HAs anybody had a session with Venture photography?

[IlanaK]

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!

surely there is a more recent thread to bring back up?

or am i just sceptical this evening

nope not scepitcal, kim bailey is one of the artists.

you need to pay for advertising kim love

I have a ventura portriat and at the viewing it is hard sell combined with lump in throat inducing music. I got one large print for the playroom wall and after my voucher that I had "won" I had to top up with £250. A lot of momey but I did love the picture.

I have also had photgrpahs taken by a local photographer than were a lot cheaper and although not as arty just as lovely.

To blow my own trumpet though the best picture of dd is a black and whie one that I shot, developed and printed myslef. I would love a dark room here so I could do some more.

hello can anybody give me a full price list

I went through the same thing with a company called Mario's, 'free' vouchers and photo, with a sale sitting in a dim-lit room with music. ICK. It was horrible and I think it was expensive (didn't buy anything), but maybe not quite as expensive as venture. At least it wasn't a chain, and Mario was the actual photographer.

For prices like these, why not just buy a digital SLR camera, like a canon eos for around £350 (or less maybe on ebay) and take your own photos for the rest of your life! Printing isn't that expensive, and blowing up photos is marginal. You can also find places that blow up photos onto big canvas/pillows, etc. The primrose hill branch - around 1200 for photos? Geez. For that price, buy a camera, go on holiday and get some nice holiday shots yourself... a much better experience all in all. It sounds like venture is screening the people who come in. It sounds like they offer 'free vouchers/photos' but when people who come in look like they won't pay, the photos get 'lost'. Hrmph. Screw 'em. I'd rather either do it myself or give business to locals.

Another idea: go to your local university and find the graphic design/media department and get students to do it for free or for cheap. Then you get people who might be genuinely excited about it, and you'd potentially get shots that are 'artistic'... or take photos you have and love to these people and get them to give them the 'photoshop' treatment. Or buy paintshop pro (a cheaper alternative to photshop) and experiment with photos yourself. All you need is a cheapish scanner or a digital camera and you're set. You can do all sorts of stuff to photos, and as I said before, then get them printed at a shop.

For mothers day last year, my hubby had a photo album made for me, but it's a book, with the photos printed in it. It's a beautiful gift and it cost about £50 using our own photos (which is extensive) at snapfish.co.uk and it was called a memory book, which starts at £20 (www.snapfish.co.uk/storephotobooks), and it's beautiful. I loved it. This isn't the only place ... do some research. Either way, the value is SO much better - a hundred-fold - than venture. After reading this forum thread I will NOT go there on principal.

I'm totally with Xrissy. A friend of mine had a session, had no idea of prices, went to the hard sell thing and left in tears. I think it's shameful praying on broke parents as they know our weakness- photos of our kids.

I actually think studio pictures are a bit naff, will look very dated in a few years time and much prefer natural family shots on the beach etc. For £500 you could could get a very good digital SLR which would take super photos and then you could play around with them.

We've just got a £250 Coolpix job. I clear the card and take it to the beach. Take loads of the kids running about and then play with them on the PC. Black and white, close up whatever you want. You may only get 3 but they will be amazing- I've done it so many times and I'm no camera buff. I've got some framed and people always ask who the photographer was!!!!! Always get down to the kids level and keep the camera in your handbag as you never know when you'll get a lovely shot.

Bubble machines look good (kids running around in clouds of bubbles)found that out by accident. Just about to get a gorgeous one of my boys actually hugging onto canvas.

Oh that Snapfish thing sounds lovely what a great idea.

Many of our friends have got burned and disillusioned by some studio companies. Fortunately we've had a good experience and would recommend a lady photographer called Toni Sheppard. She was recommended to me three years ago when I was looking to have some preggie shots done. We've seen her twice since to have shots done of the children.

She comes to your house or meets you somewhere like a park, I'm not sure if she has a studio - we weren't interested in that, wanted natural style. She's great with kids - really patient and the session is good fun. She charges for the session, which we weren't sure of first time - but she spends about 2 hours with you. She's very upfront about prices, not pushy at all -she's not cheap but we feel reasonable. Can't remember prices but we bought a canvas for about £150.

We've recommended her to friends, some of which have preferred to go to a studio lured by free offers because they didn't want to pay for the session - only to be stung later. Nothing for free in my book!

Don't have her no. but her website is www.tonisheppard.com

My BIL got photographs done of our kids for a Christmas present. The photographer is was a student just ont he brink of going into business. She spent ages with the kids and got some amazing shots, and airbrushed out all the marks on BIL sofa and walls in the backgound . We got two B&W prints and a whole CD of other photographs.

My recomendation, find a talented photography student and save yourself loads!!!

Crikey...wish i'd read this lot 24 hours ago. Had our venture photo sesson today. We all loved it. DD transmorphed in to a 6 y.o model.Had visions of decorating the house with our arty images ... until we were handed the price list. Viewing next weekend. Will try to be strong or will have to sell a kidney to buy the photos.

I've never used venture, but a friend of mine did. They had pictures done of her, her dp, and their ds. They must have bought maybe 10 photos in total, at a total cost of £1500. They had to get credit to pay for it as they are not overly well off.

Don't get me wrong, the pictures are nice... They're just not £1500 worth of nice, iyswim...

all the venture pics i have seen look the same..a bit old fashioned now too

My Neighbour did and the resulting pictures are gorgeous. but soooo expensive.

Some friends got us the £25 deal you mentioned as a new baby present. Great idea. but in reality, it was not my scene. The kids loved the photo shoot, but we weren't allowed to take them to the photo showing, and it was VERY hard to walk away iwth just the piddly little photo that you get for free - especially as we had had to travel quite far to get to teh studio, then had to travel to pick, then had ot travel to collect (they woudl not post). I must say, there were only around 4 pics that I would have considered getting from the reel they took anyway - but then DH is quite a good photographer, so I was sitting thinking we could have done that ourselves.... We settled for hte £40 one, a reasonable size to show our firends who had got the gift in good faith. We were really skint at the time, so all in all the travelling and £40 was definately not worth it.

However, if you are happy to spend quite a bit on photos, you are likely to get a really nice, unusual one out of it.

They are expensive, but as long as you go into the viewing knowing how much you are willing to spend you should be ok. Just stick to your budget.
I'm really pleased with ours.
Will add to my profile, just a mo . . . .

Done ( I think)

The problem with Venture (apart from the ridiculously expensive prices) is that they are franchises so the level of service and sales "techiniques" vary massively from branch to branch. It also explains why head office are often loathe to do anything...

Go and see my brother instead - his photos are far better than venture at a much lower price and much nicer framing and personal service, no hard sell - he has a studio in Warwick.

Given that venture can be dodgy & way overpriced, whats the best way of finding a local photographer whos good with kids? google, yp? are there any lists anywhere?

i was "selected" in a shopping centre and went along for our session about 10 days ago...Just me and my daughter - i am always the one taking the pics so there are none of her and i so i had big hopes for the picture but after reading forum on here i was dreading going back as i am not that well off and was dreading the hard sell but i have to say the girl was brilliant - just let me take my time and i ended up just paying £40 to upgrade the free 7x5 shot to a 10x8.. the pics were lovely but not killer shots so i decided that it wasnt worth paying a fortune for..all in all it was a fun experience for both of us - the photographer was great, worked teally hard with difficult subjects...one 6 year old and me who hates havibg pics taken. by the way we used the dorking studio.

fab compared to venture, this was a gift for me at least i can aford it:-)I had photo's taken at Venture not a good experiance!!!
The actual shot was fun untill the viewing the price were mad & i couldn't afford anything at all, this experince was brought as a gift i asked for just the complamentry and was told "you will lose out on the 20% offer if didnt purhcase anything or i should put the voucher 2 wards a bigger portrait".
i went back for a second viewing knowing i couldnt afford anything so when i went there i explained could i just have the complamentry my voucher was expiring, again the same thing "no no we will expand your vouchers". By then i couldn't be bothered thought i just leave the whole thing as i was embarresd & felt cheap!! I then recieved a letter 4 months later saying i hadn't seen my pictures off my beautifull family this made me cross becouse i had i just couldn't afford them. I phoned venture & told the lady how i felt and i only wanted the complamentry at that time, shes said because the voucher was out of date she could take £75 of any picture i wanted, which sounds good i ask how much was the lowest price was it was £185.00 i just wanted the fr3 one all a long its a check when they can expend your voucher when the want but its there policy they can't give the complamentry whens its out of date, they can give u £75 off but they only want u 2 spend.. Hope my experince will help someone. Head office at venture told me they couldnt do anything as the company are a franchis and they are more a art gallery then a phtotgraphy WHY DO THEY GIVE THESE £25 GIFT EXPIRIANCE 2 PEOPLE THEN? PLEASE DONT GET A GIFT FROM HERE ITS NOT A EXPIRIANCE ITS A BAD ONE!! in chistlehust there as a gr8 photography and the pictures r just as good n the price are gr8!!;-)

I would definitely recommend you look for a local photographer and tell him/her what style you would like, at the fraction of Venture's prices.

If you are in the Westcountry I can recommend a company called Artvue near Bristol.

They came to us, were really friendly and good with the children, came back to us with the slideshow to choose from and the prices were reasonable for lovely frames. We had a canvas done as well.

can't remember their details but you should be able to find them if you google 'artvue'.

WE used them after a few friends had had bad experiences with Venture £1000 for 2 smallish frames! and a hard sell.