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I think it comes down to the individual if you can call yourself a professional photographer or not. My manager for example, she doesn't know a thing about photography or cameras. Once I had accidentally hit the info button and the review screen was showing all of the camera setting info on the photos as they popped up(f stop, image number ect..) She freaked out and blamed me for breaking the camera and had to call tech support to turn it off, didn't even let me show her it was a simple fix. I wouldn't say she's a professional photographer, she doesn't even have an eye for art or design but her portraits were up to par because she followed the posing guide and was great with kids.
There are probably 3 times the hacks and prosumers out their running their own businesses than talented photographers and artists. The market is flooeded with them.
I have two long time friends who opened thier own shop. One is very talented and doing very well, she has more appointments per week than I do in the studio! She works very hard and makes big investments into gear and spends a lot of time hustling and generating bussiness, the other has a rebel and is always lowering her rates. Her photos are uninsipering and at times flat out bad. She's also oddly obsessed with bordiour photos....
I've also seen people who just happen to have enough money to buy sweet gear and they faked it till they made it.
I have no idea where im going with this rant, but I will say I'm a photographer and an artist, I always have been and always will be. I gained experience towards my professional status at the studio, but it takes more than that to call yourself a pro.
I am pretty sure that Portrait Suites was created by programmers who work (or worked) for CPI. So I don't think that they would leave any loop-holes like that!!
I don't think so. The studio I work in has had Portrait suites since it was rolled out, we like many of the things that we were able to do with it...but I miss all the collages etc from Portraits and weddings! :(
Secret Santa, I totally agree...I took offence to that comment as well, I have been working with the company for over 7 years now...and I do classify myself a professional photographer!
If you can I haven't found it yet. It would be nice but there is a lot you can do with wedding that yiu can't do in suites.
Jut wondering if there is any way to add templates to portrait suite 5.5 like their was in portrait and Wedding?
The company tried this a few years back (on location) only a select few employees were chosen to take the cameras on location. Not sure how well it went over, there were only 2 cameras to go around. But yes customers had to come back to the studio to order their photos. There were different collections to choose from and cost of session depended on length of time and number of people I believe. Employees need to think about their safety going to people's homes unless there's 2, and there needs to be sufficient pay to cover gas, mileage and wear & tear on your own vehicle. We have a number of talented photographers in the field with 10+ years of studio experience; I'm a better photographer than most who "have a great camera" and started their own business, or those who are hired to do school photos. I do photography on the side, but CPI provides me with a guaranteed paycheck that owning your own business does not. So I take offense that by working for Walmart/Sears does not make you a professional!!
Don't worry about wedding, pet, corporate photos etc. I would imagine, that, since most of Walmart and Sears photographers are not actual professionals in the field (and if you are why work for Walmart or Sears).I'm guessing that the studios would only do the bookings for people that are too cheap to get a real photographer. Photographers that have opted in to shoot for "the new owners" will get the job at a reduced rate so they(the new owners) can make a buck.
Auto pop is the only thing I like about it. Wedding had so many other options.
The only feature about suites I like is the custom vignettes, sepia overlay and font options for text. Otherwise it's a pain in the ass, portrait & wedding is much better and gives me options for collages, art and just about everything else!
Ya I feel your pain. You'll hate suites. The autopop feature is nice but the rest of it is crap. I was trained on portrait and wedding and hate suites since they moved me to the Wal-Mart side of the buisness. Just remeber to breathe when it crashes.
Just getting my sears to Standards, and new editing program, things to get use too.
And with our luck they buy the 12.99 special... lol!
There's a ton that needs to be worked out before this goes live.
I'm imagining a multi-generation family, 15+ subjects, lots of little kids, a few dogs... They want their portraits in the local park.... Wrangling kids can be calleging in the studio let alone a place with room to run! lol!
I wonder what the price range is gonna be, and what kind of collections, do we come back to the studio to edit and sell sheets?
I'm tempted to walk out into walmart and just start working at a register.
Ugh. So if they go mobile, lets see. You do not go to the shop. You have say two bookings in the day. Maybe you are 'allowed' one hour for the shoot and half an hour travel. Aw, heck, lets be generous and make it two hours allowed for sit and travel. So that day, you get paid for four hours. Thats it. Whole day taken up by your 'sits' and they get to pay you half of a shift. And no bookings=no pay. Aquisitoning will become your existance, as you dont earn if you dont shoot. Oh, yeah, sounds AWESOME- not! You'd be better off joining Lifetouch and doing school mug shots. And who is taking the passport pictures then? They get an average of 1500 in PP sales each week per store, can't see them giving that up. And I can't see them increasing staff to cover the shop if the photograper is on the road.
INTERESTING. I wonder how long till the details come out.... I have a lot of questions too!
What gear are we going to use? How do we "clock in", is it still going to be up to us to get these bookings?
Might as well do my own thing at this point.
You have to be more specific what it is they are requiring besides capital of the backs of new share holders to only dilute them on the loss the company is going to endure down the road from here.
what changes are you talking about?
Ok, how is this supposed to work? We go on location...in what vehicle? Under whose insurance? For the same rate of pay, but now we lug around equipment and use our own cars? What about gas, mileage, and wear and tear? And what about the studios-are they empty when we are on location or do we need to use more labour hours and staff to do both? And how many weddings end at 7pm? So if we are there unril midnight and are scheduled to open the next day at nine, this is now status quo? C'mon, this isn't anywhere as easy as they portray, and may just be another thing to distract us from the actual truth. Plus I never said I would go walkabout. I used to do rural census, and giving door-to-door service is A LOT of work, and may affect your insurance premiums depending on your province. And if you think you are getting a staff vehicle, remember how hard it can be to get a roll of tape or even paper out of the company...
Had a visit from my new Dm today, apparently studio was not up to pros, not sure how that is when nothing has changed in 5 years.
I don't understand how one person tells you something and someone else another, you would think each district was the same, and each Dm teaching the same things but no
Strange as it's the same company, gets very frustrating.
Lots of changes to get use too.
Running Rebel Rider as well, ran it in the summer too,
Sears got new editing program, portrait suite 5.5. Same as Walmart now, seems pretty cool but will take getting use too.
And saw a email today about on location photography.
Maybe we are going to see some changes, seems fishy about delivery schedule not being updated.
We are doing events of Fairy, Rebel Rider, Antique,..for more sits drive and $$$. Still we have not got the shipment schedule after April 9? New deposit slip in the studio but not to use it yet as being told.
They really want to keep us in the dark.
We are doing events of Fairy, Rebel Rider, Antique,..for more sits drive and $$$. Still we have not got the shipment schedule after April 9? New deposit slip in the studio but not to use it yet as being told.
They really want to keep us in the dark.
Sugar, I've already been down this road with this company. I feel their pain, since I went through it last year. I'm reading the same old same old that we posted last year. If you want to know what is going to happen, go check out downsideup's posts in October 2012, then go check what actually happened. He was pretty spot on.
Staying out of trouble with the law? Really, this company was being sued in 2012 for lying to shareholders about their financials. The US side is trying to sue because of their violation of the WARN Act. Generate some sales? With what? Old equipment? old backgrounds? indefinite delivery dates? Customers that walk in without a dime to their name because their coupon said "free, and no purchase required"?
You want to invest in a company? Find one that is winning, one that treats their employees right, who strives to do the right thing and because of that is still being successful. I did, I invested myself, and I'm being paid not only with a paycheck, but with the tools I need to do my job, a labor budget that means I can do my job effectively, new products weekly, supplies that I don't have to purchase out of pocket, oh and the most important, RESPECT for me, and my team. Find that one, and invest in it, and you could win too, long term, instead of trying to make a quick penny off of the dead carcass of this company.
Okay but lets focus here and see if we can,t generate some interest in someone buying our worthless shares. Sales is what we have to do here with a little truth mixed in to stay out of trouble with the law.
Ya... I'm not winning lol. I need a new job to. I hurt frim being stressed out all the time. My body has had enough.
Wow! That game sounds insane! $20 isn't much of a prize for all that work! 5+ appointments booked per day is a dream for me, unlikely to happen.
We've been put on a sit push too, although no game or prize, just told we need to make it happen and we will be held accountable.
Oiy. I need a new job.
Secret Santa, we were told to get rid of the old deposit slips, and use the new ones as soon as they arrived, then, a week later we were told to NOT use them until further notice, to use the old ones till we are told to use the new ones! Well, some of us threw out MOST of our slips! :S Who knows who is being told the proper thing! LOL
Bahaha pretty sure my manager threw old ones out, I know she took new one to the bank this week
We were told not to use the new ones yet either.
Basically we have to book 5+ outreach per shift. When we reach 5 we email our DM saying Rabbit in the hole. If we don't get up to 5 by the end of the shift the rabbit is still running. who ever has booked the most appointments by the end of the week gets a 20 walmart.gift cars.
We are aquisitioning big time, but I do not know what rabbit in the hole is!
Secret santa: I was told that too at first, then it was keep the old ones and still use them for now. Awesome communication. Way to mess up the company bank accounts! It's like they want to make a mess of everything.
We were told to throw out old deposit slips and use new ones, seems like communication is stellar as always!
Any other studios playing "rabbit in the hole" to get more sits? We have been doing this since Monday to increase the sits in our district and I'm terrified to book anyone in passed April 1st.
Thoes are my thoughts too. I wonder where in the food chain the letters stopped. Did the RMs and big boys have to sign? What did they actually sell?
We are beyond the beginning of March. There is still no evidence of photos unlimited existing. Although they seem to be busy with a few projects, fun in frames (finally) and the passport clusterf**k. (Does the clip strip for the tags make anyone else hungry for potato chips? lol its like a candy display)
I also have a feeling hour cuts may be coming. For the slower studios anyway.
The new deposit slips have a different account number, so if we were sold that makes sense, but the company name on the slips don't. Did SPS studios get new deposit slips?
If walmart is taking over the studios, they may have split the staff off into a bogus company so we can be ditched easily when the time comes.
We have studio visits in my area. Still showing to potential buyers, or just internal check ins?
I am wondering if those letter were just for an easy way out! An easier way to get rid of us if need be, or if the company does shut down!! We have all signed saying "we accept that we will not get severance pay and we can let you go at any time" As for the "new company" I totally agree, they are just the same people running the show!! Change the name, and put on a band aid!
As far as I know the pp specialist has a different position. Not sure what it is though! As for the Deposit slips, why change them if you weren't changing the name? And I am pretty sure this is no longer called "end of Feb to beginning of Mar" We are much closer to the end of March! Lets see how much longer they can drag this out! *insert rolling eyes here*
If we were 'sold' it was to the same people with a name change. Also, the letters are bogus. As long as you still work at the same location doing the same job, they cannot lessen the amount of time you worked, or reset your vacation allowance. I got that from the labour board. Also UI.
Paystub this week is from CPI Portrait Studios of Canada Corp.
Same as the last stub, I think this is what they usually say?
T4s are for 2013, so I wouldn't expect them to say anything about "the new company" but I am curious why the new deposit slips say walmart rather than photos unlimited.
I've also been told we're not to use the new deposit slips until further notice.
Were we actually sold? Doesn't really seem like it.
What happened to the passport specialist, why are we not to contact her anymore?
So deposit slips just say Wal-Mart Portrait Studios and my t4 is CPI Wal-Mart Portrait Studio's (sic). Anybody got this week's pay stub yet?
http://awcep.org/
Our group is out to support this.
Lets step back and take again a look at what maybe happening here with this company and why there could be a strong buying opportunity lying in front of every one visiting this board. the second reason is a collective group of investors we support the group above in there cause and would like to give financially to there cause.
So what is happening is no more then what you see. Any one shorting a stock will note on there financials statement that the Book value as well as the market value will be negative should you still be holding your position well that is what the capital surplus as well as the retained earnings are and nothing more.
So is the company in a BK situation well yes and no but today we are going with no for the biggest dead cat bounce a BK company has ever seen.
Hang on to your hats folks and get on board for the wildest ride and should you loose you will feel confident your lost funds maybe going to great cause after expenses of course of my time tapping out this message to my followers here.
VERY well said free2bme!! I have been saying that all along! Why keep the higher ups who have crushed us into the ground by giving away everything for FREE! They have cheapened us by doing this! And I don't think they should be left in executive positions in this "new" company! Of course, it is LONG past late February or Early March if you ask me! I really am sick of the lies, and being led on!!! I just want to do what I am good at and get the money I deserve for doing it! (As I am sure We ALL DO!!) I really hoped we'd get to start with a clean slate executive and company wise...but it isn't looking like ANYTHING is going to change!!! Pathetic!!!
Previous residences, I assume?
Yeah, I've had enough of this guy too. I could probably get better bussines insight from patrons at my local bar.
Move along, Ed. Your nonsensical drivel is not helping here.
http://www.socaladvocates.com/Bankruptcy-Blog/2010/December/Discharging-EDD-Overpayments-in-Bankruptcy.aspx
Something everyone should read.
Stop pimping us eds. Who are you anyway? Jay? Silent Bob? Some random schmuck? We aint on this board to encourage you to make money on our misfortune, Jethro. Move along, nothing to see here.
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CPI Corp., through its subsidiaries, develops and markets consumer services and related products. The Company operates professional portrait studios throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. CPI also operates posters, prints, and framing outlets throughout the United States.
As of November 10th, 2012, it operated 2,701 professional portrait studios in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, 176 of which are temporary in nature, throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, principally under lease and license agreements with Walmart and license agreements with Sears and Toys "R" Us. The Company also operates websites that support and complement its Walmart, Sears and Toys "R" Us studio operations. These websites serve as vehicles to archive, share portraits via email (after a portrait session) and order additional portraits and products. CPI Corp. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
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