Regarding Venture photography person in town

[Flightattendant]

I feel bad about it. We were heading into town to get some food and take back something. Walking through precinct a woman stepped up to me from a sort of mobile stall/caravan type thing advertising Venture photography.

She said 'Hello, have you heard of Venture?' at which point I smiled nicely and said 'Yes, we've done it before and we really hated it'. She said 'Oh I'm sorry' and I felt really bad about saying that, and wondered if I could have handled it better.

I do hate Venture, for various reasons, and I also hate being acosted by people with clipboards...but I felt sorry for her. I was polite a I said it, if that's not a contradiction in terms...feel like maybe I needn't have told her we hated it though.

Possibly, shockers. More likely they were just being their usual crass selves! From what I've heard the "won a draw" approach is quite common. Lots of people do win because if you look at the small print, very little is actually being offered.

I think you're miles better off finding a local freelance news photographer, and asking him/her to do some reportage shots on the swings for whatever their day rate is. Much better photographs, more interesting composition, and about a quarter of the price.

Really, really utterly shocked at these stories particularly the ones about adopted children, single mothers and Che, your awful experience at the hospice...what were they thinking, insensitive b*stards.

I am so appalled that I will henceforth discourage anyone I know from being conned into a 'free' session.

They don't let you have anything without a heap of aggro and pressure.

And yes, shockers, we 'won' our free session in M&S - I had never heard of them, it was about 5 years ago and they were quite new I think. Looks like nothing has changed

I was almost tempted to write on the side of their trailer thing 'do not be conned by these people' but thought I'd probably get arrested

My MIL won a photoshoot in a local comp so we all went along to it, the photo shoot itself was very quick & we all felt a bit odd having to leap around all over the place. In the photo that we got out of it we all look very pale & all have ginger hair....DH also looks like he's trying to shake a poo out the bottom of his trouser leg but I guess that's more to do with him then the photographer.

YANBU OP - good on you I say!

I got a modern style art photo printed on canvas of my children last year in northern France - it cost 80 euros, which I found a bit jaw-dropping at the time, but the result is fantastic, and worth every cent.

Don't go for a chain like this, pick a craftsman photographer whose other photos you like. That way you'll have a better chance of getting an individual product that will suit you.

Oh my god I got ripped of my venture last year, we had a voucher and went along and basically got stung for over £1200! PLEASE DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE! They prey on parents and so many of us fall for it. I've not been back instead found a photographer who does all the same stuff, plus the natural pics for a fraction of the price! But most importantly she's friendly, not pushy, you dont have to decide then and there. So look around people! There are so many photographers about this one was www.reportagephotography.info which is local to me

When I've been accosted by these Venture people, I've also said 'I don't like the pictures.' The pictures are overlit and often people are covered up by their hair and they could be a picture of anyone. These days, you can take better pictures yourself with a digital camera.

We did it. Same kind of deal. We got accosted in Putney shopping centre with our 6 week old baby and persuaded to come along for the photo shoot. The photographer was actually very nice and got a few decent pics. We bought about £250 worth in the end. I kind of think that is one's breakeven when compared with the normal model (circa £130 for the session, then £30/photograph).

Having said that, the business model is a bit creepy as it depends on emotional blackmail on two levels. Firstly, you have used an hour of a photographer's time and secondly they are not selling pictures but "unique memories" of you and your family. Most nice people get bludgeoned into buying at least a couple, and some who cannot afford it end up parting with a fortune (the financing option is particularly unpleasant; no-one should borrow to buy a picture).

In summary, I am not that unhappy with our own experience but I would recommend people to just hire a studio in the normal way, pay a little more upfront but then have things done the way you want (not only "high definition") and keep control of the process.

They're horrendously overpriced. I have a photographer friend who will do a photoshoot and give you the CD of all the pics for £30, much nicer than venture too. It's just wrong and plays on parents emotions.

Any good press/documentary photographer (not touting, honest!) will find out what you want from your pictures before taking any dosh from you or, indeed, taking any pictures. People do actually know what they like and quite often it doesn't include HD, that leaping about shaking out a poo thing or massive, billboard sized canvases that cost the same as a small house. In fact, most people want some prints but also a disc of pictures at a size that can be emailed to friends and family. However, the benefit of using a freelance photographer, rather than a franchise, is that you get the one-off package that suits your specific requirements. The idea that people should be offered credit deals to finance a family photo session is wrong. Very wrong.

I loathe that style of photos.

I had some lovely ones taken of me and ds1 by a local photographer in my garden - cost about £30.

And no leaping around required thank god.

My lovely SIL, bless her, got done by them just before Xmas. Basically, they convinced her to buy a voucher for us as our "family" Xmas present. So she spent £25 on a voucher thinking she was giving us a really nice no strings attached photo session to use at our convenience.

I dont think she realises that its not just as simple as turning up for the shoot and then taking the 7x5 or whatever the free shot is, but that they give you the slide show with the soundtrack and that if the photographer has actually managed to take some really decent shots, its a little heart wrenching to only walk away with one.

But that aside, the voucher expired at the end of February, had to be the whole family, and Monday-Friday only. So DH would have had to take a day off work just to use the present, and his schedule just wasn't allowing for that so soon after Xmas. I did try and book a session for just me and my daughter thinking I'd just take the 7x5 of the best one but they wouldn't have me - even though I said I was a single mother to get round the family clause on the voucher - but they said that the voucher doesn't apply to single mothers. I asked if they would be willing to refund my SIL (who I called my "sister" as a single mum wouldn't have a SIL and they, of course, said no.

They are plankton.

Phew, I'm not the only one.

We enjoyed the shoot, photographer was great, but the sales guy who sat in the room and went through the shots with us was a real bully. Kept going on about how much other people had spent on their framed pictures (several thousand pounds) and I kept repeating that we were there because we got a freebie.

And to make matters worse, he kept saying "Now, I love this one" and I'd say "but that's not a true likeness of DD, so I don't like it". At one point I got so peed off I said "Look, I take thousands of photos of my DCs, so I know when I see ones which really capture their true likeness". He then said "With respect, you're not a professional photographer". And I thought because he didn't actually know that I wasn't (I know some photographers who won't go near portraiture) and because that was just bloody rude.

So YANBU. I frequently say to people on those promo stands, "Sorry, no, never again. We were bullied by the sales team".

I "won" the voucher, we went along, photographer found it hard to cope with Mr. Perma-motion DS1 but got some nice shots. We bought 1 for £200 as we had realised that I am not in any of our pictures, so thought it would be nice to have one of all of us! And we took the free one of the 3 kids. But the sales woman was awful. We were stuck in there for more than an hour and had to verge on rudeness to get away from the chatter about finance and "oh, but isn't it a shame, this one is so lovely" and "you'll regret.."

They need to have a big rethink. Although everyone else there on the two occasions (shoot and choose) we were there seemed to be getting loads of pics, so maybe it works for some!

YANBU

We got the 'free' voucher and ended up paying £995 for 2 pictures!!

Still haven't paid my mum back for that

Haven't read all the posts but I hate venture too...we had some pictures done of DS when he was 11 months old (he's now nearly 5) with 1 of those £25 things. She must have took about 50 photo's but it took over an hour and out of the 50 photo's there was literally 1 half decent one. As nice as DS's feet/hands are I really don't want a picture of his feet!!

I was so upset as had really wanted some lovely photo's of him so MIL contacted a local photographer and we went and had some more pictures done with him...also not "posed" ones but much more natural. He literally took photo's for about 10 mins which is a much better lengh of time and said come back in a day or two. When we went back I burst into tears when I saw them cause they were so amazing...in 10 mins he'd managed to get about 150 fantastic photo's and there honestly wasn't 1 I didn't like. It was much much cheaper than Venture and the whole process was much nicer and we got better photo's out of it without any hard sell at all.

I also did the "I really didn't like the Venture photo's" to one of the Salespeople who cornered me a few months later...she was very shocked as apparently I was the only person who didn't like them...err I think not!

I usually just grunt at them, you were more polite than I will ever be.
I'm not keen on their style of photography, don't enjoy posed photo sessions and would be very with their sales procedures.

We went years ago when DS was 2yo. We got the £25 voucher and booked the session in Reading. I hated it throughout. It felt silly and forced, plus they wanted me to take off my shoes, which I refused. I liked my shoes and I wanted them in the pictures! Anyway, when we went back for the hard-sale bit, we told the guy "don't waste your time. We are buying nothing. Give us the free picture and we are off". He was actually so shocked that he did just that. He was probably new :-)

I'm in shock at the prices of their pics they really charge that much? What size pics are they at £995 for two?

Our wedding photographer is a family friend and he also photographs babies (he actually prefers babies to weddings) he's brilliant and I still baulked at paying £120 (with mates rates discount) for a lurverly canvas print of us on our wedding day. Now I realise that's actually a good price and when LO #2 comes along I reckon we'll ask him to do a family pic
I think Venture pics on the whole look a bit fake so yanbu.

Amazed really at some of these awful stories.

I have to agree with Aligrylls, their entire business model appears to be built soundly on manipulation and trrickery.

I almost wished I had let the woman in town talk to me, told her I was a single mother and waited for her to say I couldn't take part...at which point I would have felt justified in being as rude as possible.

Missed opportunity there

we, or should I say I, got taken in as well.
Although I must say the studio/photographer/sales people were all lovely, and we got some lovely photos. But I did point out it was about DS, not photos of us.
Nearly caused a divorce when DH found out about the prices.
Massively overpriced and not happy about the options you have for the shots, there are no cheap options and you can't even take a couple on a memory stick. But if I won the lottery I would go back and get them all.
We got 3 10 x10 shots and 3 tiny 4x 6, and it cost about £1400.
Main problem is price, the options you have when you get in there, their emotional blackmail technique, and their idea of family is just ridiculous.

So when I see Venture I can just say 'single mother' and they will leave me alone as I dotn fit their profile ?? ........Result