Venture Photography

wisekid74

Dear Friends,

Want to share my experience of using Venture photography for a family shoot which I bought for £20 on promotion in a GAP store. The offer was for 1 hour of photo shoot with a free desktop photograph. This is my personal experience and you should make your own mind on getting into this "ad-venture".

(1) Photo Shoot- It was a fantastic experience. I have two kids aged 2 and 5 and they both had a fantastic time. The five year old is a bit shy but I was surprised to see her posing so well for the camera. The photographer was a gem of a guy and was very patient with the kids.

(2) Research - After the photoshoot the photographer gave us a few options of wall hanging frames we can have. The prices were rediculously high. The frame I liked was for some £2000+. For that price I can buy a high end digital SLR and take decent pictures myself. We were invited for a viewing of our pictures in a weeks time and in that period I did lots of research on Venture. And my findings were (i) top quality pictures and frames at very high prices (ii) Top quality sales pitch at the time of viewing, Very difficult to dodge out of some serious hard selling and, you were likely to spend big money so keep a maximum budget in mind. I was ready with my viewing with a max budget of £1250.

(3) Viewing : I was expecting some pampering as I read on various forums but I was just told where to get some water from if I needed some. My wife asked the sales guy if £95 will be deducted from our order as we will buy a few pictures and not go for the free picture. To this the Sales guy said that he wasnt going to do that as we rescheduled our photo shoot a couple of times but, he will still do the discount (his tone reflected as if he was doing a big favour). At this point he lost me as a customer. To me the hard selling was pathetic, the guy was rude with very poor selling skills. He was talking to us as if we were somebody with a poor credit rating and he was giving us a loan. The pictures were nice but nothing out of the ordinary, I selected one and spent an additional £70 for an 8 x 10 framed. And, thats all I spent. Thanks to some poor selling I still have my money in the bank. I am glad that the photographer wasnt the salesman as he was too good and I'm sure I would have spent more than my budget.

Delivery - Last nail in the coffin. The delivery period for one framed 8x10 picture is 6 to 8 weeks. You make up your own mind.

There are many famous studios who do good pictures (if not better than Venture). Find one local to you. I have found one where I live and will try them in future. I wont say, that just because of one poor sales guy the whole Venture setup is bad but, I feel this guy saved me money which can be better spent elsewhere.

Thanks

vickynleon

a customer came into my work before and was telling me that they had photos done and were pushed into buying pics they had 10 prints and ended up costing them £4k not the first person that has told me how expensive venture are. i wouldnt even think about going there. your best off just getting an idea of the type of pic you want and enquire with local photographers wether they could achieve it you will save yourself heck of alot of money.

ians5

As others have said, shop around at your 'local' photographer's, you'll find better quality products and more human service at a fraction of the price of the big franchises.

rdchick

Venture have gone bust in a most places and thank god - they are over priced and over exposed! I would suggest if you want nice family photos - go local - hell even search Facebook - there are loads of smaller and cheaper photography companies that do amazing photos for a fraction of the price! xxx

Redouble

We have 2 large square frames on our wall (one with 9 square photos in, the other with 6 square and one long rectangular in the middle) from Venture 2.5 years ago and they cost about £750 each (and were on sale!)

xx

Pat_Mulligan

We went for a family shoot with Venture Leeds last week, and returned last night for the viewing. The shoot was fantastic, and I was very impressed by a good number of the images we viewed last night. Yes the prices are stupidly expensive, we ended up leaving empty handed after the saleswoman started printing off the 'included' photo on a cheap HP printer. To me this was the final straw, but on the lead up to this the sales person was unable to sell us a suitable package for our images. (Everything too large and we wanted a combo of 5 images).

I would happily recoup some of their costs (for the) as many of the photos were usable, but am I correct in my assumption that they are unwilling to release copyright?

Rebel_Hedgehog

Right peeps,

Having resisted the 'hard sell' I have left with just my £15 7x5 framed desk photo as part of my initial offer. Yes it was hard to walk away but their prices are off the planet.

My question - anybody have one of these 7 x 5 desk photos? Can they be taken out the frame so I can frame it in a nicer frame with mount or possibly scan into computer and print slightly larger?

Or are Venture canny and make it impossible for it to be removed easily?

andygb

Rebel_Hedgehog wrote: »

Right peeps,

Having resisted the 'hard sell' I have left with just my £15 7x5 framed desk photo as part of my initial offer. Yes it was hard to walk away but their prices are off the planet.

My question - anybody have one of these 7 x 5 desk photos? Can they be taken out the frame so I can frame it in a nicer frame with mount or possibly scan into computer and print slightly larger?

Or are Venture canny and make it impossible for it to be removed easily?

Is it possible for you to post a couple of images of the back of the frame, and maybe a small section of part of the front (not showing your identity of course).
It is usually quite easy to scan a picture and make it larger, but you may find that the image which you have been given as 7 x 5 is a relatively low resolution, so that when you enlarge it a lot of digital noise (pixellation) rears its ugly head.
What is not noticeable in a small size print becomes very noticeable at A4 or A3 size, and really detracts from the quality.

Oli.s

Pat_Mulligan wrote: »

We went for a family shoot with Venture Leeds last week, and returned last night for the viewing. The shoot was fantastic, and I was very impressed by a good number of the images we viewed last night. Yes the prices are stupidly expensive, we ended up leaving empty handed after the saleswoman started printing off the 'included' photo on a cheap HP printer. To me this was the final straw, but on the lead up to this the sales person was unable to sell us a suitable package for our images. (Everything too large and we wanted a combo of 5 images).

I would happily recoup some of their costs (for the) as many of the photos were usable, but am I correct in my assumption that they are unwilling to release copyright?

We bought a few as xmas presents years ago and havent heard from them since.

A couple who we know who went around the same time just got the included photo, and 12 months later were contacted and offered a disk with all the images from the shoot on for £80.

Rebel_Hedgehog

andygb wrote: »

Is it possible for you to post a couple of images of the back of the frame, and maybe a small section of part of the front (not showing your identity of course).
It is usually quite easy to scan a picture and make it larger, but you may find that the image which you have been given as 7 x 5 is a relatively low resolution, so that when you enlarge it a lot of digital noise (pixellation) rears its ugly head.
What is not noticeable in a small size print becomes very noticeable at A4 or A3 size, and really detracts from the quality.

We don't actually have the picture yet as it takes 6-8 weeks.

I'm hoping to get it up to 10 x 8 but like you say, I suppose it depends on the Res.

Will keep you all informed but if anyone has the desk sized 7 x 5 I'll be interested to know if you've managed to reframe it or enlarge it.

Thanks for your input.