I want to order some candid photos taken of me and my boyfriend at 
Prom four years ago. There were a few pictures I wanted to order but 
unfortunately I was broke at the time and couldn't muster up the dough 
to actually pay for them (I had already cleaned myself out buying the 
dress and paying for my AP exams.)My boyfriend and I have continued to 
date since then and we're still going strong after five and a half 
years. I would like to use the pictures as part of a six year 
anniversary gift to him so I was hoping someone might be able to help 
me find them again. 
 
I believe the photographer or studio was Lee Schaffert. It was a 
family run business and they operated out of their house in San Diego, 
CA. For Yearbook, I once had to go to the house to look at the 
archived rolls of dance pictures for a layout. I don't know if the 
operation still exists much less if they still keep archives of their 
pictures. I tried calling the number on the picture ordering form a 
year ago, and it was defunct. But hopefully someone here can track 
them down and let me know how I can get these pictures. 
 
The Prom was held in late May of 1998. The high school was Gompers 
Secondary. 

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Clarification of Question by phet-ga on 30 May 2002 00:57 PDT

This was really a shot in the dark... but thank you for the valiant
attempts. It would've been really nice to acquire those original
photos but I think I'll heed the advice of one of the comments made
below and use those Photoshop skills learned in Yearbook to conjure up
my own Prom pictures. Again, thanks for the efforts and all the
suggestions. 

Hi phet,

You might want to go back to Gompers and ask whoever your yearbook
advisor was back then how to get in touch with the photographer.  If
the school used him for yearbook and event photography, they'll likely
know how to get hold of him.

Good luck!

There is a Switchboard (http://www.switchboard.com/) listing for Lee
Schaffert in San Diego CA (white pages only, no business listing). You
may want to try calling the number listed there.  Yahoo People and
Yahoo Yellow pages don't list any Schaffert in San Diego, so the
Switchboard listing may be outdated.

Try your local library, as they will probably have phone book info on
CD that you can use to search for Mr/Ms Schaffert. Even though these
CD-ROMs are what the phonebook web sites use as their content, the
library's data will be more recent.

That being said, I'm pretty certain that photographers usually hold
photo negatives for a maximum of 2 years (some longer), and that's for
paid clients who may want to purchase the negatives. If you never
purchased the photos, do you remember the photographer saying whether
and for how long he/she would keep them for you?

If you have some time, it may be fun (and easier than tracking down an
out-of-business photographer) to fake-out your prom photos. If you
remember the theme and have some other photos of yourselves that you
can scan, you may be able to put together something that looks like
the classic prom shot.
[ http://www.modernestudio.com/prombackgrounds.html ] 

Good luck in your search!
/ mother-ga

Just as a note, I tried calling the number at SwitchBoard.com and they
said it was an wrong number.

Another suggestion (I also tried to search for you, but alas) is to
contact old classmates and ask them if they have photos.

One way to contact old classmates is to use this site (although you'll
have to pay if you wish to be able to e-mail people, if I remember
right):
http://www.classmates.com/