The New Senior Portrait
Everywhere, High School seniors these days are saying “farewell” to the traditional Scholastic assemblage of yearbook photos and opting for a yearbook representation that more resembles a high class head shot. It’s become a highly competitive effort, and as evidenced in yearbooks all over the country, today’s savvy high school seniors are willing to pay big bucks to ensure that they will look like as million dollars for their spot of acknowledgement among their high school peers, one last time, before they spread their wings and take off. This new Instagram generation, always engaged in producing “selfies” of one kind or another has been long-bombarded with digital imagery, and so what was sufficient now is, no longer. That time-honored cap and gown pose of yesteryear is being replaced by really over the top elaborate, highly personalized and often pricey professional photos.
Selling Like Hotcakes
They want it all, and the senior yearbook photo is just another element of this particular generation. And, as witnessed, Mommy and Daddy are quite willing to foot the bill for their little darlings. There are more than a few senior portraits being made by professional portrait photographers that parents are easily spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to get just the right shot, the right angle or look. There are so many of these families these days, that they can actually keep a good portrait photographer in full time business, just creating yearbook photos for high school seniors.
Special Details Create the Flavor
Consequently, some photographers have moved to devote their entire photography business to capturing that special moment of these soon departing high schoolers. These professionally rendered shots include all kinds of elements to represent a personalized portrait of the subject, and can include pets, musical instruments, cool cars and more. And when it comes to the surrounding elements, the majority of these photoshoots are done out of the studio, on location, with variety being the key factor. Skydiving, swimming underwater, skate half pipes, riding horses and at numerous exotic locations. A growing trend is for the student to wear the garb of their ancestral heritage, whatever that might be.
When Something is the Rage With Teens, There’s No Stopping it
With teenagers, anytime something becomes popular, that is all it needs to just take off, in leaps and bounds, and professional photographers in Raleigh are witnessing this most of all. It’s big business, and can literally be a full fledged vocation with no time to spare, for the photographer who is a talented portrait artist. All it takes in any particular demographic area is word of mouth. Let’s say that one senior has his or her portrait made and posts it on Facebook, or shows to others via other social media or in person, like at school. The friends who see it and have yet to secure their photo session with a professional photographer in NC will, if they are impressed, want the same photographer for their session. And so it goes–taking off like rockets.
The Real Deal, for Many
Even as this “selfie” rage continues to burgeon, the fact of the matter still remains that not every modern high school sits well with this imported business. There are still more than a few schools that still insist upon the student photographs for the yearbook being uniform, and all sporting the identical background. Many still support and continue mandating the traditional academic drapes around female shoulders and the faux tux front for guys. The case may often be that the school is under contract with the particular photo company, granting them exclusive rights to shoot all of the yearbook pictures. What this means for seniors who attend these schools is that, while they are certainly allowed to have these professional senior portraits made, they just will not be included in the yearbook array. There are still numerous other places they can be posted, and shared. And this certainly has not stopped a growing number of seniors from having them made. It is like the new personalized, professional senior portrait has literally become a rite of passage.
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