While school photos are a serious affair to many parents who can’t wait to see their pride and joy smiling perfectly on school picture day, it’s the #outtakes snapped by local photographer Tony Corso that has garnered attention locally on social media.
“People eat it up and almost think it’s a ‘badge of honor’ to make the blooper reel now,” laughed Corso. “I don’t want those in the photos to think others are laughing at them but I’ve never got a negative response. People just seem to get a big kick out of them.”
Corso said that he was a “little nervous” when he first posted the photos but the response was “just as great as the photos.”
“I’ve been taking photos at Prairiland for over 10-years now and it started when I posted funny ‘I wasn’t ready’ photos of faculty members and it has since become a thing,” said Corso. “I call them ‘outtakes’ but once I started posting them people started calling them the ‘blooper reel’ and thought it was the funniest thing.”
A retired teacher of 20+ years, Corso never imagined turning photography into a business but said it was when his youngest daughter graduated in 2006 that he found himself behind the camera again.
“My father-in-law encouraged me to get back into it and, honestly, if it weren’t for social media I’d still be teaching. Facebook became this platform for me to post pictures on and people started asking how to buy my photos.”
Not specializing in one specific area of photography, Corso said he enjoys the variety of capturing different events on camera.
“I would get too bored doing the same thing over and over,” he said. “I love going to shoot a good football game though. When I first got back into photography I wasn’t doing it for the money, that wasn’t even on my radar. But I started shooting football games and I forgot how fun it was.”
But bored Corso never gets when school pictures roll around each year. Whether it be pre-k or high school students, the outtakes never get old.
“People always ask me what I’m saying to them while taking the photos but its all spontaneous; it really is. High school ones can be very funny but the junior high kids are serious and not going to smile,” laughed Corso. “I’ll sit there and stare them down and then they cave and I get a shot of them laughing.”
One of the most memorable outtakes captured by Corso was of a blonde-haired pre-k student at Chisum who was the “cutest little thing you’ve ever seen” and left him rolling in laughter.
“As she was getting up on the stool I noticed she had bright orange nail polish on and I asked her if she painted her nails herself. She said ‘I did’ and proceeded to show off her orange nail polish by holding up her middle finger” Corso laughed. “It was just so authentic and innocent. I never posted that photo online but when I was processing the orders and came across her mom’s order, I sent her the outtake also.”
And whilst Corso loves every aspect of what he now does for a living, it’s the photos that “don’t pay” like shooting a storm rolling into Lamar County or scenic images on the Californian coast that he loves the most.
“I count myself very fortunate in finding a balance in what I shoot. Shooting storms or scenic images is my fun time when I get to do more creative stuff,” he said. “But I really honestly enjoy it all. I’m very blessed.”
To see more #outtakes captured by Tony Corso, click here
PHOTO: Tony Corso Images
