Black Label Photography

[danilynn17]

I was wondering if anyone else here had passed any comments on to HAL regarding their Black Label Photography offered on the cruise.

 

We were approached to do a photo session as a family (supposedly they only have 18 slots available on each cruise- but yet they had to solicit us to do a session?) at no obligation. Fine. We had a 20 minute session (baby was tired from not napping). The pictures turned out adorable, but the price made us fall out of our chairs - $2500 for 20 prints. For the 2 8x10s we wanted - $375.

 

In any event, I wanted to pass my feedback on to HAL that this was highway robbery. I did so this afternoon, when they thanked me for my feedback and by copying the email to Ocean Images.

 

Ocean Images responded quickly in a rather snooty manner, and made sure "just to let you know" that I was only the 2nd comment they had had on the cost.

 

My thought is that any well run business welcomes feedback on their products, services and prices.

 

Anyone else ever bother to comment to HAL on this?

[ybarber]

Yes, we did it too,and purchased $550 of pics! We really suffered sticker shock. We did submit a comment to Holland America and got no response, zero, zilch. At least you got some action. I think they would get twice the number of purchasers and twice the number of happy purchasers if they lowered their prices by half!

[Gunther1]

Why did you buy them if they cost so much ?

 

No one is pointing a gun at you to buy these over-priced pics. Yes, I agree with you that they are horribly expensive, but it is your choice to not buy them.

[photomikey]

Yes, we did it too,and purchased $550 of pics! We really suffered sticker shock. We did submit a comment to Holland America and got no response, zero, zilch. At least you got some action. I think they would get twice the number of purchasers and twice the number of happy purchasers if they lowered their prices by half!

Jeez, I always think that.

 

An 8x10 is $0.89 at Costco, and I assume Costco is making a heavy profit even there. Double that cost to put it on a ship, then double it a few more times to make HAL a profit and Black Label (whoever they are) a profit - even if the cost was $5 or $10 per 8x10 I'd never leave a cruise without a dozen of them.

 

I think the same thing at amusement parks where the overhead is not nearly as high. For $5, the amusement park would be making probably $4.50 on a $5 purchase and I'd buy one on every ride. But they're $20 - who can afford one? So they make $0.

[Gunther1]

Apples to oranges. I go to an amusement park to ride rides and eat really bad food :). The price of the rides are a major part of the cost.

 

I go on a cruise ship for many reasons....one of them may or may not be to have a professional photo taken.

 

I put the photo booth on a cruise ship (as we call them) in the same catagory as the overpriced stuff in the shops...things to walk by to go where we really want to go.

 

Again, no one is holding a gun to your head to buy these things...........

[ybarber]

No one forced me to buy, and the pictures are great. They were just more expensive than I imagine. Once you invest the time for the photo session, and see them, there is an emotional "hook". It was a once in a lifetime thing, for us.

 

Gunther1, why did you feel the need to make such a snarky comment in response to mine? I never said that anyone put a gun to my head, I just stated that they were expensive and I did not get a response from HAL when I expressed my opinion that the price of the photos was high, and they would sell more, to more people if they were lowered? Guess you were just waiting for your opportunity to sling a fiery arrow or two? Congratulations, hope it was fun for you!

[Gunther1]

I didn't intend to sound snarky (don't know what that word means, but I gotta admit I like it ).

 

Guess I am just baffeled that if something is so expensive, unless one is required, why one would still buy it. It's a photo...not exactly a necessity like food.

 

My sincere apoligies if I offended you, but I didn't intend to sound nasty.

 

-Matt

[ybarber]

Your response was appreciated Matt!

[Gunther1]

By the way, if the pics are like your sig pic, they ARE good :).

[ybarber]

That is one of them! My Husbamd picked that one! Theynsre very dramatic!

[Gunther1]

I thought so...I recognized their style. They do GOOD work, but as we agree, just TOO pricey.

[2tsquared]

We had 2 sessions with Black Label (the second one after we asked to have some retaken). The photographer was great and spent at least 30 minutes with us at both sessions (Zuiderdam). So. . . after reviewing all the photos, we were "smitten" with the quality of the black and white photos, especially since they didn't shout of "Hi, we're on a cruise!"

 

Bottom line, we spent more than we probably should have -- about $500 -- but came out with 5 fantastic pictures (one of which is my sig picture on these boards). We were happy to purchase the pictures as a one-time thing -- and as an update to various photos we've had taken through the years. And, no, we did not purchase any other of the cruise pictures; actually, I can't remember actually posing for any of the ramp, prom or ports of call "opportunities."

 

tt

:)

[VermeulT]

I was shocked by the prices too... BUT having a real professional photo session (I'm not talking Sears or Walmart studios) costs. While I didn't go on a cruise planning on spending almost $400 on pix - we hadn't had photos of us since our wedding (12 years prior). And they really were/are fabulous.

[Koshlong]

I've often wondered about the Black Label pictures. Usually, I hate any pictures taken of me and my husband isn't thrilled with his either. This has been a great money saver for us.

 

However, we would be willing to pay for a really good picture. Has anyone else who feels this way tried Black Label? I'd be really interested in hearing what you think.

 

Marnie

[Zyzygy]

We are among the suckers who get family cruise photos on formal nights.

 

Because our family has tended to be too busy over the years to pose for studio portraits while at home, our collection of cruise photos, which are hung along our staircase up to the second floor, are among our overpriced family treasures. They show in chronological order how DD's, DW, and I have grown up and grown older.

 

DW and I, and our two DD's, all have a black and white family portrait from our last cruise. The three prints cost $375, and were definitely too expensive.

 

To put things into "cruise perspective", however: Three prints of a portrait of a family of four that cost a total of $375 is about the same cost as a cheesy shore excursion for four. I'd rather have the photographs.

 

Also, now that one DD lives in the northeast, and the other lives in California, and we live in the southeast, our opportunities to get together for family portraits are even more rare.

 

Yes, cruise portraits are too expensive. I wouldn't part, however, with the ones we have.

[Lemur]

We also were intrigued by the Black Label Photography and agreed to a free session. At that point, we probably should have asked the price of the prints and saved everyone some time and effort.

 

But I was foolishly expecting to get a couple of prints for a couple of hundred dollars.

 

The photographer was a lovely young man and we enjoyed the photo session and were excited by the resulting photos. The price however, when we finally got up the courage to ask, bowled us both over. For five prints (8x10) we would be paying twice what we paid for our wedding photos in 2001.

 

Granted, they looked good and we probably would never do this again, but I still found the price about twice what it should be (like a lot of things on the ship).

 

Despite that, we did buy the five prints, figuring we never looked so good :D.

 

We didn't complain to HAL, figuring that since we were given the option to say no, it wouldn't do much good. But in future we will steer clear of the Black Label photography.

[ybarber]

The pictures are great, and are overpriced, but once you get to the point of viewing them there is an emotional element. Seeing yourself and your loved one(s) looking so great, well, you just suck it up and pay! I did not complain to HAL, just pointed out that if the prices were lower they would get more sales and in the long run would make more money. We probably won't do it again, but we have them now and they are a nice remembrance of our 26th anniversary and our first 14 day cruise. If you want some great photos, want to capture a moment in time, and want pictures that will make you look your absolute best, then go ahead and do the photo session. The session is fun, and you feel like a model...just be prepared!

[edmusic]

The pictures are great, and are overpriced, but once you get to the point of viewing them there is an emotional element. Seeing yourself and your loved one(s) looking so great, well, you just suck it up and pay!

Someone please tell me the 'secret' these BL photographers have in taking great photos that any decent professional photography studio can't do for a 1/3rd of the price on land?

[danilynn17]

Someone please tell me the 'secret' these BL photographers have in taking great photos that any decent professional photography studio can't do for a 1/3rd of the price on land?

 

That's really what I don't get. They're nice pictures, but they're not magicians!

 

They sucker you in because you like the pictures. And people on vacation tend not to think as rationally and be more free with money than they would at home. Guess that's the business model.

 

But there are tons of photographers out there that can do the same thing. We're not talking Vogue fashion spread creativity.

 

And I didn't mention in my original post, but our photographer had a British accent and sounded like he was trying to emmulate Austin Powers. He kept on yelling "Yes!" and "Yeah, baby!" My husband and I were trying not to bust out laughing.

[JohnoUK1]

An 8x10 is $0.89 at Costco, and I assume Costco is making a heavy profit even there. Double that cost to put it on a ship, then double it a few more times to make HAL a profit and Black Label (whoever they are) a profit - even if the cost was $5 or $10 per 8x10 I'd never leave a cruise without a dozen of them.

 

 

 

 

 

This kind of comment just shows a lack of understanding. You're all missing the point:

 

When you go to Costco you're paying $0.89 for a piece of paper with one of your own images on it. In that respect your simply paying for the materials.

 

Oil paint and canvas cost very little but people routinely pay thousands of dollars for pieces of artwork that are created with those materials.

 

It's just the same here. You're not paying for the $0.89 piece of paper, you're paying for the experience, and the artwork that is created by the photographer who has himself spent years perfecting his craft and has also been trained by the person who developed the Black Label program.

 

It's interesting to see that not one person here has said they don't like their pictures. Every single person said there's no way they'd part with them and they're a fantastic memory of themselves or family at a certain point in their lives.

 

So it seems that people want incredible images, they just don't want to pay for them!

 

Some of you hit the nail on the head . . . . you can spend the same amount of money on a tour that lasts a day and what do you have to show for it? A tee shirt and a few snapshots maybe?

 

These images are nothing like the ones you'd have taken at any other point in a cruise. They're not souvenirs, they are designed to be the kind of images that you'd treasure and frame and put on the wall in your home. I guarantee they'd be the first ones that people notice when they walk into your home. You can't put a price on something like that.

 

The quality of this photography (I have seen it) is outstanding. It is definitely far and away better than all but the very best high-street photographers, who would charge just as much and still hit you with a huge sitting fee. At least here, you can go to the sitting and you don't pay for it and you never have to buy anything. Try doing that at any half-decent studio!

 

Most of the major lines are doing something like this these days and they're all around the same price points. It is designed specifically for the few people in each voyage that want something like this and are willing to pay for it. It's no different than an Art buyer or a Casino High-roller. It's not intended as a mass-market product, so making the prints $10 would do nothing but ensure the entire experience is cheapened.

 

I have a Black Label style image from my wedding in a very expensive frame hanging over the fireplace in my house and every day I look at that picture and it makes me smile. I have about $1,000 in that picture and I would pay the same money all over again to get something that good again. Next time I cruise I'm taking my now 5 year old daughter to have her images made and you can bet that one of them will be hanging next to her Mom and Dad soon after.

 

You can't put a price on that.

[caltnl]

We took our Daughter and Son in law along with our two grandsons on the Amsterdam last summer.

 

We went in and had the photo shoot. The pictures were very good but everyone decided that they were to expensive so did not buy,

 

Some time after the shoot they sent a post card size adv. with a picture of the grandsons on half of it.

 

My wife loved the picture and we brought it home. She asked me if I could scan it and did so. It is now a 8 X 10 in our family room.

 

They were good pictures.

[JohnoUK1]

Scanning professional photos is illegal. Enjoy your stolen artwork. :mad:

[Boytjie]

Jeez, I always think that.

 

An 8x10 is $0.89 at Costco, and I assume Costco is making a heavy profit even there. Double that cost to put it on a ship, then double it a few more times to make HAL a profit and Black Label (whoever they are) a profit - even if the cost was $5 or $10 per 8x10 I'd never leave a cruise without a dozen of them.

 

Does Costo have photographers and photo studio sets? Or is i7 89c for printing your own pictures?

 

I am not trying to justify the ship's high prices for photography but you may be comparing two very different things.

[Boytjie]

Someone please tell me the 'secret' these BL photographers have in taking great photos that any decent professional photography studio can't do for a 1/3rd of the price on land?

 

Location, location, location. ;)

[paulista1950]

Scanning professional photos is illegal. Enjoy your stolen artwork. :mad:

 

"I have about $1,000 in that picture and I would pay the same money all over again to get something that good again."

 

A few questions:

- Is it illegal to scan something that belongs to me?

- Is it LEGAL to use someone's picture in a ad without permission?

- Why is it that some people try to justify others behavior just because they have the same profession?

 

OK, nobody is holding a gun to your head, but there is something called expectation, based on common sense. Say the spa at the ship invites you to an explanation of their services (actually it happens all the time).

After spending one hour there they tell you that a massage costs 2.000 dollars. How would you feel? :eek: