Say cheese, alright
I don't know about you but for my high school yearbook photo I wore a robe that they stuck on me and held a rolled up piece of paper that was supposed to look like a diploma.
From pimples to pecs
U.S. yearbook photos get sexy: Professional shoots can cost $2,000; Children increasingly pose with less clothes, more props - and parents are willing to pay
TOBY HARNDEN
London Daily Telegraph
September 27, 2005
The high school yearbook, traditionally a monument to geekdom and a source of lifelong embarrassment for pimply teenagers, is undergoing a professional makeover - complete with airbrushing, digitally enhanced muscles and even fake sweat.
Some U.S. parents are spending as much as $2,000 U.S. on professional photo shoots to portray their children in the best possible light.
Blazers, side partings, freckles and braces are being consigned to history. In their place come rippling torsos and bikini poses, the result of modelling sessions that can last three hours.
"We can make them thinner and we can make their muscles bigger," said Rick Krebsbach, who photographs children for yearbooks in Iowa. "We do a few things without telling them, like remove a bulge or bump, or slim them down. We like them to feel good about themselves."
Pupils appear with imaginative props such as stacks of DVDs, boom boxes, a tractor and even a sword collection. "In the past two or three years, it has really gone hog wild," he said. "You name it, they bring it."
Brooke Tamisiea, 17, was delighted with her shoot, directed by Krebsbach. "Some of the positions I had to be in felt real awkward, like laying across a table. In some pictures I had a fan blowing in my hair. A few of my friends did their shoots in swimsuits and a lot of my guy friends did it without shirts."
Cindy Glover, 41, said her son Austin, 17, spent a year working out and selecting outfits in readiness for his session with Krebsbach. "In my day, I wore a wool blazer and there were two pictures - one in the blazer and one standing by a tree," she said.
"Now, times have changed. Everybody is so much more confident with themselves and their bodies. They feel much more free to express themselves." The $700 cost, she said, was "real worth it."
Although many schools still require a traditional head-and-shoulders picture and hire a contract photographer to ensure uniform images, increasingly schools are prepared to grant children greater self-expression.
A bad yearbook photograph is often seen as a catastrophe. In June, one New York mother, Michelle Maihepat, called for all 200 yearbooks at her "distraught" daughter's school to be pulped because it used what she considered to be a deeply unflattering image of a pale, unsmiling Asheana, 11. The embarrassing image, she said, would haunt her child for the rest of her life.
Larry Peters, who has photographed high school students in London, Ohio, for more than 30 years, said that more often than not, the pupils wanted to stand out. "We're constantly pushing the envelope to become more creative. We'll do just about anything that is legal as far as clothes go."
His sets include a barn, a New England porch and a Caribbean island. A typical shoot might last three hours and involve 10 changes of clothes. He sometimes uses a spray bottle of fake sweat "to make it look like they're working out." Including extra prints, the cost can top $2,000.
Peters has photographed pupils with boa constrictors, tarantulas, pigs and pet chickens. One girl posed with 125 pairs of shoes and another with stacks of romance novels.
Krebsbach said he was careful not to overstep the bounds of taste and that a parent or friend was present throughout. "This is still small-town U.S.A., so we don't want anything too tacky."
Austin's mother said that since the publication of the pictures, her son has received a lot more attention from girls. "Everyone who sees them thinks he's just awesome," she said.
It is, of course, entirely possible that in years to come he will look back and squirm in embarrassment. What seemed the height of cool to a 17-year-old may come across rather differently in middle age.
Peters, for one, said that while he enjoyed the creative challenge of the new-style photography, he had a confession to make. "I still quite like that traditional, classic image for the yearbook."
Here is a link to Austin's photo shoot .
From pimples to pecs
U.S. yearbook photos get sexy: Professional shoots can cost $2,000; Children increasingly pose with less clothes, more props - and parents are willing to pay
TOBY HARNDEN
London Daily Telegraph
September 27, 2005
The high school yearbook, traditionally a monument to geekdom and a source of lifelong embarrassment for pimply teenagers, is undergoing a professional makeover - complete with airbrushing, digitally enhanced muscles and even fake sweat.
Some U.S. parents are spending as much as $2,000 U.S. on professional photo shoots to portray their children in the best possible light.
Blazers, side partings, freckles and braces are being consigned to history. In their place come rippling torsos and bikini poses, the result of modelling sessions that can last three hours.
"We can make them thinner and we can make their muscles bigger," said Rick Krebsbach, who photographs children for yearbooks in Iowa. "We do a few things without telling them, like remove a bulge or bump, or slim them down. We like them to feel good about themselves."
Pupils appear with imaginative props such as stacks of DVDs, boom boxes, a tractor and even a sword collection. "In the past two or three years, it has really gone hog wild," he said. "You name it, they bring it."
Brooke Tamisiea, 17, was delighted with her shoot, directed by Krebsbach. "Some of the positions I had to be in felt real awkward, like laying across a table. In some pictures I had a fan blowing in my hair. A few of my friends did their shoots in swimsuits and a lot of my guy friends did it without shirts."
Cindy Glover, 41, said her son Austin, 17, spent a year working out and selecting outfits in readiness for his session with Krebsbach. "In my day, I wore a wool blazer and there were two pictures - one in the blazer and one standing by a tree," she said.
"Now, times have changed. Everybody is so much more confident with themselves and their bodies. They feel much more free to express themselves." The $700 cost, she said, was "real worth it."
Although many schools still require a traditional head-and-shoulders picture and hire a contract photographer to ensure uniform images, increasingly schools are prepared to grant children greater self-expression.
A bad yearbook photograph is often seen as a catastrophe. In June, one New York mother, Michelle Maihepat, called for all 200 yearbooks at her "distraught" daughter's school to be pulped because it used what she considered to be a deeply unflattering image of a pale, unsmiling Asheana, 11. The embarrassing image, she said, would haunt her child for the rest of her life.
Larry Peters, who has photographed high school students in London, Ohio, for more than 30 years, said that more often than not, the pupils wanted to stand out. "We're constantly pushing the envelope to become more creative. We'll do just about anything that is legal as far as clothes go."
His sets include a barn, a New England porch and a Caribbean island. A typical shoot might last three hours and involve 10 changes of clothes. He sometimes uses a spray bottle of fake sweat "to make it look like they're working out." Including extra prints, the cost can top $2,000.
Peters has photographed pupils with boa constrictors, tarantulas, pigs and pet chickens. One girl posed with 125 pairs of shoes and another with stacks of romance novels.
Krebsbach said he was careful not to overstep the bounds of taste and that a parent or friend was present throughout. "This is still small-town U.S.A., so we don't want anything too tacky."
Austin's mother said that since the publication of the pictures, her son has received a lot more attention from girls. "Everyone who sees them thinks he's just awesome," she said.
It is, of course, entirely possible that in years to come he will look back and squirm in embarrassment. What seemed the height of cool to a 17-year-old may come across rather differently in middle age.
Peters, for one, said that while he enjoyed the creative challenge of the new-style photography, he had a confession to make. "I still quite like that traditional, classic image for the yearbook."
Here is a link to Austin's photo shoot .
