Back to School

Well Labor Day has come and gone, all the summer clothes are now stored until next Memorial Day and life is starting to feel a little more normal.  I love summer, I really do, but come each Labor Day I am usually exhausted.  Our summer has been filled with lots of fun trips, great times shared with friends and family, and more cook-outs and tomato pie than I care to count. I have never been so excited to attend a back to school night in my life. I guess I would feel differently about saying goodbye to my kids during the active mid day hours if I felt they were actually dreading going to school (the way I did), but when the first carpool door flew open and my kids burst out of my car without even saying a word, it actually made me feel happy.  On this special day  I exchanged the "I love you daddy" my daughter normally leaves me with  for the  kids' laughter as they departed my car running after friends.  Hearing their laughter made me feel even better  because I knew that they were happy with the school we had chosen. At Mastercolor "Back to School" also has another special meaning: "Back to printing lots of pictures".  Don't get me wrong, we love printing your vacation proofs, a canvas gallery wrap from your favorite scenic spot, and seeing all the wonderful places our customers have traveled when we print their photo books using our ROES software, but nothing makes me happier than strolling through the plant and seeing "units" pour out of the machines.  A "Unit" is how we categorize any design that a school photographer can fit on an 8"x10" sheet.  It can be a 8"x10", two 5"x7"s, a sheet of  8 wallets, two 4"x5" & a 5"x7", or any combination they want to create. Class pictures are very important to us, and they should be equally important to the families that are considering buying the images of their children.  In this age of digital photography we always hear they same claim,  " Why should I buy these pictures when I can produce one myself?". The answer is simple: YOU WON'T.  More than likely you will never get around to taking the picture.  You will never capture the image of your child the same way a professional will  (more than likely your child will not behave like they will for a professional).  If you beat the odds and actually take a quality image, more than likely you will never produce the photograph you set out to do (industry studies show 90%+ of images intended to be printed are still sitting on hard drives across the world). Bert VanderVeen and his wife Becky  of VanderVeen Photographers are very good friends of mine, and they do a wonderful job capturing the faces and personalities of all the children at my kids' school. More than anyone I know what extra there is in paying them for their images, and let me tell you it is worth it. The images I have bought through the school are the ones I have on the mantle at home (in front of the images I took myself). I still have the school pictures my parents bought of me, and likely your elementary pictures have been brought out a time or two in your adult life.  There is just something special about your school photos that will always take you back to the memories you had in a certain grade. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to the professional images of your children.  Your kids will only be this age once, and you will not get a second chance.