This info is "general" and may not be totally up to date, as I haven't made any recent purchases for either myself or the company, however;
The Epsons have always had a good rating in terms of picture quality (higher "theoretical" resolution - but I really don't believe they can get a single dot as small as 1/1400th inch!) but most printers look pretty good (Epson, HP) and our office uses all HPs.
I have a Deskjet 1100 (lets me print largish schematics on A3 (17"x11") paper, and we have a couple of regular A4 Hp printers. The Boss recently got the "all-in-one" with scanner, printer and colour copier combined, which I always suggest as an excellent machine for versatility if that is required.
Best of all, the HPs all have a 3-year warrantee. Used heavily, the service centre will see you a few times during that period (we had a couple of the "all-in-ones" in an associate copy centre, used as colour copiers - continuously, which is why we had two!! - which were each serviced free about once a year due to totally over-using them) If you really use them for "SOHO" purposes, they should last for ages.
Colour photos? - as long as you find a good paper (don't try to print on the glossy side with some of them - that's the non-absorbant side - I've done it and it makes a mess!) you should get pretty acceptable results; as long as you don't expect "studio 35mm quality" from them!
Oh yes, for interest, I bought one of the first "baby HP lasers" (HP2P) some 11 years ago, and it has finally decided it needds to go to HP's service centre - after being used at home and occasionally as a backup to the office network printer!
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---- "Per Ardua ad Mixas" ----
(Through hardship to the bars)