Review: Picture People

Over Thanksgiving break up with my sister we took family photos.  We were always planning to take them, but not having my mom with us just made them a bit more difficult.

We had taken our first set with our cousin, a wonderful photographer, down here in SoCal.  Then last year we didn't take one at all.  So, to keep with our longstanding tradition of Thanksgiving photos we gathered at the Picture people in San Jose to take some photos.

My initial outlook wasn't so great.  We stood around for at least 15 minutes before I finally grabbed someone to say hello to us and check us in for our appointment.  We had an 11:40am appointment, with the theory being it's before nap, etc.  However, we didn't start taking photos until after noon, and by the time we were done it was totally melt-down time.

Then we had to wait to review the photos.  Their business model is that it costs nothing to take the photos, but then you buy all your prints from them.  It can be really great, since they have portrait printers and framing on-site.  But it can also be annoying, because you have to wait for a salesperson to review the prints, and who knows how long that will take.  Especially in a group, with melting down children, it seemed like no time was right to review them.

We made an appointment to review them that evening at 5:40pm.  Again, why did we make an appointment?  We sat down to look at the photos after 6:10pm.  And even then we didn't have a sales associate. WE just bought the whole CD ($150) and walked out the door. That seemed the easiest, since each 8x10 print would have been $18.

Overall, I would do it again for quick, relatively easy prints of the family.  But do I recommend it?  Not really.

We worked really hard to coordinate on colors and clothing.  I think it made the picture turn out nicely.  However, I wouldn't have done this background again.  I think the white background would be better for basically ALL the photos.

Plus I HATE that she has us stationed right over the seam in the fact hardwood.  Talk about annoying... I think it's not something that would matter after you edit it for printing, but it's annoying.

I wasn't paid or perked for this.  In fact they even refused to accept the coupon we brought.  Oh well, still worth it.

Do your kids do the chin up 'cheese' thing?  I couldn't get EG to tilt her head down.  Of course the closed eye thing is sort of a family trademark, as you might notice later on from my dad.  I used to do it too, all the time, but I've worked hard to correct it in myself.
 
Taking some of the kiddos was really nice.  Though it was tough to get them to behave properly.  This one is one of my favorites- nice attitude kiddos.  But that stupid seam line....!

My oldest Nephew is actually getting up to run away here, but she did manage to capture a cute moment.

This photo of my Dad with the kiddos is probably the best photo of the group. Ocho holding hands with her cousin, and both EG and my nephew smiling.  Dad doesn't like that his eyes are squinty, but to me that's the best part, because he was mid laugh when she snapped it.  

I'd been working so hard to get EG's face not to have tons of red marks.  She kept picking at her boo-boos.  Oh well, a mom can only try so hard.  It's a testament to her exuberance...

This photo is at once amazing, and terribly sad.  That we don't have one with my mom in it that's the same is really sad.

This one makes me laugh because of Ocho and EG.  I like that she's holding her sister's head, and that she's also holding hands with her cousin

 
Of course it wouldn't have been a complete photo session without some just family shots.  By this point it was well past naptime, so I'm amazed at how well we did.

These little cuties are ADORABLE.  Even though he's a bit older than Ocho, Baby L likes to lay down.  When you pick him up he just melts into you.  We laid down Ocho, but she tried to sit up on her own in the basket.  Still these photos are totally precious.  I'm glad we took them too, because EG and Baby J have tons from their two years without having little babies.

This is probably my second favorite photo of the session- both the babies look great, and are looking right at the camera.  Perfect angels!