last week we went and had family pics done for the FIRST time ever! My husband and I have been together 8 years. The other day we went to go look at the edited images and put together our frame, all the work this studio does comes framed, and theres different ways you can display the pics. well all was said and done and i LOVED the pics they were amazing! not your typical sit and smile pics. well once we heard the price we were kinda taken back, just under $1,600! which included a USB with a 3 min slide show of all the imaged from our session, as well as 6 images we picked that we can reprint,email or post on Facebook or whatever. my problem is thats such a lot of money! we paid our deposit and have til april 15 to pay the balance, but I'm having second thoughts about paying that much. Whats the max you would spend? i should add I'm not interested in going anywhere else for pics, silly i know but i already fell in love with these!
http://www.venturephotography.com/uk/gallery/
heres the link to the gallery of the studio
yes we knew they were pricey! but didn't expect that much...the frame has 9 images in it and its 34x34 so its huge
@bug no we were allowed to do what we wanted during the session, for instance theres pics of my son reading his comic to his baby sister, and some of me holding my baby against my tattoo of her name and the same with my son, theres one of my husband and son acting like the are going to fight and one of him and my baby wearing tap out shirts. they encouraged us to be ourselves, like i said theres no sit and smilie JCP poses...also the prices vary according to what you what, since everything is custom framed it can be pricey with just that, my husband had paid over 500 to have some of his tattoo art framed. and as the usb goes we can share the slideshow we just can't print those images only the ones we picked.
THANKS TO THE ONES WHO WHERE SUPPORTIVE it makes me feel better:) I'm going to proudly hang my ART on my wall and look at it and remember how much fun we had that day! And the tears my son brought to my eye as he read his comics to his baby sister:) oh and yes we can afford it, we had to pay a 300$ deposit and will use part of my husbands bonus next month to pay them off. So we won't go into debt for them
I only go to JCPenney for an $7.99 package. That is one moment in time, i could go on countless vacations for that amt of money.
I come from a family of photographers, as does my husband. I have NEVER come across a truly professional photographer who doesn't tell you what everything costs, before the pictures are even taken. Right down to prints and accessories. I just went to the website you linked to. Would I pay 1600 for that work...um, no! You only got the rights to SIX edited images!!! SIX!! You should not ever come away from a one hour session, and only have the rights to six photos, that's crazy! I could professionally edit 6 photos is an hour. What the heck did you pay for? A session, a framed picture, a USB slideshow (that you don't have the image rights to) and 6 prints? You were charged way too much.
**You were in a studio, that is designed to crank out a ton of pictures. The experience is not personally tailored to your family. They most positively have a book of poses they use and reuse fr every family. I would never charge more then a few hundred, for a non-personal, studio experience. I can't believe a place can even get away with charging that much, for a typical studio outing. The thing that bothers me about the price, is that you weren't getting anything special done. Studios are efficient. They bring families in, do the same thing as the family before, edit some photos the same way they edit the batch before, and sucker you into an exorbitant fee. PROFESSIONAL photographers tell you what you're getting, how much it costs or could cost, and tailor it to YOU. On top of that you are given a disk or USB with personal RIGHTS to the all the pictures. I guess that's why the price peeved me.
You are just feeling buyers remorse. Don't let it get you down. I checked out your link, and I would ABSOLUTELY pay that amount for family pictures. That is ART. Not just family snap shots. One of a kind. I bet they are awesome, and will look fantastic hanging on your walls FOREVER. They will not age; they are timeless. Be very proud of them!!
1600 is absolutely ridiculous! The most I have paid is $200 for AMAZING pictures. You are being ripped off...I don't care how nice the pictures are. My parents paid $2300 for our wedding day...that was 8 hours, 3 albums and some additional prints...
I wouldn't get family pictures taken at a studio so I can not tell you how much I would pay.
I can tell you that $1,600 is more than my rent.
L.
OMG! Yikes!
We have family photos taken a couple times a year - for my mom for her Christmas cards, then usually in the spring at some point - usually for Mother's day.
We have gone to JCPenny and got some good photos - you can sit in whatever poses you want - not just sit and smile - although their space is limited, but for a family of 4 or 5 it was good. They have coupons ($4 sheets) and you can get fun upgrates to the prints.
Last year my sister found a Groupon and we got an hour outside photo session with a professional, and she enhanced our favorite 10 photos (it was hard to pick - they were all so nice), and gave us the rights to ALL the photos so we could print what we wanted, where we wanted. It cost $40 and my sister and I split that.
This year for my mom's Christmas cards my sister found (again on Groupon) the same deal, but with a different photographer, but we'll have to pay a whopping $80, but we'll split it.
I think you are paying WAY too much - in fact I think you are being ripped off too. I guess if you are really in love with them, not willing to go somewhere else, and are willing to pay the $1600 what can we say, they've gotcha. I'd shop smarter next time.
I could tell just in the few minutes looking at their website that this is not a JCP type of studio (no matter what you think you can do there in your matching jeans and tees) or a new photographer that is offering a Groupon to see if new business will stick.
This is an international studio...with artists!! I haven't paid that much but I probably would. Quality photos to me shot with the "eye" is worth it to me. I appreciate photography, others are just happy with a $10 Wal Mart sitting. My mother was a sculptor and a painter, non art people would be amazed by what could be brought in at a show.
It can run pretty high. How long was your session and what are you getting aside from the thumb drive & framed photo?
All in all, that sounds high, but again, it depends on what you are getting.
If you are in love with them, you will hang them on the wall and cherish them more and more as time goes on. If you hadn't taken family pics in 8 years, you were due.
Some brides call and ask for a CD and their price of $200!
Those are amazing pictures! Wow. That is expensive but we 've paid that if it makes you feel better. And they weren't so "cool". Just don't do it a lot. :) I will say too that kind of money got us a DVD with all the pictures so we have them forever, can make as many prints cheaply as we want. Pictures are priceless... It also depends on what you can afford. Don't be paying interest on your credit card....
Wow! I would not pay more than $300 on family pics! That is even really too much in my opinion, but it is what we spent last time on ours.
Because you love the pictures and if you can afford the money, I'd buy them. Someone mentioned it's like art and we do pay much more for good art. You'll enjoy the pictures your entire life time.
I have a huge framed picture of my grandparent's family which I periodically hang in my living room. I suggest your children and your grandchildren will enjoy the pictures.
We currently have no money for such things...
But when my DS was first born I stupidly got suckered into taking him to a private professional photographer.
(I really flubbed on getting good pics w/ my 1st-didn't want to repeat my mistake).
I had NO IDEA what the cost was going to be. We had 4 sessions and one for my DD too.
When it was all said and done we spent close to what your total is-but over a years time. (Well, my mom did.)
We did get a ton of pictures out of it...and I love them.
I don't know what to tell you...just that these professional places seem to be charging the big, big bucks.
I know a girl who has no formal training and is charging similar prices. I find that really outrageous.
If you love them...
Was this a complete surprise?
Photography IS expensive.
We were offered an 8 x10 of a family pic from a recent wedding for $80.
As someone who managed/supervised an in-house product photography studio for years, I can tell you the materials for an 8x10 are less than a dollar.
It's the time and talent you're paying for.
My budget would be about $200!
My husband and I just got our first set of family photos done. We were going to get some when I was pregnant with baby number 2 but decided to wait until he was born. So we go them done in October of last year. I cringe at how much we spent honestly I think this place robbed us blind. My husband is in the Army so he doesn't make a lot, but we got a bunch of photos taken and we got to pick what we wanted. We ended up selecting 8 photos we liked and each came with an 8x9 2 5x10's like 8 wallets for each set. so all in all we got 121 pictures. We paid almost $400 for them and we paid in 4 installments of like 143 and change....
Did you know that was how much it would be before you got the pictures done? That seems like way too much money unless you have the money laying around to spend.
