'A teacher once brought her various pet parrots to be photographed': 30+ School photoshoots that turned out cringy and strange

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 24, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

School picture day photographers have us in stitches with these tales of the strangest and cringiest things they've ever encountered. Because as you can imagine, photographing hundreds of students at a time could easily be hilarious. 

High school is a time for experimenting with your personality and identity. Some kids dye their hair pink or blue, or get lots of piercings, or embrace being goth for a while. You're young, and you don't know who you are or who you're going to be. Even through those awkward years, your parents probably purchased a few of your school photos…and even if not, your overly-gelled spiky hair will live in infamy in that school's yearbook. 

U/hardrockman911 asked the people of r/AskReddit, "Photographers who do school picture days, what are your most cringe-worthy/strange stories of your career?" And a surprising amount of photographers replied to share their wildest tales. From kids who refused to cooperate to kids who showed up in fur suits, these photographers have seen some things. 

Scroll down to read the madness in this thread. Then, click here to check out a story about a train attendant and a cranky passenger. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9777489920
    via Luciano Zanollo on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - Photographers who do school picture days, what are your most cringe- stories of worthy/strange your career?
    via u/hardrockman911
  • 03
    Font - blunket I did senior portraits and this really nerdy lookin kid wanted photos with his two samurai swords. I tried my best to make it look cool but... I just... couldn't. Another senior did couples photos with her boyfriend. They specifically earnestly requested a pose where the girl posed all cute on one side of the couch, while the boy sat on the other side of the couch, staring at her while stroking his beard. That one didn't turn out well either.
    via u/blunket
  • 04
    Font - kutuup1989 My high school prom picture is a doozie. It was taken in front of this big ornate fireplace. I had the picture taken with my girlfriend at the time. Thing is, we were very much what would be described as emo kids. I was wearing more makeup than she was. That photo does not leave the locked drawer it lives in.
    via u/kutuup1989
  • 05
    Font - wakimaniac Spent 15 min with a guy because he blinked every time I took the photo. I tried everything in my book, making him close and open his eyes before snapping the picture, delaying the flash, shooting without flash, taking the picture while talking to him so he'll be distracted. Nothing worked. Ended up taking his picture with a cellphone, because apparently what made him close his eyes was the shutter/mirror sound.
    via u/wakimaniac
  • 06
    Font - [deleted] When I was having my graduation portrait taken, the photographer pulled me aside afterwards and for like 30 minutes was talking about all this new Photoshop and airbrush techniques they could do now. I played along, being polite. I didn't really care, but he seemed super hyped about it and how cool it was.
    via u/deleted
  • 07
    Font - Turns out it was his subtle way of asking me what I thought if he airbrushed out my pimples - I had pretty awful acne at the time. Like, holy sl lunar lander couldn't find a decent spot to put down in. He eventually gave up and I left thinking to myself how weird that dude was. I got the pictures a few weeks later. He did a good job, and completely airbrushed everything out. I showed my Dad who took one look and said, "Who the is that?!"
    via u/deleted
  • 08
    Font - jinbaittai Can we do funny? When I was a school photographer, to amuse myself I tried to give each kid in class a unique word to say. "Fuzzy puppies!" ""Funky monkeys!" Etc etc. So I get this little girl at my chair. She's got the thickest glasses I've seen, an overbite, and is pale as a vampire. But whatever. A kid is a kid. So I say, "Okay, say Fuzzy Kitties!" And she gives me the most irritated look I've ever seen. "Uh, I'n allergic to kitties." Like it was the dumbest thing anyone had
    via u/jinbaittai
  • 09
    Font - happycheff We were doing photos at a special needs high school. Guy comes up in a windbreaker, corduroy high water pants, velcro tennis shoes and the thickest glasses I've ever seen. I asked him whose class he was in so i could make sure he was in the right group and he said he wasn't a student, he worked there.
    via u/happycheff
  • 10
    Font - robotsinaprons I'm not a photographer but I probably gave the one who took my second grade school photo a weird feeling. I'd just moved from a third world country and didn't speak a lick of English. I had no idea what a soda can was, much less the hallowed tradition of Picture Day.
    via u/robotsinaprons
  • 11
    Font - So when my class was directed to shuffle down the hall in an orderly line to the gym, and I saw all those abstracty bluish background canvases that looked like X-ray images all over the gym... and that we were all going towards a spot directly in front of it, one at a time, in this solemn fashion --I thought we were all, one by one, having a medical procedure done to us. And that's why I look a little teary and very, very stoic in my second grade photo.
    via u/robotsinaprons
  • 12
    Font - + [deleted] Some kid showed up in a fursuit. Like, full on fursuit. A bright blue fox, and he ended up having a half hour long argument with the photographer and assistant principal over it.
    via u/deleted
  • 13
    Font - Donkpup So I'm in kindergarten getting my picture taken (1980)... The flash bulb pops and explodes, catches that umbrella thing on fire. All the teachers scream and I s my pants..... Awkward when I get picked up by mom wearing underoo's and holding a plastic bag .... But the teachers said I was brave .... Ahhh simpler times.
    via u/Donkpup
  • 14
    Font - Suspicious Plant I worked for a company that did this. Didn't work there long but the worst thing I encountered was multiple notes on the forms parents sent back to us saying "Don't make my child smile." or "They have a bad smile don't make them smile." How terrible is it to tell strangers you hate your child's smile?! I understand some didn't want big toothy grins because they were missing teeth, but that's part of childhood. They'll never be like that again. Why not enjoy it?
    via u/Suspicious_Plant
  • 15
    Font - jabberwockingly When I was 16, I was recovering from a serious illness that left me partially blind and very sensitive to light, so I wore those big old-lady cataract sunglasses all the time. Picture day, sat down for my photo, and the photographer says "How about you take off those glasses superstar? You don't look cool."
    via u/jabberwockingly
  • 16
    Font - I said "I can't, I need them" and he replied "You don't need them, you just think you look good in those." My soccer coach came over and let him know exactly where he went wrong while I sat in the photo chair trying not to cry. EDIT: For everyone asking, I had acanthamoeba keratitis! Also, I'm a girl, not a boy.
    via u/jabberwockingly
  • 17
    Font - GeekCat Had a similar incident when I had my ice hockey photos taken. I had an eye injury and had to wear one of those patches. Despite being injured, I had to get dressed up and take the photos. The photographer made such a big deal about how we should remove it for "better photos" because I looked like a pirate and how I should stop trying to look like a bad a. I was kinda glad when he fell on his trying to get off the ice.
    via u/GeekCat
  • 18
    Font - suitology guy at my school had a reverse Mohawk which is where you shave a line down the middle. The photographer actually asked him if he'd like to wear a hat.
    via u/suitology
  • 19
    Font - Photog77 I asked a 4th grader if she hurt her foot. "Uh, I have a prosthetic leg". She was wearing sandals and sure enough rubber foot. I asked a 7th grader to sit up straight, spinal problems. His doctor bought a copy of the photo as a before shot for a textbook he was writing. Whatever the doctor did, it worked like a charm. A kid told my assistant that they ate their pet rabbit the night before.
    via u/Photog77
  • 20
    Font - I asked a kid to sit down. He sat down on the floor. I told him, "Not on the floor, on the chair. Please point your knees at the computer." He got up and touched his knee to the computer. I said, "No, sit on the chair and turn your knees point them at the computer." I asked a kid if they wanted their hoodie to be in the picture. "No." ok, take your hoodie off. "No". Do you want your hoodie in the picture? "No." If you don't want your hoodie to be in the picture, you have to take it off or
    via u/Photog77
  • 21
    Font - I tapped a kid on the shoulder from behind and asked where the teacher was. She was the teacher, and I had known her for almost 20 years by that point. Asked a teacher if a severely disabled student could sit by themselves on the bench. The student couldn't and there was a pretty hard thump on the gym floor.
    via u/Photog77
  • 22
    Font - othersomethings I asked a kid to please look at the camera like 3 times. Then I realized... He had a lazy eye. Da .
    via u/othersomethings
  • 23
    Font - Bonifaz_Reinhard A guy at my school demanded to have a picture of him with a Microsoft painted space suit on as his Senior Photo but the teachers wouldn't let him. So he paid extra to have himself as an ad in the final part of the year book, with a photo of him in a space suit
    via u/Bonifaz_Reinhard
  • 24
    Font - Cmcgee23 Wow a post I actually have experience in, guess there won't be a better time to stop lurking than now. Here's a couple of my favorite stories.
    via u/Cmcgee23
  • 25
    Font - • On a Middle School registration day shoot some kid comes up wearing a naruto headband. I asked him to take it off and he told me he wore it for religious purposes. I knew perfectly well he was bulls ting me but I didn't feel like making it a big deal, I just told him he'd probably regret it in a couple years and snapped the pic anyway.
    via u/Cmcgee23
  • 26
    Font - • One time there were identical twins wearing the same outfit (lets call them Doug and Jeff), I had to take a couple shots of Doug and then just one of Jeff. Ended up accidentally deleting the pic of Jeff so I just relabeled one of Doug's pics as Jeff.
    via u/Cmcgee23
  • 27
    Font - • Two of my male coworkers would always try their hardest to be the one to photograph the attractive teachers, it devolved to the point of literally sabotaging each others equipment (unplugging lights, moving stools etc.). As the lead photographer I had to reluctantly end this warfare.
    via u/Cmcgee23
  • 28
    Font - OFzebras School photographer here, Layana Couch was the funniest named I've encountered.
    via u/OFzebras
  • 29
    Font - blackholedaughter Not so much cringe- worthy as it was awesome: A teacher once brought her various pet parrots to be photographed with her.
    via u/blackholedaughter
  • 30
    Font - blackholedaughter A kid handed me the little card with his name on it. Let's call him Dave. I took it and read the card and said "Hi, Dave!" He said, "I'm not Dave. My name is Logan." I said, "Oh no, I must have the wrong card... I'll look for the one that says Logan." Then he exclaimed, "I'm Wolverine!"
    via u/blackholedaughter
  • 31
    Font - ● whalemango You know those portraits they used to do - maybe they still do them, I don't know - where you get your regular portrait in the middle, and then another, slightly-faded picture of you in the top corner looking off into the distance like you were gazing off into heaven or something? Something weird happened when they printed off my brother's class' photos, because some girl in his class got hers with her normal portrait in the middle, but my brother's face in the top corner gaz
    via u/whalemango
  • 32
    Font - AlabamaSniper Years ago I traveled the SE states shooting family portraits but mostly kids. I was in the middle of a shoot with a 4yr. Old boy and used my standard phrase for smile "say fuzzy pickles" which normally worked. This time however, the kid misunderstood and in front of everyone said, "f kin pickles". Cringeworthy!!!!!
    via u/AlabamaSniper
  • 33
    Font - Johngdetti Always show up late to the party cuz I browse /all but oh well. My brother comes home one day with no eyebrows after picture day and my mom freaks out that he shaved them off for his school picture. When we get the package he actually only shaved off 1 eyebrow when he got it taken and it's hanging in our hallway now in all its creepy glory.
    via u/Johngdetti
  • 34
    Font - The Political Penguin. There's a kid I went to middle/high school with. Every year for pictures, he'd wear anything from Kakashi to Harry Potter cosplay... One year he even dressed up as Kid Icarus, using pink glitter wings he purchased from the dollar store. Brilliant kid though.
    via u/Political Penguin
  • 35
    Font - Finsceal I had a girl standing perfectly poised for the shot when her heel spontaneously snapped and sent her tumbling sideways, taking out one of my lamps.
    via u/Finsceal
  • 36
    Font - ttw219 Not a photographer, but our senior year pictures got delayed for some reason so you got randomly called down during the week. One kid wore his boyscouts uniform to school every day that week.
    via u/ttw219
  • 37
    Font - jawells630 Did school photography years ago. There was one kid in line bigger than all the other kids. Fits the jock/bully stereotype to a T. I am going through the normal speech to get each kid in the right position. He is next in line behind me and says "The only picture I smile in is my mug shot" His turn comes up and he reiterates he isn't going to smile. Got it. So he sits down and go into my speech having him put his feet in one area, turn, and my force of habit I ask him to smile.
    via u/jawells630
  • 38
    Font - Hylian-Loach Fedoras everywhere. Also had one guy show up with a feral cat to pose with.
    via u/Hylian-Loach
  • 39
    Smile - maracusdesu Photographed a pre- school class, every kid started crying at the same time when the flash went off.
    via u/maracusdesu

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school photos ask reddit cringey pictures elementary school photographers middle school cringe teachers photo shoot teacher high school cringeworthy funny photographer
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