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Original poster

HAs anybody had a session with Venture photography?

173 replies

IlanaK · 01/01/2005 09:59

We won a prize draw for a session with them. It is tomorow and I am wondering if anyone else has done one.

Our voucher is for the session and for one photo (total cost supposedly £125). But I have my doubts now as to how legitimate the prize draw was as I saw them advertising these vouchers to give people at christmas for only £25. When I filled out the prize draw form I mentioned that we were interessed in a photo of the kids for a large space on our wall and I suspect they gave us the voucher as we were a good bet to buy something.

Anyway, has anyone experienced this company? Are we in for a hard sell tomorow? And how expensive are their photos to buy? I am guessing very expensive!

Thanks!

OP posts:
Titania · 02/01/2005 22:07

NOOOOO........dont waste your time or money on them!!!! we had the same as the offer you have got.....we got a small framed photo of dd and it cost us £80!!! We were supposed to be having a family portrait but there was only ONE pose with all of us in it.........then the photos weren't ready when they said they would be and then they lost them and by the end they were really really late........yet we still had to pay full whack for them.........please don't be tempted by the 'free sitting' etc vouchers/offers........

BTW.......the frames are rubbish and they broke within a week........

crazy · 02/01/2005 22:09

my sister has just been for a session with her daughter, we got photos for christmas, really disappointed, the way they framed them, chopped the top of their heads off, expected the full picture for £1000

Titania · 02/01/2005 22:10

dds feet were missing on hers......considering it was supposed to be a full body pose........

Tommy · 02/01/2005 22:48

I also "won" a free sitting and 5x7 photo (which is really small)and I'd had the idea to have all my parents' granchildren in the shoot (6children) which would have made them really small so I decided against going to the shoot anyway but I found their aggressive marketing really off putting - they kept phoning me to ask when I was coming and also refused to send me a price list before the shoot. In the end I told them I wouldn't come unless they did and I couldn't believe the prices so didn't bother.
My brother and SIL have just had some done with their children and spent about £900 - I haven't seen them all but the one I have seen is nice - but not out of this world by any means.
Was talking about them with a friend the other day and she was saying that you really have to look at it as buying "art" and not just a photo and I can see her point but I genuinely don't see why they can charge so much - or why people pay it tbh

blueteddy · 02/01/2005 22:55

Ours has the top of my head chopped of & half of ds1s body.
That is the "art" bit I think!

JanH · 02/01/2005 23:05

Does it depend on the individual studio? We had a session locally (Blackburn) 4 years ago - we "won" it from a supermarket display - we postponed it at least once because DS2's front teeth were half out and wonky and they were fine with that, and generally were pleasant and obliging.

We looked through the albums in the waiting area before we went in and there were lots of Blackburn Rovers players' (eg Alan Shearer) families - taken at their houses - which they had probably been given for nothing but it was interesting to see them!

The session itself was loads of fun - it was the b&w/white floorboards/bare feet type with a lot of slapstick from the photographer. We had a selection of pictures - both girls, both boys, all 4, whole family - and when we went to the viewing we chose one of all 4 kids and one whole family. There was really no pressure and we were quite happy with the whole thing.

kangasantamummy · 02/01/2005 23:10

I still can't get my head round why it costs so much

what do you mean by art?

I am really confused as to why you are paying so much to have photos with heads and feet cut off?

why not refuse to pay?

I know I am being really dim but why?

marthamoo · 02/01/2005 23:18

The pictures I have seen are really lovely - but there is no way I could ever justify spending that much.

I took about 50 B&W pics of my two boys on my digital camera all in one session (farting about against a plain background a la Venture) and printed off the best 3, put them in a nice aperture frame from Habitat and have that up on my wall - probably came to less than a tenner and gets a lot of admiring comments!

Dh got a graphics pad for the PC for Christmas so we're going to start churning out our own tasteful arty pictures anyway! He's already done a Warhol-esque one of the kids - it's great!

lulupop · 03/01/2005 07:38

totally agree with marthamoo - that whole thing about Venture being "art" because they take some strange-angle shots and frame them chopping tops of heads off is just b**cks if you ask me.

I have a friend whose DH is a fashion photographer of quite high renown - he recently shot the Levi's campaign amongst other things - and he charges £800 PER DAY! We could hire him to follow us round taking arty pictures all bloody day for less than a Venture picture.

I'm really amazed at how many people I know - and not all of them are well off by any means - have coughed up the ludicrous prices for these pictures. The only explanation I can think of is good old British embarrassment meaning once they've had the shoot done, they feel they're obliged to buy pictures for some reason.

Tommy · 03/01/2005 08:14

I just said I could see her point about the "art" thing but have never seen the chopped off heads and hands shots! That would annoy me alot

codswallop · 03/01/2005 08:35

well, ( speaking as a fool who coughed up) ds3 has a droppy upper eyelid ( soon to be corrected) and they said did we want them to lift it and we thought maybe - they made such a hash of it, he looked likte the photos of saddams sons in t he morgue!!- that thye then redid it leaving the droop

AuntyQuated · 03/01/2005 09:02

jan we went to one in Blackburn....no pressure lots of fun but still OTT expense. we 'won' ours too and only chose the free one.

blueteddy · 03/01/2005 21:31

Bloody venture!
Just gone along to try & view my pictures for my long awaited voucher & guess what?
They have lost them!!!!!!!!!

codswallop · 03/01/2005 21:32

aq much more restrained than big spender dh

blueteddy · 03/01/2005 21:37

This is just the bloody icing on the cake
Was sat in their studio for 30 mins b4 anyone bothered to tell us that there was a problem!
Also travelled 20 miles to be told this

blueteddy · 03/01/2005 21:38

DON'T USE VENTURE CANTERBURY!!!!

blueteddy · 03/01/2005 21:43

Sorry, could not work out what your message said cods!

blueteddy · 03/01/2005 21:54

I was the bloody big spender!

handlemecarefully · 04/01/2005 10:10

Yes, not good VFM in my opinion.

lunavix · 04/01/2005 11:00

My advice would be to find a local photographer who can do the same style for a better price.

We knew someone through dp's work who books photographers, and they do the cool contemporary style pictures. We had an hour long session, local to us, where he took a ton of pictures, it was just him, us and ds, his camera and his laptop, at the end he showed us all 400+ photos and we cut them down to about 50. The lady who does his marketing came to our house, with her laptop with the 50 photos, each in colour and black and white, and we whittled it down to buying 11 smallish sized - 8 by 5? I don't know lol and also three 10 by 8s. The total cost to us was £200 (we had a 10% discount, so that would have been what 220?) and they are just beautiful and he edited a few of our flaws out of them We went to a local framer and got an absolutely beautiful frame and mount for £100., with the three big photos across the one frame... so we have a beautiful framed set plus 11 small ones.

I really don't think venture is worth it. We were hounded by them after 'winning' a voucher they give out to anyone, and while the photos can look really nice, as everyone else points out, most good photographers can do exactly the same.

bettys · 04/01/2005 11:16

I've said it before on these threads (and I might as well say it again!) but for the money you spend on Venture you could get a painted portrait, which would be a lot more original & personal.

lockets · 04/01/2005 11:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

mumbojumbo · 04/01/2005 11:43

DH got me a voucher for my birthday.

Did the session before Christmas with dh, ds1 and ds2. Session was good fun, although I felt it was a little short. In the end, ds2 (13 months) had enough so it was probably just as well. Got the price list after the photos taken and shown all the various options. I felt that the options were glossed over very quickly (in particular, the cost!). We made an appointment to view the pics after Christmas.

Now done this. Didn't like the viewing format much. I also took a dislike to the chap doing it who was somewhat over-familiar and IMO patronising. Viewed a slide show to music and then had to discard those we didn't like. We were under pressure to do this very quickly. Then we went through the remainder and whittled them down to 13 shots. All the time, the pressure was on to choose. It seemed there was very little time to browse. Also, there was pressure to go for a large print. We don't have the wall space so had to opt for something smaller. The photos, to be fair, were stunning and it was very difficult to choose. First choice of prints was just too expensive. Let me rephase that - absolutely ridiculous!

I am pleased with what we finally selected. We are waiting now for the framed prints to be done which I think takes about 8 weeks.

Overall impression? Good but v.v. expensive! I guess if you know what you are letting yourself in for then it's not too bad. Otherwise you are likely to get a shock!

WideWebWitch · 04/01/2005 11:59

Why ever would it take 8 weeks to print and frame a digital photo fgs?! All part of their marketing strategy to appear exclusive etc if you ask me.

stressedmummy · 04/01/2005 12:03

I have just had 1 disaster after another with venture
Yesterday was just the icing on the cake!
We had a 1pm appointment to view the pictures, after finally getting my voucher.
We drove for 20 miles, paid for parking & made our way to the studio for 1pm.
We were then left sitting there 4 half an hour before the bloke came out shrugging his sholders, saying they could not find them & thought that they must have been gone over with someone elses prints!
He then said that he did not know what to suggest!
I went mad, telling him of all my disasters with them, which he seemed aware of!
I told my Mum(who was with me) that if it wasn't so annoying that it would almost be quite laughable!!!
I have now written a big letter of complaint to the head office, so we will see if they take any notice.

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