Asim Soofi is a man on a mission with a lofty goal in mind. His objective…
To experience the value and quality of service consumers receive when using chain type portrait studios or value-priced portrait centers.
While visiting a Starbucks, Asim noticed what he called “Hordes” of families in their official “Family” picture outfits taking advantage of a $9.95 portrait sitting special. Intrigued by the goings on next door he thought why not.
I thought, wow, what a bargain! So for the sake of education and to get the inside scoop on what you actually get, I went in and decided to get a session.
The Guidelines
- Pretend to be ignorant of photography and any methods.
- Follow all instructions of ‘employee/shooter’ (i can’t in good faith refer to them as photographers due to lack of evidence at this time)
- Do all poses the ‘shooter’ requests without objection or reservation
- Comment to shooter “Wow, that’s a big camera!”
- Tell shooter at another point during the shoot “That camera must take great photos!”
- Agree enthusiastically to every ‘pro’ opinion when reviewing horrible shots, i.e. Shooter: “Oh, you look great!” Undercover Agent: “Aww..Thanks!!”
- Last but not least, smile like a cheeseball the entire time
The Results
Well we won’t spoil all the results of the full session for you but we will let you make your own conclusions. Check out the photos here (You’ll have to login to Facebook)
His conclusion, and mine, you get what you pay for.
For Charity
While the pictures might not be so hot perhaps they can help someone. Asim is having a bit of a contest…
If you’re really cool and want to help, you can win an autographed print from this AWESOME portrait session. Donate $10 bucks and you’ll get signed photo with a special holiday message in either a wallet, a 4×6, a 5×7, or a 8×10 mailed to you. If you learned something from this ultra valuable experience or you just found this very entertaining, you can still show your luv $1.00 and $5.00 donations.
via | Asim’s blog of course
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11 Comments at "Boutique Photographer vs The Studio Chain Store"
I don’t know that I agree with the whole thing – even though it’s a cheapo chain, going there without the objectives of buying anything is shopping the competition. Wasting their time and facilities.
Surprise surprise, the images are not as good as a boutique studio. For many it is “good enough” and fits their budget. Not my clients nor would I seek to market to them but there is of course a market there.
The whole support a charity thing – why wouldn’t I just give my money to a charity that I support instead??
As much as I don’t like the retail chains as such – I think this whole experiment lacks respect.
I wonder how much it cost him to purchase the copyright and license those images for web use and print resale.
But Loring he paid for the session. How was it wasting time?
Now, not all places are bad. I work at one of these types of places. Some of the “photographers” or shooters as you call them are bad and some are good. But if your looking to spend 9.95 then you got what you were looking for. I tell you what when I started there and now today it still blows my mind now much is spent there and if I had one tenth of there traffic I would be a well off photographer but the simple truth is people know what there getting there and don’t mind for the most part.
I do outside and in home work at good prices while my work might not be the best it is no where close to bad. Just think what could happen if some great photographers started a mall or some type of chain. Would people want to pay what you would charge? or would they take the lesser 9.95 deal and be happy?
Some important disclaimers:
-I paid the full price for the session in cash, including the copyright release.
-Images are on my personal Facebook page to avoid any liability. You may have to friend me, but are obviously welcome to de-friend me after viewing the images.
-Some may argue it could fall under “Fair Use” but I am not sure of specifics on this, so I’m just going to keep the album viewable by “friends.”
-I am not reselling prints. I am giving away a free gift for any $10 donations. The gift is one of the prints that were provided to me as part of my package.
-I went in as a consumer, not price shopping competition.
This is what I as a consumer got for my hard earned money. Judge for yourselves.
Keep shooting my friends.
/asim
I came here to support a friend in his creative adventure into the world most of us have never stepped foot in, “Chain Store Photography”. This is the same world that half of my clients venture away from. I then end up apalled by the commentors and the fact that he had to already come on here to defend himself when all the exact information is clearly on his post. Quickly I was remind why I have let my forum memberships lapse.
Different opinions are awesome…just have your facts first. He was very careful to mention all of that in his post.
Did we get a good laugh out of his experience…heck yeah…but you would need to know this guy personally to really get that part of it. The fact that he has taken it and decided to help a charity at the same time is admirable…and nothing to be ashamed of.
Kuddos to the good time I am sure he had, the awesome laugh I had, the charity that will receive a nice little bonus and the profit the chain store made on this little experiment.
Hi Marta…
To clarify, this wasn’t shared on the forum that I’m aware of. This blog while sharing a name is strictly public facing and not representative of the forum and does not require membership of any kind in order to post.
-Mark
I think this post was not only educational and informative, but was done in good taste by someone with a great sense of humor. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this entire experience and thank you both Asim and Mark for sharing it with us.
Thank you for clarifying Mark…I just followed a link and had not noticed it was the blog vs. the forum. I was not trying to pin point DWF, I said “memberships” (plural) for a reason…it is all too common across the board. If we could just find a place where people can discuss and debate without getting rude, we would all learn so much more. I apologize to you and Asim that my comment led to an OT discussion.
I think wat this man did was discracfool. He done went and waisted the time of them amazzing photogruphers I see in the mall next to the Orunge Joolius stor.
Wat is he complaning about anyway? I thought them pichers he shewed were dang fine. He has a nice smile in them picherss and a nice sweater too. I woulda thut he was a nice feller if not fer the mean things he rote in this site. Tho, he does look a little like a foreener to me. But, GOD loves us all I reckon, thas wat my momma said anyway.
Thats all.
OMG BOB! dats fun-e
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