School Picture Article Sparks Debate in Atlanta Journal - Constitution

If you are a professional school photographer and use a picture program that presents schools and parents with a package of pre-printed pictures that must either be purchased or returned, you need to read the article below and the comments following very carefully. In fifteen years in this business, I have heard all manner of opinions on speculation photography and why it either works or does not work; but never the opinions of the actual consumer. And never, ever, have I heard so much honest, unvarnished, and brutal criticism of the practices of the school photo industry by our customers.

The comments are unbelievably valuable. In less than 24 hours the article generated 151 of them. Clearly, the author has touched a nerve. There seem to be three themes that emerge:

1.) Speculation photography is widely disliked by consumers. Commenters pointed out that they feel pressure, that they do not like the waste, and that it feels like an old and outdated way to do business.

2.) The consumer has little or no knowledge that retail prices are driven by the amount of commission given back to schools, or that there is even a fundraising component to school photography at all.

3.) Many consumers have little or no issue with making copies of the prints they are presented with on home scanners and then using them as they see fit.

Sometimes we, as an industry, need a wake up call. For speculation programs, maybe this is it.

The article is excerpted below, and linked to in its entirety below.

In the article below from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the author, Theresa Walsh Giarrusso asks some pointed questions within the context of her own experience as a mother with school pictures.


Dare to Send Back your Child's School Photo?
6:36 am March 30, 2010, by Theresa Walsh Giarrusso

The photography companies that take the school pictures have come up with the greatest marketing ploy ever to make you buy those photos. They send home the entire package, including plastic-coated key-ring photos, without you even ordering them.

No mother worth her salt is going to tell her child that he or she must return their own photo to school!

Or would she?

I told Walsh this morning that his spring photo wasn’t fantastic. I told him his hair needed to be cut and it was all in his eyes.

I didn’t say this to him, but he also has in the photo one big-boy front tooth next to a baby front tooth that looks a little crazy. His smile was forced and fake. Plus he was wearing a Halloween shirt in February.

I recognize that all of this is my own fault, except for the tooth and smile parts, because I didn’t pay attention to the spring photo date, but that doesn’t mean I have to pay $42 for five pages of bad photos. (I have plenty of beautiful photos of my son that we take at home.)

He put on fake tears at the breakfast table and told me I hurt his feelings.

I bought one page of the photos for $12 and sent the rest back.

If you don’t send them back in time you owe the full price for all five sheets of photos even though you didn’t ask for them.