She remembers standing in that line and trying to keep clean, at least until after the photograph was taken, anyway.
And then, “NEXT!”
Click. Click.
“NEXT!!”
And that was it. Just like that, picture day was over. All that was left was the waiting for that envelope with the plastic photo window that let you know immediately if your mother would be happy when you arrived home.
Sheri McAninch, though, attempts with each child to make it a much more memorable experience now that she’s been hired at the “Picture Lady” in Bellaire Schools. She assures a perfect picture even if it takes a plethora of poses because, thanks to photography’s transition to digital processing, that pricey film has been switched out for pricey electronics.
She gets it, though, simply because she’s the mother of three daughters and a son.
“It helped that I’ve done the photos at St. John’s Academy for a couple of years before I won the contract for Bellaire schools, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” McAninch admitted. “It’s nice because I know a lot of the adults already, and the students have been great. It was really neat to see the little ones because they were so excited to come to get their picture taken.
“I’ve been shooting a lot of the sporting events, too, and that’s been awesome because I’ve always been a huge sports fan. I’ve always been a person who loves going to the games even when one of my kids was not competing,” she said. “But it’s always the little kids that have made me smile the most. They are just so cute and so sweet, but they are always shy in the beginning and it’s always fun for me to make them laugh and smile.”
Traditional Cheese and Then the New YAY!!
The second pose has become a “thing.”
Wedding parties often add sunglasses and disco dance stances, family portraits allow kids to be kids, and McAninch has permitted the boring-and-dry classic school pic to become, well, fun.
Of course, she makes sure she captures the formal photo, the one that is treasured away in some mystery box somewhere until the parents finally clean house of everything they consider junk and that includes those once-cherished grade school images. But then she gives the student the chance to be themselves, to cut loose if they wish, and to add humor to a scenario that’s been all too serious since punishment paddles were present in schools.
“I have seen a lot of new styles of school photos in some of the photography groups that I am in, so I am hoping to do some things a little differently than what we have grown used to over the years. Now that everything is digital, we’re able to have more fun because every shot isn’t costing the photographer money,” McAninch explained. “Of course, I’ll make sure the parents approve, but based on what I’ve seen, I think they will.
“That’s why I have done the serious pose, and then I’ve let them have some fun, so we’ll see,” she said. “Some of the students need a little help with it, so that’s been fun, too. I’ve not had a bad experience with a student or a teacher, so I feel everything has gone very well.”
Thirty-One First Days
As a middle school teacher, she taught everything. Reading, writing, ‘rithmatic.
And, for most of her career as an educator in Bellaire Schools, the district was hampered by financial constraints because voters refused to pass an operations levy from 1969 until 2017, so that necessitated a bit of improvisation from time to time.
“We made it work, that’s for sure,” McAninch recalled. “It was always about the kids so it was easy to buy the extra stuff that we needed for class, and it was fun finding new ways of doing things so we could still teach the material we needed to teach.
“It was great the community finally passed a levy because it felt we were all in it together, but the students were always hungry to learn and that’s what I missed the most,” she said. “
Her retirement earlier this year has allowed McAninch’s MacSnaps Photography to grow from a part-time hobby to a full-blown business that now consumes her days and some evenings.
“I still get up and make breakfast, and then I take Rachel to school, come back, and I get started on whatever I have on my schedule for that particular day,” McAninch said. “Most days I’m out and about shooting, but there are the days when I stay in my office and work on the book or on photos that need to be delivered to a client. So, yes, it’s very different than what I was doing as a middle school teacher.
“But there are nights when I stay up much later than I used to when I was teaching,” she added. “I had to be prepared for the children because, trust me, they don’t hold back no matter what time of day it might be. But I miss teaching. I miss the kids, but at least I get to be their picture lady.”
