Water babies, photoshoot rip off

bosseyed

My wife takes our son to Water babies once a week, all well and good. At the end of each term they offer the chance to have a photograph of your child swimming underwater, a la Nirvana Nevermind. Which would be rather good I think, but the prices! Dear god the prices. Rip off and a half.

£45 to book the session. Perhaps not too bad, they do have a photographer with an underwater camera to pay after all. However, if you want the basic, bog standard, unframed 6x9 picture - to you squire £59.99. If you want it put on a canvas, largest size available is 20x30, a tasty deal at £349.99 :eek:

Now I know how much canvas prints cost, I had one done from one of our holiday snaps. Its brilliant quality and a lot larger than 20x30, I paid £60.00.

Plus, its a 10 day wait after the photoshoot, then you have to attend an event to choose your picture and definately not get the hard sell in any way whatsoever I'm sure. After you're chosen your picture, its a 2 month (2 MONTHS! Why so long! ours arrived within 2 days, you can get them done in half an hour at some places) wait for the image to arrive.

Its a shame really. I'd love a souvenir of my sons earliest swimming days, but when its such an obvious rip off I don't feel I can justify it. That money is probably better off spent on my terrible crack addiction or going in his savings or something.

shaun_from_Africa

One of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KODAK-WATERPROOF-UNDERWATER-DISPOSABLE-CAMERA-NEW-/130486703989?pt=UK_Photography_Film_Cameras_ET&hash=item1e619d1775#ht_1014wt_1136

Or even go slightly upmarket:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VIVITAR-VIVICAM-8400-UNDERWATER-DIGITAL-CAMERA-8M-NEW-/110480947556?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item19b92d7964#ht_1099wt_902

And a trip to your local swimming pool (if it has a kiddies pool), and you will probably end up with a few reasonable pictures for a fraction of the price.

vyle

Photographers can rake it in. Might be worth doing what I did for my wedding:

Get a decent SLR, take the photos yourself (or get a friend who's decent to do it for you), get them printed for sensible money in a timely manner, and in the end, you have both an awesome camera AND great pictures.

nomoneytoday

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

One of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KODAK-WATERPROOF-UNDERWATER-DISPOSABLE-CAMERA-NEW-/130486703989?pt=UK_Photography_Film_Cameras_ET&hash=item1e619d1775#ht_1014wt_1136

7dayshop have them for about £7 delivered
They are fine in bright perfect conditions IMHO.

BTW Waterbabies don't have the hard sell, with ours they didn't need to as the pics sold themselves. If you want a picture then that's the price, if you don't then that's the end of the matter.
I'm sure that they make a profit, but a diver spec DSLR with waterproof casing etc isn't a cheap outlay.

pinkshoes

I thought most swimming pools had banned the use of cameras nowadays??

jennypdolphin

Some have, most of the ones I've been to have, which is a big shame in my opinion as I'd love to have some nice pictures of my kids swimming and having fun in the water as they grow.

Gers

pinkshoes wrote: »

I thought most swimming pools had banned the use of cameras nowadays??

Most swimming pools will have a photography policy - something along the lines of completing a form at reception and obtaining permission. Not many have actually banned it so best to check with your local staff.

jennypdolphin

well our local one will only let you in if they can see the photos afterwards (impossible with one of these underwater throwaway ones linked too) and only if they have someone available to keep an eye on you (rephrased them a little), last time we asked we were told a simple out and out no. same as at my kids swimming lessons!

Edit: Oh the one and only time we were allowed (it was a very quiet day) there were no forms to fill in and they never bothered to check our photos on the way out! so waste of time trying to put the policy in place really

sheaton

I have been having a similar problem with getting underwater pics of my lo... I am a professional photographer so as you can imagine, I thought I can just do this myself!!!

So I did... it took me ages to find a pool that would allow me to take photos. When I did find one and took some pics I was soooo disapointed at 1. how hard it was to do!!! and
2. how rubbish the quick snap pics were! grainy and blurry! not good

So, I went back to the drawing board (as I had a list of mummies wanting shots of their wee ones!!)
I looked into underwater housing - £1000 minimum for one to fit one of our DSLRs!! Then into hiring out a pool - some charge £75 per hour to hire a lane!!!
Not cheap to get set up at all!

I decided that it would be an investment to buy the kit and then start offering it through our studio (although am very aware that it will take a lot of shoots and a lot of babies to re-cover those costs!)

It has taken us a long time to learn how to get the shots right and it can still be hit or miss whether you get that perfect shot every time! But it is such a lovely keepsake to have of your baby! AMAZING! ...and totally worth spending a bit more on!

However, I would like to add, I totally agree that Waterbabies are too expensive. But so is Venture! They are both just big businesses out to make as much money as possible!

Hope that helps or clarifies the costs!?!?