After looking at national chain websites who gave me NO valuable information whatsoever, I decided to do a little undercover research. Insert "Mission: Impossible" theme here.
Alias: April, a mother of 3
Story: Interested in getting shots of my 2 beautiful daughters and 1 son, and some family portraits as well
Companies Targeted: Picture People, Portrait Innovations, Olan Mills, JC Penney, Sears, Kiddie Kandids
Interested in knowing about: Sitting fees, time of session, amount of pictures taken, print fees, cost of CD with copyright release to print your own
Picture People
- No sitting fees
- 15 minutes
- Up to 40 pictures total
- Prints are by page - $18 for color, $23 for black and white; 5 4x6s can fit on one 8x10 page.
- Collection packages start at $148
- $250 for CD - up to 20 images, no artistic effects and personal touches
Portrait Innovations
- No sitting fees
- 15 minutes
- As many as they can in alotted time frame
- No discussion of print prices until after your session
- Portrait special of $9.95 that includes 1 - 10 x 13, 4 - 5x7s, 4 - 3 x 5s, 2 - 8 x 10s, and 32 Wallets - BUT using the image that's the very FIRST click of the camera.
- $250 for CD - 5 poses only
Olan Mills
- No sitting fees
- Up to 15 minutes
- 15 images/poses
- $150 for CD
JC Penney
- $9.99 per person sitting fee
- 15 minutes
- Up to 30 images
- $100 for CD
Sears
- No sitting fees
- 15 minutes
- 9 poses
- Portait special of $7.99 that includes 1 - 8x10, 1 - 5x7, 4 - 3.5x5s, 4 wallets, and 16 minis - one pose only
- $119 for CD
Kiddie Kandids (Babies-R-Us)
- No sitting fees
- 15 minutes
- 9 poses
- No discussion of print prices until after your session
- $199 for CD
All of these include one background in one outfit.
When you actually lay all of these details out on the table, hiring an individual photographer could be a little less expensive and more customized to your wants than a studio chain. I guarantee you that a studio photographer puts every child in the same pose about 10 times a day.
So what's my problem with studio chains?
- They hire anybody, regardless of their knowledge and skill of photography, and train them to shoot in the Auto or Program modes on the camera. Anyone can do this. It's an equivilent of taking pictures with a point and shoot pocket camera.
- Time of session - 15 minutes, really? It takes 15 minutes alone for the child to get comfortable and warm up to strangers.
- Photos lack personality. They are supposed to tell a story. What story can be told on a white background and with props that aren't yours? True personality comes out when one is comfortable and in their own element, like children being at home with their own toys. Furthermore, backgrounds are boring. On location shoots with natural light are much more appealing - plus you get more outfit changes to show your style!
- At the end of the day, they don't care about the finished result. Regardless of the quality of the photos, that's what you get. They don't continuously look at the pictures after they take them to make sure eyes weren't shut or the exposure is correct. Out of the 40 clicks, the photographer could have only capture 10 useable ones. Also, they don't go through each photo and retouch anything. What you see is what you get.
Yep folks, this photo could be yours.
Your family/child/pet mean the world to you and you want to document the memories you share with them. We, as individual photographers, understand this. You aren't defined as a 15 minute time slot. Get in & get out is definitely NOT my motto. Yeah, it may be a larger investment, but isn't your child and the memories you want to capture worth it?
but we need to keep them around so families with coordinated mullets will give us something to point and laugh at =)
ReplyDeleteExcellent Blog Kerri :)
ReplyDeleteKLinh
I was not hired as a seasonal portrait studio photographer this past month of December 2015. I was wanting to get some experience in dealing with different customers since I wanted to branch out of macro photography. I was showing the photos that I took of my son, that people thought was done in a portrait studio, to the person doing the interviews. When I started talking about my Nikon D7200 and all the settings, the one who was hired instead of me said, "I don't know what make or model of my camera is, or even megapixels, but it has like a 26x something. I know I can zoom really far!" Then the person that was hired said, "It doesn't matter anyway what the camera is. You can take even a bad photo and it goes straight to the computer where a program automatically fixes everything and makes even a bad photo look great!" The one doing the interview said, "Yeah, they don't like us pressing anything but the shutter button." My husband said, "Honey, I think you are overqualified."
ReplyDeleteAs a past OM photographer I had done the same pose 10x daily...lol...but, personally I tried to make each sitting personable and relaxed for a natural look. This does come through...
ReplyDeleteA child was lol so hard he fell off the table and continued to lol, so did his mom. Go figure. He could have been seriously harmed but this family were enjoying themselves. Another time I saved the proof(before digital age we had actual photo "proofs" ) for the mom of a 10 year old girl acting stubborn. I sent mom out of the room. I got the "stubborn" shot for mom and the rest were poses that mom was pleased with. Mom really loved the "attitude" proof and thanked my bosses for it.
Problem with this cattle call approach, especially during the holidays is disturbing and stressful. It does take time to acclimate. Oh, btw NEVETR say, "ready to shoot" with a small child around...ooooh you can forget about a smile and take time to calm the child who took shoot as ...well, you know...
I miss taking pictures though. I loved the work and people. I did not care for the corporate side of things as the employee gets the short end financially. I probably earned them 80-100 k for one year. They kept my bonuses anyway.