Venture Photography

[petal2008]

We are thinking of getting a family portrait done as a present for our parents to include children and grandchildren.

One of my siblings wants to use venture although has not priced them. I prefer a more modern but formal style and so does my other sibling.

In fact I think venture look more staged/posed than the usual format.

Has anyone used them? I've heard they can be pricey and I know they have a pushy sales technique after being hounded in the supermarket on numerous occasions!

My parents are in their early 70s and I feel they would prefer a more traditional style but it has all got a bit tetchy and I will give in if I hear of any good reports.

We are all in our late forties and our kids are older teenagers.

You can get a package cheap (Boots or JL I think do them) for Venture, but their sales technique is very pushy. Make sure you go to the after-shoot thing to sort out the printing, not your parents if they are likely to give in easily. VERY expensive, madly so. Pics are a bit colourful and out there, not my style really. Despite what they say, they can be scanned and copied, a friend did this.

I'd go with a more traditional one myself.

Thanks. I knew my instincts were right. We will go with traditional. We know what the session cost is and the final photo.

Will have to offend and be in bad books I suppose! Oh well, nothing new!

they say they seem less formal and staged than traditinal photographers but they have a set range of poses that they like to use and so you are encouraged to throw balls around or sit in a certain pattern. I agree they are more staged than a typical portrait.

also mucho expenisve. we got a framed print with 9 small shots in which cost £900. god knows what i was thinking.

£900

We went to Venture as part of a Boots package about 6 years ago and it was a very fun experience, everyone took their shoes and socks off, we took our dog (a puppy at the time) and we all took seperate outifts and things of interest (My brother took his sax and a football) it was fantastic, the photographer knew exactly where to put us all for the best pics and let us see them all after she had taken them - she was brill.

However when my parents went back to look at the pictures they were horrified at the hard sell technique the sales man was taking - They were seated in a cinema-type room and he showed them all the pics, when my parents said they wanted the free one included in the package and perhaps one more that cost no more than £150 he practically laughed in their faces! He basically said 'ok but we cant photoshop those photos so you'll see all of the wrinkles and spots/blemishes and they will be awful', my Mum and Dad got up, filled in the form for the free one and left - very angry and upset with the way the man had treated them. They wrote a letter of complaint and were asked to go back to see a different salesperson who gave them the free one plus another complimentary one, whilst commenting on the fact that most families come in and spend "upwards of a grand" - Hmmm yes thats why you have to hard-sell to people is it?

My advice - tread carefully and only buy the package if they are head strong and cannot be bullied into buying things they cannot afford or if they can afford/are willing to pay.

Do a quick search and you'll find loads of threads on Venture. Have a good read of them before you decide. Personally I'd give an independent local photographer the job

Thanks for all advice. We have booked an independant and feel confident we will get what we want. There's no way we could afford those prices.

I've done a venture shoot as well and managed to walk away with just the complimentary shot although I was talked into upsizing it for £35!

The sales pitch was incredibly full on and I didn't particularly enjoy it. I also noticed that their 'style' seemed to consist of chopping off the tops of heads but maybe that's changed now.

VENTURE PHTOGRAPHY IN WATFORD REFUSED VIEWING OF PHOTOS BECAUSE MY WIFE WAS NOT THERE WHO WAS RECOVERING FROM A C-SECTION!!!!

I have recently had a photo session with in June 2011 with Venture Photography in Watford which went really well, I think they managed to get some very good shots of my 2 little boys, a 4 year old and a 2mth old. We made a special effort to go in that day as it is difficult for my wife who had a C-section with 2 month old, and I had to take some time off work. Anyway we arranged to view the photos a couple weeks later. I turned up to view the photos having taken a half day off work, while my wife was not feeling too well and looking after the baby being up all night. I arrived only to be told by Frank that I could not view the photos because both my wife has to be here as well. This is the first time I heard of this and I explained to them that given our situation this is unreasonable. They explained that this was the condition of the photo shoot (which they could not show anywhere in there literature) and that we both need to be thee r to decide on photos. I assured them that this was not necessary and that I was fully capable of deciding on my own. They refused and said that we could re-arrange another date so that we are both there. I almost lost it this point as I had taken time off work and there is no way I can get further time off work, furthermore it was not possible to guarantee both of us being there because of the baby.

Anyway to cut a long story short I got the head office number and asked to speak to CEO, but they pawned me off to customer services, who were very apologetic but to this day (it's been 4 weeks since the actual photo shoot!)have not managed to resolve the matter.

Disgusting!!

Has anyone else had similar problems with Venture Watford who are acting like double glazing companies?

Tufal

I wanted a family picture (just ds and I), they took about 3 pictures of us together, the rest (about 20) were just of ds. Lovely as they were, they were not what I had asked them to do. I'm fairly sure I've read on here that they have turned lone parent families away because they are not 'typical' families.