sterb5

hi guys.and girls .the family and i have just been to venture for some photos done and they will look superb .but the price list he gave us on the way out was
so does anybody on here work for them or knows how to get it any cheeper.
dont mind payin a bit but not thousands

PG

I bought a package at a silent auction.
I paid about £100 for it and it's supposedly worth £350...for an 8x10 print !!
Apparently the results are very, very good but the prices are hellish and very rarely do you want to leave with only one picture.
I know my neighbour was looking at getting a large frame with multi pictures in it but they are needing £2k for it .....**** off !

mart360

there ouside at tesco,s at the moment trying to con unsuspecting punters...


that babyone at boots is another con, how many new mums want just one photo? so that cheap 8x10 at £12 turns into a stinging £100 plus event!!


Mart

RikTee

iTrader: (12)

Funnily enough we've just come back from a viewing session

Agree with the prices - did you get a voucher.

We had a session with a voucher for £35, entitles you to one 10 x 8 print or you can have £125 off another choice.

Got to give them credit though, they weren't pushy sales people, narrowed our photos down to 3 that we liked and then offered us pictures that started at £840 less £125 discount would have made it reasonable.

Ended up going for a set of 3 framed photos though - £1100

Rich

sterb5

what size pictures did u get?

dreading going tomorrow with the family. i know im gonna get stung. do u think they are worth the the money and are u able to haggle with them.

Ste

gljam

Mate at work had some done with his girlfriend, 5 photos came up to approx £3500


they split up a couple of weeks later as well

P_v_G

So its that just the posher way of getting your birds name tattoo'd on yer ****? But a bit down from the celeb Hello/OK photoshoot?

gljam

lol, i'd rather have the tattoo, it'd be cheaper anyway


neither of them are exactly oil paintings either

RikTee

iTrader: (12)

Think the photos were 14 x 11, not too sure

the one i went to wasn;t pushy at all, we had about 30-40 photos to look at, and tbh they were all good, but they narrowed it down to 3 and then suggested options, if it was me selling it i would have tried to get more than 3 sold

I went in there with a limit in mind that i was going to spend (about a grand) and wasn't far off the mark

they don't haggle though - i tried to get a discount for cash but they werent having it.

Rich

mart360

I,m sorry, what do they do that justifys that sort of money!!

have you tried a local pro photographer in your area? most can do this sort of stuff for a fraction of the money.


Mart

Sticky Stuff

Do they throw in a Canon EOS 5D for that money?

Smile, say cheese and remove yer trousers, 'cos you're about to get wallet-raped

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Market themselves well, I guess - but full marks to them for that, you can't blame them for coming up with an original style and charging a price that people are obviously prepared to pay. It's not like they're providing an essential service like water, electricity or petrol that you can't do without.

I seem to rememer, though, that the photographer we hired for our wedding charged us around £1000 for the whole day of his time and several albums of photos. So, as Mart says, it might well be worth finding a local independent photographer if you think you might want more than one or two pictures.

alistair

I now know 4 people who've been there and they all spent over £2k

The last 2 that went also lost a tenner to me as I bet them that they'd spend over £2k and they thought I was crazy.....

All seem very pleased with their pictures though.

speedystu

ermmmm had the same thing, the wife was collard in town by a similer company, get the first free and all that bollox, long story short 6 spot on photos of us and baby and total price £900 bargin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

Or pop over to the photography forum for more advice -

say 2 hrs time to get the right pics maybe £200

maybe a £10 per print for materials and cost of equipment etc

so 10 prints £100 plus the orig £200 = £300

and these peps are charging £1k plus - **** me

How good are the pics ??

Dave.

PG

venture | home

Basically a white backdrop, a bit of photoshop and a fancy frame.
It saved them the cost of building the money printer

Hoppy

If your average local wedding photographer could charge 2 grand for three framed protraits, why is he only shooting weddings at the weekend?

I'm not saying these folks are good value, but top-end creative photography is not cheap. You're paying for specialist professional skills (plus all the marketing glitz that has to go with it to get you there in the first place).

Richard.

Shark Man

Crikey and I thought My graduation pics were extortionate (Tempest)- and they had us over a barrel as my (rented) glad rags had to be returned within the hour

Still, pictures were good though....You would never know I was holding a plastic waste pipe with a ribbon and not my Diploma

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

Its not that - its the lack of honesty "Are you inspired by images of people just like you? Our £25 special introductory offer voucher entitles you to your own Venture session and 7"x5" framed image together worth £125. "

then get you in and charge a damn sight more. no were on the site can you find a price list !

"top-end creative photography is not cheap" - agreed - but most wont try to so over value the service.

even down to "5) All family members, ie your complete family unit must attend the session for the voucher to be valid, at individual studios’ discretion. "





Dave.

pwhittle

We went 2 years ago, and spent £1100. I was most surprised that there was no discount for extra copies. There should be, as the processing has already been done.

Having been stung, I built a home studio, learnt how to shoot (well, still am doing...), and am setting up a mini-venture.

TBH Venture do some great stuff, but we felt very rushed when we were there, and my daughter was being grumpy, so we only got a few really good shots.
I've seen better stuff on the web for much more reasonable prices. Venture have a style (though not unique), and it works, but that's all they offer. A good local photographer will offer you what you want. The in-thing is location portraits, eg in your garden / favourite park. Venture won't do that.

I've looked carefuly at their marketting, and how they operate, and they do it v. well. You sit in nice chairs, drinking their coffee, the albums come in nice boxes etc. Many people (expecially women, allegidly) are willing to pay extra for that 'pampering'.

Hoppy

LOL at you guys

Everybody agrees that the pics are great, but the cost is too high. Then they go and pay up and buy So who's got their numbers wrong here

Not condoning their marketing but it is obviously a costly service to provide and I'm pretty sure they'd reduce their costs and increase turnover if that enabled a more profitable business for them. I bet many of their customers would not baulk at paying a couple of hundred quid for a new hair-do by some poncy **** that's been on Big Brother or summat. Same difference IMHO. If you don't like it, do what pwhittle has done (a regular contributor to the ScoobyNet Photography forum below, BTW) and good luck to him

But what about copyright? I bet that even after shelling out a lot of money, they still own copyright. Sure, they have to protect their reprint business but what if your child goes on to be famous etc? I would not want them flogging pics of my kids to The Sun. As a point of principle I would (at the very least) insist that no reproduction of any of the images could be made without my specific knowledge and authorisation. That would also exlcude them using pics in their own marketing without permission.

In effect, copyright would be shared - they should have no legitimate objection to that. What does their contact say? Be interesting to read (can't find it on their site).

Cheers,

Richard.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

My sister brought my wife and I a protrait photo session from Boots experiences, phoned up to book it and it's with this Venture company.
Apparently we get one print for free with the opportunity to purchase further prints for family/friends.....

pwhittle

Hmmm..
We paid nearly £400 for a (albeit v. good) 10x8" print. My mum said we could get her a copy for xmas. I told it's cost her £400. She didn't like it that much!

TBH my walls are covered with pics of my duaghter, and the many parents that come round can't tell the difference between the ones I've done and the ones Venture did. They're the people I'll be targetting shortly...

Oh, and thanks for the vote of confidence Hoppy!

sterb5

Been to venture (again) and this time im £1400 down. Told the family if they want copies i am charging them for it. Girlfriend very happy with the pictures and they look fantastic, but the figure we had in mind went out the window. keep asking myself if we done the right thing but its done. Could of been spent on other things like wheels............etc etc

KiwiGTI

That's the society we live in now though - Emperors new clothes type of thing. And if you managed to get the Beckhams to have their photo taken there they could probably charge £5000 and still have people queing up.

69WRX

Foooooooooooooooooooooook in el. You guys are crazy paying out all that.

The images off these people are very average and any half decent Tog could produce these images.

I regually produce shots of equal or better quality and give them away.

King RA

I cannot believe people will spend that sort of money. The whole thing stinks like a timeshare scam.

TopBanana

You can hire a professional photographer for the whole day for less than the figures quoted here. Get the prints done anywhere

Apparition

Being married to a photographer all I have to say is ............
RIP OFF !
Yve

paul-s

iv had a session with venture also. Ended up leaving with just the freebie foto and not placing an order for loads - was very tempted however, and they offer the ability to go back again after your initial viewing - they keep the pics for around 6 months i think.

The things i did like are the prints on canvas, and also the window shaped squares that form one big square full of pics (that you can move around and swap). Mega bucks and they wouldnt move on price. didnt end up going back tho