Carnival Photographers...love or hate..

[PACURN]

I love the phot op's and hate the check out stand. It's nothing for me to drop 300 on pic's :eek: . I just have a hard time deciding. I also wish there were size options. I can't display all those 8 x 10's. Smaller ones would be better.

Dondonma - So sorry about the bad pictures. I had a similar expeirence on my first cruise. They were all green. I still have them but they look funny. I'm a digital user now. I like knowing "instantly" that I have the shot that I wanted. Also, I can take a bunch of the same shots and delete the ones I don't want later after looking at them. Since I've moved into the digital world my picture taking has been outrageous. The last cruise I did I bought almost 600 pictures. :rolleyes: Photoworks ( the place I get my prints from) must love me. Anyway I hope you will be able to get pictures from someone. If I was there I could hook you up in a great way. Good Luck. Go digital.:)

[tef43]

Oh look, someone stole pungo3's avatar. :mad:

[PACURN]

Yes I'm guilty of stealing someone's avatar. I just loved it. It's obvious that I love pink and I also love flamingos. They are so pretty. They do stink, though, when you see them at the Zoo. Phewwy. Sorry that you are so offended. No offense was meant.

[tef43]

It's simply inappropriate netiqutte.

[PACURN]

I'm sure it is notthe first time I've upset you and proably not the last. So Sorry but I'm not changing it. I didn't know there was a law against copying and pasting. Any way why are you so concerned it's not yours?

[MrPete]

Like any of us have actually created our own "cartoon" avatars. :eek:

 

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[PACURN]

Thank you Pete. The one I had before didn't match me. I absoulutly love the flamingo. It's totally cute. Isn't imitation the greatest form of flattery?

[happy cruzin]

I love AND hate them....lol. :eek:

 

They certainly can be a pain even pushy sometimes but the upside is that I have some great photos that I would not have if they were not around.

 

Usually, if I say I am not interested they leave us alone.

[PACURN]

It's fun going around and posing for pictures. Can you imagine how much paper they go through printing all those pictures.

[Jabee]

It's fun going around and posing for pictures. Can you imagine how much paper they go through printing all those pictures.

 

I can not believe how far this thread has gone so quickly....

 

With this posting, I get to one of my original concerns. The total and complete WASTE. Most people stop and get their pictures made even though they have not interest in buying pics. How many thousands of pics are printed each week on ship, and how many thousands end up in the garbage somewhere.

 

I started simply saying no to the photogs, and yes, one of them actually reached his hand in front of me to stop me, and tried to get me to pose. I said no (I should have gotten his name and reported him.) Coming down the steps...sorry...the steps were closed because of pics being taken at the bottem, and when I went around to the elevator...dont go left there is another one....walk to the casino...oh, they have a different pose up....every night at dinner "would you like you picture made..."no"...oh come on don't you want a memory?....no" and then he finally leaves.

 

Please don't misunderstand me....I think having photogs on the ship are GREAT. (BTW..at one point I was a photog for a newspaper.) I disagree somewhat on how professional they are. I doubt the quality of their pics from looking at them. This is not Olan Mills. But, no doubt the pics are great memories, and I even wish now I had bought a couple. I just wish they could be a little less obstrusive.

[Stacylee]

I have never been bothered by the photographers! We actually enjoy our nightly routine of checking out the lastest batch of photos. Some were good, some were bad. We had a fantastic pic taken on formal night and they made wallet sizes for us. That was a great gift to our families. Yes they are expensive, but I always budget that money in because we love to bring home a few pics.

[sandytoesrose]

We compare the photo skills of photographers on other cruise lines to the photo skills of Carnival's photographers who we judge to be the best! By getting our pictures taken by the various photographers on board, we're assured a selection to choose from. We only purchase the best, so we can go home with some really nice souvenirs. Our first cruise was our wedding/honeymoon cruise and we had the head photographer on Paradise take our wedding photos. She was great. Now every time we take a cruise, we'll pose as often as we can, just to get a few great photos. Carnival's photographers are more aggressive than the other cruise lines - we had a Carnival photographer insist on taking our photo when we had just gotten off the Celebrity Horizon at one port! We posed for him! Who cares?

[Rowan555]

It woud be great if they could come up with a system to do everything digitally so that there wouldn't be as much waste. They could swipe your sail and sign card for each photo, which would link that photo to your account. Then the photos could be viewed on your stateroom television each night - you could use your remote to order the photos/sizes you want, then pick them up at the photo center. Or they could have viewing/ordering stations set up in the photo area as well, where you swipe your card to view and purchase photos. This would save lots of time spent looking for photos in the crowded photo gallery, and it would also prevent all the waste of photo paper, ink, etc that takes place every day. It might be costly to set up initially, but the longterm savings would be substantial. I, for one, would definitely buy more photos with a setup like this than I do now.

[DottieMay]

I know this is an old thread, but, I wanted to respond.

 

It's just such a good deal - $20 for an 8x10 is nothing... and, given the fact that they will give you a release for free, it's less than nothing. I'm a photographer - I am very middle of the ground , pricing-wise, for my market. Sitting fee for a family of 4 is $100 and it goes up with more people. An 8x10 is $35. 5x7s are $25 and 4x6s are $15... so, here you have experienced photographers (heck, look at how many hours they do it! LOL) with moderately good equipment, nice lighting, good backdrops - you get a good quality print and the ability to have free reprints... and, it cost you $20.

 

That's a great deal!

 

I loved having someone *else* take my pic! And, it was almost FREE!

[TanIslandGirl]

Just returned from the Glory yesterday. I loved the photographers (in the photo areas inside) on this trip. The photographers on the gangway were a bit of a pain in the but though. I have to say that the ones that were inside were great. We had so much fun taking old time pictures and as we later found out so did our kids. These photographers encouraged our group of 11 kids ranging from 6 to 17 to "have fun, there is no obligation"and so the kids did. These kids sat at every backdrop. Yes, we did purchase a few of them how could we resist. The boys dressed up in the womans clothes and the girls in the mens for a hysterical old time photo. As another poster said $20. for an 8X10 photo is quite cheap when there is no sittng fee. :)

[Wennfred]

The one thing on my cruise that was a bit of a surprise to me, was the number of photographers.

 

I got a bit angry, when I found out the pictures cose $20 each, and decided they were not worth it. But, they still kept taking my picture, and when I started telling them no, they started getty pesky back, demanding I get it taken anyway.

 

And then....every where you try to go, there is a photog. Trying to go down steps, and they are taking pics on the bottom step. Leaving the dining room, and they have a dancing girl at the door. While trying to eat, they come by your table. At one point they were even in front of the elevators.

 

I loved my cruise, but, I firmly believe if they only took the picutures of people who wanted pictures taken, maybe they could reduce the price to something people could afford.

 

Anybody else find this frustrating?

 

They never bug us, I mean they come, we pose, and they leave, takes just 5 seconds. Then the next morning we like to check out the pictures, if we dont like them we put them in the photo return bin.

 

I do like the way the formal pictures come out, we buy them, I hate to go to Olan Mills out here just to take formal pictures, On the Cruise, Im already dressed up and looking good while on my way to the Dinning room I take some shots.. average photo bill per cruise is 95.00 to 178.00

 

When I walk by them every day and look at them, they just bring back memories. Now thats Priceless :eek:

[JoeMini]

We went to them all. One's I thought wouldn't be too great turned out to be fantastic. In fact, we kinda remember who (Carnival photographer) was taking each picture, and went to that person on a couple occasions because he always seemed to get us in the right pose. Dropped a bunch of money on pic's, but well worth it.

 

We would have bought more photo's if they would just let us buy more 5x7's or wallets right off the bat versus buying the 8x10 first. :rolleyes:

[mcbor]

I was not bothered at all by the photograhers. If I wasn't interested I said "no thanks" and just kept walking. We had pictures taken at every station on formal night and I got great pictures of my DDs. We actually now have a real family portrait.

[JoeMini]

It was our 15 year anniversary pictures and although a few more grey hairs...errr...a lot of missing hairs and wrinkles, the pictures of me in a tux and the "better" half in beautiful dresses, made the $20 a pop a no brainer! :cool:

[moonvine]

Without a doubt this is my pet peeve about Carnival. I don't buy or even look at the pictures and I really just want them to leave me alone. I always glare at them when they take the picture and I have threatened to stick my tongue out at them. It is so annoying.

[Aero247]

I absolutely loved the portraits! My daughter would rather gouge her own eyes out than wear a dress yet she wore them (grudgingly) on the formal nights and we had such wonderful pictures done. I had our family shot put on a 16x20 canvas and it looks great. You can see some of our cruise pics here......

http://community.webshots.com/album/328639487opfbQt/0

[Auburn Tigers]

One of the highlights of our cruise was the photographs. We have hanging on our wall a b/w of me and my wife that looks better than anything olan mills can take, and I don't know if you know anything about photography but the equipment they use on the ships is as good or better quality than some of the local shops like Olan ( I charge way to much) Mills. Another tip is wait til last day when you are bored to death waiting to get of the ship and the photo shop is selling all the pics at a discount. It has been a while but I think they were half off. Well that is my 2 cents and I can't wait to have our picture taken so more.

 

War Eagle

[martdm]

The one thing on my cruise that was a bit of a surprise to me, was the number of photographers. Anybody else find this frustrating?

 

I've never had any interest in having my picture taken or buying the photos. That being said, I've never found the photographers to be overly intrusive or aggressive.

 

A simple but polite "No thank you" as I continue to walk by seems to suffice in most cases where they have a photographer poised to ambush you getting on/off the ship, etc. I do find it to be a mild nuisance when you get a camera unexpectedly stuck in your face during dinner, but I know a lot of folks dig that sort of thing so I can deal with the momentary annoyance of an activity that tends to appeal to the majority.

[TxStacey]

I Like Having The Chance To Have As Many Pictures Taken As I Want To. Then You Can Choose Which Picture Looks The Best.

I Think The $20.00 For A Formal Picture Can't Be Beat. I Think They Should Offer Other Options Of Picture Sizes. Last Year We Took Our 16 Year Old Twins. They Didn't Take A Picture That I Didn't Just Love. I Really Didn't Need 20 Or So 8 X 10's. They Wouldn't Allow Us To Buy Smaller Pictures Without Buying The 8x10. I Would Have Purchased Some Of All Of Them If I Were Albe To Buy Some Smaller Ones. I Ended Up Only Buying 1-8x10 Of The Girls And 1-8x10 Of The Family. They Would Have Made A Lot More Money From Me If The Options Were Available.

 

Perhaps Carnival Would See My Point........

With Options Comes Satisfaction.......(and Lots Of Money)

 

You are so right!! I would buy many more photos if I could buy 5x7's instead of 8x10's. I just like smaller pictures to sit around and they take up less room. I wish someone from Carnival would take note. There would probably be less thrown away if we could buy 5x7's!!:(

[cruzzza]

It woud be great if they could come up with a system to do everything digitally so that there wouldn't be as much waste. They could swipe your sail and sign card for each photo, which would link that photo to your account. Then the photos could be viewed on your stateroom television each night - you could use your remote to order the photos/sizes you want, then pick them up at the photo center. Or they could have viewing/ordering stations set up in the photo area as well, where you swipe your card to view and purchase photos. This would save lots of time spent looking for photos in the crowded photo gallery, and it would also prevent all the waste of photo paper, ink, etc that takes place every day. It might be costly to set up initially, but the longterm savings would be substantial. I, for one, would definitely buy more photos with a setup like this than I do now.

AMEN to that! I'd settle for more 5x7's at the least, though. Who wants all those 8x10's. I'm not going to buy a $20 8x10 when all I want is a 5x7.