Studio 1890 Old Time Photos

The photographer was terrible. Our family went in to get cute Bavarian photos, the costumes were perfect and background nicely set but the pictures turned out awful. The photographer (brunette) gave us bad directions and took photos when not everyone was completely ready for the shot. They only took 7 photos but 2 of them some eyes were closed! Obviously the photographers only job is to take the photo when all eyes are open and faces looking at the camera. So when we went to choose the photo we could only even consider 5 and even then the shots weren’t coordinated.
Horrible customer service and poor quality. Do not recommend.

HORRIBLE. UNPROFESSIONAL. BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. This place has some of the worst staff I’ve encountered in customer service. Will not ever go back here. When you first walk in, there is a feeling of unwelcomness, as if you’re the one inconveniencing them.
There’s a blonde girl photographer at the counter, who’s face looks as if someone shoved a toothbrush up her buttocks. The brunette photographer chose pitiful costumes for us with holes. My boyfriend’s pants had a hole and they didn’t have any other pants that would fit properly, so he was stuffed into ridiculous looking bottoms that bunched up near his crotch. Next, my boyfriend asked for a belt to complete the Saloon look, but that was refused as well with an incoherent mumbling.
So then the photography session; the Brunette with her blasé attitude about the whole affair takes shitty photos of you without giving you any direction, and doesn’t even bother to show you the photos midsession to make sure everything is ok.
One of the last things that infuriated me was that I specifically stated that I wanted the shoot to reflect real 1800s poses and expressions and that would include a non-​smiling expression. The brunette looked up from her camera and stated «you WILL smile».
DON’T come here. The photos and experience were not worth the fees they asked for.

I’ve been here twice. The first time, I remember there was this blonde girl with resting bit*h face. it was her first day on the job! A month later when I return, she’s still just as unpleasant.
It’s amazing that reviews from 2011 comment on the horrible customer service. As a manager of customer service, I really wanted to give these girls some pointers. Smile! Engage with your customers! But it all comes down to one simple thing. They just don’t care about their job and it shows. My friend even commented that I was more informative about the process and what we needed to do than the employees. She also commented «I think she hates us!!». This is not how you should make your paying customers feel.
The first time I was here, the brunette girl wasn’t super friendly, however, she did pay more attention to detail when it came to the photo shoot and our pictures came out well.
This time, the blonde with the pissed off look took our pictures. My friends could sense these wouldn’t turn out well. At one point, the girl mumbled to herself «Hm. That one is a little better.» She clearly didn’t know what she was doing and at one point the brunette came over and readjusted the camera since she had it at a crooked angle.
I was wearing a short skirt (the exact same outfit that I wore the first time which looked great)… And when we looked at the photos, my butt was showing when I was sitting down. The girl from the first shoot would help us with adjusting our clothes accordingly. The blonde girl gave no direction or assistance. And it showed in the crappy photos.
In the end, we walked out without buying anything. At the same time, a group of girls also walked in and the employees were not enthusiastic to help them. So they too walked out. If you want to make more money. Hire friendlier staff. It goes a LONG way!
During my weekend in Leavenworth, I got the best customer service from a lady at a Mexican restaurant. And they have 29 margarita flavors! Definitely a better way to spend your money.

I was really looking forward to taking some fun pics here with my girlfriend while on a nice trip to Leavenworth but it didn’t go well at all.
We showed up about 10 mins early for our reserved photo shoot. There were a couple of young girls sitting around and not being very friendly or helpful. They asked if we had a reservation, which we did, then one of them quickly picked out a dress for my gf to wear which was all black and in our opinions, quite boring. My gf asked for a blue one that she had seen in some of the photos online and the girl reluctantly looked for and found it. Then she handed me a shirt and pants, which were both too large and sent us back into the changing room.
We were both pretty appalled at the customer service at this point so it had already started to sour the experience. Then we realized that the lace on my gf’s costume was ripped and one of the strings on my costume was missing, making it impossible to tie up at the back.
At this point we decided that this experience was not going to be as fun as we had hoped and definitely not worth paying for so we walked back out to the front desk to let them know. When we told them that we do not wish to go ahead with the shoot, and informed them that the costumes were broken they just replied «It doesn’t matter, they are meant to be open at the back anyway.» We also told them that the lace was ripped on the dress and that the service so far was unwelcoming and rude. The three women just shrugged their shoulders so we walked out since they made no attempt to try and rectify the situation.
Save your money and do something that you will enjoy, like we did by going wine tasting where everyone was very friendly, welcoming and actually cared about customer service and doing their job.

Oh boy — the best activity we did during our visit to Leavenworth. The pictures are AWESOME, and they really care about the tiniest of details when it comes to taking pictures. You can choose from a wide variety of themes/​costumes, but my fiancé and I decided to do the Bavarian theme since we were in Leavenworth after all. After we finished taking pictures, we couldn’t decide which ones to keep, so they told us instead of buying each picture separately, we could buy the CD. They «make you» pay the flat $ 30 (or $ 37 for Bavarian theme) for a print out of one of the pictures you took (you get to choose which one). On top of the $ 37, we bought the CD so our total came out to a little over $ 80. This may seem pricey but it was definitely worth it since we loved each picture so much.

HORRIBLE! AVOID! Run by a group of disrespectful women who have no idea what customer service is!
What a let down! Booked an appointment for a Saturday afternoon. Arrived and was not greeted with enthusiasm at all — more the opposite.
A younger girl rushed us over to the costumes and picked them out for us. She picked out a boring black one for me, and I told her that I wanted one with some color. She insisted that the black will be ok since we are only having sepia photos taken. So I disagreed and said that we are buying the CD with the digital copies and that color photos should be part of the package. Be careful! Check what is included in your sitting!
Eventually I was given a blue saloon girl costume. My bf’s costume was picked out for him, again in such a rush! What’s the point in booking an appointment, when you’re just being rushed anyway???
We got told to go into the fitting room. It was dirty and dingy with NO MIRROR! How can you hand a costume to someone and not give them a mirror to when trying on? The lace on my costume was ripped and one of the string on my b/f’s costume was missing, making it impossible to tie up at the back.
So here we were:
— rude service
— broken costumes
— no mirror
What is the actual photo shoot going to be like?! And do we really want to pay for this!!! Answer = NO! So we walked back out, with our costumes in hand. Went over to the front desk and told them that we do not wish to go ahead with the shoot, and informed them that the costumes were broken. The reply we got: «It doesn’t matter, they are meant to be open at the back anyway…»
Is that it!!! So I told them that the lace was also ripped and that the service was unwelcoming and rude. The three women just shrugged their shoulders and we walked out.
What did we do with the money we saved??? We went to two awesome wine tasting sessions and bought two awesome bottles of wine and experienced superb customer service.
SAVE YOUR MONEY and spend it on something much better and on establishments that deserve it!

Considering the steel-​trap tourist vibe of Leavenworth, it’s amazing that their «old timey photo parlor» offerings are so basic. Everything about Studio 1890 is fundamentally serviceable – if you’re stopping in, chances are that you’re there for a few quick shots in Bavarian getup – and compared to the weird policies that their nearby competitor («Step Back in Tyme») have in place, they’re the lesser of two underwhelming options.
However, there is something unintentionally hilarious about this place that merits a further explanation: we’ve been there three times in three years, and – in every instance – have gotten the sense that the person running the joint must be some postmodern version of Fagan from «Oliver Twist.» I’m not quite sure what the deal is, but the shopgirls who are working there are inexplicably MORTIFIED at the suggestion of particularly goofy or silly photos by their customers. My wife and I actually felt sorry for the last girl who helped us out, as she went from stiffly trying to force us into a series of off-​the-​shelf poses («Now toast with the mugs. Now look at each other. Now look at me. Now toast with the mugs again.») to sort of off-​handedly explaining that the owner routinely reviewed their saved archives of customer images, and would reprimand anybody who took a picture that they found to be «inappropriate.» As such, we basically had to promise that we’d take the full blame if she got any heat for our stupid photograph, and wound up essentially negotiating for our pictures: we’d jump through her hoops, as long as she let us do whatever we wanted for the last photo that she shot.
Said photo is included below. If this has led to anybody being fired by the overzealous mania of the person in charge, then they can rest assured that it was truly a worthwhile sacrifice to make.

My mom has been waiting until I became an adult to do these Old Tyme photos with her (because there was no way in hell I would’ve done this with my mom as a teenager!). Luckily it was a Monday and wasn’t busy. The experience itself was fine — we picked the scene and our costumes, posed in front of a backdrop and reviewed our photos on a monitor. Unfortunately, the girl working there didn’t seem to know much about placing us in poses. My mom and I were too far apart in some pictures and it just looked a bit awkward. I didn’t really realize this until I took a longer look at the photos when we got home. One photo out of the 6-​ish on our cd came out quite great though — I think it was because toward the end she pushed us closer together — so I’m at least happy with that. Next time we will take better care to adjust ourselves when needed and not rely on the photographer to know what they’re doing. I’d be unhappier if I had to pay for the session but luckily my mom took care of that and she seems more satisfied with the pictures than I am.

Love this place. We come to Leavenworth a few times a year. We usually stop here and get a pic taken for a keepsake. The owner is hilarious but only works on the summer. Chelsea was the person working today. She did a great job and we good great pics. (we were pretty drunk but she was nice anyway) If you want great pictures for memory’s this is where you need to go.

Staff was unprofessional and rude. Costumes were worn and in bad shape.
We arrived 10 minutes early expecting to see a ‘catalog’ for costumes we could choose from. They didn’t offer anything, instead the girl chose herself accordingly to what was the ‘best-​fit’ for us, even though we didn’t like it. Once dressed my wife asked about a different dress and their answer was ‘no, the one we gave you was the best for you’, my wife insisted in using a different outfit (from a picture she saw) and they replied ‘that dress won’t fit you, moreover we have another appointment next’ In my opinion there was still plenty of time to do the outfit change. There were two young girls that look very unprofessional. They spent a couple of minutes shooting; they didn’t count, or tell us when to smile. I asked them to have some individual photos from the kids since we were going to buy the CD and they reply that was not possible. The costumes looked worn, without buttons, in really bad shape. We have experienced much better photo portraits (also with costumes) in the past and this is the worst experience of all. There is another studio in Leavenworth which we didn’t choose because it was more expensive; however I think they should be more professional too. I will never return and I suggest families avoid this place.

I’ve had group photos taken here twice, and they turned out great both times.
The first time we did saloon girls, and the photographer knew just how to direct us to get the best pictures.
The second time we did a Bavarian themed photo. I was a little surprised that they weren’t sure about letting me dress in lederhosen instead of a dirndl like my ladies, but they went with it and it turned out great (although the lederhosen they gave me were way too large).
We’ve had fun both times we’ve come here, and we’ll be back!

A persistant family member made a reservation for this place. Our experience was great. We had six kids in and out of there in about 40 minutes. We left with FANTASTIC pictures. I love that we got a disc with every photo taken on it. The price was good. Glad we gave the place a second chance.

What is there to do in Leavenworth besides eat heavy German food and pick listlessly through shelves of tacky souvenirs? There’s olde tyme portraits, that’s what. For being such a tiny town, Leavenworth boasts quite a few of these time machines, but the one we ended up going to was Studio 1890.
Located on Front Street, the main commercial strip, this storefront is so tiny you could easily miss it on your way to the fudge shop. But if you’ve always dreamed of strapping on some lederhosen and posing with an accordion, you won’t want to miss it. There’s also a couple of Wild West backdrops, but come on, you’re in a faux-​Alpine tourism village. Of COURSE you’re going to tie an embroidered apron on.
The photographers size you up and pick out a few outfits for you to choose from — you can choose B&W, sepia, or color, so keep that in mind when picking your ensemble. You get props like garlands, walking sticks, and giant beer glasses filled with plastic fake beer, and they’ll pose you 5 or 6 different ways. The sitting fee is $ 35, which includes one 8×10 or two 5x7s, but you can pay an additional $ 25 for a CD of your entire photo shoot (which allows you to do your own sepia Photoshopping at home).
Yeah, it’s pricier than I expected, but the pictures we ended up with were totally worth it, and the girls at the studio are friendly and seem to have a good time despite the vast number of whiny kids and crabby tourists that come through. If you’re looking for a head start on your Xmas photo cards, you can’t do any better than Swiss Miss drag.