Pixifoto Vouchers?

decbuck

Hi,

We have an 8 month old baby and want to get the pixifotos taken. I remember we receievd some vouchers from pixifoto when our baby was born.

Not too sure, but I think it was from eumom.

Anyway we have misplaced them. Does anyone know if they give you much off?

We priced it and for 6 sets of photos it would be about €155.


And if anyone has spare vouchers that they are not going to use, can they pass them on.

Cheers

crosstownk

IIRC, it entitles you to one free photo. They take a few different shots and when you come to collect the free one they offer the others for sale - about €30 each, I think.

Crea

Also, you have to pick the best shot you want the big photo of just after the pics are taken. When I was there the pics weren't take on a digital camera so I couldn't even look back on the shots taken I just had to remember when the baby looked the best. You don't get to pick it out of the pile of photos. Of course you never pick the best one and so are tempted to buy the others.

littlebitdull

The voucher will only cover the one shot. You will go in... they will shot off one pose. They then place the child in various poses and you return some few days later.

Your then presented with a range of shots of your child. Generaly in my experience (and first used pixifoto way back in 1994!) the "free" photo is the worst one.

So even if you collect a load of free vouchers its not like you can take them all in together and cover the package. Its one voucher per sitting and the voucher covers one large photo.

Deliverance

Do yourself a favour and save your money and buy a digital camera! My fuji finepix s5000 has taken many photos of my daughter at a great quality and with far more memorable value than a commercial studio. The camera will do the work for you on auto generally.

I'm no proffesional but I have hundreds of photos of my little girl about one in 20 are as good if not better than a studio will take. And the more photos you take the better they get through experience.

For example try to take photos with the light coming directly from behind the subject point the cam at the floor a few feet from the subject and do a light press to get the cam to read less light and focus then point it at the subject, click you get a soft focus and a little halo of light around the child, works great with a little practice.

Second have the light coming from behind the cam (behind you the taker onto the subjects face) from a window for example (natruall light is best) and have some bright colours in the scene, use the light press again to read the environment, colours and light, and hey presto another beautifull photo.

Just saying that to spend 155 euro on a few moments is not economical when you can take an infinite amount and learn so much and have so much for so little. So my opinion is forget the studios and spend your money more wisely and productively on a good camera. Like I said (Fuji Finepix SLR style cam) don't go less than 400 euro and enjoy.

run_Forrest_run

I agree with Deliverance, invest in a good digital camera and have fun taking the shots yourself. They will mean even more to you knowing you took them. I bought a Nikon D80, OK it is quite expensive but you could easily get a good quality digital camera for less. Have fun taking pictures and framing them and even take it a bit further and try your hand at some editing on the computer.

Deliverance

Spot on and even if you don't have a computer or are not / or don't have the time or patience to become computer literate there are plenty of machines and shops that will print out your photos from your camera card at a reasonable price (with plenty of assistance). Watch out for the bigger size prints though, huge jump in price, but still worth it for a really good photo.

2tlvogueaddict

One of my best friends worked for the company (Pixifoto) so I know this all first hand. The girls in pixi foto are not real photographers by carer. The company hire’s such young girls for a reason, so that they do not have to pay them a photographer’s salary. When my friend started with the company she had no photography experience what so ever and was just looking for a retail job whilst she was in college. The girls are trained to multi-task and not only take pictures but also to do sales and canvass customers out on the street as you may have seen. I personally find the prices outrageous considering the girls training and also their salary. However the Cork branches of Pixi hire trained photographers first off and the results are excellent, but from experience I wouldn’t recommend the travelling Pixi’s you see in boots or the other branches. For the amount of money you’re paying you could go to a trained photographer, have a genuine hour shoot and a much nicer experience. Not putting the images on a disk is another downfall and I notice they don’t edit the prints either...

Get a digital camera :-)

astrofool

One of our best investments has been a Canon digital SLR camera. Must get it out today actually

2tlvogueaddict

Oh mine too xXx You can take much better and more natural pictures yourself with the right equipment :-) Sometimes i think the non posed pictures are the best xXx

Deliverance

2tlvogueaddict wrote: »

Oh mine too xXx You can take much better and more natural pictures yourself with the right equipment :-) Sometimes i think the non posed pictures are the best xXx

upgraded my camera recently, it was so worth it! I got commissioned to do a 'sweet 16' party based on the photos that I had taken previously. Plus I have a commission to do a leaving cert graduation in a few months.

I got these commissions due to my eye as a photographer and the new equipment that I have that is easy to use.

cynder

http://www.pixifoto.ie/


log on to the website now and then and check under offers, they always have some sort of offer on, at the moment its communion but I'm sure once the communion season is over there will be another one.

2tlvogueaddict

They have the €10 offer on all year round, Portrait place (The sister Pixi Foto) company have one on all year round for €15. The pictures are really the same quality from both studios as they share the same staff. Just beware the pressure/ hard sales from these places :-/ keep your wits about you though and you should get a photo session and picture for that. Just be pre-warned that they make you pick your "free" photograph before you see it from memory.

Dannyboy1987

I was going to bring my child to this place but found the manger very fake and much of it a scam to be honest.

2tlvogueaddict

It is very fake unfortunately, and the thing is if you go just to get the “free one” it’s the poor girls that will get punished not the manager. Every girl working there has to have a sale’s average of €100 per sale and if sadly they do not achieve it they are fired... Pretty tough when you consider that the poor girl’s are on 18k are also taking the photographs and canvassing on the street as well as sales!

I think the price’s are pretty outrageous too considering you don’t get to choose the pictures yourself or have them on a disk.

My friend took her lot to Wrigglers and Gigglers and the photographs are amazing if you do want to go down the professional route, The company is owned by a husband and wife and the prices are pretty reasonable too

http://www.wrigglersandgigglers.com/

Ianmicks

hey everybody anyone got ideas on how much is competitive to charge for graduation photos? might have somne jobs soon but need to come back with good pricing havent a clue in regards to what is competitive?

smelltheglove

Best posting in the photography forum. Competitively the 8x10 shots are around €20.

moonpurple

it is nonsense, .. they tell you to pick the free shot you want..then they make sure it is awful quality, then they try to brow beat you into buying the other shots,

avoid

should not be allowed into the maternity hospitals:pac:

gogo

Agreed, stay away! Cousin recently got shots done and they are woeful, really bad. Cost about 150 too.
My sisters friends is presently training for pixi foto, interested in photography: no, interested in a job: yes.
They always seem to be canvasing outside mothercare as well, really annoys me how poeple get drawn in with the whole free picture bit, nearly fell for it myself until i seen the cousins pictures. Have yet to see anyone with a natural picture resulting from it, get a good camera and have fun with it, go digital and you can snap until your hearts content until you get it right.
If your not comfortable with that, save up a bit longer and get a professional to do it.

2tlvogueaddict

Agreed gogo, it’s a total waste of time. What I found particularly outrageous is that my friend told me that they are only allowed fifteen minutes per shoot?! Fifteen minutes to get a small child to sit down for nine or ten different pictures and then the so called “free” picture isn’t even one the customer get’s to choose. I have a huge problem with the way they rip off young mothers by enticing them to come in for a “free” portrait and then slapping them with a bill for a small fortune and then punishing the poor girls who work there for not pressure selling, It’s unreal! This type of thing shouldn’t be allowed if you ask me.

I’m not a cheapskate and I wouldn’t mind at all paying that amount of money for quality photographs that the photographer had put time into but not to be rushed through a fifteen minute shoot, where I can’t pick the photographs and they are unedited...

What also alarmed me is that apparently the costumes they dress the kids up in and the blankets the children sit on are never washed! So often (as happens with small children) baby sick and leaked substances from nappies are just left to dry into the costume and put on the next child!

So no thank you! I wouldn’t like a pixi foto voucher today! :eek:

2tlvogueaddict

http://www.retailjobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1056319

Trained photographers my booty, you don't need any experience to work there.... :eek:

Truley

2tlvogueaddict wrote: »

http://www.retailjobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1056319

Trained photographers my booty, you don't need any experience to work there.... :eek:

True, infact they look for the opposite. I went for a job interview there before along with about half a dozen trained and experienced photographers. They ended up picking the three or four candidates who had zero photography experience. Presumably so they don't have to pay a decent wage.

Also the entire interview revolved around assessing our selling skills and ability to push and promote the company. Not one mention of photography or dealing with children.

Stay clear from these shysters and spend your money on a 'real' photographer.

2tlvogueaddict

No unfortunately, I can tell you first off that they don’t and won’t hire trained photographers because they do their “training” themselves. They need young girls because adult’s (let’s face it) won’t put up with being on minimum wage or be intimidated by their bullying tactics either so it’s to their advantage to hire a certain type of person.

What frightens me most is that the company doesn’t even do background checks on people who are working with our children! A few years ago I saw online that a staff member working for the portable version of the company was busted for selling the photographs himself and pocketing the money, apparently for a drug habit! Lovely!

Don’t get me wrong there are some lovely girls working there who really are trying there absolute best but I can’t help thinking that If I don’t spend the money I know the girl will be punished which isn’t fair...
That company is really a disgrace... :mad:

Nevyn

2tlvogueaddict wrote: »

What frightens me most is that the company doesn’t even do background checks on people who are working with our children! A few years ago I saw online that a staff member working for the portable version of the company was busted for selling the photographs himself and pocketing the money, apparently for a drug habit! Lovely!

Can you find a link to this please.

2tlvogueaddict

http://www.communityvoice.ie/pages/CV138/CV138n11.htm

Stole from employer to buy drugs

A photographer who stole €27,000 from a Dublin 15 company has been given a suspended sentence after paying over partial compensation to the company, Photo Corporation Ireland Ltd.

The company which is located in Northwest Business Park operates portrait studios in a number of major retail chains trading as PixiFoto and Portrait Place. One such studio is operated in Mothercare in the Blanchardstown Centre

Graham Hynes (31), with an address in Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, claimed he took the money because he fell back into heroin use “after staying clean for several years.” He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing €26,836 at Blanchardstown from the company on a date unknown between 26th April and 19th May 2007. He also pleaded guilty to possession of a forged driving license.

Garda David Maye told prosecuting counsel, Mr Garnett Orange BL, that Hynes was hired by the company in August 2006 to drive to various locations around the country and take photographs of people. He would then return a few weeks later to sell the pictures. It later emerged he had used a forged driving license to get the job.

Starting in April 2007, he went on five trips to take photographs. Each time he filled out the paper work and collected the money from customers but failed to lodge it in the company account.

His manager became suspicious and alerted gardaí who contacted Hynes. He arranged to be interviewed voluntarily and admitted taking the money but claimed he had never planned to keep it. He said he had spent €7,100 of the stolen money on heroin after he "slipped" back into his addiction.

He claimed the rest of the cash had been stolen from him when he was at a party. Garda Maye added that Hynes had seven previous convictions including robbery, theft and road traffic offences.

Defence counsel, Mr. David Staunton BL, said Hynes had a long history of drug use and suffered from a related infectious disease. He said Hynes "recognised what he did was a serious breach of trust" and was "very anxious and stressed about going into custody."

The court heard that Hynes had been largely crime-free since his arrest, aside from several road traffic offences. He also was offering to pay €3,000 in compensation.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Hynes to three years but suspended this for three years and ordered him to pay over the money to his former employers.

smelltheglove

Wow, thats shocking, a drug addict with an infectious disease allowed to work with young babies and children.

Fittle

Back in the day when the little lad was a newborn, and I spent my days roaming around various shopping centres drinking coffee and being very stressed:D, I was 'enticed' into mothercare to get his photo taken.

Ten days later, back I went - the free photo was awful - he looked like he had a turn in his eye (still have it and show it to people saying he didn't have a turn in his eye, I swear!). The lovely girl had about 50 pretty decent photos of him displayed on a stand. Of course I wanted them all, but picked a few. I asked the girl what they'd be doing with the other photos of my newborn...she told me they'd be shredded!!!! I was almost in tears at the thoughts of anyone shredding pics of him...(he was 3wks old)...and walked away with 165euro worth of pics:).

Can't for the life of me locate any of them now, but great sales pitch on their behalf....