School Picture Day

It's really hard to get my mind around the fact that school picture day, at least at Belmont Nursery School, is absolutely no different than it was when I was young. Ashton came home with a paper order form a few weeks ago and I was supposed to circle the package I wanted and return the form with a check. (They also still send home those Scholastic Book Club brochures, the ones printed on that newspapery-like stuff with muted colors and blurred ink. Classic!)

So portrait packages were anywhere from $25 - $35 and a variety of sizes: 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 and wallets. WALLETS! The only people interested in those would have to be grandparents. At any time, I can open my iPhone and look at 963 different pictures of Ashton, edit them if I want, apply cool tones, post them online and/or print them myself. Can you imagine if every one of those photos was a little piece of paper I physically carried around? I mean, there's simply no room! My wallet is far too full of receipts ;)

Where was I. Oh, besides the wallets, I was not to receive any electronic file. No jpgs of any kind! No online proofing. No option of picking a background, choosing my favorite photo out of several, or retouching. Not that 3 year olds need to be airbrushed but frankly, it doesn't hurt. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't "fixed" drool, boogers, food and scratches in several pictures posted on this very blog.

Luckily, none of this mattered and Ashton came home today with his packet of perfect prints :) I took out my iPhone, snapped a picture of his picture, and hereby present you with Ashton Nill, age 3, in a nice cardigan/button down combo.

While this may be his first official school portrait, it is not his first official smirk. Studying his face, I thought to myself I've seen that look somewhere...

Anyone? No?

All in all, I consider this first-school-picture-business a success. I of course had ordered the platinum package so it's a good thing it came out well. I have his class picture, an 8x10, a couple 5x7's, 4x6's and 48 wallets or some ridiculous number. Let me know if you want one.