Do you use JCP Portraits?

billiburrows

Do you use JCP Portraits? if so, is there a photographer there you'd recommend?  I like JCP b/c its inexpensive but man i really hate going there.  the photographers are always terrible (at the ross park one anyway).  somehow the photographer missed like every single smile my little one made and was actually scaring him with her attempts to make him smile.  i stood there and got him smiling several times and she took forever to put the camera up and get the shot. wtf? i'm making him smile. you snap the shot. simple. its free to take a million shots. just go for it. so annoyed to spend time, effort, money all the time there and always leave unsatisfied. 

then we have to stand around while they make up those special pics for you to try to sell you. i tell them i'm not buying them so don't bother. they say they have to so we wait.....which is always fun with kids..... then we have to go through each pic individually.  i just want to skim them so i see if any stand out. there are some that are eh that might end up being the best ones unfortunately...and many that are obviously horrible.  i just don't want to stare at each pic at a time. i dunno. i like doing it differently. i just want to grab the mouse and go through but again, they don't let you.  i even asked if i could 'drive' it. hahah she said no. 

i have 1 more groupon to use up and then i might start looking into somewhere similarly priced like Target or something if the next time is as bad as usual.  if you go there and like your person can you please share their name? i'd be grateful!

waltsgirl102503

We usually do Penny's, but we go to the one in Westmoreland, so I can't help you with a name.  That has to be frustrating when they miss the photo ops!  We usually have a good experience when we use Penny's.  I'm like you, though, I hate the special portraits that they have to put together.   Sometimes I say something like "I really don't like those kinds of pictures, you can just skip over them."  Although I did have a guy at Portrait Innovations get snippy with me when I said that to him.  

MissMeliss7-28-07

We have used target and penneys. Target does the exact same thing! I'm not using either anymore!

psychgalbride

I used a groupon for a smash cake session at JCP 2 years ago (Robinson) that were crappy.  That same year we did cousin photos at the Monaca location and they weren't nearly as bad.  I honestly would not recommend either one.  I'd rather spend more and go elsewhere.  

4EvR&4AlWz

We exclusively use Portrait Innovations for studio pix because they use rooms and not just a backdrop. For Xmas, they have a real tree; $15 for the package (10x13, 2 8x10, 4 5x7s, 32 wallets and 4 3x5 ish sizes). You walk out with any pix you order that day. They usually have a special for something. I use one of 2 photographers in Cranberry (Stephanie or nick) and know they won't stop until there's 1 good pic. We go through pix quickly to eliminate bad ones, then narrow to best from each pose then narrow to best ones. If it's summer, I walk out with just the package pose and spend $15. However for Xmas and Easter with 2 kids, I find that I usually buy extra 6 poses (3 sheets of each pose in any combo) for $129 (with 1 kid, I'd buy 3 poses for $89). So for the package, poses and special, it's like $154 with the tax included.

With the photographers I use, I've never felt pressured to buy anything. I've worked with Stephanie for 4 years now. I tell her what I want (1 pose of family for package, 2 poses or each kid, 2 poses of girls together, all vertical orientation) and she 95% of the time pix the same pix I would have picked (on a non busy day, we played the game to have her pick then me and aside from one that I wanted zoomed a little more, she picked everything I did).

Zooming in, small changes (red eye or erasing hair flyaway, etc), horizontal/vertical switch, black/white or sepia changes are all free.

mareski

We use JCP protraits over at Century III and I can't rememebr any of the photographers names. It seems like high turnover as I see different people there all the time. Through the first year I got a lot of good coupons in the mail, but haven't receive much after the 1st year. They were good and served it's purpose for portraits every three months. I recently did an outdoor fall photo shoot with another photographer and liked the variety. Obviously more expensive though and prints not included. We'll more than likely do family pictures for Christmas as the pictures cards are only $0.50 each. We also have the three year membership which saves us on sitting fees.