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The Paly Voice

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Seniors, learn your portrait options 2015

The beautiful ID cards of Paly Seniors
Palo Alto High School Seniors dress as alter egos for their school IDs.

It’s the second to last week of your senior year at Palo Alto High School. After school, you get your yearbook and flip to the senior class.

As you skim through, you can’t seem to find that beautiful senior portrait that you especially commissioned for the yearbook. Where could it be?

Then you see your name, but where’s that perfect picture you submitted? To your dismay, it’s not there. Instead, it’s your school ID photo. You know, the one you dressed crazy for.

If you don’t want to be this person or are confused on how to get your portrait in this year’s yearbook, keep reading. This is your guide to what your portrait options are and where you can officially get your pictures taken.

Deadline and Rules:
Photography teacher and yearbook adviser Margo Wixsom has set deadlines and rules that must be followed. The deadline to make a choice about senior portraits is Oct. 15, according to Wixsom.

Additionally, you have to abide with one of the following options. Otherwise you’ll end up like the person mentioned above. Chances are, you don’t want to be that person.

Option 1: Do Absolutely Nothing
To choose this option, simply don’t do anything before Oct. 15, but only if you’re okay with using your School ID photo. This option is for people who don’t want to worry about their getting a senior portrait done.

According to the Paly photo guide released by Wixsom, Madrono uses senior’s student ID photo for yearbook image.

Note: if you wore a crazy outfit for your ID photo, this may not be your best option. Luckily, if you don’t like your school ID but still want to use it, no worries.

According to the ASB Website, Photo Make-Up Day is Sept. 11 in the Student Center from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. With this option, you’ll get to look at your senior portrait all year.

Option 2: Get a free professional photo
Like the words free and professional? Then the free, five-minute professional photo session is for you. You get five minutes with one of the six selected professional photographers who will take pictures of you. According to the photo guide, your photographer will choose a photo from the session to submit to the yearbook.

“Madrono is hosting free portrait sessions by professional photographers during four Tutorial periods from Aug. 26 through Sept. 16,” Wixsom said. “Just come to the back of the theater on the Quad and sign in with Madrono staff. Additionally, we scheduled the Senior Class Portrait for Thursday [Sept. 18] during Advisory on the football field.”

Neither you nor your parents will be able to see the picture beforehand, so the first time you see your picture is when you open your yearbook.

Tip: Ask a friend who chose this option last year to see what he or she thinks.

Option 3: Pay for a professional
The final option is to commission a longer session with one of the five select professional photographers approved to take senior portraits for the Madrono. Anne Barry, Cathy Gregory, Jeanne De Polo, Lisa Deneffe and Nadine Priestley  are the only approved photographers. This option is for people who are willing to pay the price for the best photo possible.

According to Wixsom and the Paly photo guide packages start at $30 and can range to $250, depending on the length of the session and whether additional options, such as editing, are added. Be sure to research each photographer and the packages each offers.

Alice Read, Class of 2014 gave The Paly Voice her take on commissioning portraits.

“If you find a professional photographer with good rates and reviews, go for it,” Read said.

Photo Guide 2015 Page 1Photo Guide 2015 Page 2

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Will Zhou, Author

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