Black Friday I don’t go out shopping. I’m quite happy to just stay home and do nothing! However today was the only day that we had everyone together so we could have pictures taken (actually we were all together yesterday, but I don’t think the mall was open). So Kyle had made an appointment for us at JC Penny’s portrait studio for this afternoon. We got there just a few minutes late, which considering we had to get 7 kids ready in the car and then drive to Provo, wasn’t too bad. But we sat there waiting, and waiting and waiting for the studio to be ready. When they finally were ready Kyle and Dinah were gone because Dinah had to go potty. So when they got back we finally went in. We started with pictures of just the 7 kids all dressed up cute in Christmas colors, the ‘photographer’ got them all placed and started playing with them to get them to smile then stepped back to take a picture, and didn’t. She did this a few times, either because a kid moved or for who knows what reason. Then when she seemed to be finally ready and she tried to take the first picture, she looked down and discovered that the cameras battery was dead! I don’t know why she didn’t check all that before even getting us back there, we were waiting long enough. So she switched the battery taking the new one from the charger and plugging the old one in it’s place… Then she gets going again, playing with the kids then she goes to click the button to take a picture and the camera’s cord had fallen out and it was no longer plugged into the computer! ARGH! Ok we STILL had not gotten any pictures, but it was a simple fix she plugged it in and started again. When she stood back to take the picture this time she noticed that she still had not logged in to the computer and set up our session, so she had to stop everything and do that. I was so annoyed. The kids were getting restless and we still hadn’t even gotten ONE picture! Also in trying to get the kids to smile and look at her she used Elmo as a prop, and she kept saying ‘Say Elmo!’ and our kids were looking at her like, “Who’s Elmo?” (No my kids do not watch Sesame Street and no they do not know what Sesame Street is. We don’t have TV channels, never have, we just whatever movies Kyle and I happen to buy.) But Kyle had introduced our kids to the “Avatar: The Last Air Bender” cartoon this past week (he found the episodes online somewhere), and so the kids were all talking about air benders and water benders and the Avatar and all that, so she eventually caught on and started telling them to say “Avatar” instead of “Elmo”. She probably thought we are totally weird.
So finally everything is set up. She has changed the battery in the camera, the camera IS plugged into the computer and the computer is all set up with our session so the pictures can be stored under our name THERE! Let’s do this! We got a few pictures of the one pose then we changed the backdrop and got a few more pictures in another pose. Then we switched gears and Kyle and I changed our kids quickly into our M&M shirts and blue jeans (actually we just put their blue jeans on on top of their pants/tights to make changing go faster). Then we took a couple of shots of our family. I think by then we were up to 17 pictures, and we were in there thinking our limit was 30 (that’s the way it has always been when we went in), but then the ladies told us that it’s actually been reduced to 20! Ok dang it that meant that we were almost full, and Jenny still wanted pictures of just her two kids in their fall outfits. So they had to delete a few of our previous pictures to make room. So we finish with taking pictures, and Jenny, Tom and Tiffany took the kids to put our name in at Red Robin so we could go have dinner, since it was there in the mall.
Kyle and I stayed to view our pictures on their computer and order the cd. The price has gone up! It’s now $150! I don’t remember exactly what it was before but it certainly wasn’t $150, I kind of think it was only $99 last time we were in. So the price has gone up considerably AND the number of pictures they are allowed to take has gone down!!!! I’m so unhappy. I mean if you’re going to charge more at least keep the total pictures allowed the same. Or if you’re going to lower the total pictures at least keep the price the same! Sigh. I don’t think we’ll be using Penny’s for pictures any more, which means I need to find another photographer.
