One-Year Portrait---Your Total Cost at Studio Versus Photographer

I have heard many great things about celebrity kids from my mom friends! you can even change outfits so you'll have more choices. I have an appt. there next week.

Try Portrait Innovations. No sitting fee and you get a ton of pictures at a great price. All digital and get your pictures that day. Much better than Sears and Picture people.

They have a few Chicagoland locations, check out their website:

http://www.portraitinnovations.com/index.html

Going with a professional you will get great pictures but pay a lot of money, per print. If you don't need many than this may be your best route but expect to pay a lot more. Then again, they are only 1 year old once.

I will tell you I have a lot of experience from studios but not from private photographers. I have gone to sears, penneys, picture people, kiddie kandids and I think another place. The quality varies and the prices obviously vary however this is what I have found to be the overall picture (play on words?) Picture people has coupons ALL THE TIME and I took my daughter there every month for her first yr. I think I may have bought 2-3 pictures total and the rest were all FREE. I became a member of their picture people club which saves a TON of money. Seriously. Also, I would look through magazines and the newspaper to find promotions for a free 8x10 or 10x13. They have no sitting fee so usually I'd walk away with a free picture and not pay a buck.

With regard to Sears and Penneys they are lesser quality straight out. We got some nice photos and I even framed them but I can tell they are not as good quality as the other places.

Kiddie Kandids photos are fabulous but not really great with promos. Only during the first year they have a deal and you should look into that. It saves money. I got amazing pics from there. Everyone loved them.

Enjoy the photos and take lots of them because they are only little once in their lifetime.

Kiddie Kandids in Niles is by far the best and most affordable for us. We get our children photos taken every three months before they turned one and then twice a year- birthday and pictures for Christmas card. There is no sitting fee and you can buy the packages- they always have coupons sent to you after you go the first time. You can also have the pictures sent to your email addresses so you can purchase them online anytime. I generally spend from 50-200 per sitting. They did my two children birth announcments, so that is why the 200 is so high. But, their are good packages are as low as $75.00 and you can buy individual picutres too. Check out their website-they compare with Sears, Picture People, etc. You will love them like our family loves them. If you decide to go further with Kiddie Kandids, tell them A. K. sent you. They have a great referral program with free pictures.

Hi I.,
I am a photographer, you can check me out at http://www.emphotography.net/Family.html I am definately more expensive than the mall shops, but I can come to your home, spend time with your daughter, have the images reflect your family and her personality.
I put the images on a web-site so you have a couple of weeks to view them before picking what you want. They are also available for greeting cards if you want, for the up coming holiday season, so your getting two for one. I give 10% off full session fee to mothers from mamasource. And from time to time I do discount days, where sessions are only 1/2 price, you can see info on this in my blog.
Mini sessions are $125, full sessions $250.
Hope this helps.
E..

I honestly have had great luck at JC Penney's studio. You can get a package for $7.99 or $3.99 a sheet with a coupon, and a $9.99 sitting fee. They don't take a bunch of pictures - maybe 10-12 per kid, but they always seem to get really cute ones. I have had a bunch of great pictures taken of all three of my kids multiple times over. With my daughter(who's the eldest), I had a professional photgrapher come to my home, and for the exorbitant price I was charged for pictures, they were no better than Penney's. And, at the prices at Penney's, I can continue to have pictures taken on a regular basis(and we give away a lot of pics to family).

Good luck!

I tried a bunch of places (Sears, Picture People, etc.) and the one I love love LOVE is Celebrity Kids. You pay $40 for a sitting fee, and they spend 45 minutes or so and take TONS (100-150) of pictures. You choose the 5 best (that's all that's included in the $40, but if you want more choices, you can pay for any extras that you want). They then print up your fotos, and you come back a week or so later to review/buy. They cost $38 per sheet (either 1 8" x 10", 2-5"x&", or 4 of the littler ones). They print up 5x7's for your preview, so if you like them, you can buy whatever ones you want. If you want more, then order them at that time.

I am a mom/photographer and owner of StellaLily Studio 1. I have both a BFA and masters degree in photography and have been in business for 15 years. You can check out my website at www.stellalily.com
Mamasource clients receive 10% off the sitting fee which is after discount $265. That includes the time spent photographing (usually about an hour) and an 8X10 gallery quality custom print. Images are viewed online and a consultation session is free.
Thank you,
J. Ryan

We went to JC Penney for our son's 4 month picture and it isn't very expensive. We spent about $60 and got enough pictures where my husband and I, both grandparents had about 8 pictures of various sizes and our siblings got to take about 2 smaller pics too.
There are always coupons in baby magazines and I also found them on their website. (It usually gives you free sitting fees, and a free 8X10, and a good price on each portrait sheet.)
Hope this helps!

I've also had a lot of luck at portrait innovations. You can spend as little as $10 for one pose and you get tons of prints of that pose or you can add as many sheets as you want. I've literally walked out of there with only spending $10 and really happy with the picture. I highly recommend them.

We just had 6 month pictures done at Picture People in the mall. My expectations weren't really all that high going in, but I figured what the heck, we'll at least have some 5x7 and 8x10 for frames and such. Much to my surprise, they did a fantastic job! I think they do some sort of special where you get one pose at 8x11, 5x7 and 8 wallets for like $50. No sitting fee and they're ready in an hour. If you hate them, well you're only out $50! If you want 'sheets' (one 8x10, 2 5x7, 8 wallets) I think they're $18 a sheet.

I have found the private photographer experience to be much better.

We went to Picture People for our son's first pictures when he was a few weeks old. The did 5 standard shots (the same for every baby that comes in) and they were pretty terrible, mostly because he was asleep and the didn't try to get better angles. Just put him in position and shoot. I don't remember how much, but we spent close to $80 on the shoot and the few pictures we ordered.

I now use Jody Garland:
http://homepage.mac.com/jodygarlandportfolio/iMovieTheate...

For $95 I get an hour long shoot with amazing pictures. She listens to what we want and has a great eye. I also get a CD with all my images, my most recent shoot for my 3 month old, we got over 1200 images. She really does a great job. Especially for my 2 year old who will not sit and smile just because you told him too, she coaxes amazing pictures out of him. She will print your pictures for you, but I just order them myself online because its cheaper.

I highly recommend her. Her traveling rates aren't bad either, depending on where you live, We had our son's one year pictures done at our home during his first birthday party and we got some of the best pictures of all our relatives and friends. Check out her portfolio you will be impressed!

I can even send you one of my family pics if you want to see, currently only my babies pics are up there. My girlfriends and I even did a shoot together it was so much fun! If you go, please tell her you heard about her from M. H. Thanks!

Hi,
I am sure you are getting all of the responses from the photographers that are on the site like I did when I had a similar question. I ended up going with Susan Ryan (who did my wedding and maternity photos) because I was overwhelmed with options and I loved her style. She will come to your home and shoot for about an hour or so. She can do B&W or Color (or both) and my son SCREAMED for about 55 of the 60 minutes but she still managed to get about 80 photos that were absolutely adorable. I believe her sitting fee was around $295 and then her prints are about $15 or $20 each for 5x7 prints. She also will frame them for you if you want. If you would like some shots of my son that she did I would be more than happy to send them to you. Her website is: http://www.susanryanphotography.com Good luck!