disappointing school photos

[sehsuan]

my school had a shocker. the school photographs, taken on medium format by y**** broad*** sucks. pupils looking in ALL imagineable directions, names all jumbled up, WB that's OFF...

i'm not the one who hired them, but i actually expected it. the terms they had was, FREE shooting, and they get money only if there are orders.

that morning when i saw them, i was expecting something bad to happen - imagine one old man photographer (not to say old men aren't good, i'll become one myself one day), with THREE other old men friends, using only ONE MF body to shoot, ONLY ONE handheld flashgun to add light. can you imagine one old man hunching over to focus on the mamiya, while one of his old friend (pun intended) *tiptoeing* and holding the flashgun ABOVE the photog's head to shoot?

sigh. we talk about lack of quality, this one is atrocious. shoot for free, akin to prostitution, waste the WHOLE SCHOOL'S time taking the photos, and to top it off, they went FAR behind schedule...

:thumbsd:

 

[hazmee]

Did the person who organised that photoshoot actually looked at their portfolio?

 

[catchlights]

Do you know how competitive is school photography? Is far far worst than wedding day photography.

Why in the first place the person in charge in your school want to hire them? Cheap lor, what else?

But some schools still want to save money, so even ask teachers or students (JC) to do it. So how can you expect good quality photography?

 

[snowspeeder]

The school should have been more discerning when hiring people to shoot.
Good Price (or Free) + Experience + Good Equipment = Can sometimes equate to lousy photos too.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

pay peanuts get monkeys
pay coconuts get cukoos...

 

[catchlights]

Did the person who organised that photoshoot actually looked at their portfolio?

When you talk about school photography, is a few thousand students, so the total bill can be 10 or 20over K, so 20 cents or 50 cents also make lots of different, sometime, the schools just want get more benefits from the photographers, as for portfolio, what portfolio to see? Just need to show a few samples prints from well-known schools can liao.

Btw, normal photographers are very hard to go into this field, you have to wait until someone screwed up last year, and for what I know is some teams is actually running a labs, so can offer very low price for the package.

 

[sehsuan]

whether my colleague who hired the old man had seen a portfolio of any form, i don't know, but i personally highly doubt it.

but the sheer inefficiency of the old men... i think my other colleagues who dont practice photography can tell without me opening my mouth. just asked one colleague, who said the old man photog was inpatient with her P1 kids, looked kancheong, amongst other things. i know the boys in my boys' school are very much filled with energy that they're bouncing off the ceilings, but this is uh... :dunno:

but from the quality part (or rather, the lack thereof), it is evident that "you pay nothing, you'll still get monkeys looking for peanuts" :bsmilie:

 

[Ah Pao]

Haha maybe you could offer your services to the school in exchange for some off days or less work?

Anyway, last time during my secondary school they had one of the teachers to take the class photos for the school, and it turned out pretty well (at least in my standards). But on hindsight, I pity the teacher (who happened to be my science teacher) who have to pile up a backlog of work to do this service for the school.

Well, I don't mind being paid "peanuts", as long it is according of the Singapore Peanuts Exchange Rate of 1 Peanut = S$600,000. :bsmilie:

 

[Snowcrash]

Do you know how competitive is school photography? Is far far worst than wedding day photography.

Why in the first place the person in charge in your school want to hire them? Cheap lor, what else?

But some schools still want to save money, so even ask teachers or students (JC) to do it. So how can you expect good quality photography?

imagine teachers provide free labour and money earn from prints can go back to school fund?

 

[Canonised]

in the first place, should have ask sehsuan to shoot .... i m very sure sehsuan can do a much better job .....

 

[n0d3]

Haha, I think my school got guys from Adam Photo to do the class shots while the rest of the shots in the school magazine were done by Wesley Loh I think.

 

[sehsuan]

my experience with adam photo was :thumbsup:

friendly folks, even when i was totally sotong about MF, the crew (including one seniorly gentleman) explained to me. and set up 3 lights on very tall "tripods". photos were pretty good - probably the best class photo i've ever taken in my whole life!

 

[Belle&Sebastain]

pay peanuts get monkeys
pay coconuts get cukoos...

pay peanuts get Durai

 

[Pro Image]

Do you know how competitive is school photography? Is far far worst than wedding day photography.

Why in the first place the person in charge in your school want to hire them? Cheap lor, what else?

But some schools still want to save money, so even ask teachers or students (JC) to do it. So how can you expect good quality photography?

Agree with you man! Photograph one of the school. Squeeeeeeze me until I say, sorry you have to do it yourself.

 

[nightwolf75]

Agree with you man! Photograph one of the school. Squeeeeeeze me until I say, sorry you have to do it yourself.

u might be surprise - most, if not all, local govt schools have no budget planned for such things. like in my wife's school. the TA (tech assistant) was expected to do it, with his own cam at his own expense.

 

[Pro Image]

u might be surprise - most, if not all, local govt schools have no budget planned for such things. like in my wife's school. the TA (tech assistant) was expected to do it, with his own cam at his own expense.

Haha.....that's bad!

 

[catchlights]

Basically, all photographers have to shoot free for the schools, you have shoot the HOD with dept group free, all staff group free, class group free, some may ask you to shoot individual photos for Op chart and major school events for free, what you make is from selling prints to students.

So what you guess? Who can offer more free shoots and low price print package will get the jobs.

You want to submit tender? Can, quote low low and hope someone screwed up last year.

 

[fotoudavid]

me in school photography for a few years liao, but my clients please with me, quality and speed. not easy to handle, alot of rojak to do.

but, as some idiots offer cheap cheap, i stop already. cos, i waiting for the idiots to screw up, then the schools will apprecaiate wat i have done.:devil:

 

[catchlights]

The only good thing is when you go school collect CASH from students, count money count until you hands cramp.:bsmilie::bsmilie::bsmilie:

 

[fotoudavid]

The only good thing is when you go school collect CASH from students, count money count until you hands cramp.:bsmilie::bsmilie::bsmilie:

especially with alot of coins and $2/- notes.................