Venture photography

[louise2011]

'Won' a sitting & 7x5 photo. My friend had photos done with them & they really are beautiful. I nearly keeled over when she told me her order came to £850!

I really want to get some lovely pics of my children & also of DH & I before we become too decrepit!! I would love them to touch pics up so I look young & beautiful. (this may take some time).

I have spent an evening looking at lots of local photographers work & haven't been impressed with many. I few I liked seem to charge a fortune even for the sitting!

Question is- can you really just take your free photo or is this impossible to do? Will I need to take out a bank loan to fund these pictures?

I take my own (photographer friends say excellent) photos on a digital slr (canon 40d using mainly a sigma prime lens and a cheapo nifty fifty canon jobbie)

For a little bit more than the money you'd spend on naff posed photos you can buy second hand kit and a nifty fifty lens, develop a new hobby one your children might find interesting and learn how to take a lifetime's worth of beautiful (unposed, more natural) photos of your family.

Any you want printed can be sent off and even a3 would cost just a few quid.

In common with companies like Sharps Bedrooms and Moben kitchens they all work on the same hard sell principles: They want both 'decision makers' there because they don't one of you to say 'I need to go home and talk it over with my OH before I can commit to that amount of money.' They know if they let you walk out of the door without a big sale they are unlikely to ever get one.

If they have you both in the same room at the same time it is easier to persuade you. Also if one of you thinks it is outrageous you are less likely to kick up a stink in front of the sales rep. Also, going home to think about it means you will see sense and probably not buy - or at least not buy as much.

I amgine they will do the same discounting down techniques as well - go in with ludicrously high prices then when you say no, start bargaining with you, as their time and money is already spent on the shoot so they just want to claw back what they can.

I make a point of NEVER getting involved with any company that works like this. There is really no need. If their product is that good it should sell itself.

We got hooked into one of these. "Won" the photo etc. I was ready to walk when the hard sell started. DH is a bit soft. The "free" photo was a shitty 6x4. They refused to do any digital enhancement as although we paid for something a fraction larger it still "wasn't worth their while", so the photo is overexposed. We "won" it a branch some way away and they wouldn't transfer the offer locally. So we had to go all the way there for the shoot and the viewing, and then they refused to post the photo, so a third trip was required. Disgusting.

Most independent photographers will do as good a job, if not a better one on family photographs for you. I work alongside a number of photographers and some are ex Venture and their work is lovely, at a fraction of the Venture prices. Have a look around and I'm sure you will find somewhere suitable, but don't give up on the idea altogether. Professional photos are lovely to have and a good photographer won't make them look contrived or dated.

find a professional photograph in your area. we had pictures done of the children, the photographer came to our home and got to know the children, showed them the equipment, made a few shots inside. then we went to the park for more outside photos.
very lovely natural photos, happy children...
took 3 hours and 300 £ (would have happily paid more than that) and 20 photos on a cd with all the reproduction rights (no prints).

Thanks everyone, won't be going to Venture!! As I said I only fancied it for my vanity purposes.
Funny how when you filled in the form for free prize draw they asked for your occupation!! Wonder why? Tell you something they are relentless- been phoning me for last month every few days from a 'blocked' number. I have just been ignoring it. Few emails too.

Will just need to find someone local ASAP. Baby still has gummy smile so want to capture that!

Look on Facebook groups. I am a photographer and when I was starting out I offered free shoots and then sold the prints with no obligation to buy. A lot start out like that. Fb is a free way of advertising so try searching.

Hi everyone. Have had similar horror experiences with Venture Marlow. Was grabbed by a venture employee at their stand in the Eden Centre, High Wycombe and was asked to complete a questionnaire which I did. Receieved a telephone call that I had been 'specially selected' by the studio to receive a frame of 7"x 5" BUT the hard sell started when I went to collect and was given all the blurb about how many more pics I could have and how wonderful they would be. Be very careful.........the push is very hard sell with the pictures I was interested in would have cost me over £1000 if I had agreed to all they were recommending me to buy. Of course they will, it's a big mark up profit for them. My husband said it is like a new car salesman trying to convince you that you DESPERATELY NEED TO BUY A FERRARI........when a Ford Focus will do the job just as well. Hold on to your money and shop around. There are better deals elsewhere.

Tell us where you are and you may get a local recommendation. We have a fab photographer round here who used to work for venture but is now independent with reasonable prices.

A girlfriend of mine is threatening legal action against Venture Marlow because they changed their minds about family pictures that were taken because of bad quality photos and frames and the studio is refusing to refund their money. Beware of the trap.

Girlsunday - at least a Ferrari is actually better than a focus, ie you're getting something nice for the money! Venture were VERY hard sell with us too, about 7 years ago when we also 'won' the small photo thing.

They were rude and impatient at the shoot. Then when we went to collect the picture, I said I only wanted the cheap one and they said I had to sit through the slide show and the woman was SO rude, sighing the whole time, getting annoyed when i wanted to see one or two again, that sort of thing. The whole atmosphere was 'we want you out of here as soon as possible because you're not going to buy anything'.

I had even said at the shoot, please just take one or two, we only want one photo. But they wouldn't do that, and insisted on wasting their and our time.

So it isn't free at all, it's a set up designed to manipulate you and persuade you and if they know you're unlikely to be persuaded they don't really want you to have it at all and will not even pretend that they want you there.

Hideous mistake even going along but I wasn't persuaded to buy anything more so at least I escaped without a massive bill.

I know a few photographers.. A personal shoot of your family with a disc afterwards with high res images should cost no more than @£200 - £300 for a morning's shoot.

Google you're local area, find a decent photographer and hire them. Simple.

Ventura is a rip off.

And even writing that I feel guilty! That I went along not realising that the 'free' thing was essentially an agreement that I wanted to see what else they could do and might buy something.

I think I missed the point initially. I am so suspicious now. Mind you pixi-sodding-foto is exactly the same, including the hard sell/refusal to be polite to you/insistence on putting weird outfits on your child even if you say you only want one photo.

I abhor the lot of them.

BettyPerske - Thanks for your words of wisdom and I quite agree that a Ferrari is better than a Focus but it depends on whether you actually have the money to buy a Ferrari when a Focus will do the job just as well. I agree totally with your comments and I too feel a little guilty about writing anything neagative about someone but the attitude of the staff at Venture Marlow was the same as your experience. Hard sell pushing to try to get us to buy expensive pictures but when we refused and they could see that this was not going any further than the 'free' 7"x5", the interest and the nice manners and smiles disappered and they tried to get us out as quickly as possible. Terrible customer service. I would not recommend Venture photography to anyone.

The problem with Venture is their "all or nothing" business model. They take the time to do the shoot, show you the pics and if you want anything printed it costs a fortune. There was no way we would pay several hundred or even a thousand plus for pictures, but we might have paid a hundred or so to go away with a DVD of the prints so at least they could have recouped the cost of the time they had spent. The problem is they think if they offer that option no one in their right mind would ever buy the framed prints where they make all their profit so instead they would rather just delete all the photos - they get nothing, you get nothing. Everyone's a winner right? Errrrr....

The reality is that all those who do pay for the £1000 plus pictures are effectively paying for our photoshoots as well. Hardly a good deal.

It may or may not be relative but I have done some investigating online about Venture and it seems that all is not rosey. It seems that the company was sold last year and is still teetering on bankcruptcy. 6 years ago, there were over 70 Venture studios in the UK, now there are less than 40. Hardly a good advert for the company and with so many complaints about poor quality goods and rude customer service, no wonder that so many studios are closing. Give this one a wide berth I think.

Honey, I think you just hit the nail on the head. GirlSunday yes exactly, about the car thing! Sorry, I didn't word it very well.

I just think it's a really passive aggressive attitude to say 'we are going to give you a lovely present and make a big fuss of you, but if you dont pay us afterwards we'll be really horrible'. And it seems to be the entire foundation of their sales push.

Just wrong.

I will be glad if they go bankrupt, I really well. Bad business should not pay. It would be a depressing world if companies like them made it when the rest of us are under the threat of goodness knows what.

girls that does not surprise me at all. When they first started out they were phenomenally expensive and very hard-sell, but they were at least different, funky, fun, and a breath of fresh air compares to previous professional photo shoots - they certainly set the bar for one man band portrait photographers, where previously everyone was rigidly seated in front of a backdrop of a stormy sky or whatever.

The trouble is, it was so popular and successful it soon became ubiquitous to the point of naffness, and like all things, it stopped being aspirational and cutting edge the minute every Tom Dick and Harry had them. People will pay through the nose for something highly unusual and trendy, but once it becomes common or garden? Nope. The formula was always destined to have a short shelf-life and now they are most definitely past their sell-by date.

Also, home photography has come on leaps and bounds since then, what with excellent quality high-pixel phone cameras, huge canvas blow-ups, photo-shop software etc. There just is not the need to go to a studio to get a half-decent photo now.

The thing is, if Venture massively dropped their stupid prices and acknowledged shifting markets they could still do very respectable business. There will always be a market for what they do - just not at two grand a pop.

I agree - if there had been somewhere in between the 'free' photo and spending hundreds of pounds, they'd have maybe got some money out of us....

BettyPerske - I think this is of interest to all. My friend who is threatening legal action against Venture Marlow because of inferior quality pictures and frames has discovered from staff at the studio who let it slip that to cut costs, the studio buys out of date stock from bankrupt studios and much of the framing is done at a picture and framing shop next door for a fraction of the cost, instead of sending them away to be framed professionally but the customer is still charged the full price. What a con. Beware of this company.

Hi everyone and sorry to go on about this topis but my friend and I have just discovered that Venture Marlow is up for sale. Guess that they realised that it would just be a matter of time before people realised that the prices they charge are artificially high and the quality of the products is not that good, so if anyone has any issues or complaints with Venture Marlow, action it now before they leave and it's too late to get compensation.

Just to add my bit.

I had venture photos done years ago, back when digital cameras were still not the norm and at that the time the photos they were producing were quite unique.

I only had one request: that they manged a great shot of me with my DC as usually phones seem to be of DH and the kids. This wasn't fulfilled and although there were some great shots not a single one fitted my request.

The price was I wouldn't even admit to it but embarrassed covers it (almost!)

Although I have a lovely picture on my wall I still cringe at the whole experience and the fact that I have the main picture boxed up somewhere makes me silently fume.

It really is no surprise that so many people have negative comments about Venture. Their prices are injustifiably high but as they are a franchise, so much of the cost goes towards admin costs at head office and is not reflected in the cost of the final product. I'm sure that there are cheaper deals with independant photgraphers. It's worth shopping around and I bet the service will be better than the sour attitude from Venture staff.