School picture day. The one day a year parents everywhere are scrambling to make sure their kids leave the house looking presentable. Clean clothes? Check. Combed hair? Check. Sleep removed from the corners of their eyes? Check. Not wearing a green shirt? Check. Wait. What?
That’s right. As this mom discovered the hard way, it’s not easy being green. In a Facebook post that has gone viral with over 34,000 likes and 23,000 shares, Laurel Boone Hutsell shares her son’s school pictures, and she got a little more than she bargained for. Or less. As in bodiless.
Laurel writes:
My son – “Mom, I shouldn’t have worn the green shirt for pictures. It will blend in with the green screen they used.”
Me: “They used a green screen? What?! I probably should have read some fine print. Maybe they will be ok.”
😂
Seriously cracking up! At least his hair and smile were on point!
😊
It doesn’t matter that we already have 11,000 photos of Johnny and Susie sitting on our home computer. This is their school picture. The one that commemorates year after year of their childhood. The one that shows their transition from our sweet little kindergarten baby to our ohmygodhowisthisevenpossiblethatIamthisold high school graduate. We secretly pray that they’ll smile (and not in that weird grimacy way that makes them look like they’re going to show up as a serial killer on America’s Most Wanted). We hope that they haven’t stained their shirt with mustard from the ham sandwich they ate at lunch. Or done something weird with their hair at recess. This is, after all, for posterity’s sake.
Some school pictures are better than others. There was that one year when velour jumpsuits were a good idea. Or the year bowl cuts were all the rage. Or that year (or two or three or four) when a bottle of AquaNet hairspray, a perm, and a whole lot of teasing was the ONLY way to go.
Or, in Laurel’s son’s case, the year of the FLOATING HEAD.
The great thing about a green screen? Photographers can now impose amazing digital backdrops into your beloved child’s picture; things like flags, and trees, and waterfalls. The bad thing about a green screen? If you happen to be wearing green, it will essentially disappear into the background.
Like this:
Or the Joanna Gaines shiplap inspired photo:
Or the “Blue Period” piece:
Or the “All in all you’re just another brick in the wall”:
Is it bad that I can’t stop laughing right now? I’m secretly thinking my kids could all use new green shirts.
My personal favorite? Floating on a bridge ala Bob Ross:
It’s obvious that Laurel also finds the humor in the green screen debacle. Just in case you’re wondering, there was no advanced “Green Screen Warning.”
Update: I’ve asked around. There was no “fine-print-green screen” warning.
Her son? He thinks they’re pretty funny, too.
After seeing the post on Facebook, the photographer has offered to fix them. While some commenters think that Laurel should demand retakes, I think I’d be buying ALL of them, and making sure he wears a green shirt for every school picture day from now on.