Interesting Experience

[makario]

The missus and I, while strolling down Westfield shopping centre, happened to gaze on an advert to enter a draw for a free glamour shoot if you fill in your details. Me being the newbie that I am, havent taken any good potrait photos of the both of us so far, decided that it would be great to get a couple of nice print, hence we gave our details hoping to win.

As luck would have it, my wife got a call saying that we were the lucky winners and we would need pay a $40 deposit for an obligation free appointment and should we wants prints they would cost $100. We asked for more details and here's the go, for $120 you get 2xA4 size prints, no frame or anything else. The makeup for the shoot and the shoot itself is free.

My question, is this how such glamour type photography works? What should normally be part of such a package and what should it normally cost?

I hope this is the right forum to ask this question.

Mak

[birddog114]

I often got few calls a week, telling me or my wife, I won a holiday, a TV, a scooter etc...
and I tell ya, I answer and spoke Vietnamese to them instead of English

[MCWB]

I tell ya, I answer and spoke Vietnamese to them instead of English

 ROFL, that's awesome!

[makario]

hmmm... maybe I should take up a second language!!!

[Laurie]

My girlfriend has been on 2 of these photoshots now.

photoshot, make up are free. you pay for the prints if you want any. chances are you do.

been to VAIG and Exclusive Photography.

rip off IMO.
:/

[bago100]

Makario
If something is advertised as 'free' it should be free. However in saying that, the devil is always in the detail.
There is a saying and it goes something like this

The BIG PRINT givith
The small print taketh away

If you do feel you have been taken for a ride, you could always telephone the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and have a chat with them because there are various laws in place that are suposedly there to protect us from deceptive and misleading conduct by corporations.

Cheers

Graham

[LostDingo]

I often got few calls a week, telling me or my wife, I won a holiday, a TV, a scooter etc...
and I tell ya, I answer and spoke Vietnamese to them instead of English

hilarious and great idea...you need to teach us "piss off" in Vietnamese

[Geoff]

Mak - in my honest opinion - these guys are RIP OFF merchants!

My advice - get to know your fellow Victorian forum members and go to a meet - I'm sure someone wants/needs the portrait practice - voila!

[makario]

Well I decided to take up a Potraiture workshop by the end of May, then hopefully I can take some good images.

The wifes unhappy with this experience and hence I should get a perm slip to buy some more toys then I can take better potraits of her hehehehe....

Honsetly I was dissappointed with their marketing

[avkomp]

this sounds like a case of everybody wins.

if you won, how come you have to pay $40??
sounds like a scam to me.

steve

[gstark]

Mak,

The deal here has two hooks.

Hook 1 is to get you on their mailing list. Now try to get off it.

Hook 2 is to put their hands in your pockets. Yes, the shoot is free, as is the makeup. As you can see, they more than make up for the cost, to them, of the free shoot in what they want to charge you for the prints.

They're doing nothing illegal, it's just marketing.

And it's more evidence of why I dislike marketers so intensely.

And in case you've not yet figured it out - everyone whose name went into the draw came out as a winner.

[Raskill]

Studio portrait photography is WAY over priced. Sure time is money but $120 for two A4 prints. They would cost about $15 to get commercially developed. Assuming the photographers time is valued at $75 an hour, you'd be lucky to get 30 minutes worth of photo time.

I'm flying up to Qld next week to take some pics of a friend and her husband in the very late stages of her pregnancy. Arty B&W ones, apparently she liked the ones I took of my wife (which cannot be posted here on pain of death) (I think they are the best images I've taken, using multiple light sources, back lighting for sillouettes etc).

It's cheaper for her to fly me up there and back and feed me beer and pretzels for 3 days, than to get a local portrait photographer to do it(around the $1000).

I think the whole 'you've won a prize' is just a backdoor marketing campaign designed to trap people into thinking they've got something for nothing....

[phillipb]

And in case you've not yet figured it out - everyone whose name went into the draw came out as a winner.

Either that, or Mak was the only one who entered.

[MATT]

I say go and dont buy any prints.

You use the time to observe and ask questions of the photographer to help better you shooting.

Free tuition

Worth a try.

MATT

[makario]

Hey Matt,

I would have done the free tuition thing if I wasnt going for the workshop later on in the month.

Cheers
Mak

[Matt. K]

message deleted. Wrong post.

[birddog114]

makario
We will organise other sessions so stay tuned.

Are you moving to Melbourne?

[Matt. K]

I misread the message Birdy...but gosh you were quick!