So you want updated family photos!
Soooo many choices. What time of year? What will you wear? Where will you take your photos? Then there is finding the right photographer with the right style and price points, maybe even personality! Once you've decided on a photographer, there are often multiple options for pricing and packages. You often have a choice, too, between mini sessions, or full sessions!
What is a mini session?
With a full session, you choose your location, your date, your time. You often are with your photographer for 1-2 hours and get a full gallery of photos (the specific number and how it works depends on your photographer.
With a mini session, your photographer has set the date(s), location, and time slots. For you, the client, the number of photos is often limited with options to upgrade to additional images if you want to (or, you can stick with your allotted amount!). Sometimes, there is a cute set-up. Other times, you're just using the beauty of the natural environment around you. Session times are usually about 15 minutes long (although this can vary by photographer).
So why should you choose a mini???
With the photographer calling the shots on location, times, and date, why should you choose a mini when you could choose a full session and have more control over those aspects of your session? Here are a few good reasons you might want to choose a mini over a full session next time you update your family photos (and many of you will be doing this soon with the fall/Christmas season approaching!
1. You just need a few updated photos, not a few dozen!
If you do photos every year, you may not need a whole slew of new photos to sift through. Besides, are you actually DOING anything with all those photos (besides sharing them on social media)? Do you print them and put them all on your walls or in an album? Do you make a Shutterfly book? Or do you just need to update a couple of frames, print some for grandma, and make your yearly holiday cards? If you're doing this every year, chances are a small handful of photos will suffice - making a mini session perfect for you!
2. It's a lot easier to get the kids to cooperate for 15 minutes rather than a whole hour+!
Maybe you have little kids. And as a mother of a toddler I know how wiggly they can be and how short their attention spans can be! If you've done a photo session with young children before, you know that it's not long before they are just DONE. And while a good photographer has strategies to both keep young kids engaged and give them breaks through a full session, sometimes a shorter time span is really beneficial to littles who would rather run around and get dirty than cooperate in their nice clothes. :) When you know your kids won't last long, a mini session is a LOT less stressful because it's over before you know it!
3. You live a busy life and don't need another big time commitment.
In this crazy life we live, we are often rushing from one thing to the next. Kids have their activities and school, there's work to be done, a household to manage, seasonal trips and vacations to plan around... you know how it goes. For busy families, mini sessions are the perfect family photo solution! Just 15 minutes, plus driving and getting ready, and you're done! You won't even have time to worry about what else you need to get done, because you'll be back to your to-do list in no time at all.
4. Mini sessions can be cost-effective!
It makes sense that shorter time = less money. When you invest in a full session with your photographer, they are exclusively yours for the time frame you agree upon. You get to decide all the details. You get a lot more edited photos (and let me tell you, that's where the real investment is with your photographer!). With minis, less=less. And when you don't need MORE, why spend more? You can spend additional on upgrades - IF you want to. Or just enjoy the savings that mini sessions inherently offer.
5. Mini sessions offer unique themes!
This isn't necessarily true for ALL minis, but they do often give you the chance to take some unique photos! Photographers are creative people and often produce cute, beautiful set-ups for seasonal mini sessions. Some incorporate live animals! Whatever your favorite season of the year is, you can celebrate with a mini - just a few photos to commemorate your family or the current stage of your kiddos and make some fun memories (because come on, who needs 100 photos of y'all sitting in that red truck with a Christmas tree? :) ). These are perfect for holiday cards, sharing on social media, and displaying seasonally in your home (not to mention updates for family members when your kids are young and changing quickly).
Which do you usually choose - minis, or full sessions?
Feel free to share! Maybe this article gave you something to consider for future sessions. If you're still not sold, be on the lookout for why a full session might be the best choice for your family!
Ready to plan your next mini?
Let's connect and plan your session today! I can let you know what minis are currently booking, and what's coming up soon! Be sure to join my email list as I announce new minis to my VIPs first!!!
It is truly a pleasure for me to celebrate all that you and your family are through images that will be treasured keepsakes for generations to come!
