I have been debating and discussing having professional pictures of Ben taken for a month now, and today I called a list of Springfield portrait studios to compare prices. Ideally, we would like to purchase a CD of the session, so we can have prints made for next to nothing online through Walgreens. Of course, that's the opposite of what the portrait studios would like for you to do. The price comparison is as follows:
K-Mart S. Campbell (Olan Mills) 890-5030 sitting fee - $5.95; smallest package + CD = $135, CD only = $150 (does that make sense?)
Wal-Mart (Picture Me) 1-888-742-6386, sitting fee $0; smallest package + CD = $120, CD only $99
Sears 1-888-767-8724, sitting fee $0 with coupon; smallest package + CD = $130, CD only $120
JC Penny 883-7351, sitting fee $9.99; smallest package + CD $189.99, CD only $99.99
Portrait Innovations S. Kimbrough 889-4949, no sitting fee, smallest package + CD $100
Scroggins Portraits 888-2848, sitting fee $35-$85, smallest package $185, no CD
Lamb Portrait Studio, sitting fee $25, for a package equivalent to Sears or Penny’s smallest package, $300, CD is $300
Scott Photography, sitting fee $10 / outfit, smallest package $130, no CD
Convey Studios, sitting fee $50, smallest package $190
It is really hard for me to justify spending over $100 on one session when I know we'll want to go back at least for Christmas pictures and for his first birthday, and probably at least once a year after that. Josh is a talented photographer and has an excellent camera, but the studio / lighting ability is what we lack. I took the pictures below on Josh's bed at the apartment while on hold with the numerous photography studios above.
Portrait Innovations was by far the least expensive and friendliest people I spoke to. They have some great specials and if we didn't want the CD, we could get pictures pretty cheap. However, their website was not impressive and there are mixed reviews about them online. Most of what I saw looked like school pictures, not creative or interesting in any way.
Tim shared some old family photos with me and it made me think about photography as an investment. Having high quality photos of Ben is important to me because that's what our family will look at generations from now.
I just can't decide. The longer I wait the older he is getting and the more he is changing. I know I need to decide before his surgery because I want pictures from his first year before he has part of his head shaved and a huge scar across the top of it. I might ask Josh to try to set something up at home with better lighting, but it's really hard to get good pictures of him because he can't sit up or hold his head up very well. I can also see us scheduling an appointment with a studio and Ben is fussy and cries the whole time - what then?
I have no idea why his hair looks so red in these pictures. It doesn't look like that at all in real life.
We took lulu to penny's and had a coupon. She was fussy so we only had 4 shots done, and it was like 12 dollars. We were only there for probably a half hour, it was cheap and painless, I know you want a CD but you can always scan the photos. and if you have a penny's account they save them there and you can always get more prints.
ReplyDelete