Petrillo Photo Studio

I came here for passport photos of my newborn, figuring a professional photographer would know how to accomplish this even though she couldn’t hold her head up or open her eyes on command… So wrong. First, he gave me a bit of a guilt trip along the lines of shaking head and muttering «no one does babies because they are so hard… But I do for you.» Then he took one photo which was blurry/​out of focus, completely not centered, and generally terrible, obviously requiring a retake, which was also not centered and kind of blurry but better and he said it would work. He made a big deal of «not charging for both» (what? I would never have paid for both anyway!) but *did* charge me more than he was advertising because «babies are harder.» And then… The passport office rejected the photo anyway because it was not a true headshot and had too much arm in it. Complete waste of time and money.

I came her because I needed to take a passport photo. I picked this place because of the other review and it was close to my house. My photos came out really good. I saw the man that the other reviewer was talking about. He was very nice and friendly. He definitely seemed very experienced. I just got my passport in the mail today after I sent in my renewal application on May 13^th. I wanted to wait until I received it before I write my review. My photo looks so nice on it. Please come her if you want passport photos. I will recommend this photo studio to anyone who is looking for passport photos.

Do you need good passport photos? For heaven’s sake, avoid Walgreens and CVS at all cost. Horrid lighting, zero privacy, grumpy and impatient workers. After checking options at these pharmacies, which seemed extremely unappealing to me, I decided to look for some sort of photo studio in my neighborhood.
See, I am not comfortable taking these kind of pictures. And I want to look sort of presentable on them, since they will be in my passport for next ten years.
I chose this photo studio randomly. And this time, I got lucky!
It is conveniently located close to the Malden Center station. The owner is this older Italian (I think?) charming man. He immediately made me feel comfortable. His studio was quiet and had a special area for taking portrait pics. He took my picture, and I was shocked to discover that he didn’t use digital camera, but a Polaroid one. I said, what if we need a retake? He said he can retake them, but said he trusted this one will be good. He asked me to trust his experience. And he was right — it came out great, without making me look like a walking dead.
The best part — all cost less than Walgreens shots.
Bottom line: this guy takes great photos for a very low price. He is old school, devoted to old ways of doing photography, but that said, he does know what he is doing. He is like a character from a movie a little: charismatic and with his own flavor. And you can sense he is a good, nice human being that is devoted to his business, providing good service, and making his costumers happy. I hope more people will give him business thanks to this review.