Em Gets Schooled: Lessons from Picture Day

Last year, I dipped toes into School Picture Day by photographing a lovely academic co-op of 35 students.

This year, I cannonball-splashed into Picture Day for my kids’ school of 500+ students.

Here are my personal lessons from the experience:

There’s truth in the saying, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day.” While I gave hours of care to these photo galleries, I often realized I was wearing a smile in an otherwise empty room. I’m so blessed to do work that enriches my heart. And I’m blessed to be among such a gorgeous community!
Find a mentor. Since I’m new to volume photography and wanted to give my best, I worked with a mentor. Her insights and work flow solutions were invaluable to me!
Embrace your own style. As a companion thought to “find a mentor,” I trusted myself to deviate from my mentor’s practice in order to stay true to my established style preferences. For me, this includes my choice of lens (85mm prime lens, I rarely shoot portraits without it!), and a background of (mostly) sunny foliage.
Take time to connect. Portraits cannot be impersonal; they are always personal, tinted either with warm memories of support and care, or a chill of confusion and doubt. I aim to be supportive. Sometimes, this means setting my camera down and speaking with a student as an honored individual, not merely a portrait subject. Sometimes, it means indulging their wish to be goofy and unique. Always, it means coaching poses clearly, while also respecting their natural inclinations. Always, it means speaking with kindness.
With volume portraits, time flies! I had initially figured I had 60 seconds with each student, not including transition moments in between. I still have no idea where that time went! Along these lines, Pre-K students rightly need double, if not triple, the time of teenagers to relax and connect.
Humidity is a beast. Yes, I love outdoors portraits. Yes, pre-rain steam tried to take this Houstonian down. As I do with non-volume portrait subjects, I plan to implement rain days to allot for weather conditions.
Find the best assistant in the world, align the vision, and keep her forever. Mrs. M, you are irreplaceable! I love the way you gently guided young students (“Here’s exactly what you can expect….”) and engaged older ones (“Great question! That’s a photography tool to do X,Y,Z.” Parents of middle schoolers, she had y’all’s students passing the time by doing photo-related mental math!)
Privacy, please. This tip is led by empathy, because I feel self-conscience when I’m vulnerable, and portrait work is undeniably vulnerable. When I give students a bit of privacy, they feel respected, and also more carefree to smile and play.

This School Picture set brought me much joy. I’ve been assembling the resulting prints for distribution the first week back of school, and will be so glad to get them to their proper homes! Parents, I hope you enjoy them, and along with them, the reminders of your little ones at this beautiful, sacred, fast-moving phase of life.