Horrible. The pictures were cute enough but my mom took our daughter in for her 1st birthday pictures. She bought the package at $100 which got us 4 pictures. The print quality was eh. My mom called me on FaceTime while she was there so we could pick the best ones together. I asked the woman if we wanted to buy the digitals how much it would be because we didn t just want a couple of prints. She told me it would be $50 and I would get all of the poses. I agreed that was reasonable and said my husband would be coming in that weekend to pay for them. We went that weekend and the manager was being a jerk stating that it s $250 for digitals and he wouldn t honor what his staff said to me and my mom that it would be $50. He was a complete a-hole to my husband. We will never take our kids back there. It s a complete rip off.
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The people here are very nice! Had some really beautiful pictures done here. Will definitely go back! I suggest a week day evening. That's when we went and it was pretty quiet. The weekend days seem pretty crazy. But I'm sure the pictures come out awesome anyways!
My first session was amazing. I love how Erik made my fiance and I feel comfortable and gave us direction on how to pose. He is really dedicated to his job and making sure his customers leaves satisfied! :)
The starting rate starts at 100 you do not have to pay for sitting time . This is year round. Pleasant employees nice atmosphere. Reasonable costs for pictures. And if they don't come out the right way you do not have to buy them
Very poor quality of larger photos - paid $100 for a 16x20 Christmas gift photo for the picture to have lines in it and for my niece and nephews blonde to print green. The owner kept insisting he has high quality printers.... where? A high quality printer would not print lines and green hair .... none the less we were treated with horrible customer service coming from the manager/owner ... I would never come back and even made the decision to lose out on the last four months of my vip package due to lack of customer service this disgusting place has.
Had a decent experience with my first child 5 years ago. With my second child, I purchased another igrow package. I have been disappointed with all the photos taken over the last 7 months. I don't "love" any of them. I just like them enough to take the free one for the month. In addition, each time I'm there, my appointments are always running at least 20 minutes late. On one occasion, I waited 50 minutes past my appointment time. They have even switched my appointment time and I didn't even know until I checked my email hours later. Well yesterday, I was running 10 minutes late. And I figured, well they're always 20 minutes late anyway. When I showed up, the girl told me that my appointment was cancelled because I was 15 minutes late. She said that they were all booked up so they wouldn't just take me anyway. I was literally the ONLY person there. Way to teach paying customers a lesson. After talking to someone in the back, she agreed to take us in. None of the pictures were very good anyway. I asked for a bench or some kind of cute prop. She brought out a broken bucket and told me that there is no bench. Another baby came in. A different photographer grabbed some props. I'm not kidding, she grabbed a bench for that baby. Always the same white and grey backgrounds. No props. Very amateur skills. Just disappointing. I'll just continue to get my free photo each month and take better pictures with my phone.
They do a good job with the monthly birthday baby shoots. Great collection of props, backdrops and accessories. Didn't have a great experience with newborn shoot but all the other ones have went well. Lauren n Milton are awesome with kids!
Awesome place. They edit your pics right in front of you and they have their iGrow to for your baby's first year at a low REALLY affordable price. I can't wait until my little one is here and we can take her for pictures!
Decent pictures - iGrow program is good for the first year. But quality has decreased over the last 7 years of using their services in 2011 when I first started going there we had great results. The last two years, it s been up and down. The props and backgrounds are limited - especially for boys. The amount of fur in baby pictures is way too much - and when you ask for something different the photographers aren t sure what else to use. I ve had two kids use the iGrow program in two years and I m having trouble finding props and backgrounds we don t already have hanging in my house.
They are the best... Kyle, Matt and other girls are the best... they have patience and list to you...I had great experience and I will go to them for all my photos.. thank you Kyle
My daughter has appointment here today we come early and all the works just sitting around they make us wait for nothing no one is here waiting but us. What are they getting paid for nothing
Been going here for 3 months now for the iGrow Memebership Package I purchased for my daughter. It s fun to go & take a photo of her each month with a different outfit to see how much she s grown and changed over the months. I have no complaints, this photo studio is very clean, quick, and everyone who works their are very helpful and friendly. You can request whichever Photographer you d like or whoever that works well with your baby and takes nice pictures. & you have the option to change or choose your own background, just have to ask and tell them before your 20 min session starts. Overall, great experience every time I go.
Great, friendly photographers. We love the igrow package! I have used them regularly for the past 5years or so. Lately I have been especially pleased with them as they help capture precious moments with my newest baby. She is disabled, and has multiple conditions that can make finding the right props and supports for her difficult. However every photographer has been amazing with her, and showed such great care. We truly appreciate the extra attention that goes into their photographs of our precious little girl!
Very pleased with my recent visit. My nephew had his 6 month pictures (part of his igrow package) with a cake smash. His pictures came out absolutely perfect. The employees were very helpful and polite. I can t wait to go back next month!
Monthly photo shoot for the first year so far has been amazing!! With the igrow membership I get the 50$ digital copies of all the pics (usually around 20-30 pics) and an 8x10 home that day.
Got some great shots with our new baby. Bought the package deal with shoots every month. The photographers have been excellent and are very knowledgeable with poses and colors and backgrounds. A bunch of professionals.
Today was my daughter's first photoshoot, she is 3 and FULL of energy the photographer was very patient, playful so my daughter wasnt scared, super sweet, just so superb. We had such a good experience. Before deciding where to go they were quick answering the phone and answered all my questions, they were so nice with that too. Just all around amazing experience. Thank you very much!
Went into the studio on a Sunday. Called an hour before and was able to book an appointment for the same day. My photographer was very nice and helpful with my two girls.
Very disappointed with my last visit... I have been a loyal customer for seven years (going several times each year). I purchased the iGrow package for my first child and then for my second child two months ago. At the two months visit, none of the pictures came out good;I take better pictures on my phone. It was not the quality of work I have come to expect from iSmile. My husband wears prescription shades and you can clearly see the lights glaring in the lenses. For my baby, none of the pictures shows his complete costume (so you are left wondering what character he is) or the change clothes. The one that looks as though it came out decent, you can see up the baby nose.
After conveying my disappointment, I was told I can come back another day for a retake because they were booked up for the rest of the day, even though the studio was empty and I was the only customer there. When I got home, I decided to look back at the pictures on the gallery to check if I can get at least one with the baby in his first Halloween costume, and most of the pictures were watermarked over his face which meant I could not tell if it was a good picture or not. The next morning I called to request for the pictures to be email to me with the low resolution and was told by the MANAGER that because I did not purchase any pictures, they could not email it to me.
My intention is to purchase pictures, this is the reason why I bought the iGrow package. I have spent hundreds of dollars throughout the year at this business. With that said, I am not a first time customer nor am I asking for free pictures. I am also not asking for something they do not or cannot provide. The manager did not even try to work with me and said "okay, what pictures do you thing you may be interested in... I can email those to you to take a second look". I was flat out told no because I DID NOT PURCHASE ANY.
Got my daughters school pictures done in October. And still haven t recieved them. I keep getting told from the store that it was delivered and the school tells me they haven t recieved anything.
I love the staff at the colonie Ismile studios! Molly took amazing photos of my daughter and I ll miss going in monthly and getting them. I will be purchasing the vip membership soon!
We are doing their iGrew plan at Colonie Mall, Albany, we were there for the 10 month shoot, our photographer was with the other customer, made us wait like 30+ minutes. My baby slept by the time to shoot. As it was late and baby is not in good mode, they just took 10 photos of 2 kinds and winded up the shoot.
My wife pissed off and rescheduled, the person assisting to reschedule didn't like that, gave us some rescheduled time, asked us to leave and she did not put that info in the computer. We went there again 2nd time, they turned us back saying we have no scheduled shoot.
I cant even mention her name here, their staff don't even wear name ids. they keep change, they are not experienced, most of them are like interns. There is no way to rate their photo grapher.
The communication is really bad , the initial communication was one print every month and 12 pictures in one canvas after a year for subscription . When we came back second photo shoot !! No more one print every month , 2 prints for 40 dollars !!! How ridiculous is that
So i am saddened at how this place has gone down. Its clean, some quality pictures and a slew of nice teenaged kids to take the pictures. How ever. It is overpacked hot and the manager was over our photographers shoulder every 2 minutes saying how she was behind and rushed our photos and we got like one good one. We were Just guests taking grandkid photos but my sister has the igrow and said the same guy was just as rude as last time. I will just be using local photographers from now on.
There is a big story to write and this space is not enough to explain how they cheat you. They advertise as they will give you one session digital photographs for 55 dollars when you have their membership and they give only 30 and that too off their choice. You don t have have complete digitals of what they capture in 20 mins (first big lie) and the second one is even if they narrow down to 30 they don t give you choice of selection . Kyle is the guy who was talking all this . Eventually if you ask they will tell you that they have right to cancel membership and they will cancel your membership . How rude is that !!!!
I had an appointment today 11/14/17 @3:20pm. The appointment was booked under my name for my son Ryan. Today was the third month of my son and I going to ismile for his igrow. I am a first time mom and ismile is the first photo center I have ever been into, being so I was unaware that you can not take picture of your child with a cell phone while being photographed. As I said before this is our third month visiting the studio every time I have taken my cell phone out and taken pictures of my son. Today was the first day I was informed that there is to be no pictures taken while the photo shoot is going on. I am writing this complaint not because of the policy the studio holds for no cell phones but because of the way I found out. One of the employees who I believe to be a manager (according to staff) whos name was chyanne proceeded to inform me of their "policy" by screaming at me from one side of the studio to another threatening to end my photo session if I didn't put my phone away. Being in shock I immediately put my cell phone away to not cause further problems. Then as I waited a half an hour for my photos I decided to look up the policy on the ismile website. I read the whole website and every policy listed and it never once stated anything about no cell phones, let alone no pictures. So I got up and walked around the studio to see if this "policy" I just had screamed at me even existed.... after spending well over an hour in the studio I never once seen anything about cellphones nor policy's in general. After I wait the half hour for the pictures I spoke with a staff member who helped me check out. Before leaving I said I wanted to speak with a manager and have corporates number. They informed me they didn't have a corporate number and that any complaints I had could only be handled by the manager on the clock who happened to be erick I believe. I spoke with him for a very long time about policy and professionalism. Together we BOTH went online and searched for this "policy" after wasting more of my time looking for somthing i knew wasnt written he said the website was being fixed for the season and "the IT guy must have left that policy out on accident, but it will be fixed by tonight" He stated the women chyanne who screamed at me was only quote on quote "reinforcing the policy" and that if I wanted to end my igrow package with them I was more then welcomed to. He was being very rude in the nicest way he could. I explained to him I was more then willing to follow any policy they have in their studio but for it to be clearly stated online in their policy or to be clearly stated in the store before yelling and threatening customers. This whole situation could have been avoided if chyanne was professional in the work place and came up to me and asked me to put my phone away before causing me embarrassment in front of the whole studio (and in front of people we know personally). For a "professional studio" they have very unprofessional staff. None of them wore name tags and all staff refused to give me the owners number or any number to file a complaint ! I hope this reaches someone because chyanne,eric, and also erine were all very rude and need to be re trained at the very least!!!!!!!!
This review is nine years overdue, but just brought out this photo to finally frame and display. It is so special to me now that so much has changed from the passage of time! Mom is now gone :( and all of those kids are towering over their moms and dads! Somehow, iSmile Studio was able to take a photo of each of our 5 families, plus mom & dad and stitch all 6 photos together seamlessly to look like we all posed together. Can you imagine getting everyone to pose correctly at the same time?! Good luck! It is so beautiful and you can't even tell that it is stitched together. If you have a great big family or group- I highly recommend iSmile for a group photo. Someday the memories will be priceless!! <3
I had problems with photogaph taken of my child. No satisfaction given by staff - strictly a "take it or leave it" policy - no refund. Make sure you "read the fine print" to see what you're getting!!!
I won a session with their clothesline for my son. It was perfect timing because his first birthday was coming up. I brought him in with his custom birthday shirt, and was thinking they would do extra pictures. Instead, they asked me to undress him, they took three pictures, printed it, and sent us on our way. They didn't ask his name, or if I needed anything else. I went in there prepared to spend money on pictures of him, and I got one rushed picture and was thrown out the door. Very disappointed.
Kids school pictures, did everything on the website which in my opinion is definitely user friendly and had my order within 3 days. All around great experience
Horrible customer service first off! I did a family photo shoot for my sons 2nd bday. We specifically asked to be photographed a certain way, when offered the photos our feet and the number 2 prop were completely cut off. I was in a hurry and bought the pics. I did not get to see them til later on after my sons bday. Our packages were wrong, so i called and asked what could be done. The manager told me a re-shoot is all they could offer which is impossible to get those outfits brand new and it was a bday shoot with a family of 6! I asked to speak to the owner because the manager was very rude, and she told me all i could do was e-mail the owner which is inconvenient and not very courteous to someone who has spent a lot of money with their company. I would NOT recommend this place for any photos!
So far I'm really enjoying their iGrow plan. Today has been my newborn's second photoshoot with iSmile and the photographers are very patient with our baby girl -- even when she's being grumpy. They take beautiful photos and offer very nice short and long term packages. I look forward to creating a scrap book and monthly progression for my girl's 1 year photoshoot. I also like the option to purchase the digital downloads for the entire photo shoot. It's convenient and fast. Making appointments is easy and they send reminders which is great.
Great photos and wonderful staff! My sisters and I surprised our parents with a 16X20 framed picture this past Christmas. We had an amazing experience, in the comfort of the outdoors, with their "park session" option. Our parents finally replaced a picture that's been hanging in the same spot for almost 20 years!
iSmile has been our family photo studio since 2009 and absolutely love it! The personal service, same day prints, and friendly, and amazingly talented photographers bring me back every time. My favorite are the outdoor sessions; they are so much fun and the pictures are nothing short of remarkable. The prices are more than fair and the quality is never disappointing. Highly recommended!
Went there for my 5 year old for 2 years and loved Cheyenne. Then had another little girl..saw different people that my little one didn't seem to like where it felt like I was working harder for her smile then they were. Finally found Eric and am so happy I did. He always gets an amazing photo of my little girl. Thank you so much Eric!! You are an amazing photographer!!
I needed a passport photo, and thought it would be worth spending a little extra time and money to get a nice one. But it was a lot of extra time for a crumby photo. I had to wait a half hour before the photo was taken, but then was not allowed to see the photo on the camera before it was sent to be printed (which they said would take 15 minutes). After another half hour wait, they finally came out with a closed envelope which they handed to me with a "Sorry for the wait, but have a nice day." I opened the envelope to find a picture with a huge reflection off my forehead. They said that that it was from the hair light, and they could not turn it off. So I'll have this stupid photo in my passport, but I guess not many people will see it. I should have gone to the post office and had a picture taken there, I'm sure it would have been better.
Our photographer was amazing!! He was really friendly and understood exactly what we wanted. We can be pretty picky with how pictures are done, but he could not have been better! We all looked great! We will def be coming back again! :)
The best photos my family has ever had and we will cherish them forever! All of the staff is compassionate, friendly and amazing at what they do! Their touch up editing is perfect also! One million thank yous!!!
The staff here is wonderful. My son adores Thomas, and he does a wonderful job with his pictures. I bring him here monthly and request Thomas every time. He's wonderful. The pictures come out in such great quality.
We just got our pictures done the other day at Ismile. I was impressed by their quality of staff and patience when it comes to a little one. When we walked in the door I was just finishing up my son's bottle. They gave me a few minutes to finish up his bottle while they set up the area for him. The gentlemen who took our pictures was very positive and got my 12 week old attention a lot better than I expected! We were so worried about the ending cost. We loved so many pictures so I was super worried because I only brought so much. Not only did I get pictures for myself I also got several pictures for grandparents and family for such a reasonable price! I definitely will continue to go to ismile for future pictures! On top of everything the pictures came out fantastic too! :)
Just had our Christmas pictures taken. Our photographer, Andrew, was amazing. We were a party of 13 and we got great pictures with 4 little kids. We've been going to Penny's for the last few years, never again. Large areas, nice props, great staff. Thanks ismiles for the memories!!
My daughter had a terrible experience while having her school picture taken with iSmile and I called to discuss it. They told me they would look into it and call me back as soon as they found out more information. They didn't call me back, they just called the PTA and talked to them about me and my daughter and instead of received a call from a PTA member and iSmile never bothered to call me back. I refuse to do business with them after this unprofessional and rude response, or lack of response.
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