The Case Against Professional Photography

I've never really known what to do with those little pictures I get in the mail of people's kids. I look at them, think they're cute, ugly, or hilariously odd. After that, though, the confusion sets in. Should I frame them? Put them on the fridge? What if people saw them in my house? Would they think I was some kind of perv? I can't be having that. But some people think that throwing away pictures of someone else's kid is a sin on par with carrying on more than 2 oz. of liquid at the airport or ripping off mattress tags or something. So what I typically do is put them in a pile for what I consider an appropriate amount of time (which tends to be until I notice them the next time several months later), after which I throw them away. Still, my discomfort with these pictures doesn't really show the general problem with them, especially with group shots. To that end, I give you this link, sent to me by non-somnolent readers FJ (over a week ago) and the Spaceball (just yesterday). (Really, they emailed me the contents, but we know how to use Google here at the Chronicles.) Go ahead and check it out, and beware the photos you commission.

I will just add one more comment, though. The one that really sticks with me, and not in a good way, is the one with the mousy teenage girl flanked by the two mullet-adorned, bare-chested males. I can't decide if that's a strange, fetishist kidnapper situation, or a perhaps stranger family photo. If it's the latter, can you imagine that girl explaining that picture on the wall when her first boyfriend comes over in high school? I can't either.