Venture photography

Snaggles

One possibly cheaper option is to contact the company who do your local school photos and arrange a family photo shoot with them - this can be a lot cheaper than Venture & the like, and they have loads of experience of getting good, quality photos of children.

Tondella

I've been ventured twice, with my brothers, at my mum's behest!

Experiences will vary because, as i understand it, "venture" is a franchise that various different photography studios operate under, but presumably to protect the name of venture they give training to the various operators.

I noticed our wedding photographer offers similar style portraits and i bet she charges a lot less too. If you like the style but not the price tag then i would suggest that you seek out a local photography studio offering the same sort of thing for less, it will probably be just as good.

fsdss

Sallys_Savings wrote:

How about phoning up colleges to see if they have students that take photos?...if you explain the effect you are after (show them venture website or brochure) who knows they might be able to help.

i have a friend who saw our photos and although thought like us, that they were stunning, was absolutely gobsmacked with how much we paid, compared to size of photos

now this friend (who is not short of a few bob, and is a professional international sports star) has told me that next time we have photos done, to use one particular local photography college. i have to say the pics of his daughter are stunning and quality as good as ours and his whole collection (of about one dozen different size photos) cost him £150.! this price was standard as it is the same price for us when i rang them up.


usually college students will have portfolios of work for you to look at.

ALWAYS_POOR

Venture photographs are absolutely fantastic, my sister had some done. They are also VERY expensive.

Raksha

I had some lovely pics taken of me and my sons a couple of years ago - they were intended as Father's Day present - Venture knew this when I placed the order (over £500!) and they were still over a week late - the pictures were great, very imaginative and the staff all good (except the ones who processed the order......)
Don't think I'd blow that much money again though.

claireandella

Tondella wrote:

I've been ventured twice, with my brothers, at my mum's behest!

Experiences will vary because, as i understand it, "venture" is a franchise that various different photography studios operate under, but presumably to protect the name of venture they give training to the various operators.

I noticed our wedding photographer offers similar style portraits and i bet she charges a lot less too. If you like the style but not the price tag then i would suggest that you seek out a local photography studio offering the same sort of thing for less, it will probably be just as good.

I also loved the whole 'Venture Experience' when a friend treated herself, but could not afford it for my baby daughter. Instead I arranged for a young local photographer to set up a white background and take some shots of my baby in the 'Venture style'. They are absolutely stunning. Some are black and white, in some she is held in my partner's hands as in an Athena print, in others she is surrounded by (fake) fur. The pictures are so good that he has used them in an advertising campaign and so many people have asked who took them that the photographer is now holding all day photo sessions for other mums.

Best of all, 35 good sized pictures have cost me just over £100 (so that's all the Grandparent's Christmas pressies sorted) and three framed and mounted 2'x 18'' pictures for my house cost me about a 10th of the Venture price. My friend actually asked which Venture shop I went to as she thought they were better than hers!

If anyone is interested I'm more than happy to e.mail you a sample of what he did for me!

kathfisch

I've just graduated in photography and I'm shocked at the prices they're charging!! where's my nearest and are they recruiting?! :rotfl:

Seriously though... I agree that the pics are impressive, but I have to say not terribly hard to achieve for the average successful student, especially with digital equipment. They'd need some basic kit but simple studios can be hired.

What you're paying for with Venture, I'd guess, is the 'experience'... the importance of which shouldn't be underestimated. A student might take a long time to get the same results, or end up with less alternatives for you to choose from, or might not have the skills to get your shy child smiling etc...

£100s of pounds for a print though is just silly!

jellyhead

my sis worked for venture for a while as one of those people who grab you in shopping centres. she was poached by a small firm doing the same thing but cheaper (just one office in telford though i think). we were sent a free £25 experience voucher (for the small form, not for venture but my sis has had pics from both and says it's the same 'experience') for filling in a questionnaire or a comp or something, can't remember. she told me they send a free voucher to anyone with an income of over 20k.

they kept calling to make an appointment so eventually we trekked over there and it was fab. they got a cracking shot of the baby on my son's shoulders, an action shot of my son jumping (carrying a ninja turtles bo staff - you can take toys etc. to be included in the photo) and one of the 2 kids together. we didn't like any of the 'family' pics. the free pic is 7 by 5 and it's framed. we chose which one we wanted but we also wanted one of the older boy on his own because it was fab and we didn't want everything to be 'about the baby'. and my husband loved the 3rd pic. so we paid £155 for 2 pics and i was shocked, but my sis reckons it would have cost twice that at venture.

she recently paid over £700 for some pics, but justifies that with 'it would have cost £1200 at venture' - eeek!

if you have a couple of hundred to spend on some pictures that are unusual and really fab then go for it. and if you can just get the voucher and choose your favourite pic from the slide show without wanting to buy all the other poses then even better. for a £25 voucher i'd say it was well worth it, our freebie was excellent (although they liked it too and it was in the small print that they can use it for promotional material without asking) but they do rely on people like my sister not being able to resist every pose, and even cheapskates like me opting to buy another pic or 2.

roswell

contact you local photography club im sure they will be more than willing to take your photos for a donation.

Cazzywazzywoo

I have used Venture and would love to go again but my bank balance won't now take it. We used an inheritance, rather than going on a holiday.
We brought 3 very large photo's -a beautiful black and white close up of my children, a huge one of the whole family including th dog and a multiple picture with 9 little action prints.
All fantastic and everyone who comes in to the house comments how beautiful they are.
This was even more special as one of my children is severely disabled and we don't know how long he will be with us -to get fantastic shots of him with his siblings having fun was great and priceless.

Having said this for the 3 prints it was £2000! Don't go unless you can afford it and are disciplined as the photos are bound to be stunning and you will want to buy them all!
I jusified it to my self by saying that it was like a personalised piece of art that would be passed down the family -and as I say we had the money on one side specially.
Hope this helps
Cazzy