I remember dreading the day. My mom used to mark it on the calendar. Dress up, comb your hair, smile pretty.....because today is picture day.
It was near torture, enduring the long hours prior to the pictures being taken. Trying, painstakingly, to avoid getting dirt on your shirt or after carefully moussing down that awful cowlick, having it pop back up like Alfalfa's famous sprout. Then the moment arrived. Sitting on a small stool, under reflective umbrellas with some tie-dyed attempt at a background. Tilt your head to the right. A little more. Look up. Chin down. Smile. Rinse. Repeat.
Year after year, the same process. Funny thing is, I never once thought about what it was like for the photographers. Herding one kid after another like cattle, through the same rounds of shots. Did they dread it just I did? Did they enjoy watching kids parade through their small "studio world"? Or did they just go through the motions? Stand. Point. Click. Rinse. Repeat.
Today I got to experience a little bit of what I think those photographers may have felt. My company's marketing department approached me to shoot portraits of our Executives (on another day I'll go down a tangent about how, regardless of your actual field of study, when someone finds out you have an Art degree, they will assume that you can do EVERYTHING artistically). So I spent the last week preparing how and where to shoot. I sent out the appropriate emails notifying the executives on how to dress and what I needed from them for the big day. Then today finally came. And I stood there repeating the exact things that those photographers told me and my classmates - look up, chin down, smile. Funny how my life has come full circle.
