Treasures

It's that time of year again.  That time when the high temperature today is 83 and tomorrow it's 68.  That time when leaves start turning, everyone is talking football, apple cider and there is a crispness to the air.
It's also that time when kids are back in school and back in picture mode.  There are senior pictures, school pictures and the endless stream of pictures on Facebook from Friday's football game.  These are all precious memories that will be forever kept close to the heart.
Now is the time to really send the message that school portraits, because of their professional quality, are treasures.  Treasures for parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
As the holidays approach, 'family' shifts into the spotlight.  Coming together.  And what would bring family closer than the memories of their children growing up?  Seeing how they have grown and changed over the years.  You want those memories to last long after your children have grown up and had children of their own; in a parent's eyes, a child never really grows up.
Give them something to hold on to.  Give them something to remember.  Give them something to look forward too.

SCHOOL PICTURE DAY

By Christi Blevins Pelt

Art by Gary LaCoste

Today is the day! This is my year!

I’ll take a great photo. I’ve nothing to fear.

I jump in the shower and scrub off the dirt,

Then dig through my closet for just the right shirt.

I slick down my cowlick with hairbrush and gel.

This picture is going to turn out so well!

In line for the camera, I practice my smile.

I know that the trouble will all be worthwhile.

But when I sit down and it’s time to say, “Cheeeeeese!”

At that exact moment, I let out a sneeze!

Can you find the toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, mirror, gel, and hairbrush hidden in the picture?

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Lindsay's Intro

Hello All!

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself; as the newest member of the sales and marketing team we figured a proper introduction was necessary so I can really start working with all of you!

Growing up on a little farm in North Central Ohio taught me many lessons including the value of hard work and dedication.  A lot of patience too.  I remember being a young child and the year I planted my first row of carrots - they were all mine and I was very excited about it - only to learn that there is a lot of work and time in between planting a seed, watching it grow, and then finally taking in the harvest.

When it was time for me to start thinking about college, I couldn't wait to get away.  I started with schools that were the farthest away, as in the University of Hawaii far away, and had to work my way back closer to home because my mom would not hear of me being that far from home.  I only got one state away, finally settling on Eastern Kentucky University for their Forensic Science program.  Proudly, I was a double major in Forensic Chemistry and Forensic Biology with dreams of working in a forensic lab (hey, I'm at a photography lab ... that's close) in some big city.  So why am I here?  Just stick with me; patience, remember?

Two years into my blossoming education I changed my major to English.  My dad didn't speak to me for two months, claimed I was taking the 'easy way out;' which is easy to say for a guy who never even went to college in the first place.  I always had a knack for writing and loved doing it but never thought to make a career out of it.  I knew that I didn't want to be a teacher and creative writing is really hit or miss (if only I would have thought of 'Twilight'!).  But my advisor at the time suggested another course and that was Technical Writing.  She told me that through this major I could combine my creativity and writing passion with the science and technical side.  So, years later, I finally graduated with my Bachelors of Art in English with an Emphasis in Technical Writing.

Long story short, I moved back home in the spring of 2011 and worked for the Ohio Department of Transportation but only temporarily.  Since I knew that job would end in the fall I was looking locally for a new job to replace that one.  I went to the local temp office and put in my resume and within a couple days they called me and said 'We have the perfect job for you!'  That job would be at Marco Photo.  I had never heard of them, even growing up in the area, but went in for the interview anyway.  And you can see how the interview went.

I am very happy to be with Marco and to have the chance to get to know, and to work with, each and every one of you and I look forward to many years to come!

Industry News Fron The Indy Star

Herff Jones sells photography division to Lifetouch
6:23 PM, Apr. 11, 2011 | 2Comments
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Lawrence Central


Indianapolis-based maker of class rings, yearbooks and graduation gear Herff Jones announced today it has agreed to sell its photography division to the photography service Lifetouch for an undisclosed amount.

Of the estimated 1,000 employees in the division, most will be offered jobs with Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Lifetouch, said Christine L. Bachmann, a Herff Jones vice president in human resources.

In all of its divisions, Herff Jones employs more than 3,000 people, including about 500 in Indianapolis, Bachmann said.

The Herff Jones photography facilities in Lewiston, Minn., and Charlotte, N.C., also are part of the sale agreement. Terms were not disclosed. The closing date is planned for May.

"This decision is driven by a strategic commitment to focus on other business interests," said Joe Slaughter, Herff Jones president, in a news release.

Slaughter said Herff Jones and Lifetouch are each employee-owned companies with similar core values.

Bloomington, Minn.-based Jostens, a Herff Jones competitor, sold its photography division to Lifetouch in 2006.

Lifetouch bills itself as the world's largest photography company, providing portrait studio services at many JCPenney and Target stores, and photography for church directories and school yearbooks.

Locally, the company may be better known through its subsidiary Prestige Portraits, said Edward Poe, a veteran yearbook adviser at Lawrence Central High School.

Article from the New York Times

Interesting article from the NYT.

Posting below as text

No Boo-boos or Cowlicks? Only in School Pictures
By SARAH MASLIN NIR
Published: November 19, 2010

Oliver Tracy showed up for his first-grade portrait with a crisp white shirt tucked into navy slacks, a striped tie slightly too long for his tiny frame, and not a lock of his sun-streaked blond hair out of place.

But just above Oliver’s right cheek was a scab; he had tumbled while playing tag. His father, Jahn Tracy, had e-mailed the school, the Bay Ridge Preparatory School in Brooklyn, to see if Oliver could take the photo on another day, after the cut healed.

Mr. Tracy need not have worried. When the big envelope of photos arrived, Oliver’s blemish was nowhere in sight.

The practice of altering photos, long a standard in the world of glossy magazines and fashion shoots, has trickled down to the wholesome domain of the school portrait. Parents who once had only to choose how many wallet-size and 5-by-7 copies they wanted are now being offered options like erasing scars, moles, acne and braces, whitening teeth or turning a bad hair day into a good one.

School photography companies around the country have begun to offer the service on a widespread basis over the past half-dozen years, in response to parents’ requests and to developments in technology that made fixing the haircut a 5-year-old gave herself, or popping a tooth into a jack-o’-lantern smile, easy and inexpensive. And every year, the companies say, the number of requests grows.

Joseph Sell, the New York area manager for Lifetouch, which says it takes about 30 million student photos a year, estimates that 10 percent of the company’s photos of elementary school pupils are now altered or, in the industry parlance, retouched.

Another company, Highpoint Pictures, estimated the proportion at 2 to 5 percent.
The numbers go up after the seventh grade, Mr. Sell said. By senior year, sometimes half of a class requests retouching, he said. “The media and magazines have exposed our marketplace to people that are well groomed and well cared for,” Mr. Sell said.

Lifetouch offers several levels of retouching, which can include a $6 “basic” treatment for small changes like removing the glare from eyeglasses; a $10-to-$20 “premier,” in which the teeth will be whitened or a cowlick tamed; and intricate, and more expensive, custom changes, like adding a tie or making short sleeves long.

What else can be tweaked? “There’s really not much limit,” Mr. Sell said.

Mindy Cimmino of Wrentham, Mass., who owns an event-planning company, said she was initially aghast when she noticed a small check box on her children’s photo order forms asking whether she wanted retouching.

Then, two years ago, her daughter Delaina scratched her face the day before her third-grade portrait. Delaina was despondent about going to school that day. So Ms. Cimmino checked the box.

“My rationale was, this is not something that is part of her face,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was changing my child.”

(The father of Oliver, the Brooklyn first grader, gave a similar explanation for choosing retouching. “It’s not like I’m making him thinner,” Mr. Tracy said.)

But Ms. Cimmino said she was stunned to learn that a parent of a classmate of Delaina’s had asked for the congenital strawberry mark on the child’s face to be wiped away.
“That’s your kid,” Ms. Cimmino said in an interview. “You really need to think about the message it gives your kids about accepting themselves.”

Glossing over lasting disfigurements might not be a bad thing, said Dr. Bradley S. Peterson, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

“There are kids who have some substantial socially stigmatizing features that they want to tone down,” Dr. Peterson said. Doing so in a photograph can build confidence, he said.
But parents who choose to edit also run the risk of “potentially validating the concerns that it is not O.K. to be that way,” Dr. Peterson said.

“In some ways,” he said, “even though they’re trying to help the child’s confidence, it could inadvertently undermine it.”

Some companies have quietly offered retouching for many years.

At the time of its founding in 1946, Irvin Simon Photographers, which took Oliver’s photograph, employed artisans who could paint out pimples on negatives with special inks, or even out skin tone with a faint film of paint sprayed onto prints themselves. In those days, the services were available by special request, and the process was painstaking and expensive, said Steve Miller, a co-president.

Six years ago, like many of its competitors, Irvin Simon Photographers upgraded to digital technology. Now, for about $7, it routinely cleans up pimples, rubs out grass stains or neatens hair, among other touch-ups.

Sometimes the work is more substantial. Marty Hyman, who has been photographing schoolchildren in the New York area for more than 30 years, said that if “if a kid doesn’t look good in the class picture, we will, when necessary, take his head — if it looks better in another picture — and swap it in.”

At the Spence School in Manhattan, Jake Ahern, a science teacher who schedules class photos, said that three years ago the school began offering elementary school students who missed picture day the option of being digitally inserted into the class photo.

Some photo company executives admit to reservations about some of the services they have provided. Last year, Highpoint shortened a girl’s hair at a parent’s behest. The company’s owner, Jason Brand, said he felt that such requests went much further than minor editing.
“I think you want to look back on the way you were, and not the way you wanted to be,” Mr. Brand said. “It’s not an honest thing to reflect back on.”

Mr. Miller said that Irvin Simon would do whatever parents wanted, but he added, “We like to think that all the kids are cute already.”

Dr. Peterson said parents should keep in mind that “what supports healthy growth of the child and capacity to love themselves is parental idealization, that this child is perfect, and the apple of one’s eye.”

So if a parent has a school photo tinkered with, Dr. Peterson said, “it can inadvertently send a message that ‘I perceive you as less than perfect and not ideal.’ ”

When it was his turn for a portrait in the gym at Bay Ridge Prep, Michael Terzuoli, a second grader, straightened his clip-on tie and brushed blond bangs out of his eyes, revealing a nickel-size birthmark on his forehead. He smiled for the picture, then ran off to play.

His mother, Tatiana, said she would let Michael decide if he wanted the mark edited out.
Asked what he would do if he saw his picture without his distinctive birthmark, Michael said, “I’d rip it up.”

Thoughtful Piece on the Value of School Pictures

We're exploring a question this year. The question is, "What is the value of the school picture? And how well do we, as photographers & providers, listen to what our customers tell us about our product."

Below is a really thoughtful piece from a Mom in Maryland, Kym Byrnes, who epitomizes our customers. She's comfortable with digital, values the immediacy of the digital pictures she takes, and yet, sees the past the easy assertions -- School pictures are too expensive! -- to a more evenhanded opinion.

In the excerpts below, she addresses key themes such as:

Value and customer service...
"A friend of mine suggested that school pictures are a racket. She has three children in elementary school and was frustrated that the school photographers don't give a multiple child discount. She laughed that she doesn't even really want the school pictures, but feels obliged to take them."

The importance of choice, and control over purchasing decisions
"Pictures do come in handy to give grandparents and put in gifts... But those picture packages from school are not cheap, and in some cases I've been forced to make a decision without even seeing them! How do I know if I want one 8-by-10 or 36 wallet size photos if I don't even know if I will like the photo? "

The relevance of printed pictures to today's mom
"My sister has given me my nephew's school and sports photos over the years and, to be honest, I never really know what to do with them."

The effect of peer pressure and obligation
"Maybe, like my friend, I feel obligation to purchase class and sports photos because I don't want my kids to feel left out when their friends turn in their orders and get those envelopes to bring home. "

The appeal of non-photographic items
"I've never been interested in trinket items -- keychains and mugs and trading cards and other things that, to me, resemble promotional items businesses hand out at marketing events."

In am age where customers can just blast a company and bad-mouth a product through a quick Facebook post, Ms. Byrnes instead gives our industry a thoughtful critique. One we need to listen to and learn from.

School Picture Value Being Recognized

Not a lot of verbiage to go on with this blog post, but the header says it all. When was the last time you heard someone talk about school pictures as being "cool"? How can we learn from this person's observation? A professional portrait, with professional quality posing and lighting, on cd-rom for mom to do with as she pleases. I guess that is cool. Now, we just need to communicate this to our customer.

Here's the link.

A Mom Sees the Value of School Pics

Just in time!

Here's an example of a mom who recognized the value of the school pictures she received. She saw, and wrote about, how her kids were taken care of, assisted with grooming, and "look better in their photos than they did when they left the house."

Here's the link to her blog.

Now let's think about this... are we helping all of our customers look better than they did when they left the house?

Another Mom Clicks the Shutter on Her Own School Pictures

Here's another example of a mom who has decided that school pictures are not worth the money.

http://thecheeryos.blogspot.com/2010/09/homemade-school-pictures.html

How Do We Communicate the Value of School Pictures?

If you read this blog regularly, you know one of our areas of focus is how consumers view the value of school pictures. We constantly troll the internet for instances where school pictures or youth sports pictures are mentioned to see what is being said. A couple of things stand out over and over again.

1.) We (as photography companies) fail to communicate the value our service provides. We don't effectively help our customers understand the value of the school picture. The convenience of having a professional portrait made on-location during the school day, the time savings of not having to schedule an appointment at Wal-Mart or wherever to have a picture made, the contributions we make back to their school, the class pictures we provide as part of a package, the support we give to yearbook staffs, the online child safety programs, and on and on.

2.) As a result of the first point, Mom - our customer - does not see any reason to pay $40.00 for something she can get for less that half at Target. This is echoed over and over again in the blog and Facebook posts of moms who have either stopped purchasing school pictures altogether or feel outraged over the price : quality ratio we are providing.

These are not photography or technology problems. They're worse. They're customer perception problems. Our question to you is this:

What ways does your studio communicate the value of your pictures?

Five Part Series in Columbus Dispatch

This series of articles about youth sports in the Columbus Dispatch ought to be required reading for all youth sports photographers. The series examines the toll that youth sports can take on student athletes. Does it have anything to do with photography -- no, not directly anyway. But the sixth part, where the OHSAA offers to provide regulatory oversight of youth leagues, could indirectly affect the fundraising component of what we do for a living. Check it out before it comes off the web.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/special_reports/stories/2010/youth_sports/index.html

Matt Keenan commentary: Narcissistic kids don’t need a photo shoot - KansasCity.com

One man's take on the trend toward studio-setting senior portraits. Curmedgeon? Yes. All wrong? You decide.

Matt Keenan commentary: Narcissistic kids don’t need a photo shoot - KansasCity.com

Photography Students Produce Work Commenting on the Controversy Surrounding the Photography of Children

Picked this up off Google today from the British Journal of Photography. Fascinating and witty commentary on how the attitudes toward adults photographing kids has changed over the years. Kudos to photography students, Anna Brooks and Samantha Harvey for seeing things in a way no one else has, and creating such eloquent and striking images.

Check out the article.

School Pictures Can Be Funny

I can't think of what's better, the fact that these folks kept their school pictures or that Ellen had them featured on her show. Check it out for a few good laughs.

Ellen Degeneres Twitter

Are Youth Sports Pictures a Waste of Time?

Here's another example of how all professional school and sports photographers run the risk of irrelevance every single day. When I read this article, I couldn't stop thinking of how this Mom is the very archetype of a great customer. Ms. Lefferts recognizes the value in professional school pictures as milestones in her kid's development, she purchases regularly, and she participates in a lot of youth-oriented activities. But, importantly, she is very aware of the disconnect between, "another set of stilted portraits sitting in our drawers when we have better shots of sliding into third, or faces dripping with chocolate ice cream after the game? Those are the ones that capture the moment and make you smile."

And what's really interesting here is this: Ms. Lefferts has come up with a solution to her problem. She figures the parents can just do it themselves. And frankly, especially if what she is receiving is as mediocre as she says, she probably can.

And that's our challenge. What are we doing that Ms. Leffert's cannot? How hard are we working to capture the essence -- or at least a glimpse -- of each child we photograph? How effectively are we expressing the value of the service we provide to both her family and the league?

I've copied the entire text of Ms. Leffert's article below.
From the Maplewood Patch, Maplewood, New Jersey.
By Brooke Lefferts.

I spent 30 chaotic minutes this week in the South Orange Middle School gym as my six-year-old had pictures taken for his baseball team. If you have ever been to a children's sports photography shoot, you know that they are as organized as a two-year-old's finger paint canvas. No one knows where to go—this one lost his hat—that one has only one sock—and only a third of the parents there have filled out their forms.
So, as I stood in line with the other frustrated adults, dripping with whiny, hungry children (it's usually called right in the middle of dinner time), I wondered why I bothered at all. I take pretty good pictures myself. I attend practically every game and take action shots of my kids swinging a bat, making a catch, or getting dirty in the dugout. My prints are a hundred times more captivating than a staged headshot with a fake background.
And how hard is it to gather the team together following a game to get a group shot? (OK, maybe it is a bit like wrangling sheep but you get the picture!)
Yet every year, I fork over at least $17 for four mediocre pictures of my kid in uniform. I have three kids who all play soccer, and two who play baseball, so that's five sets of unnecessary phony flashes at a minimum of $85—in just this year alone.
Why do we do it? It certainly isn't to have a professional shot of my kids to remember what they looked like at every adorable and awkward stage of development. That's what school pictures are for. Those cheesy mugs are a rite of passage. You want to be able to look back at yourself and remember who was in your class each year, and, of course, what trendy outfit you wore.
I still have my baby book filled with wallet-sized shots of me all dressed up, sporting a gap-toothed grin or poofy hairdo. (Oh, if you could only see the one from second grade with my large, pointy-collared plaid dress. Or later in a whale turtleneck and headband. Classic.)
In the past, we have purchased the sports packages so we could send the prints and trading cards to our out-of-town relatives. But when it's so much easier and more efficient to email pictures and/or share them on a photo site, snail mail seems like a colossal misuse of time.
So if taking the sports pix are not for nostalgic or family reasons, aren't they just another example of needless waste?
Do we really need another set of stilted portraits sitting in our drawers when we have better shots of sliding into third, or faces dripping with chocolate ice cream after the game? Those are the ones that capture the moment and make you smile.
We are down to the minimum—Package E—these days and we've learned to avoid the trading cards, mouse pads, and bobble heads. I would skip it altogether but my husband, who usually coaches, needs to be there to pose, so we often wind up getting sucked into a package through a combination of peer pressure and guilt.
We happily ordered the most decadent packages for our oldest son, won over by the newness and the sight of him in that adorable outfit and his miniature cleats. But now the excitement has worn off and the idea seems like a silly extravagance.
Maybe every team can start a sharing website at the beginning of the season. I would volunteer to take a team picture and email it to all the parents on the team. If every team could find one volunteer to do the same, we could use all that extra money towards something more valuable to the sport like fixing the fields, improving equipment, or contributing to a fund that covers the seasonal costs for those in the community who can't afford it.
Call me negative, but I think there are better ways to spend our money and time. So, we are going to shake things up like a Polaroid picture and just say no to sportography—next year.

Facebook Usage Tracked and Quantified

This is interesting. I found this research on www.istrategylabs.com while doing a search on Facebook user statistics. They have been tracking the usage and growth of Facebook since 2007 using Facebook's own data. Where it applies to school photography is the growth rates among our core audience -- the 25-34 & 35-54 age groups. In 2010, these groups grew 127% and 328%, respectively and now represent over 50% of Facebook's total user base.

Check it out.

2007 - Ages 25-54 represent 17% of 20 million users.
2008 - Ages 25-54 represent 28% of 26 million users.
2009 - Ages 25-54 represent 42% of 42 million users.
2010 - Ages 25-54 represent 55% of 103 million users.

I don't know if anyone in our industry has exactly figured out how to create value for school picture consumers through Facebook or if it can even be done. But I'll bet the one who gets it right will win big.

What do you think? What strategies are you trying in your business?

JA

Fast Ways to Target the Right Schools

When you're selling school pictures, it's easy to know what schools to target in your hometown. You already know which schools are good educationally, have great athletic programs, active PTO's, high state test scores, and so on.

That isn't so easy when taking your show on the road and selling in an area where you are not as familiar. Trying to filter the hundreds (or thousands) of schools down to the ones that make the most sense for your business can be a very daunting and expensive prospect.

Fortunately, there are some free web tools that can make the job a lot easier. These web sites all contain useful demographic data that will help school photographers find the right schools for their business.

Public School Review
Private School Review
Great Schools
National Center for Education Statistics

Happy hunting!

More Moms Lash Out at Speculation School Photography

In case you were wondering, speculation school photography programs are not always viewed positively by parents. And those who are annoyed aren't afraid to make their opinions known. If you photograph using specualtion programs, you should read this article and the comments it sparked. If you don't, there's plenty of ammo here for you to use against your competition.

Can't We Be Better Than This?

Caught this article on a Google Alert. It mentions school pictures in the context of the author's family and how photography was (or wasn't) part of their life. Another instance where we're shown how much room for improvement we have as an industry. Making it better doesn't require a PMA-commissioned task force, either. We just have to hire nice people, train them well, give them some time to take a good picture, and then deliver a solid value to our customers. Are we doing that?

Link to article, excerpted below.
Courtesy of the Columbia Daily Tribune, by Doug Pugh.

The only exceptions were the school pictures I was required to sit for each year from kindergarten through ninth grade. One day each year, we were all forced to stand in line and then sit in front of a pale brown screen as an old man blurted out annoying jokes before blinding us with a violent flash of light. Our parents were then encouraged to purchase, at varying prices, assorted packages of the resulting photograph, which were handed out to the class amid great clamor and eagerness several weeks later. While all of the other kids ripped into gigantic envelopes filled with hundreds of pictures of every shape and size imaginable, I was always left holding a miserable strip of paper containing three tiny photos roughly the size of sugar packets.

In hindsight, this was one of the few instances of my mother’s vehement frugality being entirely well-founded. For my birthday last year, she presented me with a framed collage of every single one of my old school pictures, which had somehow miraculously survived her voracious desire to throw things away over the years. When I was in elementary school, I was required to dress myself and comb my own hair every morning. Also, it appears I was not allowed to eat or sleep for months on end. The result was that none of my school pictures is identifiable in any way from any of the others, but instead a sad series of identical poses: my head tilted nearly sideways, a glum frown traversing my gaunt face, one eye open and one eye shut, tufts of hair and cowlicks shooting out in every direction.