I purchased a Living Social deal, and I read ALL the reviews everywhere before going in so I had an idea what to expect.
First of all, the experience was FAR beyond my expectations. My daughter is 3.5, and she loves fairy princesses and playing dressup/pretend, so I figured that even if this wasn't great, she'd have a great time.
I had nothing to worry about AT ALL!
When we got there, we were ushered right in at our appointment time and given a choice of fairy outfits in my daughter's age/size range. She chose one, and the photographer (Damaris) helped her into a flower crown and put a little blush and very light pink lip gloss on her. (She LOVED that, ha!) Damaris was so patient and completely genuine. She made the experience unforgettable - asking my daughter what kind of fairy she was, if she had a fairy name, talked about the blush as pixie dust, etc. All with complete authenticity - it wasn't like she was going through a script (because I don't care how little the kid is, they see through fakey people), and my daughter warmed to her immediately and was so excited to talk about her fairy name and the fact that she was a flower fairy!
We went straight back to the fairy land set, and Damaris checked the lights and got my daughter her wings (and made it a big deal to receive them - "Don't fly away!")
She explained to me that the first pose they do was the promotional pose that we'd receive as an 8x10 from the Living Social, but that she'd be doing the whole set of poses in case we liked them and were interested in purchasing others. I felt ZERO pressure, but knew exactly what the deal was so there were no surprises.
Damaris was unbelievably patient with my daughter (who will cooperate, but is in that stage where she wants to do everything "by my own" and her own way!). She kept the magic going throughout changes of pose and scene, and there were always magical reasons for my daughter to pose the way she was, and that helped her understand and feel special even when she was holding her arm up with nothing in it.
There was also a moment where they got out a fairy book, and set a butterfly on it for a specific picture pose. My daughter had a hard time holding it to show - she wanted to look at it - so Damaris got a mossy blanket to prop it up on, and when instead of holding it and looking as intended, my daughter got really excited about the book (a pop up fairy book - totally exciting!) and turned pages, opened pop-ups, etc, Damaris didn't try to redirect her to the set pose, she saw my daughter light up with excitement and joy and started snapping pictures! It's the mark of someone who GETS taking pictures of kids. (And the picture of the book where my daughter is holding up the butterfly and has all the popup flowers popped up, etc, is my FAVORITE.)
Plus, if you're used to the quicky in and out Target/Penney's/Mall studio photography where they literally take 15 pictures total and you'd better hope your kid had a good expression, Damaris took almost 200. That's more reasonable if you want to end up with 15 that look good, as any parent with a DSLR can tell you.
We were able to come back the next day (today!) for our viewing and to choose our free 8x10 from the first pose (Damaris took lots of that one and there were 2 great ones to choose from) and order any we wanted. I loved them all, and ended up going with the CD of all 16 edited images with a print release. There was NO pressure, no hard sell, just the presentation on a HUGE screen, and an easy to read and understand package list. It was just an extension of the totally comfortable, thoughtful, and kind experience we had the day before getting the pics taken.
The print prices are NOT Target photo studio prices, but they're right in line with other professional photographers. In fact, for editing in less than 24 hours plus the all-inclusive fairy experience on top of it, the prices are ridiculously reasonable. Worth EVERY PENNY. And I'm a cheapskate.
My daughter had a fabulous time, and the pictures are just breathtaking. Oh! And if you go to the website, you can see that the owner can do almost anything with editing - from photoshopping the little fairies to look almost as if it were a painted portrait to adding in woodland creatures. Anyway, I prefer a natural look - I didn't want my daughter's face retouched or edited beyond what was necessary like if there were a good picture, but with a weird shadow, etc. She did an amazing job, and added in all the fairy magic while leaving in my kiddo's perfect little imperfections.
I couldn't recommend them more highly. read more