Venture photography

chalkiesalem_2

Murray wrote: »

I dont know whether its standard practice or not but Venture will let you take pets with you to be in the photo's.

We had a right laugh with 2 black labradors shedding hair all over the white background - it didnt show up in the photos thank goodness!!

We took our 2 dogs to ours. Lovely photo's but think we spent about £500:eek:

outdoor_girl_2

i have heard they are very good, my family had a voucher to use them but we were unable to make the appointment. the other year my sister found an independant photographer who uses the same concept as venture (white out room with fancy shots) and it was a fraction of the price. the end result was fab pictures at affordable prices and a fun evening to boot. why not give an independant photographer a chance, i think my sister paid £30 for a framed 10x8

Kimberley82

they are a rip off, I know a good place in the midlands far cheaper and better

sjc3

As with all of Venture Photographys advertising garb 'studio owner' makes them sound amazing. Maybe we were very unlucky with the studio we attended. To say we were disappointed is an understatement.

The photographic experience was horrible and we just felt rushed. Far from being a really good people person our photographer seemed to get very fed up with our child not responding to him.

When we went to view the photos they were not fabulous and amazing just rather drab looking. The sales person was pushy and to be frank downright rude. We didn't buy anything and ended up going elsewhere. Paid far less and were very happy with the results of another photographic company.

My advice - steer clear.

tod123

You cannot knock venture on some counts, they branded a new style of portraiture with the onset of digital , which was something in itself, but for that studio guy to suggest that taking lifestyle images is in some way complicated, is balls, in many ways it took the skill away from portraiture (lighting and posing ) and put it in the hands of graphic designers/ photoshop users. From a photographic point of view, making a people pile up and flooding them with light is not rocket science.

The images themselves, were a bit like when you hear a catchy song on the radio for the first time, and think its fantastic , but after 10 listens you are sick of it, because its a simple beat. The same with venture images, I bet so many people are sick of their people pile ups and kids on space hopper photos , but cannot bear to take them down as they realise they paid through the nose for them.

vroombroom

I used to work for Venture a few years ago and used to get some freebies:D but there are that many competitors out there now, I'd definitely research and see if you can get a better price x

[Deleted User]

I get my 'standardised white background family photos' taken when i go on holiday on a cruise ship. Free sitting, photos cost $20 a pop (american cruise line) or $299 if you want to get them all on DVD.

Pretty decent quality and it doesn't cost anywhere near as much as a proper studio sitting

Personally, I'm more a fan of a warm candid photo with a shallow depth of field (blurred background)

poppyolivia

Mark_Payne wrote: »

That would be copyright theft. [FONT=&quot]The 1988 Copyright Design and Patents Act section 77 & 80 assigns the copyright of the photographs taken to the photographer. It is contrary to the Act and an offence to copy or allow to be copied, the photographs covered by this contract by any means.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Whilst as a photographer I can't stand the Venture "double glazing / Timeshzre" sales technique, this would be poor form for a couple of reasons.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1. Theft is theft and two wrongs don't make a right.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. Blowing up a smaller print to a large format image never looks right (will look "soft"). I always work form the original files and prepare the image to print at the correct size.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I do a hi-key sitting in your home for £65 and this includes a complimentary 8x10" print. I don't use any high pressure sales techniques and people always seem to buy more than one pose at £20 each and if they don't my costs are covered anyway.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Venture has done more to damage the reputation of professional photographers in this country than any other company ever. £800 for an 8x10" photo is wholly unjustified and they should be ashamed.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Mark[/FONT]

Just had a look at your website, really stunning pics, great prices too, love the music!

miss_marsters

My hubby bought me the £25 deal for christmas, it was the photoshoot and a free 7x5 print. I'd read all the horror stories but i thought i'm not wasting £25

So we went with the kids to the shoot - they did call us beforehand to get a 'feel' for what we were looking for (or maybe how much money we had!) she did say the average spend was about £800! but i was upfront and said we just wanted a nice photo of us as a family because its so hard to get a nice one. I also mentioned we had bad credit lol.

The shoot was great and they again asked us what we wanted and took about 100 shots - but you couldnt see any - we had to come back for a viewing
pictures were mentioned again - i stood firm and said we just wanted the 'free one' - that we had no money.

I went to the viewing alone - my hubby is the weak one!, they casually asked where he was - i just said the children were ill. The photographs were lovely, nothing spectular but played to gorgeous music - even choked me a little bit.

Before he could get to the hard sell - i explained how we had no money and no lines of credit (a lil lie) and played the 'we'd loved to buy them but we cant' card. I was really surprised when there was no hard sell! i just chose the one i wanted and left!

Even when i went back to collect the photo (boxed in a frame) the staff were really pleasant and asked did i like photo, whixh i did and it now sits pride of place on my mantle

PArices are VERY excessive e.g for anoher 7x5 print it would be £165 :eek: and to have 10 images on disk is over £300 and can't (easily) be removed from the disk.

If your thick skinned and strong willed its worth a try for the freebie at least

Doozergirl

Maybe it's because I'm incredibly visually driven but if people want nice pictures of their family then they will get them from local photographers. And whilst people think the bloke who comes out for £65 is offering the same service, it isn't.

I don't need to sit an example of each work side by side to see which is of a higher quality, but others might. Some people are happy to put Ikea prints on their walls and accept that as art. Some people don't have art or pictures on their walls at all! Other people have higher standards of what goes on the walls. Not to say that Ikea stuff isn't fine, or cheaper photographers using cheaper products isn't fine either. I think if you can appreciate the differences between different types of work, then Venture portraits are worth it.

The most singularly expensive item at our wedding was our photographer, but I chose him because I could clearly tell the difference between his work and that of cheaper photographers. The only things that endure from the actual wedding day are photographs and memories. And the photographs are the things that keep those memories alive. For me, it was an investment. I don't have any pictures of men throwing top hats into the air, so Venture being kids on space hoppers doesn't meet with my idea of it. I think that meets more with other photographers, personally.

We've had our Venture photos for three years. I still sit and properly look at them in a way that I don't with the other family pictures we have around our house. They are beautiful. They're not cheesy, they don't look staged and they are still an absolute indulgence for me. They portray my kids beautifully, they set the theme for our lounge and I still remember how DS particularly loved every second of the shoot and fell in love with the photographer. That was investment into capturing how they were then. I couldn't be more happy with them. I do miss some of the ones that we didn't buy.

If you don't have money to spend on them, then it's wrong to pay that much. And if you can't really appreciate the difference, it's pointless too.