Sears Portrait Studio

I go here every month or so to get portraits done of my infant daughter. We use the super saver coupon which gets a whole package for $ 7.99. Malia is always great with my little girl! She knows us by name now, but she’s been super friendly from the start. She’s really dedicated to get a shot you’ll be happy with. I definitely recommend the Windward studio!

I loved how my pictures came out and the service was great!!!

Needed to get my little girl’s birthday pictures done here and was understandably skeptical after the horror stories on this site, but NOT about to go back to the Pearlridge or Alamoana (which have horrible service and are always busy). So I decided to go through with it and was not disappointed at ALL!!! It was not as crowded as the other studios and offered so much better service. Our photographer Malia was very warm and patient with my 3 year old and made the session fun for all of us. I was thrilled with how the pictures came out and bought a lot more than I intended. I’m definitely coming back for more :)

Went back to the studio today to pick up my new portraits that they had redone for me, since the first pictures they gave me, they cut off the top of my son’s head. Store hours are from 10am — 8pm. I showed up at 10:10 and no employees had showed up to the store yet. There was even another woman there waiting for her appt. A Sears manager showed up and told us that an employee from the Portrait Studio would give us a $ 50 voucher for the Sears Portrait Studio. I walked around the mall a little bit and then went back at 10:45 and finally there were 2 employees who had just gotten there. I asked to pick up my pictures and when I asked for my voucher, Marsha (the manager) said «why would I give you a voucher if you said you would never come back to this store?» She was very cocky in her tone. I said b/​c I can use it at another Sears and she just said «fine» and gave it to me.
UNPROFESSIONAL & IRRESPONSIBLE! Why cop an attitude with me b/​c you can’t get to work on time.

I literally just left from getting my 1 year old’s pictures done here. Let me say, first of all, that the management has changed since the other 2 reviews were written. Marsha, the current manager, has only been on-​site since March 2011. And she is wonderful!
When I called yesterday to see if I could do a walk-​in session, she told me that they were booked for the day, and scheduled me for her first appointment the next day, at 10 am. We met Marsha, she was extremely friendly, and very good with my little girl. We got to work on the photos, and Marsha was great! She was patient, kind, and had enough energy to chase my little one around.
The photos are wonderful, and Marsha was very helpful with deciding on which ones to purchase. Her ideas for editing the photos were also a lot of fun. I usually buy only plain photos, but her edits were so cute that I wound up buying a few with borders and words added to the photograph.
Also, this place stays busy! We finished our shoot and a family came for a walk-​in session. Before Marsha and I were finished with the editing and deciding, 2 more families had walked in for sessions! I definitely suggest calling ahead and booking an appointment, even though they do walk-​in sessions.

I’ve had seriously, *seriously* terrible photographers at this place — if one can even call them photographers. On the other hand, I’ve also had two fairly decent photographers. The only reasons we keep taking our daughter here are the location (as the only walk-​in portrait studio in Kaneohe) and the price.
The first woman we had the misfortune to encounter there with our then-​6-​month-​old daughter had no clue how to interact with a 6-​month-​old. The minute our daughter showed signs of stranger anxiety, any halfway intelligent, experienced photographer would have backed off and given the child some breathing space. Instead, this woman got right up in her face, grabbed her hands, and made her even more upset. Fantastic. When my daughter, not surprisingly, didn’t want to smile for her, the photographer just looked at me and said, «Didn’t she have a nap?» Nice. She was rude, unprofessional, and about as unenthusiastic as they come. Also, the ONLY backdrop this woman offered us was the plain blue one, which was scratched so badly that they showed up on the photos. How imaginative.
Another woman, a strawberry blonde in her 20s, apparently thought it was a good idea to come up to our daughter and BLOW IN HER FACE. First of all, GROSS. Hello, flu season? Anyone? Second of all, yeah, DO NOT BLOW IN MY DAUGHTER’S FACE, LADY. Do NOT. She also ate her lunch right there at the counter, BELCHED loudly, and didn’t even apologize. Avoid this woman, people. Truly, some people should never be allowed to interact with the public.
Of the only two decent people we’ve come across here, one usually works at the Pearl Ridge Sears and was only at Windward because they were understaffed that day.

If there were an option for zero to negative stars, this place would get it.
I cannot explain how HORRIBLE this place is.
Horrible, Horrible, HORRIBLE!
And don’t think this decision was based on just a single experience.
No, no. I went back THREE times and each time was worse than before.
The photographers are VERY unprofessional, especially when dealing with kids. She missed every adorable smile opportunity and said that my child was TIRED when she couldn’t show us a decent pose.
There are more than 101 reasons why people should avoid this studio like a plague. I just don’t want to waste any more time stewing over how terrible this place is.