How do you get 5 kids to cooperate and smile for pictures? Simply put, you don’t but you can try and try we did!
Living on one and a half income (Chris is working part time now) we can’t afford professional pictures, nor could we really when we were a 2 income family, so we usually take our own. But we came across a Groupon deal for Picture People and since we have used them in the past with success, we thought why not. It was $16 for an in-studio photo shoot and eight portrait sheets containing 1 10″x13″ print, 1 8″x10″ print, 4 5″x7″ prints, 10 4″x6″ prints, and 16 wallet prints. Groupon still has the deal, just click on the picture to be taken to the Groupon deal:
Click on picture for Picture People Groupon deal!
Our thinking was even if we get just one good picture out of it, then it would be worth it. 🙂 We knew going into it this would be challenging, we were trying to get 5 kids to sit still for pictures after all. And our littlest nephew, Grayson, is a little temperamental – he has great days and not so great days. So we were really hoping for a great day when we scheduled the pictures. And….he had an ehhh..day, not his worst but definitely not his best. The other 4 kiddos surprisingly did well, we had a few meltdown moments with the 2 year old and a lot of “Mom, when will be done” moments from the older crew but they all toughed through it and we were able to get some decent pictures out of it.
Overall review of the Picture People: 3 out of 5 stars. The main reason for the mediocre score was because we got snubbed by two of the professionals because of our large party size. We got there at our appointment time but were not seen until after a 35 minute wait. During that time, two of the professionals were chatting about which group to take next, ours or the family that came in 15 minutes after us. One of the ladies said, “oh no, I do not want the big group with all the kids.” Oh snap! So of course, I politely said with a smile, “Oh ya’ll don’t want to take our pictures because of our large group.” Both of the ladies looked like deer in headlights and tried to cover it up saying we had to wait for a larger room. Which was a lie and I know it because the room they used for the family they took before us (who had an appointment after us and came in 15 after we did) was the same room we did our large group photos in. In the end though, I am glad we got the professional the other two ladies dumped us on because she worked it. She never complained about Grayson’s non-complaint attitude or the fact we had such a large party. She also was able to get some pictures that were worth keeping in between his melt-downs. I think we were with her for an hour and a half and by the end everyone was sweating and exhausted. I do believe if we would have had the other two professionals, it would be a 1 out 5 star review.
With the Groupon purchase, Picture People offers a special Groupon deal for the high resolution CD containing session images and also a frame deal. If you purchase both the CD and a frame with the images it is only an additional $100 and each frame after is only $50. That is what we opted to do, so we could have all the images from the session and also a framed pic ready for the wall. Even with the additional $100, the total cost was $116 plus taxes. This is still incredibly cheaper than the one time we hired a professional to do outdoor pictures of our family, that did not include a session CD or a framed picture only printed pictures. The downfall, Picture People is in a studio and you have limited options and no outdoor pics. But truth – the outdoor pictures we had done by a professional and paid out the wazoo for were not as good as the Picture People or pictures we have taken ourselves outdoors.
Will we use Picture People again? Most likely, but only with a Groupon deal. Next time though, we will get the first appointment of the day and take lots and lots of snacks and toys for ornery well-behaved children.
So would you like to see what made us feel like we ran a marathon?
Drumroll please….
The best group picture of all 5 kiddos.
See they do love each other!
D & G
Mr. Hayden
Mr. Ty
Miss Lydia
Mr. Douglas
Mr. Grayson – scratches and all.
And somehow we even managed to change all the kids and get pics done to represent our favorite football team!
Go Dawgs!
So all in all it was worth the 3 hours we spent there, the very, rude employees, the meltdowns and drama of trying to get 5 kids to cooperate. In the end – we are pleased and we have pics to prove it! 🙂
CaMpHoTeL 
That is awesome y’all made it out alive. =) Just a thought but if you can do some kind of review or something about the professional who took the photos then you should. Its nice to get a good(ish) review. Especially if you (the professional) has to work those other two…errr professionals..if they can be called that.