AIBU to just use the free photoshoot and not buy any prints?

[PhotoPromotion]

I have a won a photoshoot for my family which I am very grateful for, as it’s not something we can afford to pay for ourselves.

The shoot we have won gives us different scenes and one free framed photo of our choice.

I would love a professional photo of us altogether, but my family are saying it is cheeky to take them up on the prize if I am not intending to buy anymore prints.

I am aware they do these giveaways in the hopes people will then go on to spend hundreds on the photos, but unfortunately that’s not money we have, and it is a prize I won fair and square.

They are making me feel entitled and embarrassed to go ahead with it and just get the free print.

AIBU?

THANK YOU!!! I have been trying to remember the name of that company for literally years!!!

Are they still going?! They were all the rage 20 years ago, and although i never had a shoot with them I loved seeing other people's photos, you could always tell the style as it was unlike other formally sat shoots that were available at the time. Of course now their style is much more widespread with independent professional photographers at much more transparent and honest pricing structures, and I haven't seen a Venture studio or Advert for absolutely years, I assumed they no longer existed.

My SIL insisted we paid for one of these for my PIL significant anniversary.
Told us it was a package and photos were included. When we had to go and select the photos it turned out they weren’t included at all. The more you bought the cheaper they got, but started off a fortune.
The photos were dreadful, really dreadful. They photographer had tried to stitch together images of everyone from different photos, without checking how tall everyone was. I was the tallest in the photos, I’m 5ft!
Anyway, we refused to buy them, PIL felt pressured but only brought one. Photographer looked furious.

You ask would it be unreasonable to do something

It transpires that you have done exactly that ie professional shoot and only taken the free print a few times in the past

So you’re asking whether it would be unreasonable to do something that you have done. a few times. already

get it now? 😂

i remember seeing these “professional” pics at some homes when i babysat as a teenager. 30 years ago. All matching jeans, white t shirts and bare feet. Didn’t realise anyone still did that! Mumsnet is an education sometimes!

you must be very lucky OP

to have “won” this competition so often!

A bit of a coincidence that out of all the people who could have "won" it, you've "won" it more than once, don't you think?

i would hedge a bet that if someone said to the photographer…
“i haven’t “won” your son petition but l very interested in your professional photo but how does it work because i can’t commit to buying any without seeing first. “

he would say “come along for a no obligation photo shoot with a free 6x4 print at the end of it and then if you like the pics, we can discuss purchases”

so the same as the competition “winners”

I’ve never heard of that company, this is a local one with only the one branch.

No, your reply of “says the one” to me still doesn’t make sense. But that’s okay, because you’re in some sort of aggressive angry fog over this whole situation so that’s probably why

Well it’s two separate competitions over the course of the 14 years we’ve been using them 🤷‍♀️

I've seen quite a few photoshoots on Groupon recently where you pay a tenner for a photo shoot that takes hours, and you only get one or two photos. If you want more, it's another £300.

I have similar feelings, OP. The tenner isn't going to cover their time for the photoshoot, but I don't want to drop a few hundred either. I can say no to upselling... I'd just feel bad!

goodness me, why did you ask if you just wanted folks to agree with you that you should do it.

Yes, multiple angry posts on the same thread. It’s really weird how invested you are over this but I guess if you don’t have anything else to do 🤷‍♀️

There’s no swerve.

I don’t. I’m not fussed either way. If people think IABU that’s fine.

It won’t change the outcome, but I was curious.

So your family don’t want to do it. They are , in your own words , making you feel entitled and embarassed, you’re lashing out on a thread you started asking if you were being unreasonable at anyone who disagrees with you, and you don’t care about the responses.

so you’re going to drag your family to a free photo shoot, that they don’t want to do, all for one free print?

OP, why have you actually posted here? You have apparently used this photographer on multiple occasions, spent thousands and also previously only used the free photo from a prize draw so why do you feel it necessary to ask if you can do the same thing again? Particularly as, from your responses to posters, you have absolutely made up your mind that you are doing this anyway!

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant extended family like my mum/aunt.

My nuclear family who are in the photos love it! If they didn’t, we wouldn’t do it. It has to be something we’re all up for.

There’s no lashing out, just confusion over how invested one particular poster has got over this situation (18 posts out of 90 😂).

I was curious as to the wider view.

Why have you started this thread, op?

You are completely certain that what you're planning to do is perfectly fine (indeed, you say you've done it before without issues), so why are you here arguing the toss with posters and accusing people of having "issues"?!

Oh, x post. Wider view? 🤔

Not “people”. One particular poster. They posted 18 times in a thread of only 90 replies, and the first 13 are on the first two pages.

Quite clearly they are het up and over invested in the situation, especially when you read all their posts.

To be honest OP I think that poster was just enjoying getting a reaction from you and you played right into it.