My store only has six employees, including the two owners. Our schedules are vastly different, with some folks only working on the weekends and others only available specific days of the week. Honestly, we have been attempting an all-staff photo for more than a year and a half and haven’t been able to pull it off. Trying to coordinate for a staff meeting is challenging enough, but to have a day when someone can take our staff picture is even harder. We had been using an older staff photo that most of us just hated vehemently. Some staffers even asked that we destroy the old photo once we got a new one, that’s how bad it was! 

One of our upstairs neighbors and bookstore friend, Trina, came to the end of our staff meeting last week with a real camera and lined us up. She snapped photo after photo trying to get just the right mix of all of us not blinking or making a weird face. That can be a challenge when there are so many people. She was patient and we were silly. Trina did a great job of making us laugh so we’d all be smiling. This was a good thing as I tend to scowl in photos because I hate having my picture taken. We tried several different sections of the bookstore for the photo, settling on being in front of the Vermont case for its warmth and nod to our state. Plus, Vermont books tend to be visually lovely. This made sense to all us and Trina confirmed that the lighting was very good there.
Then we got some outside shots. The store is classically quaint and lovely from the outside, and Trina once again was patient with all of our shenanigans. At least none of us made a peace sign over anyone’s head while she was trying to get some good shoots. Not that I wasn’t tempted. I’m always the one in the photo who’s doing something wrong: blinking, making a bizarre face, or just plain not looking all that good. Trina was a great sport and made it fun. And now, we have a photo that most of really like.
And since our turnover is so low, we won’t need a new picture for at least two years!