Expressions Portrait Design

Great people to work with at expressions portrait. The whole photobooth and props were set up according to the floor plan, but to make more space for the bar expressions staff member assited to move everything to another area. The wedding party and all of our guests at the wedding had a great time taking photos in the photobooth! The wedding program went longer than expected, and the bride/​groom weren’t able to take photos in the photobooth so the staff at expressions agreed to keep the photobooth open for an hour longer. We couldnt be any more happy with the service we received! We love the photos! Thank you again!

Very disappointed. No 25 $ gift card as advertised on their website. 2^nd, photographer didn’t seem like a professional photographer. Very soft spoken, nice, but didn’t even take multiple shots to get a good spontaneous picture of my sons. I asked her why she was doing it 1 by 1, and she says they didn’t want to take too much pictures to erase if not chosen. Asked to take pictures from chest and above but instead she took it as the way she wanted… didn’t even try to crop or suggest how the pictures should look. She asks at the end of the session, to write the numbers down of what photos i liked. Out of 5 photo studios ive been through in my life, by far this is the worst company ever. Wouldn’t reccomend this place at all… what a waste of my time and money to bring my sons and myself to take pictures in my hometown before returning to the mainland.

A three-​in-​one review.
In August of 2014 we took our family portraits here. Our twins were 2 and the baby was 7 months old. We finally got smiles out of our little ones when a young blonde came to our rescue when our photographer couldn’t do it. No complaints about the photographer at all though. She tried her best, but our children were very shy. The photos came out great with their smiles, but the only thing I wish could have been a little better was that the children were looking at the camera. They were looking just a tiny bit too obvious in another direction (where the girl was standing to make them smile). But overall, I would call our first session was a success since we had never done it before.
In December of 2014, after moving back to the east side, I took just my three children to take Christmas photos at the Windward mall location. As soon as we get there, their photographer immediately gave off a zero personality vibe; no smiles, no greeting, no introduction of herself to my children. She just looked at us when we came in and she looked like she didn’t want to be there at all. She didn’t give seating tips, just brought out a bench for the kids to sit on. I had to ask her «Ok, what do you want them to do, where should they go, are they holding any props?» Etc. Throughout the photoshoot my 8 month pregnant cousin and I had to get extra goofy jumping around and even crawling on the ground to make my children smile because all the photographer did was put her face into the camera and squeak an annoying toy over and over. The twins weren’t having it, and I didn’t blame them; they simply felt uncomfortable. So, I took them down and let my youngest have the spotlight. It was so easy for us to make my baby smile and she did great. The only positive note about this experience was that the employee gave me two extra wallet sheets of my baby’s portraits. I think we should have got paid instead for being the ones who did majority of the work.
In November 2015, I called the Pearl Ridge location to set up for our family Christmas photos. I specifically told the woman on the phone that we had 3 small children ages 3 and 1, who were very shy, and I requested we have someone who was excellent with making them feel comfortable. I mentioned the young blonde who helped us last year, but I forgot her name. I know I repeated this a few times stressing to the person on the phone how important this was for us. We also prepped our children for what we were going to do and explained how someone was going to take our pictures. The day of the photoshoot, we get there and there are only two people working; a young man and woman. A woman was helping another family, so a man came up to just me and directed us to the back. He did not say hi to any of my children or their father. He did not engage with them at all. He simply told me, «Ok you sit here, have this one stand here, and the other stand here» etc. One child just completely shut down and didn’t want to stand anywhere because of this stranger to her. Another child was actually ready to take pics and listened well. And the youngest child wanted to play with the props, so she grumbled about keeping still. As their father and I struggled to get the kids on the same page, the photographer just stood there and actually laughed at us at one point when we were trying to get it together. Irritated, I sharply asked him if anyone else could help us and he said no, because the the other woman was helping someone else. He was gone for about 5 minutes and we were pretty over it, so my children’s father asked if we could cancel and come back another time. He told us to keep the deposit of $ 25 we would have to reschedule, so we did. During the week I called to speak to a manager or someone about our uncomfortable experience, but no one was there. I finally called a few days before our rescheduled date and our photographer from that day answered. I told him I wanted to cancel and he said I wouldn’t get the deposit back. The day of our rescheduled photoshoot, a woman calls me asking where we were and I tell her I canceled it a few days ago with «Shawn». I told her that I specifically asked for someone good with young children, said we didn’t get what we asked for to help take good photos, spoke about how we felt when he just stood there and laughed at us, and how I didn’t get my deposit back when I canceled. She apologized and told me she would tell a manager then someone would contact me. Of course, no one ever contacted me. So this part gets zero stars and we definitely will be taking our photos somewhere else from now on.

We did our family photo shoot here with two infants and Heather did an excellent job getting the shots! This is our 2^nd time and we will definitely return for the next shoot!

This is my 2^nd year to bring my son to take pictures with Santa and let me tell you… he never smiles. But the photographers and staff tries their best to make him. They’re friendly, helpful, and willing. We snapped about 4 pictures and each time hey tried to get his attention but he just doesn’t wanna smile or even cry haha. He’s a stone face baby. My pictures came out wonderful even though my son, despite the good effort from the staff, didn’t show any emotion. Haha

Came here for holiday photos and am glad we did! Was hesitant not knowing how they would come out, but Shelby was a great photographer and captured great shots to use for our Xmas card. It was a great deal for getting prints and a CD of the pics so you can print your own.
She also did a really good job with our toddler, he was smiling so nicely in the pics and we never would’ve gotten those kind of shots trying to take our own. She was also patient when he started getting antsy.
Very happy with the service and pics here!

Again, professionalism personified! They have had the same Santa for the 8 years we have lived on Oahu. We call him the Real Santa. 8 years of being sweet and jovial. The photographer took multiple shots, and the greeter and as always Bryson was super awesome. We love our photos! We will miss this place when we leave. But before we go we will be doing a few more family portraits!!!

We had an awesome experience! The whole team did an amazing job! My daughter is not good with taking pictures and she never smiles but Jon did an amazing job — he hopped around, rolled around, made funny faces and sounds to entertain my daughter and was able to get her to smile for all her shots! My husband and I were also smiling at all the silly moves he was doing just to get a smile! Good fun! We can’t wait to go back for my daughter’s 1 year photos! Hoping to get Jon again! Bryson also designed my daughter’s 1^st birthday invitations and photo booth print out for her upcoming party. It turned out awesome! Expressions is a kick butt photography shop with great staff and customer service. They’re a talented bunch! I’m definitely going back!

I took my son to meet Santa at Pearlridge for the first time. Every year in the past we have gone to Ala Moana and have never gotten him to sit with Santa by himself or better yet love the experience. This year I thought it would be the same… my son telling me he’s ready then get there and he would chicken out. But surprisingly it was VERY different. My husband and I went on a weekday which was better since it wasn’t crowded. Santa was very welcoming and his facial expressions and demeanor was pleasant and didn’t scare my son at all. With his «jolly» personality he really made my son feel welcomed and at ease. I felt that he really took the time to talk with him and listen to his wishes for what he wanted for Christmas. I also loved how the staff was able to capture the experience of pure joy in my son. Santa had a way of making him laugh and smile rather then give the fake smile/​pose type of picture. Overall we couldn’t be more happier with the experience. My son LOVES Santa now and couldn’t stop talking about how funny he was and we look forward to returning next year.

I do not recommend this studio for Christmas photos with Santa to anyone. They do the photos with Santa at Pearlridge Mall and the photos came out terrible. When you are first asked to select a package, you are given a clipboard with options but no samples in which to look at. They do not tell you that they put an obnoxious border at the bottom that includes both the Pearlridge and the Expressions Portrait Designs logos and it’s ugly– why would I want this on my photos? This border is included on all the printed photos you purchase but you don’t find this out until they hand you your photos at the end. Had I known this, I would not have purchased photos. In the 5×7 photos this bottom border does not even print correctly and cuts off on both edges so it looks ridiculous and not at all professional. Even if you are willing to overlook this there are many other reasons why you shouldn’t use them. First, the lighting they use is poor quality. The flash they use on the camera is too bright so what you end up with is kids and Santas with super washed out faces and a background that is super dark. There is a Christmas tree right behind santa, but you can barely make it out from the background. Second, the photo area is not well designed so you can see all the people in the mall standing right behind the Santa area in your photo. Third, even though they took several photos, only one of them was close to being good. They have a fan that blows on santa that was blowing my kids hair in their faces so 3 out of the 4 photos they took were garbage and the one where there is no hair in their faces, one of my children isn’t smiling. By the time you can look at the photos though, your kids are no longer with Santa and it is too late to get additional photos taken. Lastly, the printed photos they give are super poor quality — they came out extremely dark. They are not even using decent photo paper like Kodak or Fuji… they are using Mitsubishi. They are pretty much unusable for what I wanted to do with them. The only saving grace was that I purchased the photo on CD and they gave me a copy without the stupid border on the bottom. I had to run it through Lightroom and another photo program and after over an hour of touching it up, finally had a photo that was worthy of having printed to send to relatives. I had to add the color back into everyones faces because they were that washed out. Now I have to go out and spend more money to get printed photos because the ones they give out are terrible. I am pretty sure that I am going to take the printed photos back to the santa station and get my money back. You might want to check out another place that does photos with Santa.

I took my Son to see Santa at downtown pearlridge, pictures by expression studio. My Son, being special needs, had a bit of difficulty taking a picture. We were finally able to take one and during the ordeal the staff was very patient and kind dispite the looooong line we were holding up and even offered for us to walk around to calm my son down and come back without needing to stand back in line. After finishing, one of the staff came up to me and started telling me about sensitive Santa, an exclusive Santa visit for children with special needs, he gave me some info on it and I went home and found the form online and sent it in. We finished our sensitive Santa visit today and it was great, we had a comfortable sitting area to wait that was filled with little table activities for the kids and healthy snacks. When it was our turn, they were very patient and we were encouraged to take our time. My Son wanted to be on the floor so the photographer even got on the floor. She showed us the pictures she took and asked if we were happy, we left with a reusable goody bag filled with awesome stuff! $ 10 to pizza hut, $ 30 to down to earth, a teddy bear and more! Thank you expressions for being so kind and telling me about sensitive Santa!

Went to take my daughter to get her first Christmas picture with Santa at Pearlridge. Little did I know that I would be paying $ 25 for TWO 5×7 pictures of the same pose. You also can’t make copies of the pictures because they’re watermarked and the CD with the digital pictures you can make copies of is $ 15. They also didn’t mention that their logo would be on the picture. To make things worse, the overall quality of the pictures were horrible. Not high definition.

Expressions Studio had «stood my family up!» Thats how it felt, sad to say.
Calling from another island, I called Expressions on Monday evening to inquire about doing a photoshoot with my family. Didn’t get his name on who I talked to, but he was very helpful in explaining and answering all my questions as this was our first time. (Just for that I give 2 stars). But he did sound a bit rushed to do so. Told him its for a family of 4, me, my husband and our two sons. I asked if they had Saturday open, he says their all booked. Sunday? He says their all booked. So I asked Friday? He said, yes they got 6pm, 7pm and 8pm. So I said 8pm so we don’t feel rushed especially with my boys. He asked what package I was interested in, I said the $ 259 package. He offered and explained to me to do the Winter package. So I asked ok so how much would I be spending? He said $ 189 for 3 poses, all poses on cd, 6 sheet, 11×14, and membership. So I said wow ok, then how much would it be if I did my hair and make-​up and the sitting fee. So he said for you, $ 34.95 + $ 9.95×3 on top of the $ 189… est $ 253. So I said OK lets schedule, what needs to be done? He said they need a $ 25 down payment. He was very patient as I had to make him wait and even put him on hold so I could get my credit card from my truck. So that was it until we fly in to Oahu.
Friday comes. My husband and I figure we go in early so maybe they could take us earlier than 8pm, especially me since they need to do my hair and make up. Ohhhh man!!! So we go in at like 715pm. Greeted by a young lady with a smile, told her we are early as we have an 8pm appointment. She tells me to sign in. Asks me how much outfit, I say one and if anything only I will change to another shirt. Then she gave me 2 square booklets to pick 2 background. It did take awhile to choose from. Went to the lady and told her ok we have our two, gray and a red background. She said ok and someone will be with you. So we wait and around 730pm, the family before us was done. So we wait and then finally the photographer calls us. We walk towards the back and he says you folks ready? I’m like wait! What? Aren’t I goin to get my hair and make-​up done? He looked puzzled and said wait here and I’ll go check. He goes and chat with the lady. He comes back and says, theirs no booking for you to do hair and make-​up. I’m like no way!!! We came from outter island to do a family pictures. I was very pissed off! I told him when I made the appointment it was for 3 regular sitting fee $ 9.95 and make-​up and hair for me $ 34.95. Thats messed up! Not a very happy customer!!! «But I said, no sence in getting mad!»
The photograper and the lady was chatting and another guy went by them looking at the computer. So the other guy came to my family and I apologized and said we don’t have our make-​up artist here. Had to be calm but it was steamy. He offered to reschedule for tomorrow, Saturday. I said well you folks are booked, he said well we’re gonna have to get you in. So I said ok what time? He says 1230pm tomorrow. I said ok. So we walk to the front as the lady was looking at the schedule and the other guy calling the make-​up artist as he leaves her a messge to return their call. He asked me if I knew who I talked to. I said I dont remember, but it was a guy. He took my credit card information wouldnt you know who collected from? The owner said ya. And btw that $ 25 down payment should be waived! No one could say anything! Was silent.
Then the owner says you can either wait around here or we can call you if she’s available to do 1230pm. So i said call me, he pulls out the check in slip and comfirmed with me my number. Maybe in 10 minutes I get a call, he asked if we can do 10am tomorrow as the make-​up artist can’t do 1230pm. I look at my husband and we dissappointly agreed! So tomorrow 10am!!! Pretty much this whole experience, wasn’t a good one! My husband, 2 sons, a 6 year old and a 1 year old and I was ready to get things rolling. Unfortunately, it had screwed up our plans and now we have to put things aside that was planned tomorrow to do our photoshoot. Lets see what tomorrow brings. To be continued…

Came in to take Christmas photos for my 7 month old son. We were greeted by Shelby, who was very friendly & patient throughout the whole process. She managed to capture some great shots of my son even though he became grumpy quickly :) I will definitely come again & recommend Expressions to my friends

My husband, son, and I went in to Expressions Portrait Design to take our first family portrait ever today. Aaron was awesome! He got so many great shots of our family that I had trouble narrowing them down to my 3 favorites. I was giggling out loud looking at our previews. The three shots I chose were my favorite because Aaron captured moments when my family was really laughing and having fun, not just pleasantly posing. I should mention that my son is 2, so getting great shots is probably not easy. I’m so happy with these photos and can’t wait to include them on our Christmas cards!

Expressions studios Pearlridge downtown was very good to me. You can be assured that they care about their customers and about the quality of services they provide to you.
I was disappointed with our very first session and didn’t purchase any portraits. A few days later, I received a follow up call from Heather, the manager at Expressions studios. She was very understanding and open to hearing about my experience and feedback. She took it upon herself to make things right and offered me a reshoot with a free package deal. She reassured me that she cares about their customers and wanted to give each and every one the best photography services that they could get.
On my reshoot, I worked with Shelby in photographing my 3 month old. A difficult task. But Shelby was very polite, professional and patient. She offered different backgrounds, settings, and props and even let me feed my son in the middle of the session when he got fussy.
The photos came out great! I totally recommend this place. They really do care and are willing to work with you if things don’t turn out exactly the way you’d like. You can be assured that they’ll work with you to get the best photographs to keep for your memories.

They were very nice and helpful.
Great place to take family portraits.
Walk-​ins were accepted very easily as well.
Heather was our photographer. She was very kind and gave us good direction with poses as well as fixing our hair and makeup to make sure it looked nice. Overall it was a great experience and created a wonderful gift to look back on.

I bought a living social deal for $ 75, valued at $ 194. We shot 2 outfits for a total of 30 min and were encouraged to bring our own props and things to personalize our photos. At the end of our session we were told we could choose 3 poses and create any 6 sheets with it (8 wallets, 2 5×7, 4 3×5, or 1 8×10).
I was initially a bit annoyed because we had booked our appointment for 7:00, and my family (2 adults and 2 children, age 6 and 1.5) was even there 10 min beforehand to get settled in so we could start on time. We weren’t given attention until 7:20 because the worker was still with another customer, and even then we didn’t start shooting until 7:30 due to the photographer having to prepare the studio area for us. Side note: I’m 7 months pregnant so my better half kept reminding me to relax and be patient. After I put on my good behavior I was able to enjoy our time there and see all the good things.
Big plus: The AC in there feels great. Which is nice for the kids because if you’re wearing some photograph-​worthy clothes then you’re already uncomfortable, am I right?!
Second big plus: They have a wide variety of props. We didn’t use any but it was nice that there were blocks and books for my kids to use at they waited for Mommy and Daddy to take couples photos.
Next plus: Our photographer Shelby was the BOMB​.COM. She patiently guided us as we posed for each position, giving us directions like tilt your head, move one step to your left, scoot in more, take a step backward, etc. All these little cues helped us look natural and relaxed in our photos. She also really took her time getting a good shot. My daughter the 1.5 year old is a grumpy little thing but we were still able to get photos of her smiling. Shelby, you deserve a raise. Making my daughter laugh is no easy feat. Shelby’s expertise became even more apparent as we looked through our photos at the end of our session. We ended up liking about 10 out of about 15 shots. Every picture was so beautiful, her skills made it hard for us to choose.
Shelby did mention to us that if we wanted more than what was offered to us via the Living Social discount, that we could use the money we already spent toward a different package that the studio offered. I think she pointed to the Seasonal Package. The details were listed on a banner hanging near the doorway of the studio. Basically it was the same deal as living social, but it came with all photos on a CD with a copyright release. I’ve purchased CDs about four times in the past and I’ve NEVER had those photos printed. So we declined, but it was nice to know that this option was available to us.
We had our session today and were told that pick up for the 6 sheets would take no more than 10 days.
Like I said we started at 7:30, but we didn’t leave until just before 9pm when the mall began to close up. Judging the whole experience from start to finish, I can honestly say we (all four of us) were very satisfied with how everything went. A little customer service goes a long way. Thank you Shelby for all of your help tonight. And thank you for mentioning the newborn photo shoot. If we do decide to come back we’ll book our session with you.

Just did a family shoot with my parents from out of town. We showed up to our shoot about 20 minutes late and they were very gracious with our tardiness.
Photos came out great and they let us do lots of poses.

Do you want to take a family photo? Expressions has been our place to take holiday photo for the past 3 years.
This place is located downtown part of pearlridge mall next to kozo sushi.
We usually request for Jon as our photographer. He also does on site photo shoots too. He’s a professional and good with children. You have the option of buying photo on CD so you can print as you want. Seriously, I can decide which pose to buy or what size. I need more time. CDs and photos are usually ready to be pick up on the same day even though they tell you it will be longer. They also do other photos like graduation, baby, make over etc.
Say «cheese!»