Target Portrait Studio

I will be honest, cause why not? I loved the photographer’s attitude. She was EXTREMELY PATIENT to my mom. I mean, my mom can make a saint jump out a window… but she was patient to my mother’s questions & changing her mind every 10 minutes & repeating everything she told my mom all over again. I wanted my mom to have a picture of me in my uniform so she can hang it next to grandpa’s portrait, but wow… even I wanted to wonder away because my mom has this tendency to make a simple thing difficult, but I love my mom. She is proud of me, so can’t blame her. Therefore, I just let my mind wonder off… I think I was daydreaming about movies or Tom Hiddleston in the new trailer «Crimson Peak» or something… I mean, really, I was not in the room mentally, when I snapped out my daydream, my mom finally made up her mind what she wanted… or so I thought… then she changed her mind again. I banged my head on the wall for a while, so that was fun… but man, the photographer was with my mom for a while, & let my mom recheck every sample shot… & she gets HUGE kudos for explaining things over & over to her. I think anyone who does that is cool beans… & THAT WAS JUST FOR THE BACKGROUND! Now can you imagine for the SHOTS??? Yeah, so I had my shots taken… & taken… & taken again. I was praying that the flashing lights will give me epilepsy (how great of an idea was that to go with her & have my portrait done for her?) Well, at least having my portrait done here was worth it. Therefore, after seeing spots sparkle in front of my eyes like a bad manga movie… she then sat down and rechecked the picture… over & over. I remind myself, I love my mom, and she squeezed me out… mom raised me… I love mom… (Bangs head on desk). I sat next to my mom nodding my head like a bobbing-​head toy, as mom made comments on how I was cross-​eyed or smiled too goofy, as if I was trying to squeeze the teeth out of my head. After my mom took a sledgehammer to my ego a few times, she finally found a couple of shots she liked. I was relieved I think I heard a church choir… or so I thought. She changed her mind … oh about… Hmmm… a THOUSAND times! Hat on or off? Smile big or head turned? The photographer was SUPER sweet to her. How many people would DO that? Not me! I admit it; I would have ran screaming out of the room like a LOONY TOON! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Then jump out a window. Nevertheless, she loves the pictures we took… THEN WE WHIPPED OUT THE COUPON! Yes, they have this great coupon deal on Memorial Day free portraits to vets and military. The photographer was sweet; & made sure we had a good bargain out of the whole thing. Only thing wrong, I can find … (NO! NOT BESIDES BRINGING MY MOTHER! COME ON NOW…) is that they need to have more choices in background stuff… my mom liked a few particular ones but they did not carry them. It would be nice if TARGET gave the studio more backgrounds and the photographer a raise… why??? WHAT HAVE YOU NOT READ WHAT I WROTE???

Rudy is gone! He was the most amazing photographer! I asked where he went and no one could tell me, figures. I ended up still taking my pictures here and I barely got 3 usable photos…**sigh** I gave this place 3 stars because the photographer was very friendly and patient. Also, if you use their online coupons the prices are beyond reasonable. If it was based on photos alone I would have given only 2 stars.

I’ve been coming here for a year now and I always have a great experience everytime I come. The Manager Rudy is an awesome photographer, he knows how to get the job done and does a beautiful job as well. My child is not very photogenic at all but he always entertains him to capture those picture perfect moments. Rudy is very patient and not pushy at all. I love how they add the special photo finishes after the session. I’ve had many of my family portraits taken care and my son’s milestone pictures done. Pricing is very reasonable and the turn around time is about 2 weeks if that.
All in all I have no problems with this place and I highly recommend signing up for their email club so you can get some great offers.

Alexandra was the photographers name, I think. She was freakin amazing! The other guy… not so much. I dont believe you should focus on answering the phone when you have a customer right in front of you. He took forever, but Alex came out and banged it out in less than 15 minutes. Im happy. Pictures are great!

I’m surprised to hear such bad reviews. I have taken my children for christmas photos the for the last 6 years. Yes, they tend to run a little behind but for the reasonable prices and great pictures, it’s worth it. I’ve gone to more expensive places and usually a wait is expected… especially when dealing with photographing children.

Terrible scheduling. They run late, then allow people who arrive 20 minutes late for a 20 minute appointment. If I ran a business like this… but because they are associated with Target, people keep coming.

We had a fantastic experience!!!
This is the second time we went as a family, with two kids that are less than three years old. Both times we had a great experience and the pictures came out fantastic because the photographer was fantastic. First time I went with one toddler and all the grandparents; we had nice professional family pictures taken. In the middle I had gone to another studio (not target) and had the worst experience of our lives. I decided to try target at van nys again and they were even better than the first time. I am not going anywhere else again.
Rachel was our photographer. She helped with choosing the appropriate background with our outfits (two outfits); most importantly she was a great photographer who knew how to work with kids. She stole smiles from both my six month old and my two year old. Then we switched into PIRATE outfits, and we had even more fun.
They were efficient and punctual; we had an amazing experience. I walked away buying the CD for the whole session because the pictures were so great; I couldn’t part with any of them.

I’m SO disappointed. We had a mixed experience at the Van Nuys Target Portrait Studio. We got all dressed up to do a funky, comedic 1980’s-themed family photo. We had this AMAZING photographer. She was great with my kid and really brought out his smile on camera. She was personable yet professional. I REALLY liked her. I would hire her freelance to take headshots of my son, for sure. I wish I caught her name!
The reason I’m disappointed is because she had to pass us onto another woman employee who was terrible. TER-​RI-​BLE. This is the perfect example of where a disgruntled/​disengaged employee delivers poor customer service who then drives away business. Have the Target HR people never read the vast research around how employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction? Okay, maybe I’m getting to heady here. The bottom line is that she SUCKED.
We had this Groupon where we paid $ 25 for the 15-​minute sitting fee, 5 prints, and then get 40% off any additional photos or products that come out of the session. What I didn’t know was that a CD of the photos was going to cost $ 90 (and that’s the discounted price). What they do is they take 20 or so shots and then do all these «enhancements» to them so that they can say that they are giving you 30 photos. The «enhancements» are putting your photos against these cheesy template backgrounds like a heart border or poetry on the photo. In this day and age where everyone has Photoshop or some image enhancement software, why don’t you just give us more shots and let us decide what to do with them ourselves? Apparently, the regular cost of such a session would be almost $ 230! What? I’d rather pay a professional photographer $ 300 and get 4 hours of shooting + over 500 images + 2 changes of clothing + all my images on a CD + one retouched photo (not an enhancement but a real retouching) and then reprint my photos anywhere that I wanted to.
Obviously, the $ 25 Groupon was just to get me in the door so that I would spend more money once there. I don’t like that. I feel cheated. I’d much rather have seen the offer for the full photo package WITH the CD at a discounted price.
Quite honestly, I would have forked out the money and gotten the CD but this woman’s attitude was just not worth it. She barely listened to us when we were going through the shots to pick our our favorites and then she put them on these «enhancements» without asking us what we wanted. When I said, «Can we pick the background we want?» She responded, «I have to do these anyway.» Then she literally spat «FIVE NINETY-​NINE» at my husband when he asked how much an 8″ x 10″ reprint would cost. Wow. I mean, really. You hate your job that much? Don’t take it out on us paying customers. We were being friendly and polite to you.
By the way, we can’t even pick up the photos until Friday. Don’t you have one-​hour photo on the 1^st floor? Why do I have to come back 6 days later to get my 8 photos? Wouldn’t it make sense for the business to get me to stick around for an hour and shop in your store while you print the photos? We always need toilet paper.
So we ended up ordering prints of our favorite photos and plan to scan them into digital files and reprint them somewhere else. You know, Costco reprints 8″ X 10″ photos for $ 1.49 a piece, right?