I have a friend who takes her family at least once a month to get their family picture taken. I'm always amused at the lengths she goes through to make sure everyone is matchy-matchy. Now I understand coordinating as well as the next person, but when the father and sons wear the same shirt and mother and daughters wear the same outfit...hmmm.. in my opinion is going a bit overboard. My husband and I haven't taken many staged pictures during the course of our marriage; perhaps a snap shot here and there but not the sit down and pose kind of portraits.
Recently I started taking notice of picture "specials" sent through the mail. $9.95 doesn't sound like a big deal to me especially since there usually isn't a sitting fee involved. Now you only get to choose one pose per special for that price (remember this). So I made an appointment and the process was relatively painless, if you don't consider the photography studio had far more business than the number of employees could handle. There were two actual rooms to take pictures in. There were four employees. Now in my mind I'm thinking two of the four employees should be taking pictures full time and the other two should help the customers pick out which pose they wanted to purchase. But this was not the case. All of the employers served as photographers, salespeople, receptionist, and cashier. I'm sure they also had other behind the scenes duties.
So imagine having a 6:00 p.m. appointment (I purposely asked for the latest appointment available) and not getting out of the building until shortly after 8:00 p.m. Imagine sitting with babies crying because they were out way past dinner and bedtime. Imagine the Lego table in the waiting room to occupy older children being used as a basketball court and Lego pieces being thrown all over the place. And no mother speaking up to tell the little heathens to sit down somewhere and be quiet.
When it was finally our turn to be serviced by the photographer, we went in proud as peacocks in our matchy-matchy outfits. You would've thought we were getting ready to walk down the aisle or something equally important. Oh the models we became striking poses like pictures were being taken for a fashion spread in a magazine. Rather quickly however, we went back to the role of impatient customers as we were sent back out to the crowded waiting room to wait to pick out the pose we wanted to purchase.
As different ones were being checked out with their pictures in hand..I started hearing totals like $230.00, $320.00, $350.00 and even $445.00! What the heck!! What happened to the $9.95? Those customers had purchased several poses; one with the mother and father, one with the mother and daughters one with the father and sons, one with the mother and sons, one with the father and daughters. One of the little ones holding a basketball, etc, etc, etc. You get the point. Who do they give all of those pictures to? We ordered our one pose paid our $9.95 plus tax and went home. Yes, they tried to get us to buy a calendar, a mug, this that and the other. Who needs all of those pictures? We sent out several pictures to family members (how presumptious of us to think someone wanted our picture on their mantel) and we still have tons of pictures left.
But guess who is going back this weekend to suffer through the same horrible experience...yup! Me! Me! Me! Sunday morning at 9:00 (the earliest appointment we could get). I'll be sure to let you know if it gets any better. I'm leaving now to find matchy matchy outfits..but I'm only going to buy the one pose for $9.95!
Have a good emerald green day!
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