JCPenney Portrait Studio

Won’t be back. I had a 10:20 appt for a 2yo and a 3month old. We got there 15 minutes early and had we been walked back to the studio on time I feel we probably would have had more quality pictures to choose from. However we weren’t seen until THIRTY minutes after our appointment time– an eternity for children this age. My 2 yo was over it after the first 3 times we asked him to say cheese. The photographer was useless in trying to capture the few good shots there were since he was waiting for them to strike the perfect pose and hold it before he would take any pictures. Seriously? Then the photographer offered a box to prop my 3 mo up against. Riiiiight. Then suggested we try to put him in a tiny box with no padding. His one trick to try to get their attention was shaking a stuffed animal and when that didn’t work he pretty much gave up. After capturing an «amazing» shot of my toddlers half closed eyes, missing the smile once again, the photographer commented on how my 2 yo looked high in that one. Really? Although it may have beem true, I found it inappropriate. They have what looked to be 3 studios but only 2 photographers and they were slammed. Then they want to review (read: up sell) your photos with you so we had to wait another 30 minutes for that. We didn’t have that many shots and were only in getting pictures taken maybe 10 minutes yet this whole stupid experience managed to take more than 90 minutes. The guy «reviewing» our pictures with us was not pleased when I cut him off saying we would not be purchasing anything extra after arranging what our groupon included. Luckily he realized the momma isn’t taking any more $#!+ tone in my voice and didn’t push the issue because I didn’t have any more polite left.

I first came here in March right after my son was born for newborn photos. The manager, Rachal, took our photos and they came out perfect. I loved them all and treasure them on my wall, absolutely perfect! Since then we’ve come back every month, sometimes twice a month, to get photos of our little boy. I always order a few prints and the featured product, a 10×10 with three images, and I’m usually always happy. I won’t lie, we’ve been here over 15 times and things don’t always go perfectly… sometimes they do run behind and we’ve had two bad experiences. But to be quite honest all of the good experiences out weigh the bad… it’s a great place for affordable portraits.

The family and I always go to JCPenney Portrait Studio during the holidays to get pictures taken to hand out as gifts and this year was no exception.
It was our first time at the Citrus Heights location and we had a pleasant experience! Our appointment was on a Saturday at 11:40 and as expected, it was super crowded. Definitely allow extra time on the weekends and during the holiday season because they tend to run behind, which they were on this day because we weren’t taken into the studio to take pictures until 12:20.
Our photographer was Ciara and she was super nice and accommodating. We wanted a bunch of different arrangements with all four of us and she got them all, we ended up with some good pictures!
After we were done taking pictures, I waited another 15 minutes to look at them and choose the ones to order. This was expected since it was a weekend before a holiday and they were really busy. No stars off.
Our sales associate was Michelle who was super patient with me and helpful in choosing the right pictures. I probably took another 45 minutes just to choose which ones to order and I never felt rushed. I also didn’t feel pressured to order their «enhanced» portraits which she had to create to move to the next screen.
Overall we had a really great experience and would come back here again to have our portraits taken next year. The whole trip took about two hours. We used a Groupon and ended up spending $ 100 for a 3 picture photo cd, no sitting fees, two free portrait sheets and about 12 other portrait sheets.

I am overall happy with my experience at JCP Portrait Studio. I took two kids– ages 13 and 10 for a 5:20 p.m. appointment on a Friday evening. We arrived 20 minutes early, but were not initally checked in until around 5:25. After an initial check in, we had to wait until 5:35 to actually take the photos. The photographer, Erin, was very nice and professional and great with the kids. The first couple poses were sort of young so I had to remind her the of the kids’ ages and ask for something less cuddly. She corrected and the photos were great.
Within five minutes we could view the photos. Although I already knew the exact packages and photos I wanted to purchase, I still had to listen to the 20 minute schpeel about what they offered. She specifically said, I still need to tell you all of this. I didn’t appreciate that. I felt like I was being sold a used car. She would put vingettes and color saturation changes on the photos and say «Oh, do you like that?». I said no to everyone because I have photoshop at home. I wanted portraits, not scrapbook projects. I was super clear on this point and I felt like she wasn’t listening to me by going through all the other options I did not want. There was a lot of hurry up and wait. For a company that makes you schedule your appointment online with a preset time schedule, you’d think the appointments would be spaced accordingly.
I will return for super affordably priced kid photos but they were great quality and fast. But as a result, I will be even more forceful about being seen on time for my preset appointment time and not having to listen to the upsell schpeel. I hate to be upsold.