I remember WAY back when I was still in high school and picture day came around. For some it was an event – girls get the hair and make-up done as well as the nails and the newest outfits, guys plow through their heads with large amounts of hair spray and practice their non-smile… (blah) but for someone like me it was torture. I’ve never been at the height of fashion, the epitome of cool or even someone who would be recognized for… something. Instead I was always the kid who showed up on picture day in the same shirt as last year wearing way too much hair gel and cologne (?). It sucked. We lined up, sat there, got blinded by a ridiculous flash and moved along. Even though everything up until this point was pretty much terrible, the worst part was that every student had to have the same background. Usually it was something like a dark blue wash or a solid color that made everyone look like they were posing for the fill-in picture IKEA uses for selling frames, and on the final picture day they threw in a wild-card and had you sit in front of a fictitious library (that was sarcasm…)

So back to the title of this post and why my rant about school photos is relevant. Wouldn’t it be cool if school pictures were themed? Like the entire student body decided on a few backgrounds to be used and then got to pose the way they want. Imagine being able to take a school photo in like Santa’s workshop or a Mad Scientist’s Lab. It would change the landscape of school photos forever. I think it would also show more than how people change physically as they grow up because the backgrounds and themes would reflect who they are as people. In a way, why can’t school photos be more like wallpapers and themes for computers and devices? They change, people change and we want to show that.

Anyways, this rant was inspired by seeing the latest press photos from the Twilight Series. They are photoshopped to death (sorry, had to…) but if your school had a Vampire theme on picture day, everyone would be a little bit more enthusiastic about the already horrible experience.

HAGS