Let’s be honest—school picture day has a way of sneaking up on us. One minute, you’re packing lunches and rushing out the door, and the next, you're realizing your kid is about to be immortalized in a photo with bedhead and a cereal milk mustache. As a photographer, I want you to love these photos, not just tolerate them.

When I first started school portrait photography, I took a test shot of my son in our garage. I loved how the light hit his cheeks and his gaze off in the distance showed his inquisitiveness. What I didn’t realize, however, was how I’d feel just a few years later about this test image I had taken.