Tahoe’s Old Time Photos

Called and made a last minute appointment for the whole family of five and they were very accommodating and so patient with all of us and the kids. It was a whole photo shoot after we chose our theme. The photographer Jon made it fun and we made old time memories! I will definitely be returning and I recommend it to everyone! They’ve got some very good deals price-​wise as well! He took really good care of details and of all of us. It’s a fun way to get your family or friends together, I’m already planning to go back for more!

First and foremost, I want to thank Jon. My boyfriend (now fiancé) and I went in on Friday to take a photo and he proposed to me during our shoot. Jon was amazing and made it so super special for us, capturing amazing photos of the proposal. We have since used one of the special images as our engagement announcement and have gotten a tremendous amount of positive feedback from it. Again, thank you so much Jon for being a part of our special moment, in which we will never forget! See you next year for our annual old time photo shoot.

My husband, 9-​month-​old baby, and I had a great experience at Tahoe’s Old Time Photos! John (the photographer) was professional and made us feel very comfortable. We had a great time and he did whatever it took to get our baby’s attention and make him smile. A wonderful place for making memories and having a blast! Really great customer service here where the staff is genuine and delightful!

This place was such a blast! Was up int Tahoe for my roommates birthday and she wanted to this. there was 4 of us and Jon (I hope i’m remembering his name correctly) was so professional while keeping it super fun! He had us doing many different scenarios, like we were actually in the wild wild west ;) The experience put a smile on our faces and we left with some great memories!

My husband and I wandered in here on a whim during our honeymoon in South Lake Tahoe. We had a fantastic time doing the photos! We had a 45-​minute appointment, and were allowed to do several different poses (and even had a chance to come up with some of our own). The costumes and props were fun and authentic.
The photos came out great! When we went, the printer wasn’t working, so the staff member offered to mail us the prints. However, my husband and I were flying back to Australia the following day, so they gave us all 12 photos on a CD for a lower price, instead!!! Excellent service, and we couldn’t have been happier with the price, photos, and overall experience! :D

A very good experience overall.
The guy that did our photos was very good and had us do several poses. We were never rushed even though there were more appointments after us.
Or photos turned out very nice and it was a fun experience.

Had an excellent time here! The guy that took the photos of my boyfriend and I was awesome! He kept us laughing and entertained the whole time and we didn’t feel rushed at all.

Good old fashioned family fun ! We weren’t rushed and the photos were as great as the experience was fun !

I LOVED COOKIE!!! She was so amazing! My friends and I went to do the old time photos they do there, we were in tahoe for my friend’s bachelorette weekend and decided to do those old time photos, wow was Cookie great! She made the time so much fun! She didn’t rush us and was so helpful and hilarious!!! We enjoyed every minute and was definitely one of our favorite things of the entire weekend thanks to her great service! I definitely look forward to coming back and if I do I will make sure Cookie will be there! Thanks again!

What a great time for the family. I loved the fact that they were so particular on how we were posed just right. Took lots of time and even worked well with our dog. Lots of outfits and 2 great scenes to choose from. He even noticed if your hat wasn’t just right. Love a perfectionist when it comes to something like this. So hard to choose which picture we wanted. Very happy. Best family photo we had in a long time.

Yep, it’s a cheesy vacation activity — family photos dressed up in wild west garb. But it was fun and we got some great shots. Props to Jon, who was an enthusiastic and capable stager and photographer!

Poor experience. I made an 8:00 reservation 3 days in advance. They did not have it down when I arrived. The young man running the show at that time all but accused me of lying. The other 8:00 showed up and looked at me as if I was pulling a fast one. We were both allowed to remain in the very small picture taking area at the same time. Tensions were very high. We did not receive the same level of service the other patrons received. A manager from the store came in to hurry us out to make sure the other group was taken care of. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Fun time!
We had a family of 5 adults and one two year old, and wanted a Western «old time» photo. We could walk to this place from our hotel. There were ample costumes and props, even for the 2 year old, so everyone quickly found hats and costumes they liked. The photographer gave great suggestions for poses and was very efficient in orchestrating us. In fact, a little too efficient– it felt quite rushed. She got some good poses and photos but the prints turned out a little dark. The main thing that I didn’t like was that, after spending $ 150, they wouldn’t even give us a cardboard to put the photos in. They wanted us to pay $ 2.99 for a cardboard folder for each picture and we ordered 11 of them, so that sucked. Don’t they care that their photos will get bent and wrinkled? Also, if they were smarter, they’d have a large variety of western-​themed frames right there for sale. If they did, we would have gladly bought several of them, no matter how much they cost. I just didn’t like being nickel and dimed for the cardboard and hope the photos will be okay in my suitcase until I can find frames!

Usually the thought of taking pictures will make most men cringe and run for cover. This was actually my idea as I thought it would be fun to take a fun family portrait with a 20’s gangster theme. Martin made our pictures fun, painless and memorable. The entire process was really fun and I have to say I would do it again in a second. Martin was even able to get my 3 young kids involved in the pictures and pose. Very cool and a wonderful memory!

My brother and I got a set of the best photos EVER taken at this establishment last night. Martin was fantastic, hilarious and a lot of fun. There was a bit of a holdup with our appointment time due to a very fussy large group before us and Martin kept open late to make sure we got the photos we wanted. He was attentive and enthusiastic, with a lot of great ideas for poses and props. I literally have not laughed as hard as I laughed during our sitting in a long time, especially when Martin called one of his fellow merchants in from the street so we could «shoot him down» as one of our poses. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone looking for something zany to do in South Lake Tahoe. And I was promised on of my pictures will be in the sample book… so enjoy that! Thanks for making my brother look like a gangsta and my legs looking the best they’ve EVER looked.

After reading the previous reviews, I was a little hesitant to go here. We have a Jekyll & Hyde baby — one minute she’s blissed, the next she’s tearing down the banisters — so anyone lacking patience doesn’t really «work» for us. But we had a coupon, so we gave it a go.
We must have had a different gal helping us than Phoebe & JM (about 5’4″, curly brown hair). She was SO patient and sweet with our daughter, who decided to have a crying session right as we were getting ready to take our picture. Chirping bird plushy, squeaky Nemo toy, and many other toys made appearances in an effort to distract her. Finally, we changed her out of her outfit into a weird baby-​wearing-​fur-​and-​pearls ensemble that seemed to please her. Finally, we got our shot — mum and dad managed to hide their mortification of crazy child long enough to get a good one.
I can’t express how much I appreciate how patient the gal helping us was. It would have been understandable if she had gotten a little flustered after 20 minutes of wailing child, but she didn’t. And she charged us the sitting fee for two adults, instead of adult plus child (our daughter is 20 months) which is coooool bananas.

What kind of business are they running here? First, the woman kept the open sign on when they were closed. After knocking on the door for a bit, she finally acknowledged me. She told me they would be open at 10am the next day. I was there the next day at 10:15am. Not Open! Waste of my time!!! Not how you do business!

We went in for a Christmas card last year and had an excellent time. I found the staff to be wonderful. We had multiple costume changes and they let us pose in all sorts of ways. We werent a very big group but they had plenty more costume and themes to choose from.
They get the fifth star because they gave us a couple extra prints!!!

I have been BEGGING my family to do an old time photo for ages. I have done these before in Virigina City, and loved the experience and think the photos are so much fun. So, when I saw there was a studio in south lake, I was excited and dragged them there. It was a slow Saturday afternoon, and there was NOBODY waiting when we arrived, or anytime while we were there.
Once we told the lady we wanted to do the photo, she started moving at a rapid pace, as if there was a line of people waiting. She grabbed 3 dresses, thew them at us, and told us to change quickly. She said the word quickly about 4 times before 2 minutes had passed. Then she got the men dressed and sat them down. My sisters and I were amused because she was acting so rushed and irritated, but we were also not having any fun. We got NO choice in what accessories she gave us, she just sort of planted the feathers in our hair in a haste, and sat us in the most BORING pose ever where the three ladies were hidden behind the men. I asked if we could try another pose, and she started getting REALLY nasty with me saying she had been doing this for 20 years, 7 days a week and she knows her art and don’t tell her how to do her job. She was a total witch to us. I shut up and let her take the photos. She took 6 pictures in about 1 minute and then told us to get undressed quickly. I again heard the word quickly about 3 times… oddly, still no patrons waiting or even looking in the store.
We all gathered around the computer screen to see our pictures, and you wouldn’t believe it — all of them were blurry due to the camera malfuctioning. HAHAHAHA — kharma is a b*tch. She asked if we could get dressed up again, and we said no (we honestly had somewhere to be) so she offered to have us come back the next day. We said maybe. We left empty handed and completely offended, but at least we didn’t pay for our terrible experience.
We did not return. I am completely embarrassed that I recommended doing this, and apologized to my family about 12 times.
I highly recommend going all the way to Viriginia City to a place simply called «Old Time Photos» where they treat you with respect and understand that this should be a fun experience while you are on vacation.