My son says that his school uniform is the same, so why would I need another photo of him in it? So without the traditional back to school photo of the child dressed for school, how would you create a page about the return to school?
He's not the same as last year, he's one year older and I'm sure it shows! Well, not school themed, but here is a page I made for my trip to Spain where I had no camera/cell phone with me.
@Angela Toucan I would insist on a new photo. It's not the uniform that you're taking a photo of . . . it's the changes in hair, face, body that you are recording, from one year to the next. But I'm kinda crazy about my photos and my children are used to it. LOL They're not thrilled, but they cooperate. I mean, the yearbook takes a photo of students every year . . . does he not do those? So maybe you can just take a photo of him, not in uniform, so you can have photographic evidence of what he looks like now, and then maybe document some of his favorite things about school (or the things he hates ha!).
Yeah... my kids know that Mom is going to require a back to school photo on the first day of school, so they just go with it. He will definitely like seeing all those pictures when he's older to see the how much he changes from year to year.
I homeschooled my two youngest and they knew we would be doing back to school photos at some point. Typically taken by the bush by the front door - barefoot or in slippers. Of course, there were a few years when I had to just pick a recent photo and pretend. But check it out --- my baby, my daughter, sent me First Day of College selfies a few weeks ago because she knew I would want them. Isn't that the best? So now I need to scrap them!
Why is back-to-school time always difficult? Sigh. Last year DD was VERY unhappy with her first-day outfit and she didn't want me to take her photo in the morning because she "looked horrible" (her words!). So... I made a page about how she didn't want her photo taken. There are photos on the page, sure, but this is NOT the "first day" photo or story I expected to scrap! My point is that your son is old enough to have some independence, but there is a give and take: you want a photo, so he should do that for you regardless of whether he thinks a photo is important. Do you think that he would accept that as a reason to pose for a photo? Would telling him he could pose however he wants entice him to let you make some photos? Then you could do a "no photo available" for his first day (like Cindy's Spain LO) but then have the photo you do get to make as a "first day make-up photo."
Bribery ... my 14 y.o. "live-in" grandson hates to have his photo taken, but he knows first day of school photos are required. He gets an XL Hershey's chocolate bar in return, I get to take a couple of quick photos of him. And no one says a "first day of school" photo has to be taken on the first day of school ... in 10 years is it going to matter that you took it the day before, the day of (but after school instead of before), or the day after, or even the weekend before/after?
i feel your pain - DD is basically the same in terms of trying to negotiate out of things Sometimes i just end up with outtakes of the two kids standing vaguely next to each other - one year i think out of about 10 photos there was a single good one for each kid but the other looked dreadful or was a weird motion blur or whatever, trying to throw the other off with weird faces - i'd type the story you just told us and make a journal full page with a generic photo of him (and this kit comes to mind ) Or try getting all your kids in the one photo, saying it's a family photo, and then just crop it so it's just a pic of him to use - that's not sneaky, is it?! all's fair in love and memorykeeping!
This is one of my favorite Back To School Pages by @Trish . Maybe he could help you come up with a fun location to shoot his picture.
Thank you so much @wvsandy I have always asked the kids to do pics before school starts. That way the school is empty and they don't have to stress about it. Tell them you just want to get a few by the lockers if they are in HS, some with their books and then some walking around the campus. I'm lucky that being a photographer that my kids are willing to do photos for me.
