eek:

onlyroz

I've never bought any of the school pictures. They are invariably a total rip off.

Malthusian

sulkisu wrote: »

I feel like such a cow.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why people can get away with charging £28 for crap photos that were taken in five seconds on a production line of 6-year-olds.

If you want to be guilt-tripped into spending £28 then it's a free country. But no, it's not cruel not to be.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

In the first Harry Potter film, a point is made about how awful Harry's relatives are by the number of smug gurning pics of Dudley Dursley covering the walls of the house.

ERICS_MUM

Do the children bring the photos home 'on approval' for you to decide whether or not to buy them ? If so you could take a photo of the photo. Wouldn't be best quality but would capture the memory for the photo album for less than £28. I know it's cheating but £28 seems a lot of money, big profit margin when you think about the time saving digital equipment nowadays.