Just as school is back to a more normal routine this year, school pictures are more or less back on a normal schedule. This means we have them now, rather than at the end of the year, and that we have proper, posed portraits for all three kids instead of the snapshots we cobbled together at home last spring that left me thinking about dropping a not insignificant amount of money on light boxes.
William and Joe’s pictures are more or less your bog-standard school photos, and they did a pretty decent job of capturing each kid’s personality.
William’s picture doesn’t convey the unbridled glee you can see in some of his earlier portraits, but you can still pick up on his carefree and slightly silly bearing. Joe seems a little more self-conscious and guarded in his picture, but that’s who he is in real life, too.
Because Julia’s a senior, we took her in for a longer photo shoot way back in July; we’ve only now gotten around to picking the shots that we liked best from the proofs the photographer sent us a few months ago.
The longer session allowed the photographer to work with Julia to create shots that are a joyful and fun celebration of her senior year. But they also brought a startling (to me) realization: these are the last school pictures she will ever take. It seems like only yesterday that we posted her kindergarten picture. I expect this is just one of many “lasts” we’ll face over the next few months, along with a few firsts.
For example: she submitted her very first college application yesterday afternoon, after a great deal of consternation and worry. With one under her belt, our hope is that she’ll find the remaining applications comparatively less intimidating and easier to face.
The photos embedded in this post are small, low-resolution copies of the kids’ portraits. You can find the full-size pictures in the dedicated galleries.
Occasional Dispatches from San Jose 