Friday, September 18, 2009

Naomi Aroha 5 months


Naomi Aroha 5 months, originally uploaded by mnssams.

Joshua Matthew Photography:
Because good portraits shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg.

It's not the most creative slogan. But it's honest. Oh man is it honest....

This morning I went to look at portraits I had taken of the girls 2 weeks ago. We were quoted $1920 for the full package. The SALE price was $645.

*excuse me while I run away screaming!*

What really shocked me was that the girl who took their pictures was no older than 20, seemed to have minimal training, and spent only 15-20 minutes churning out 10 poses. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!

When she first showed them to me on her computer I thought they definitely needed some editing, but thought that would be done before the portraits came back in 2 weeks.

$645 sale price for 10 8x10s and 20 5x7s. They were never edited! Unedited, blown out, overly-pink-hued, portraits for $645! Bad snapshots is more like it...

We took our free 10x13, said thank you and beat a hasty retreat.

Here's what really irks me. I looked up the local photo print place, and its $3 for high quality, professional printing. So we were being charge $645 for $60 in printing costs and 15 minutes ime of a girl working for minimum wage.

Joshua Matthew Photography:
Because Pixifoto is ripping you off!

8 comments:

  1. Hey Susie, I'm pretty sure you read my blog (cause that's how I found you).

    Just popping in w/ my two cents worth one photography (since I own my own photography business). Often times people don't understand what their money is going for. Custom photography is a world away from mall franchises. I go to the customer, spend two to three hours photographing, and another six processing every photo individually, resizing, uploading, and ordering images. Thats eight hours of my time! So sure, the print may only cost $5, but it's my time and talent your paying for...

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  2. THat is lame!!! I am sorry it's tough. You are getting better and better. You should really seriously pursue your own freelance ph. career, if you aren't already. I know you are busy, but really, do it.

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  3. Renee - Very good point. I guess I didn't make it clear this was a hole-in-the-wall place at a WalMart type store. It seemed pretty crazy to me to charge that much $$ for something I didn't even like!

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  4. Preach is sista! I totally agree about Pixifotos!
    Absolutly and totally am in love with that photo of Naomi, and as for that one called 'those eyes' I mean - come on, WHAT A GORGEOUS PHOTO. You are amazing girlfriend!!!
    Go hard and start advertising at local kindy's, playcentres, even mainly music. Put together a photobook as your advertising and go for it. You can did it big time. Just go and ask the playcentre down the road if they are interested. Waihi PC had Mike Hill(local photographer) go in and spend a few mornings taking shots of the kids. Charged about $60 for the full cd of photos, or something like that.
    Sound out the waters for your local mm.
    Woohoo - how awesome :)
    Your photo fan!!! Margo

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  5. What a gorgeous picture of Naomi! Love it!! Seriously, that is sooo overpriced, your pictures are waaay better!

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  6. That is a crazy amount. I go to portrait innovations and they are absolutely awesome. I'm also really lucky to have a friend who is starting her own photography business and wants to use AJ as her subject!

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  7. Good for you at walking away. I would have had the obligated feeling and walked away ticked off at the world. I wish I could hire you to photograph my lovely munchkins! All three of yours are simply gorgeous!

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  8. Look at those big beautiful eyes! She is gorgeous, too!!! Look at her being such a big girl!! Does time just fly by WAY too fast????
    Both of your girls are YUMMY!!!

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