Today I went undercover
Recently I had this idea to get the experience that most moms get when getting their kids picture taken. I won't give specifics because it's not necessarily about the exact place but mostly about the experience. I went in to one of the "photo studio within a store" places with an idea in my head that I would try to get one good picture of the twins together and use my coupon (yes my coupon :) for the one pose $7.99 special. I have to say that the people were courteous to me and the kids but the whole time I am there I felt like I was just getting a cookie cutter product. They took a handful of snapshots of the kids together and individually before Macy had stage 5 meltdown. After waiting about 10 or 20 minutes we were ushered over to the computer screen where they tried to sell me every cheesy border, photoshop bad color choice, bla bla bla. Of course if you want the $7.99 special you just get to pick the one pose with no enhancements. Enhancements even meaning things like just turining it b & w, that would cost you $20.They wanted to upsell you on anything and everything!
The picture I ended up going with was really just OK, a decent studio snapshot of my two kiddies. I have to admit it was nice to not have the pressure of being the mom and the photographer but I wasn't super happy with the final product. Mostly, this experience just confirmed to me to keep doing what I do. There's a place for it. There's moms out there that leave these places having spent HUNDREDS of dollars not knowing that there are other options. I am not bashing these types of places because they certainly serve a purpose or they wouldn't be in business, I just want people to know that they do have a choice.
"It is clear that custom photography is not in everyone’s budget, it is something that most families save for to splurge on from time to time to memorialize their children as they really are (not posed and primped in the cookie cutter studio setting)." www.professionalchildphotographer.com
So yes, I will be the proud owner of the $7.99 special package but I learned a long time ago that you always get what you pay for. Readers, thoughts on this subject? Am I not objective? I would like to hear your input!