Doing school pictures for my kids' school is a bad idea, right?
This is really a sanity check on a question that I've already answered, but could still change my mind if I wanted.
Years ago I was a modestly successful wedding & portrait photographer, and got to the point where it was about a third of my income. I got out of it, and moved into IT, because while I loved the photography and the events, I despised running a photography business. Marketing myself, contracts... not my bag. I was never a renowned anything, but a respectable part time pro.
Over the last few years, I've found myself as the defacto school photographer for pretty much every event at my kids' small private school because I still have the gear and the skills. I'm not the dad with the camera. The principle or one of the nuns will call or email and ask me to come photograph various events, and all the parents wait to get links to the google photos gallery. I do this as volunteer work, and I'm happy to do it.
Some of the parents and board members want to stop using Life Touch because of the drama, and have inquired about whether or not I was willing and able to do the school portraits instead, which they would insist on paying for.
My initial response, which I explained to the principal, is that the photography part of doing those kinds of photos is very easy (and I have most or all of the gear), and they're making this request after seeing several years of my work. I did do staff portraits the last two years which they were very happy with. The "photographers" that Life Touch sends out are more like technicians than photographers. They set the camera and lights following a rigid setup, and just click through the shots, so that part is easy. What those big school portrait companies are really selling is the logistics. Tracking names and grades with photos, providing ordering facilities which I used to have, but don't anymore, etc. I'm not sure that I'm equipped to do the logistics unless I go whole hog and pivot back to photography, which I really don't want to do at this point in my life and career.
The Principal thinks everyone would be happy with digital download and minimal logistics, but I'm not sure he understands the extent to which school picture day is more about logistics than photography.
Any thoughts? Am I wrong here? Anybody have experience doing school picture day?
EDIT: I hugely appreciate the responses. I'm still not absolutely settled on whether or not I'll do it, but the sanity check as well as the suggestions for how to make it do-able are fantastic.
To answer a few recurring questions here at the top:
- Enrollment varies from year to year, but is rarely outside of 200-250.
- This would also be starting next school year. There's no time crunch, but I'll be renewing my membership in the Really Old Dad Club when baby #3 arrives at the end of this summer. That's a big obvious check in the "don't do it" column.
- They make their own very humble yearbook, so they just need photos they can paste in for that.
- I don't have an assistant, since I don't do this for a living anymore. I'm thinking a list of names and grades in a spreadsheet and filling in image numbers as I take them is probably sufficient for keeping track of which photos go with which names. I can almost certainly get someone from the office to do that while I deal with the shooting.
Beyond that, it sounds like the situation is exactly what I thought. There's every bit as much back-end logistics as I thought, and I need to either accept the time and headache to deal with it, make arrangements with the school to have them deal with it, or just decline the job.
EDIT #2: After a lot of consideration, and looking at the resources people have suggested, as well as a lot of research on liability, I've come up with a clear plan.
I want to serve the school where and when I can, and I'm willing to accept some unprotected risk. But not 200+ kids, light stands, backdrops, and FERPA compliance.
Unlike when I started (and eventually gave up on) wedding photography, I'm not broke and I don't have no assets. The volunteer work I've been doing has been almost entirely 'open to the public' events which aren't FERPA, and the 'light stands and backdrop' stuff has been with small numbers of adults I trust; so I'm fine continuing that indefinitely.
I'll explain to the Principal that I am willing and able, but only for a fee that is sufficient to set up an LLC, proper liability insurance, a service that can ensure the privacy of the photos as the FERPA records they are, and modestly compensate my time (this is not a money-making venture for me, but I'll burn 2 days of PTO to do this, and that's not nothin' these days). I'm not comfortable with dumping them in a pseudo public gallery, and I'm not comfortable with taking the photos and handing them off for the school to sort out while knowing they plan to mishandle them.
They would also need to agree (in writing) to be responsible for student wrangling and parent support.
Realistically, that won't happen, which means I'll pass on the job and I'm perfectly okay with that. If I'm wrong, and they can agree to all of that, I'd love the opportunity to help the school.