Big Apple Portraits

My husband and I took our newborn for a photoshoot and the level of service we received was impeccable. Kim and her team made us feel extremely comfortable, even providing a quiet area and separate room for me to nurse in prior to the photoshoot.
Once we got into the studio to begin the photoshoot, my daughter was being fussy and the photography team were so accommodating and patient, allowing them to capture the perfect shots. The room was just the right temperature and they had a sound machine that helped our daughter drift off into deep sleep. Kim carefully placed her body in the cutest positions and used some beautiful props.
The final results were even better than I had imagined!
Overall, our experience was wonderful and we highly recommend Big Apple Portraits!

Wife took the baby there for pictures, and got about 10 pictures. which cost about 500 bucks for the whole set. It is way to expensive.
Image is 300 dpi, which is a bit low. Pictures are average in quality.
Overall, I don’t think it is a good value.

We took our grandsons (7&4) to Big Apple to take some photos just before they moved away to Colorado. The boys had a blast at the session and the photos show it. I have to admit that I cried when I saw the finished shots — it was as if the boys were back in NYC with us.
We ended up buying the full CD package, but there was absolutely no hard sell. (In fact there is no charge for the photo session!) The CD even came with a personalized photo of the boys! We also bought individual photos for the extended family, all of professional caliber. Everyone raved and couldn’t believe we got the boys to pose without the usual faces, antics etc. The answer, these people are pros with a masters in child communication.
If you want memories of your children or grandchildren that will last, this is definitely the place to go.

Brian is very professional, would totally recommend him for your next portrait session.
I took my son for his 2^nd birthday photo’s and he was quiet difficult. Brian did his best to engage with him but he never really relaxed.
I didn’t hear the shutter click many times and doubted that there would be more than 5 usable shots.
When we went to view the photo’s there were 20 good photo’s.
The package prices are incredibly reasonable and there is no sitting fee. You can pay $ 99 and get the sitting and 5 photos.
This is a great deal for a professional photo sitting.
The turn around on the printing and pick up was fast.
All round a pleasant experience and I plan to return for my holiday pics!

If I could give this place negative stars I definitely would.
The photographer was 25 minutes late & had an extremely high pitched voice. She screamed to get my son’s attention — scaring him multiple times. I asked her to stop when he started crying & she told me it was the only way to get a child’s attention. A couple weeks later Kim, the owner, called to cancel my viewing session one hour before the appointment — with no apology, the nastiest attitude & after I confirmed the appt TWICE that week.
An online gallery was created for me instead & 10% off coupon was offered. I waited until the day before the gallery expired to view (honestly thought my son would look scared in most of the pictures — out of 21 images I liked 5; he was actually crying in 1 of them). Tried to place an order online & couldn’t. Called, spoke to Brian who offered to extend the gallery & coupon for a few more days because they were closed the following day. However, he never did. Called again a couple days later & spoke to Kim. When I explained the situation she told me Brian shouldn’t have extended the gallery or the coupon, that I was an unsatisfied customer who has had every courtesy extended to me & lectured me for 3 minutes about the status of my viewing gallery and why she was upset I didn’t place an order before the gallery expired.
I actually ended up speaking with the other owner, Bob, a few days later & placing an order via email because I just didn’t want to deal with anyone in the studio. While he was nicer, he still didn’t apologize, made excuses for Kim’s behavior, told me «at least the pictures came out ok» & hoped I would return.
I take responsibility for waiting to view the gallery. However, no one at Big Apple has taken responsibility for their actions. In addition, I never called & gave any of their employees an attitude nor did I demand anything more than the 10% off that was offered. While I don’t think the customer is always right, I do believe this business had so many opportunities to make this situation right & could have made me a return customer at so many turns. Instead, I hope everyone else’s experience is much better than mine. However, I cannot ever recommend this place to anyone & really hope Kim takes some courses in providing better customer service.

We came to this studio to get a photosession done for our newborn. They were so flexible with our schedule, as we did everything last minute, the photographer came in on her day off and stayed late for us. She was so great and patient with our baby and you can tell that this place has a lot of experience with babies and kids and know exactly what they are doing. The photos came out amazing and we even ended up buying a large framed print, which they rushed for us. We were very happy with the experience and the work.

My husband and I have been wanting some cheesy holiday pictures for a while and came across Big Apple Portraits. We had SO much fun in the studio and got exactly what we were looking for! The company can directly upload your pics to Tiny Prints, which made ordering our holiday cards super easy. And, no sitting fee!

Scheduling is hectic and they are not accommodating. They pretty much tell you what time is available. Period. Call back when you make up your mind. During the photo shoot, everything seems very rushed. There is a feeling that your are taking the time from their busy schedule. Our kids felt this nervous and rushed energy. Didn’t hel with the shoot at all. We are looking for a more relaxed and friendlier place.

Will not be returning EVER. They used to be portrait bug & we’ve taken a few pictures there with no problems. I’ve also referred many people BUT … We returned and were rudely turned away due to a scheduling conflict. Someone supposedly left me an imaginary message cancelling when in actuality they lefta message CONFIRMING. So two toddlers all dressed up lugged on the subway for nothing.(not an easy task). To make matters worse when I spoke to the manager no apology no nothing, he tried to reschedule us! Big apple portraits shame on you!

This used to be Portrait Bug on Bwy. I love this place. We have been going there since my son turned 1. We now go there for family portraits and important milestone pics of our son. One photographer in particular is FANTASTIC with our son. Our son is slightly on the autism spectrum and they treat him so well and are extremely patient This is the main reason why we keep returning PLUS the pictures come out amazingly well. I have yet to have a bad experience with them. I love this place.

We recently had a session for our daughter’s yearly birthday pictures, as well as some family shots. This was our first time at Big Apple; we used to go to Portrait Bug before the two businesses merged. I wish I could give separate ratings for the experience and the end product. If I were rating the photo session I’d give four stars, the photos themselves, only two, maybe even one.
The pluses: No sitting fee, which is impossible to find in Manhattan. There was a nice selection of backgrounds for the pictures. The proofs were beautiful.
The minuses: They Photoshopped the HELL out of those beautiful proofs! I don’t mind editing out a little ruddiness, an errant hair, etc., but the skin on my husband’s face was shopped to be so pink and smooth that if you took away the facial features, it could easily pass for a baby’s bottom. They even edited out some of the hair on his arms!
Overall, the photos were too light. The rich color and contrast that were present in the proofs somehow didn’t make it onto the printed pictures. It looks like they messed with the saturation, leaving the pictures looking a bit washed out.
Next year we’ll go with someone else. I’d rather pay a sitting fee and have more control over the final product.

Got headshots done for my LinkedIn page. Kim (the owner) was wonderful. I was very pleased with the results!

For my first-​ever photography class, I couldn’t have had a more thorough and efficient teacher than Mattie. In addition to covering a great deal of material, she also gave us a number of opportunities to practice our skills on and with each of our fellow students. And after making us all feel significantly better about our photo-​taking abilities, she spent a good amount of time snapping nearly a dozen professional pictures of each participant, which was a cool experience!
I’d highly recommend Mattie to anyone interested in learning the art of photography and look forward to applying the basic concepts she taught in the near future!