Our Not-so-much Kodak Moments

We just returned from a rather miserable experience at the Target Portrait Studio. We were doing a family photo and hopefully some good "official" one year old shots of the girls. We were very excited. We organized the whole day of feedings and naps around getting ready for our 6pm appointment. I even ironed the girls multiple outfits. Then, I even did my hair and put on make-up! AND I wore a too-tight and uncomfortable (by my sensory integration disorder filters) shirt, which I promptly changed before we left the studio.

It was a miserable experience. To start, the girls were not especially cooperative. When trying to get shots of just the two of them, they wouldn't sit still. They just keep crawling away. Finally, we decided to focus on the family pictures. Even then, the girls wouldn't smile and/or look at the camera. They also decided that their favorite new thing is to eat their hands. We couldn't get them out of their mouths! But, they still could have been really cute, natural, candids. But...

The photographer was awful. She was not in the least helpful with poses or ideas. I don't think she smiled once. Plus, she wouldn't take pictures! At least, not as many as one should take if trying to capture a good shot of children. She would hold, hold, hold the shot waiting for the perfect shot. At one point, we were working on a family shot, and I told her to just shoot away. She said, "I can't do that. I can't take the same shot. Do you understand that?" I frankly responded, "no, we don't understand that. We want to get a good shot even it's it's 1 in the same 3 (or 10)". She then said that corporate "audits" them, and basically they get in trouble if they have too many of the same shot or pose. She said she couldn't do it.

So, the picture taking people have a policy to not take pictures???? What!!!???? It's digital, folks. I could understand if we were still working with film. But, there's absolutely no cost difference to taking one shot or 100. It's also seems to me, that the more shots you take, the more likely you are to get good ones, and the more likely people are to buy.

My other issue involved not being able to view the pictures as they were taken. "Policy" only lets you see them after they are loaded on the computer. I didn't want to see every one, but after the first group didn't seem to be going very well, I really wanted to see if we were getting anything good or if we should just quit and go home. Nope, not allowed. Like who was going to tell anyway? No one else was there. In the end the pictures actually came out much better than I expected. Had I seen them along the way, we would have been in much better moods and probably taken even more shots. As it was, we finally just got aggravated, disappointed and quit. By that time, we were really unhappy and I felt like we had wasted the last hour, not to mention the whole day preparing for it.

As I said, in the end, the pictures were better than I thought they would be. It's amazing what the right lighting can do. There were some cute ones of the four of us - even with the girls' hands in their mouths. There was a good one of me and the girls and a cute one of the girls in Ben's arms.

We get a free 8x12 just for going. I also have a coupon for sheets (like 2 5x7, 3 3.5x5, etc) for $3.99 (verses $9.99). I forgot the coupon though, and we weren't about to pay $9.99 for even one sheet after that experience. The photographer did say we could come in tomorrow and use the coupon and choose our free 8x10. We are kind of torn though. It was such a miserable experience, we aren't feeling especially inclined to fork over any money to them.

All in all, I wish I'd just taken the girls outside and done my own shots. They may not have the fancy lighting, but with the natural light, honestly, they are just as good to me as the "professional" ones. And they are free. The only problem is the family photo. Maybe we will get a few of those... We also may try to get those done again - but definately not at the Portrait Studio at Target.