Great service, but super expensive! There was als a really long wait time. My appointment was at 1:00 & they said it was an hour / hour & a half wait time. read more

People on phone are so unprofessional and rude. I had my photos taken and didn't receive anything for several days, even tho i gave them my email and wrote it for them on the paper when i was there, so i called them and turns out my email was spelled incorrectly...ok, so i repeated my email again, and again received nothing. So i called again and the girl that was on the phone kept interrupting me and was very rude. And when i finally gave my email she just hung up on me in the mid of me talking. Very unprofessional. Maybe you should pay attention when a customer gives u information the first time instead of ignoring them. read more

We needed some professional portraits done for my baby's first birthday and Angel was able to fit us in her tight schedule. It was a 30 min photo session and Angel was great with my baby. There were some tears but she was able to pull off some decent photos with two outfits. Thankyou so much Angel! Your remarkable =) read more

Jcp Portraits - Session Photography Near Me - Escondido, California

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My youngest son was long overdue for formal pictures- hey, life happens! Sure, I have a million pictures of him at the park, eating ice cream, all that good stuff...but nothing formal. When I saw a groupon (maybe it was living social?) deal pop up for JCP Portraits, it was the perfect time to make an appointment. The deal was very affordable- 15.99. You pick one pose out of everything they take and get a variety of sizes (1 10x13, 1 8x10, 4 5x7, etc). There's no sitting fee either with this deal. We arrived early and our photographer, Kelly, got started right away. She was able to capture some great photos of my kiddo, some with props and some without. The whole session lasted around 20 minutes and then about 10-15 minutes to decide what you want. They offer a 40% discount if you buy more that day, but you can always buy more after viewing your online gallery. Just note, the 40% discount doesn't apply then. I've used JCP Portraits before, but always find a deal because with out it, it's pretty pricey. I'm a fan and would return. read more

So rude. We came in knowing what we wanted for photos. We did not ask for individual photos and the lady at the front met us with rudeness. Who is paying who here... if we don't want solo shots we definitely should not have to. Photographer was amazing though loved her and did not enforce the other woman's bs! read more

Don't bother. Went here to do family photos with a newborn and a 16 month old and they made us wait for 30 minutes before telling us that their computer shouldn't have booked us when they had another booking before us. Why not tell us when we got there? Why make us wait? I'm postpartum and pissed, will not ever be back. read more

We arrived early for our appointment and waited over an hour and a half to be called to take our pictures, by that time our babies were tired and hungry so we got no pictures!! If you can't get people in within an hour of their appointments I would think you have over booked!!! The lady at the front claimed they were short staffed. Save your money and get professional photographers if you have small children!! read more

Update: it's been 2 months and I still have not gotten my picture I ordered from them. I asked to talk to a manager no one was there so I left my info and no ones called back. Called and asked about my pictures and if they still had them and they said no!!!! Total waste of time and money. DO NOT GO HERE! Honestly I've been coming here for pictures the last 5 years. This years pictures were probably the worst yet. During the session the photographer was very kind. But I strongly believe she was very new to this field as she took minimal photos and did not take as many as I had asked/wanted. For example, I wanted a picture with just me and the kids, then one with my husband and the kids and we unfortunately did not get them. Then when we went out to look at them, someone was blinking in almost all of the pictures and you could see blur of someone moving a hand or kicking a foot while sitting. Not all of this is the photographers fault, I know. But I'm disappointed with the quality of the pictures and the fact that we got maybe 3 good pictures out of the whole lot read more

Luna Colon cancelled my appointment less than 30 minutes before my appointment. She called at 4:19, my appointment at at 4:45. I was already in the store on my way to check in early. Unsure how to follow up as this was unprofessional and inconvenient. read more

After waiting in line for 15 minutes, when it was finally our turn the girl working the counter said sorry I'm off the clock come back in an hour. So an hour later, when we came back to pick up our photos they didn't even have all the photos we ordered. I asked if they could ship them and she said yes for another 7 dollars. (would think that if they messed up the first time they would ship for free). Then when I went to pay for the shipping she told me that it wasn't an option for re-orders..... after spending over 350 bucks on portraits I would expect to be treated better. Over all very dissatisfied with my experience here. I recommend going somewhere else! I certainly will not be coming back. I take better quality photos with my phone! Not to mention they only had one person working with the phones ringing off the hook and 10+ people waiting in line. read more

The manager Angel EXTREMELY rude and UNPROFESSIONAL. Was making an appointment on the phone using a Groupon a different employee at first who was nice and did her best but we can hear the manger in the background telling her we are just going to keep rewording "our story 7 times" and we're just wasting their time. I heard everything and called the manager out on it. The manager had no right to be disrespectful. She refused to provide her last name because I was going contact corporate. Tons of my family have been there before and bought plenty pictures in the past. We will never go there again and would rather drive to a further location to give them another chance before booking photo sessions with a completely different company. No wonder they have 2 stars on every review page. Save your time and energy and go elsewhere. read more

This is absolutely the worst customer service we've ever experienced, including all service industries! Due to the concerns about COVID, we decided to go with a branded studio rather than individual studios. With lots of trust and confidence, we booked 2 photos shoot sessions for important occasions - our first newborn baby's major milestone and our first Christmas family photo shoot. However, not only did both our appointments get cancelled at the last minute, but we were also humiliated by the photographer named Patrice, after we spent hours dressing ourselves and the baby up, left work early, fought the traffic to get to the studio. We are still shocked by how rude, cold, unprofessional and disrespectful she is as a human being, not mentioning as a photographer. It's a huge disappointment that she totally ruined our baby's very important day and holiday mood, but we're relieved that she is not the one ended up taking such important photos of our lives and she won't be associated to any of our photos. If you don't want to ruin your precious memories by someone who is totally unprofessional and disqualified, then don't take the risks. We read all the poor reviews before we made the appointments, but since we got a referral from another photographer, we decided to take a risk. Here we are - one of the biggest regrets we have. We hope this will help prevent other people from having to deal with same frustration and disappointment we went through. read more

If I could give 0 stars for my experience I would! What a s**t show this place has become. Save your time and money -- go somewhere else where they actually value customers and children. Wow. I have been an advocate for JCP pics for years. I have always sucked up the fact that this place is disorganized and running late. By the time they take your pictures and you order your prints it takes anywhere from 1 1/2 - 3 hours. I have no idea why they have appointments every 20 minutes if 1) they can't keep each appt. to 20 minutes and 2) typically only have photographer working. Ridiculous. I have a 14 month old and was late for her appointment due to rain, bad weather and bad traffic. The JCP manager and her assistant -- a frumpy, unhappy woman and a scrawny girl said they would not take my daughter's photos because we were late. They were rude, hostile and after I called the JCP store manager said they would "fit us in" or we would be "next. Guess what, everyone after us was late for their appointment and not penalized. Everyone was seen at least 1-2 hours after their appointment. The manager was a really sad excuse for a human being. She took a re-shoot of an infant (is that necessary? When you just took that same 6 month olds pictures an hour ago) and let a family of 4-6 spend 15 minutes completing a complete wardrobe change BUT turned me away and made me wait 3 hours. Basically 3 hours later, my daughters photos were taken -- in a rush and badly. Literally 10 shots. Even the enhancements were crappy and looked like the manager's pathetic face. Supposedly the poor service is acceptable since this is not actually "JCP Portrait Studios" but "Life touch Pictures" Rule of thumb, when you do business with people or kids don't have them wait 2-3 hours. Kids don't have the patience or attention span like adults. We went through 2 diaper changes and her hair was a mess by the time JCP did us a favor as a loyal patron. I've spent hundreds of dollars at this studio in the last 14 months. This crappy studio, it's terrible manager and employees only have jobs because of patrons like me. Save your money, time and energy and go somewhere else. Maybe then this sad excuse for a studio will close. Where am I taking my pictures next? Not at Escondido JCP. I hope a regional manager is reading this. Feel free to contact me via email or phone if you want to rectify this bad experience and clean up your studio Oh, ps - the manager had time to check Facebook and catch up on her phone but not to take a 14 month who had been sitting in the lobby for hours! What a great human being !? -- Archana I wanted to update my review since the real manager got in touch with me since this incident occurred. I went back to the studio yesterday and it was a completely different experience. The kind I am accustomed to! I was greeted cordially and in a pleasant manner. The appointments were running a little behind schedule; however, we did not wait more than 10-15 minutes to be seen. Our photographer -- Aaron was amazing and patient. He allowed outfit changes and did his darn best to get multiple shots of an active 16 month old! What a feat and he succeeded! He gave give feedback during photo ordering and created collages and enhanced photos to my liking! Of course! I will be back to the studio ! Archana read more

We decided to give JCP Portraits another chance, we scheduled our 2 year old and our newborn for Tuesday Oct 29. We arrived about 10 mins early and waited patiently at the front desk for Charlie to finish the family photo session she was doing to check us in. That session rolled over into ours but no big deal, we didn't complain about it. What was bothersome was the fact we patiently waited and she helped everyone else before checking us in and taking us back. Even when we finally got the ball rolling about 15 mins into our session, she didn't seem to know how to interact with little children to get them to participate. I was getting even more frustrated when she walked out of our session to help someone at the counter, which she didn't do when we got there and waited at the desk. The photos didn't come out very good at all, but the kids didn't really cooperate so we called it a day after spending $140 for a mediocre photo session. Recovering the photos there was a solid MAYBE 3 pictures that came out decent that we decided to send to get enlargements. Which brings me to my next complaint, they came out horrible, extremely pixelated for a 8x10, but yet we paid for "high res" photos???? After seeing the prints, I was still pretty upset and dissatisfied with the entire experience and I decided to call to get some kind of refund as this is my second bad experience. So, Friday Nov 1, spoke with supervisor Katrice. She then told me that since the merge with Shutterfly digital photos have not been coming out so great. Hm, well who was going to inform the customer of that? And this isn't the first time I have sent JCP portraits for enlargements and they came our pixelated, when my 2 year old was a newborn we had the same problem. Then offered to send them outside of the Shutterfly platform. No thank you, because I already sent these photos for enlargements and have already paid quite a bit of money for such a mediocre photo session. She also told me that the newborn photos weren't great and she would like for me to reschedule a shoot free of charge, openly admitting that the session didn't turn out so great herself. I declined the offer, because this is the second time and at this point I am done with getting my children's photos done here. She said she would talk to her manager and have her call me back to see what else they can do. Have yet to hear back. So I called again today, Sunday Nov 3, a woman named Kelsey answered the phone and I asked if I could speak with a manager. She said they are really busy and the manager was with a customer but she could have her call me back. I said okay that's fine, she then proceeds with a "okay bye" then I cut her off and let her know that she doesn't have my name or phone number to even have her manager call me back. Not even apologetic but rude then asks me for my name and number. I then proceed to drive to the Escondido location (a 30 minute drive) to talk to the manager face to face because apparently the manager is hard to get ahold of via phone. I got there and waited over AN HOUR to speak to the same supervisor from Friday who said the manger would call me back. She said she already spoke to the manager, who apparently only comes in maybe once a week (words directly from the supervisor) and she has again denied the refund. But has yet to call me back or talk to me about my horrible experience that has only gotten worse. While waiting to talk to the supervisor, I also then find out the sessions are to last 30-45 mins and our session was maybe 15 mins long. I'm going to take this claim up with my bank because I did not get the promised services I received and i have given the manager a chance to give me my refund to no avail. I paid for high res photos and a FULL photo session and didn't receive either. I will never return this has been one bad experience after another read more

This place is a joke. They called us and asked if we can come 45 min earlier and we got there earlier per their request but wait 1:15 to get on. My kids got tired and we were not be able to select even one photo. read more

Of course like everyone else I read these reviews as well as google before deciding to have my daughters 1 year photos here. Because I was unsure I called, and asked them about their services and their reviews. I spoke with a young lady named Caitlin, she answered all my questions as well as addressing their bad reviews. After hearing what she said I was happy to book an appointment with them and felt confident in my decision. I was not disappointed! We had a great experience having the photos done, although I will say their studio is a little hot inside. A month later I'm booking another visit with JC Penny for Christmas Cards. This time I spoke with Nessa and she was just as great at Caitlin, explaining my options for cards and digital prints. Consider the age of reviews before deciding against going to JC Penny. Their current group of young ladies are polite, professional, fun, and most importantly for us GREAT WITH CHILDREN. read more

If you are going to get your pictures done here I really recommend Katrice! She took my sons (6years) and my nephew (2years) pictures last night and they came out great! She completely exceeded my expectations! She had really cute ideas of what to do with the boys! My nephew 2 year old was doing his thing, and she was able to capture some really CUTE pictures! Thank you so much Katrice for your creativity and excellent customer service we appreciate you! read more

Angel is amazing! She did the best headshots and was extremely professional. She was so on top of everything from making sure the background was right to suggesting flattering poses. Angel made it all look perfect! So happy with the results. She made me comfortable and relaxed, so the photos really captured that. Highly recommend Angel. read more

I came here to take some family Christmas photos. I made an appointment for the afternoon. However, when I got there, it was really busy. I made it there on time for my appointment, but I guess it didn't matter cause there were others in front of us. So I ended up waiting a little after my appointment just to take pictures. The photographer was nice and patient. I had an 11 month old son with my wife and I so she was really good with taking photos of him. The photographer made the experience better than the front office did. I guess it was hectic because it was around the holidays and everyone was trying to take holiday photos too. But the place seemed too small to fit all the people. Good thing we used a Groupon for this. The photos came out okay. I think I like the other photo places than this place. It wasn't bad but it could've been better. If you come here, make sure to check for a Groupon first! read more

I bought a Groupon for the Portrait Studio. I am only giving them 3 stars because of their customer service. They were not very happy to be at their job. Sad. And they were VERY unorganized. read more

I wish I read the reviews before I went there. Both Kelly (the manger) and Katrice the photographer are useless. They will rush you through the photograph session and quickly make you choose a photo at the end of the session. There is no good experience at all . I made a complaint to JCP cooperate and would never go back. read more

I was very disappointed with my session today. I came in with my 2 year old and 3 month old for pictures. I came in with my daughter for her earlier pictures and had no issues. This time, I showed up and was there for 45 minutes due to camera issues, which I understand can happen, but had to reschedule. Then was called and asked to reschedule again due to scheduling issues which I did. Came into my appointment, waited 20 minutes before we were taken back for pictures. We then didn't get any pictures with a second background which they said they would, and never did any picture with their "magic" box which they said they offered. I wanted pictures of my kids together, only got 3 offered to me which weren't great. Most of the pictures taken were all close up head shots in landscape, barely any full body. Previously I got almost 40 pictures of my daughter by herself, now with 2 kids only got 28 so-so pics. Definitely not worth the amount paid for the session or the pictures. Unfortunately, won't be coming back. read more

I am giving 2 starts because Kelli was good at taking pictures and they did turn out cute. Although I feel like there should have been a few more taken or given more then a 10 minute session when I have 2 small children that had to wait 45 minutes past the appointment time. This review is really for the people at the front desk. First I arrive 5 minutes late and waited 25 minutes to be checked in. They then told me I was 30 minutes late and they "would see" what they can do????? What? It's your fault for not checking me in. Then they write on my intake paper that I was 30 minutes late what a joke. Then after the session another 40 minutes waiting to see my pictures. The blonde girl "helping" us was rude and could careless about what questions I had or about what I was looking for. Overall the experience was not good and I will look for another company next time for pictures. read more

What a warm experience! Kelly welcomed me with a big smile and she instructed me very carefully. Photo-shot was meticulous. She would comment on every detail and will ask to adjust. I mean I loved talking to her. She was super flexible and accommodating. I wish I had more time to actually talk to her. Looking forward to my next photo-shot with KELLY. read more

Been coming here for many many years since my eldest was a new born. And I don't think they can keep many employed for a long amount of time. My last two experiences were terrible. They were not kid friend which is why we came in for my sons first birthday shoot. They do tell you when calling over the phone you're allowed an outfit change but don't tell you that you only have a 15 minute studio session. By the time I changed my 5 4 and 1 year old the manager rudely comes in and says your next appointment is in 15 minutes finish up. Which the girl who was taking our photos forgot to even change to our second background. We only got a hand full of good photos. And it wasn't even in my 1 year olds birthday outfit. By the time we tried my one year old was fussy. The cameras wouldn't cooperate in time for her to catch the actual smiles he made. The manager katrice has terrible customer service and training techniques. She left the new photographer a screen full of sample shots and pretty much said "here use this as reference to position them" and leaves. She really shouldn't be working in customer service because she seems as if she hates her job. I asked if we could retake the last background since we were already there and she would only take the baby not the family photos. Even when it wasn't our fault that the second back drop was forgotten. In my 5 years of coming here I've never been out of the studio in 15 minutes they were always sweet with my kids and took their time. Her next two appointments didn't even end up showing. So a retake could've been done quickly. Complete waste of time coming here. Seems they've gotten more money hungry and are hiring the wrong management. That's definitely not the way to treat a paying customer and keep business going. Calling cooperate to make my complaints. read more

Had an appt at 5:30 pm now it's 6. This girl is struggling. This place is a waste of time.

I have had many portraits done at this studio. I have always liked the end product. This session was awful. The girl obviously has little experience especially with a toddler. Didn't even try to make my son smile. Took her time to the point he was getting impatient and missing the "good shots." Was always looking at the computer screen and only took a handful. With a wiggling toddler, you have to keep that camera going. I will never use her again. JCPenny, train your staff. I got very little photos. Only one had him looking at the camera smiling without having an extremity missing. My photos on my phone are better. read more

My friend had used jcp portrait studio before and had a good experience, so when I saw a groupon, I happily bought it hoping I could get some cute pics of my 8 month old. I liked that you could schedule an appt online. When I checked in for my appt, the guy at the counter asked about outfit changes, what color they were, etc. I thought that was cool (I've never gotten her pics done before, so I was new at this). He picked the backgrounds for the 2 outfits- great, however, he didn't take into consideration her skin tone. So she looks extremely washed out in her pics. I think taking skin tone into consideration would help tremendously. The girl taking the pics was very nice. I'm sure she takes a ton of pics of kids, so she is used to trying to make the kids smile. But the thing is, she started right off the bat making noises and trying to get my daughter to smile. Well, that didn't happen. Now, I know it's not completely her fault that my daughter wasn't smiling- but that's another thing- I think the photographers should ask about the baby's personality (I.e if they like strangers, if they should make a fool out of themselves to make the baby smile, if they should just let the parent make the baby smile while they snap pics). I think it not only would make for better pics, it shows that they give a crap about taking the pics! So needless to say, we got one good pic. One. The rest were just sad. I also felt as if I was being rushed. Like it was just a race to get the pics done and get out of there. Not sure if this is normal or not, if it's bc I had a groupon or what? The staff there was really great though. No complaints there. I just think they need some more training with the suggestions I mentioned above. I won't be going back there and I won't recommend. read more

Took my 1 year old to get her pictures done. 3 people were working when we arrived and all of a sudden 2 girls left, leaving the photographer by himself with a kid that would not sit to take a picture. We waited 45 minutes, while another family waited just to pick out their prints they wanted. I felt bad for the photographer, we went to get a manager to see if they could help and they couldn't do anything and told us they would have the manager of the portrait center call us and she never contacted us. Ultimately we went to Sears and got great pictures from there. read more

Bought a Groupon and then found the horrible Yelp reviews so I had very little expectations. To my surprise the experience was nothing like what yelpers are describing. It was extremely easy to book an appointment online. When we arrived there was minimal wait, the photographer was decent and customer service was good. The Groupon was $30 for three digital images and 1 printed image. Great deal! I'm used to going to overpriced Picture People. JCP was much better than them! read more

Honestly your smartphone, good lighting, & a beautiful background or location would have been much better. Photographer was the worst. My baby wasn't smiling, tried to put a song she likes but Kelly said not to because she didn't want her distracted. The last photographer who worked with my baby would fix her dress or whatever needed to be fixed. Kelly literally took the pictures regardless if her dress strap was falling off her shoulder or her Christmas crown. And again if you're working with babies I think you need to know how to work with them. A simple word with a happy tone to my baby would've made her smile or even laugh. Nothing. I saw her through the glass with another baby, completely different attitude from her. You could see she was trying to talk to the baby and make baby laugh. Again completely different attitude then she had with my baby. Girl who helped make the Christmas card, super sweet forgot her name. Really hard to pick pictures for the Christmas card with my baby making serious faces on 98% of them. When going back to pick up cards, cashier tried to upsell me some more photographs. I had already paid for the digital downloads on my 1st visit. Told her no but thank you. No joke, once I said that her sweet tone and friendly attitude left. Groupon deals are good but make sure to read your reviews before getting them done. And ask for anybody else but Kelly especially if you have a baby. read more

Not happy! Many of poses really were dumb. Purpose was family pics and they focused on individuals/kids the most. I could have done a better job. They use filters/edits & don't tell you They cost extra. Doesn't show on your receipt. You find out when you get the email itemizing everything. The lady didn't give a crap when I called. I told her I was gonna do their survey then and she laughed and said ok. So that's what I'm about to do next as well as write corporate office. read more

Unfortunately I would have given them 4-5 stars if it weren't for the fact they double booked to the point it was over an hour past our appointment time. All their clients were frustrated. The photographer was lovely and kept our kiddo amused. Just disgraceful time management. read more

Adriana was amazing. we were running late and she stayed longer just for us. We had 5 dogs 2 adults and a kid. She did amazing. I am not sure if she was a fan of the dogs tho. Lol awesome. read more

If I could give the negative stars I would. They were 45 minutes behind and didn't say anything to the waiting guests. They kept telling people they were next. When it was out turn to be "next, they took 2 parties ahead of us. They did not say sorry for skipping us. All they said you were NEXT. I got fed up and took my family home. DO NOT GO HERE read more

Had an awful experience here. There were people waiting for over an hour and half with appointments because of poor time management. One couple was late to a wedding and others were just walking away. We missed our Christmas pictures because of them running so far behind. Save your time and money, go elsewhere. read more

I brought my 7 month old son here today to do some holiday photos and we both left with huge smiles on our faces! The photographers Ariel and Elizabeth were extremely professional and courteous. They worked together to make my son smile and placed him in a variety of poses. I also appreciated how respectful and considerate they were during the shoot, always asking me if it was okay to move him or change his pose- any new mom knows it can be nerve racking when new people are around your little one, but they made it such a warm and comfortable experience for both of us. After the photo shoot the sales associate that helped me choose my photos was helpful and did not rush me at all. She went through all my options and helped me get the best deal for my money. (I will come back and edit this to add her name. I asked her to write it down and the paper isn't with me at the moment. Wish I could remember it, but look for the associate with red hair). Overall it was an awesome experience and I will definitely be going here for all future picture needs. Thanks guys! read more