my Mrs sorted a Xmas present for the in-laws, a £40 photo session at Venture photography, hoping to get a nice family portrait for xmas. We did the shoot today and it all seamed OK until they presented the price list… from £200 for a 10×8 frame all the way up to £3500 !!! for a collage print… 10 1024×768 prints for £300 on a mem stick. all sounds sooooo expensive.

Is this a Mahoosive scam ? What sort of cost is it to get an independent photographer to do the same and can anyone recommend on in Sheffield ?

ta

Yes.

Had great fun doing our £25 photoshoot with the kids a few years back, good laugh. They were quite offended when I continued laughing at their prices. cheeky thieving w*****s. Wife too the idea and went to local photographer.

Credit crunch, how can it be they are still in business charging £200 for a £40 print?

mmmm, sounds like its a nice first day then emotional blackmail when we go back for the grand “viewing”…

Are they some sort of status symbol for the Audi crowd ?

WTF? I’m going back to printing money photography. Lord Snowdon take the pics, did he?

There’s a lot of work in taking good photos, post-processing et al.

But, £200 for a print? Nob off.

Yup, sell cheap package as an idea for a present, someone buys you it as a present, in you go for the photos then you go back for the “presentation” , while there I noticed the interest free credit options which I thought odd for just a photograph then out they come with the portfolio with prices ranging well in to the four figures.
After we stopped laughing at the prices we took the one that was included in the original gift price and left 😮

Had the same, great fun on the day and talented in production but jaw dropping prices…. we did the same as liftman.

I guess their business model suits some folks – hook then with the offer of a really cheap photo session, line them in with the offer of interest free / low monthly payments and sink them with the massive (10x – 20x) jump in price from the tiniest print to the next size up.

I wont run down the sales technique or the quality of the photos. I will only say that it is a slick marketeting machine that initially did extrememly well. Nowadays they get almost no repeat business.

Its run as a franchise – some branches probably are better than others.

Last I heard some of the franchises and the parent company were sailing close to the wind financially. Usually they employ recent college grads to take the photos (great idea) and experienced salesmen to do the follow up sales.

btw – I work in the industry (I am not in any way a competitor though) and wish them well – personaly I just wish they’d change their sales approach.

Venture prices are crazy.

We went to Shakespeare photography near Magna. We were very pleased with the photos.

All the following is IMO –
When they first arrived on the high-street they were vey ‘new, fresh, exciting’ etc.
Their Experience is fun, editing good (if, IMO, OTT – see ‘fresh’ etc above..)
Sales technique – well, they work the logical angle of love and emotional connection – who wants to think the pictures of their loved ones are never to be seen…?
Prices – arguably high hence i’d actually question couldashouldawoulda re: repeat business – I’d be surprised if they get much? I’m not aware of too many people who pay off their interest free loans and then go back for more – Could be wrong but I think their sales model is that ‘there a lot more people out there to be sold to’ before they concern themselves with looking to repeat business…

Its run as a franchise – some branches probably are better than others.

Yep, as you’ll see, a franchise does not come cheap, figures below do not include staff, rental of large high st premises etc – all of which has to be covered in their charges to clients. That said, I too feel their prices are a touch too much…

Franchise cost details…

Like couldashouldawoulda I also work in the industry – full time photog. Hardly a competitor though…
I also with Venture would take a look at their sales model as it don’t half reflect on the rest of the industry and not in a favourable way…

I had a photo shoot with the family there about 5 years back and others have said It was a good laugh. We then went back to see the 100 odd photos they took , dont get me wrong they looked good and had been airbrushed to look even better. Then came the hard sell we were offered a collage for about my monthly pay , My advice Is go there and get the basic photo for what your voucher comes to and ignore the hard sell.

If you ask on talk photography you should be able to get recommendations for someone close to you.

Any half-decent pro can take over-exposed shots of families in funny poses. Bait and switch is a sales strategy that always reflects badly. Mind you, that commercial property on Eton high street doesn’t come cheap!

My ex worked there for a bit, there’s no-good post processing just turn the contrast up high to get that ‘venture’ look. All the staff are rollocked if they don’t give the hard sell.

as it don’t half reflect on the rest of the industry and not in a favourable way..

Amen brother.

I dont work in the family / kids area at all but get asked by clients about their kids etc and they always seem to mention Venture in a negative / rip-off way. I try and point them to a local “indy”.

marsdenman – where are you based? Have you looked at any other franchises (I’m ex Barrett & Coe from 10 years back).

I had a moan about them a few months back on here about the prices for the pictures of our baby boy. We had a cheap voucher offer and were shocked at here prices. We got the free print but my wife bought another without telling until they were ready. This took weeks so you may have a few weeks to wait this time of year. The print has a leather effect on it so i guess this is to hamper scanning. The memory stick pics we were offered were on a 4 gb memeory card. The resolution was 1260 x 780 or something close. And they came as a slide show, you were unable to reuse the pictures on your Pc. Low res pictures and no way of using any other way. This was 6 months ago so may have changed.
We got a Groupon offer for a company called The Picture Company in Bracknell. There was no hardsell and photos were much better than the venture ones. We got 53 high res pictures and the copyright to them for £150.

We got a Groupon offer for a company called The Picture Company in Bracknell.

Cheers, will check them out

Of course the pictures came on a cd 🙂

Pay for your entire family to go to a CRC marathon event and ride around together, pausing only briefly to get in formation before you ride past me at the side of the track, where I will take your family photo. Do the same at the finish. A couple of days later you will be able to buy the jpeg pics for £7.45 each and have prints made to your specification on Photobox or elsewhere. It will still cost you much less than Venture and you’ll have had a day out too.

I don’t care what price they charge, but not telling people the prices until they are emotionally hooked in is disgusting when they are so high – rip off IMHO

BTW, you could probably hire a pro photographer for £250 for half a day + exes and have a shoot done wherever you like and get hold of a big selection of images from the shoot to use for any non-commercial purposes.

I was looking at this last year, aside from the pricing structure, (which is basically holding customers to ransom for images of their kids) the fact that the HiKey pictures Venture produce look like ‘Venture’ pictures, and are already starting to look dated.

In ten years time, they won’t be a timeless memory of your clidren, they will just look dated. I’ve see people had Venture pic’s up at work, and they are only visually appealing for a very short period.

It’s too much money for something which ain’t gonna last.

I don’t care what price they charge, but not telling people the prices until they are emotionally hooked in is disgusting when they are so high – rip off IMHO

Is this true? Do people actually lose the ability to say no and walk out?

Is this true? Do people actually lose the ability to say no and walk out?

In the case of my ex-girlfriend, yes. I refused to put any money towards the photos, she ended up paying out a load. Strangely I didn’t get any of those pictures in the split up 😆

I know somebody who works for them locally. She has won awards for her photography, not sure if it was Venture work or separate to portraits though. She told me what there break even price was, which I won’t repeat here, and that they used top quality materials. Surprised just how high it was but also thought it was good management to know what the break-even figure was. Some businesses out there don’t.

I know prices are in the ‘I could buy a bike for that’

some people might consider that £1000 for a bicycle is extortionate tell them you spent £2500 and they’d fall over.. many peeps have these venture style montages etc in thier homes and ask us how to reduce thier heating bills..

all comes down to prioties.. pictures of ickle billy and jane are sexy and you can show them off to family friends and the nieghbours… bikes have some appeal shiny and expensive.. but keeping your family warm, theres no mileage in that.

all comes down to prioties

Quite. Interesting to see how many discarded large-screen TV boxes there are outside local council houses at the moment.

Is this true? Do people actually lose the ability to say no and walk out?

No, but it’s dishonest high pressure selling. If the product is that good then they shouldn’t need to adopt those tactics.

Interesting to see how many discarded large-screen TV boxes there are outside local council houses at the moment.

I took my box straight down the tip, otherwise people know you;ve got a new TV to pinch.

http://picturecompany.co.uk/index.html

This is link to the company I mentioned.

I took my box straight down the tip, otherwise people know you;ve got a new TV to pinch.

I went to the tip to get an empty box so that the neighbours think I’m minted. 😕

Is this true? Do people actually lose the ability to say no and walk out?

Daft question – if it were that simple then they wouldn’t be coy about giving their prices up front.

There definitely is an emotional hook for some people to buy pics once they have been made available. To some degree it’s the way I make a living doing event photos, though I like to think I offer reasonable value for money rather than trying to rip people off.

It’s also to some degree something that school photographers rely on.

As I’m a photographer, and unlike the cobbler who’s kids have no shoes, we’ve got loads of pictures of our kids that I’ve taken.

These are the latest, taken last week to send to the GPs at Christmas, but there are HUNDREDS of others.

Anyhow, when the note comes home to say that the photographer will be in school I never deny my kids the opportunity to get snapped, because all the other kids are getting it done, they think it’s fun and it is more hassle for the school to take people out of the class for the shoot than to leave them in – however, I have no intention of ever buying any, because it is something I feel I can do myself.

BUT – every time they send the proofs home, my wife wants to buy them! (so far I’ve always eventually managed to persuade her not to fork out £30 for something very similar to pics that we’ve already got – but it’s not easy).

She told me what there break even price was, which I won’t repeat here, and that they used top quality materials.

Go on, we’re interested.

I’ve no objection at all to photographers charging what they like for their work, and I know that there are a lot more expenses than most people would imagine, but it’s the sales technique that I don’t like.

I imagine their break even price is so high because they’ve got all those sales guys to pay!

use to work there, rip off place with bad photographers.

When I saw my sister in law’s Venture family pictures with them in casual poses lying on the floor with no shoes or socks on I nearly laughed my socks off.

When they told me how much they’d paid for them I totally pissed myself. Mahoosive rip off for daft pictures that could be done better and more cheaply by many other local independent photographers.

The wife and I use Venture every other year. In fact I bought her the £40 package session for Christmas. This includes the session and a 10″x8″ photo.

The kids enjoy the sessions and we then go back about a week later for the “Grand Reveal”. They dim the lights, play dramatic music and slowly go through a slide show with the best 50 odd photos. Our aim to just to walk away with the photo that is included in the package and the only problem we have is deciding which is the best photo.

Once we have decided on our “Inclusive Photo” and because we don’t want to buy any additional prints, Venture then try the emotive hard sell. Price start tumbling and tumbling (From memory when we were last there they offered us 3 photos in a frame for £600. By the time we left this was down to £275! However once Venture realise that we won’t buy they soon lose interest.

As long as you can and are prepared to say no, Venture are good value for the one print.

As long as you can and are prepared to say no, Venture are good value for the one print.

In fact I bought her the £40 package session

40GBP for one photo is good value?

I imagine their break even price is so high because they’ve got all those sales guys to pay!

This, as said above my ex worked at one for a bit, the high street shops, sales team (including those in supermarkets and shopping centres) the grand reveal, the drinks all need paying for. The quality of the frames is very poor for the money, I buy 3-4 frames a week and have an idea of approximately how much they cost to a retail customer. My ex joked to get the ‘venture’ look press your thumbs in your eyes for a few minutes then ask your relatives to take their socks off and hug each other. It’s a bit unkind but I can see were she was coming from.

The photos above look really good and natural, nice photos 🙂

Crikey… there is one thing I have found… Venture feature highly in opinions across the internet.

Will (try) to walk in and walk out with just the frebie and then go do a good shoot with an independent photographer.
Thanks for all the feedback, just wish I’d helped the Mrs choose the present in the run up to Xmas.

si check your facebook – james brown (iso25 photography) is a mate and a cracking photographer.

james@iso25.com

Cheers Rob.