Family Portraits

We went to have our family portraits made after dinner yesterday. This has to be one of the hardest things for which to find balance between cost and quality. A few years ago we tried to go to Target, but the proofs were about the worst that we had ever seen so it turned out to be waste of time. Last night we tried out luck with JC Penney. We actually had our engagement portraits done their, and we had an expectation that we would again get reasonable quality for a reasonable price.

Well, it didn't quite turn out that way. The photographer was nice enough, and the process itself was as about as enjoyable as this sort of thing can be. However we only had two good takes out of the 19 that we muddled through. So that's what we ordered from.

It was disappointing because portraits have changed a lot in recent years. The entire shoot was very casual, and a number of the shots were ones that you would never select. We had four where - by design - no one was looking at the camera. Does anyone ever buy these? Other shots had problems with smiles, hair, or clothing that rendered them useless.

I don't want this to come off as a slam our photographer. He was only eighteen, and he was running the studio by himself. All things considered he did a reasonable job. My beef is with the portrait studio for doing business this way. It seems like there has to be a better way, but who wants to pay for Olan Mills? It seems that you do get what you pay for, but there has to be balance between what we experienced and the high end. Very frustrating.

Until next time...
PH