Recently the USS Ronald Reagan stopped by Australia for some much needed R&R. For many it was their first opportunity to explore the sights in the land down under, and visit both the city of Brisbane and Gold Coast. However, while visiting Surfer's Paradise in Gold Coast I happened upon an interesting store called Grandpa's Antique Photos, which as the name implies, allows customers to take "antique" themed photographs such as gangsters and western cowboys. My group of course, chose gangs of Chicago as their theme.
As a modeling enthusiast, and part-time cosplayer I was definitely in my zone when visiting Grandpa's. I was excited to see the quantity of costumes available, but while the selection is large, the photographer selected our suits for us and instead allowed us to choose either suits or suspenders for our particular shoot. Once we were suited up (which took about 15 minutes), we acquired some props such as revolvers and even a few Chicago Typewriters along with fake money and alcoholic beverages to add some realism to the scenes. From that point on, the photographer began the shoot.
We took about 50 to 60 different photos with variable angles and poses that captured our best sides, and overall shot for approximately an hour before being able to choose which photos to buy. During the selection progress we were informed of a special deal which included 3 pictures on groups of three for 75 Australian dollars (Around 57 American) and shown our options. All of us selected 2 pictures and an added extra silly one which we split the costs for evenly to a sum total 58 AUD (44 American). The results were more than satisfactory and the costs were nothing overly exorbitant, which lead to an overall great experience with the store. But, as with everything good there are some aspects we didn't enjoy.
For one, not being allowed to choose our own costumes, was not a terrible thing per-say as the photographer did choose some good ones, but it would have been better if we had those choices ourselves. The second aspect was that our photographer wasn't the same one as the cashier, which was an older black-haired short lady that anyone who googles the locale will see is rather pushy and unpopular (almost every negative review involves her). While the photographer was nice and cool, the older lady was a little overbearing considering we were only doing this for fun. The pictures are 8 by 10, and can't be placed on USB drives (which means you'll have to scan or photograph the pictures yourself if you want copies such as the digital ones below) which means that you won't be able to get wallet sized copies. Finally the price, while as mentioned above not exorbitant could stand to be a little lower.
However, I will say the following: Grandpa's might not have the best reviews in Google, but that is not because they're a bad business. Two of the four workers we interacted with were great gals (the other two were the black-haired lady, and a blonde woman who didn't interact with us as she arrived when we picked up our pictures) also we had a lot of fun during the shoot. The business is in an easy to access location located at the strip of stores in Gold Coast, a little ways past the newly established Steampunks at Surfers Paradise. If I had to rate it, I would give it a solid four stars out of five.
If you're ever in the Australia's Gold Coast by Queensland, make sure to take a stop by Grandpa's Antique Photos