Olan Thrills! (Olan Mills)

Member Name: mummy2harry

Product:	Olan Mills
Date:	24/04/08 (375 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb pictures, good service, fun shoot

Disadvantages: Pricey

I'm somewhat obsessed with pictures of Harry, I have 100's of pictures in albums, actually it's a worrying amount considering Harry is only 2 years old! But I just can't help thinking that he is growing up too fast so I want to capture each moment before it passes! We had some Venture pictures done last year and unfortunately they didn't live up to my expectations and the experience was somewhat ruined by the outcome of one picture in particular and the customer service. So when I won a free photoshoot and picture with another photography company Olan Mills, we figured that it would be worth a try, and I called up to make my appointment for our shoot.

My local Olan Mills is actually a small studio area within our large Mothercare store in the local retail park. They have example pictures all around their area, showing various sorts of images and packages you can buy. Of course, these pictures are all exceptional and really entice you in, thinking that you too can take pictures like these home with you! I rang up and they quickly booked me an appointment for the following weekend at 10am, as soon as they opened. We were told to dress comfortably, and to bring a few of Harry's favourite toys with us to entertain him with.

So we headed down there on the Sunday morning, and were welcomed by 2 young ladies, I'd say in their early twenties, who were very friendly and good with Harry. They introduced themselves and showed us to the studio, and told us our shoot would last for 30 minutes. It was basically a big white room with 2 large lights, and some side curtains which had lots of toys behind them. Harry got very shy initially and clung to me and my partner like glue. Thank goodness for them telling us to bring his toys, because we emptied out his bags and he was a bit happier. He was crawling around with his Thomas, and cuddling his In The Night Garden characters, and they got a few pictures from that. After that, they told us to sit with him so they could take some shots of all of us.

We sat in various formations and they took a few pictures of us, but it was tough to get Harry looking at them with us two on the floor with them, despite the big efforts of the 2 ladies! Eventually we decided to have pictures on our with Harry, so I stood behind the photographer pulling faces making Harry smile and we got some lovely pictures of him and his daddy like this. We switched positions to again get some more photos. We decided to try one last family one, and the girls threw a big tub of plastic balls at us, making us all laugh which resulted in my favourite picture of all. However, Harry decided he wanted to tidy away all the balls and spent the next 10 minutes doing so!

The half hour shoot went quite quickly but the ladies were confident that we had got some good pictures from it! We packed away our things and put back on our shoes and socks and were told to come back in around 20 minutes time to look at the pictures. As this was a retail park, we didn't mind and had a little shop around before we went back. They actually weren't ready when we returned and we were sent away for another 10 minutes. Again we came back, and they were just finishing up with someone so we waited there for about 5 minutes. Eventually, the young lady called us through to a computer at the back where we were shown our images.

They only had 2 high levelled chairs there which weren't suitable for Harry so we had to struggle with him on our laps for about 10 minutes before the other lady decided to take him into the room and entertain him for us for a bit. The lady went through the images individually with us, then showed us a few effects they could do i.e. black and white, and sepia images, and a few packages they had put together, which we could change if we needed to. 90% of the images were wonderful, bright and colourful, and captured some lovely smiles and laughs from all of us. After this, she got out a book and showed us the different packages we could have, ranging from £25 for one picture to £300 for a large collection of pictures. We opted for a package totalling £160 which included 1 14x10 inch canvas picture and 5 10x8 inch pictures. This also included the £20 free picture I had won, as we chose to use the cash value of that rather than have a 7x5 print. Of course, you aren't obligated to buy anything at all, but its quite tough to turn them down, they do try to sell them by telling you how beautiful they are, and you can't really resist, but I guess that is the nature of the business!

Once we'd chosen our package, we set about choosing our images. We dismissed as many of the pictures we could because we didn't want to make the choice harder than it was! We then had to wittle the rest down to just 6 and did so after about half hour or so, which seemed to take forever! She filled out an order form, and we were asked to pay then which we did by debit card. We were told the pictures would be ready to collect from the store in 14 - 21 days and so we left. Packages do vary as does the costs according to their promotions, so I can't state the various packages here, you'll have to contact your local studio for that.

2 weeks later we received a telephone call saying that our images were there and ready for collection. That evening we went to the store where we were given a large white cardboard box. I eagerly opened it at home, and there were my lovely pictures! The one one of the board was wrapped in bubble wrap nice and safely, and was amazing. The colours were so vivid and the crisp white background made it stand out even more. The 5 printed images were inside a cardboard envelope, and were just as wonderful as the first. All were crisp and clear bright images, they are beautiful! They all had an Olan Mills logo embossed in the corner, but not too boldly, it is nice and subtle.

Overall, I am thrilled with Olan Mills, their pictures and their service. The shoot was very fun to do, and the girls who were taking our pictures were really good with Harry and with all of us. Afterwards, despite a bit of a long wait, we were given a lot of time to view the images and weren't rushed at all. And the delivery of our pictures was a good time frame too, I was glad it didn't take too long. The pictures were fantastic and are in my opinion, better than our Venture ones. The prices, although obviously not that cheap, are reasonable for the great pictures, and way, way cheaper than Venture (who charged us £18- per 8x10 inch picture!). A great photography company who produce high quality images you and your family will treasure!

For more information, visit their website: http://www.olanmills.co.uk/

Thank you for reading!

Summary: A great place for some lovely pictures!