Cost of Photos

I am continually amazed at how much photos cost; I have been tracking the cost for about 10 years.  They have finally priced themselves out of my budget.

I am not an economist, however I do understand price ceilings and supply and demand curves. 

I would be very interested to know how many 8x10's get trashed compared to how many get purchased.  We have purchased 1 picture during the last 3 cruises.

Pictures are now about $22 each; forget it!

If they would lower the price to $10-$15, we would most likely buy several.

Time to check the prices and get in line with this depressed economy.  It just has to be better to sell inventory rather than trash it.

An 8x10 at Costco is less than a $1 to print.

I JUST CRUISED IN AUG 09 AND BOUGHT 3 8X10S THEY WERE 60$ FOR ALL 3

Well, I think there is a little more expense involved in the pictures than $1 to print the picture.  When you buy their photos, you are buying professional photos.  They have a staff to take the photos all around the ship during the cruise, staff the photo shop for sales, maintain their professional photo equipment,  provide film, light bulbs, processing, etc.   Plus you are paying for the convenience of them taking your photos for you.  So if you don't want to pay the price, I would suggest that you haul a camera around, take your own photos or hand the camera to a fellow cruiser to snap one of you both, then take them to Costco when you get home.  See what quality you will get with that route.  Happy Picture Taking.

Just a question, if you have he photog take a photo with their camera will they also take a photo of you with your own camera. I know when I have been on other vacations (not cruise) photogs are more than happy to oblige.

Coolbreeze:

They have a staff to take the photos all around the ship during the cruise, staff the photo shop for sales, maintain their professional photo equipment,  provide film, light bulbs, processing, etc.

The cameras are all digital now; no film.  And printing really is not all that much.

But the price thing is a valid concern.  I imagine they sell 1 for every 100 they print of the posed shots.  One for every 200 of the candids.  That's a lot of wasted printing - even if it isn't very much for a single print.  They have 400 groups getting photographed four or five times at a half dozen locations?  That's 10-12 thousand photos a day, all have to be handled and sorted.  At ten cents a print, they need to sell 60 just to cover costs.  If they want any profit...?

And if it costs more to print ...?

It's been advised repeatedly to keep everything digital and put them online - terminal access in place of the racks and in-cabin TV searches.  Even if you don't attach a S&S card to each photo, and make everyone search the photo thumbnails the way they do now in the racks, you can lower the price to $15 for an 8x10, be guaranteed you won't have wasted prints to recycle, and once the overhead of the system is paid for, there's no costs to recoup.  Every sale is profit.

And, being digital, they can be accessed after the cruise for those who decide they want more for family, or for family who decides they want some.

My point was that there are thousands of prints that are thrown away, whereas if the pricing was more reasonable, perhaps a greater profit would be mad ein the long run.  Prints are no longer $20, at least on the Miracle and Splendor.  $22 is pricey, notwithstanding the fact that "professionals" are taking them.  I think it is a stretch to call them "professionals"; some are very good and some are not.

As for the comment "give them your camera and have them take a picture ..." Good luck with that.  I turned around and took a picture of someone and I was told not to do it again; period!

Without the numbers it is impossible to calculate the profit margins; however I would love to know what would happen if on a test cruise they charged $10 for 8x10's; they might be very surprised!

I get laundry !!!

$22 is alot of money. even disney isnt that expensive. Speaking of, they should do what Disney does and give passengers photopass cards to look on the computers at leisure or buy at home within 30 days. just something for thought. At that price, I might just buy one from formal nite, not sure though.

SactoSkip:

As for the comment "give them your camera and have them take a picture ..." Good luck with that.  I turned around and took a picture of someone and I was told not to do it again; period!

This requires a bit more context to understand. Who told you this, and did you know the person you were photographing?

I'm curious because I've asked one of my traveling companions to do a set of pictures for me on the cruise, and if nobody except the professional staff is permitted to photograph people, then that's a problem (and a rip-off).

I was on the Pride, sitting in the main lounge.  My brother and his wife were in one of the areas set up for formal picures.  I was facing them and I took a snapshot of them right after the photographer finished.  Another photographer came right over and told me that I was not allowed to take pictures of people in the areas designed for "ship's photographers".  I had no problem with that, I just thought it was petty.

I never meant to imply you could not take pictures; you just can't take them when the ship's photographers set them up and pose the person(s).  There is no way in hell, they would say "go ahead and snap some using their sets.

I also think $20 plus is outrageous.  If they lowered the price they would sell many more.  It is wasteful to see thousands of 8x10's get trashed.  Last cruise we threw all of ours away: 10 plus.  There were 2,600 people on the ship, do the math.

Supply and demand curves are not rocket science.

SactoSkip:

Another photographer came right over and told me that I was not allowed to take pictures of people in the areas designed for "ship's photographers".  I had no problem with that, I just thought it was petty.

Ah ha! So you can take photos, you just can't use their sets. That's fair, IMO. It's like allowing Chinese knockoffs of designer bags. Besides, I'd be willing to bet that there are all kinds of things you can use on a cruise ship that make perfectly good sets. Just be a little creative. I once had to find a place in a community lodge to pose wedding photos - they had an old brick fireplace that made a beautiful photo backdrop plus was a step up so could be used as risers. Double bonus!

Re: the cost - They do still need to make money. Hiring professional photographers can be very expensive, as anyone who's planned a wedding knows. Without knowing what they're paying the photographers, I can't say if the charge reflects cost to the ship or not. I do agree that switching to a digital system in which you can review your photos electronically and request specific printouts would save a lot of paper and ink and is a great idea.