Tempest Photography News

[hjrl]

I'm putting this here because it needs traffic.

Is this something @mumsnethq or someone on Mumsnet with media and petition expertise could take on.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce5epgp2zdno

I am absolutely sickened by this company. There have been issues for years with price and quality in schools, I'm sorry I don't know if this just applies to Scotland. This is beyond comprehension and understanding.

Under no circumstances will I be allowing or purchasing a photo of my child from this company again.

The school and parent reaction is obviously as it should be. But this company cannot be allowed to continue.

How and or who is the best way to create social media and general public awareness

I have emailed my local authority and school but this has enraged me beyond that.

[hjrl]

Apologies I'm so cross I have not even summarised.

This company, who goes into our children's schools. Have offered two photos options to parents, one without the inclusion of complex needs children.

The school have refused the request and the parents but how on earth has this been allowed to happen.

Is this UK wide or just Scotland?

[vanillawaffle]

Do you know any alternative chains that we could suggest schools use?

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

There's already a thread on this but yes it's terrible

[ASighMadeOfStone]

There's another thread about this if you want to add it to that.

[hjrl]

Oh goodness I'm sorry. 😔 I shall locate it. Can anyone link. This should be deleted. I did search but couldn't find

[hjrl]

@vanillawaffle a local photographer every time

[Lancrelady80]

Dire company anyway, who take awful pictures. How hard is it to frame a portrait in portrait orientation rather than landscape, or to tell a child to move the hank of hair off their nose, or to not chop off tops of heads?

Nursery used a lovely local photographer who took good photos, but the minute the children hit primary school we were stuck with Tempest.

And clearly this is just dreadful.

[Pogointospring]

@vanillawaffle

Do you know any alternative chains that we could suggest schools use?

Obviously it’s appalling what Tempest has done, but rather than suggesting alternative companies I’d rather question the entire point of school photography, particularly that of individual children. I see how it made sense in the 1980s, but in a world where almost everyone with children and any ability to afford school photos already has a camera phone and the ability to print either at home or via snapfish etc what’s the point? Total waste of school time, often terrible photos, with restrictive packages of prints and ridiculously high prices. Just do away with the whole concept.

[Newtonianmechanics]

One of the mums was on LBC. Heartbreaking.

[seven201]

I had assumed it was just one rogue photographer who works for tempest? I'm not sure potentially ruining a whole company is fair when it could be the actions of just one employee. Obviously I agree it's awful what happened.

[PicaK]

I'd want to know exactly what happened before I cast judgement. They have a separate hub, photo day can be absolute chaos in schools, could it be simply a case of different formats and a mix up? Could it be a disgruntled employee? Could it be someone in the central team just overworked and an error made.
That said if it turns out it's not. If it's a deliberate central admin team decision, then I will be lobbying my school to stop using them.
And if Tempest don't put out some acknowledgement of the distress pretty soon (even if not admitting liability) then I will judge harshly whatever

[Shinyandnew1]

I'd want to know exactly what happened before I cast judgement. They have a separate hub, photo day can be absolute chaos in schools, could it be simply a case of different formats and a mix up?

I can see just how the school didn’t know what was happening-the photographers who come into us take the children and adults in small groups and then put them all together later, so the staff wouldn’t have a clue what the finished photo would look like. It’s then usually shared with parents via a link so the teachers still wouldn’t know anything about it till a pile of purchased photos arrive in their classroom ready to hand out to the parents.

Was it the case that the company made a class photo of class 3a (mainstream) and class 3b (hub) and class ab (both) and you had the option to buy either 3a, 3b or 3ab? I haven’t seen enough details to know what happened.

[Thepartnersdesk]

I think this is the Ratner moment for Tempest.

I had already questioned last week how school photos are still going having received another terrible photo of mine last week (which I wouldn't be surprised if it's from the same photographer as we are slightly north of this).

I looked how much they were to buy, sat them down and took my own, then added them to a photography backdrop. Much better results for a fraction of the cost.

They take so long for schools to organise and are worse than the one school took themselves on the first day of term.

I think many will decide it's not worth the hassle for the money they make out of it after this. No one wants to be that poor school over something that was not of their doing.