Venture Into High Key & High Prices (Venture)

Member Name: danieljamesphoto

Product:	Venture
Date:	07/02/09 (321 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: modern style portrait photography

Disadvantages: expensive, misleading costs

--- Pro To Pro ---

Call it cold calling, call it market research, i approached a Venture sales person up at my local shopping mall to find out their prices (i'm a professional photographer myself). All she would tell me was the price of the session, a very reasonable £25 (or £15 sometimes, or even free if you "win" their competitions) which includes 1 5"x7" print.

When i asked about other prices for prints she wouldn't tell me. This to me is suspicious, i shout my prices loud as i know im competitive and keep them reasonable to keep people coming back.

--- Concept ---

Lure people in with a good cheap offer and then charge (from a friend who went to them) around £30 for a tiny 6"x4" print.

--- Style ---

Over exposed or 'high key' images that are flattering often but frequently end up looking like the photographer simply put the flashes up too high and whited out 99% of the people in the shot.

This is their style and can be seen on their site thisisventure.co.uk. Although popular with some, there seems to be no flexibility, that's their style and that's that.

--- Cost ---

As mentioned before, £25 session normally gets you 1 free 5"x7" with subsequent prints being £30+ (from what my friend told me)

--- Summary ---

I often get people coming to me to ask my prices and they are often shocked after going to a company such as Venture previously and paying 3 or 4 times the price.

They are money grabbing at the end of the day and although the style is fairly different for a company to solely do, it is not difficult and to my eyes looks simply overexposed.

Beware, if the price looks too good to be true, it's probably for a reason.

Summary: Beware, if the price looks too good to be true, it's probably for a reason.