Should you book a Mini-Session or Full Photo Session?

Should you schedule a mini-session or a full photo session is a question I receive a lot this time of year.

I wish I could give you the simple yes or no answer, but unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Fornutately, I can give you my personal best advice because after being in business for awhile, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to mini-sessions.

What works?

• Having kids and adults that will cooperate and take direction well.
  With mini-sessions only lasting 10 minutes, I need full cooperation from all parties involved. I’ve become very efficient at maximizing my time with different poses and arrangements. If everyone in your family will cooperate and do as I ask, then a mini-session is a good fit for you. Have a person that will need more attention or time to warm up to me for them to smile, then a mini-session really might be the right fit for your family.

• Being prepared and Early.
  This is so super important! Most photographers (myself included) try to maximize our time and yours with mini-sessions, so being prepared and on-time should be your number one priority. Unfortunately with scheduling, us photographers schedule mini-sessions back to back on purpose. We can’t go over time. Otherwise it impedes on someone else’s time, and that’s not fair. Always show up early and be pre-pared for your session to start.

• Understanding, you will not get the variety of poses and backgrounds that a full session would give you.
  Mini-sessions are fairly simple. You get one background to take a few pre-determined posed photos. That’s it. They are not built to have a lot variety in them on purpose because of the time constraint. If you are ok with that, then a mini-session is a perfect fit. If you want a large variety of poses and backgrounds, a mini-session is not a good fit for you.

What doesn’t work?

• Newborns.
  A mini-session is not the place for your newborn photo shoot. Newborns photography is a whole different session. I cannot get newborn photos done in a mini-session and have lost clientele because I refuse to do a mini-session for a newborn. But newborn photography requires time, patience, and a different mindset than family mini-sessions. And it’s something I won’t compromise my work by creating a short cut for it.

• Large extended families
  Now there is a caveat to this. I have shot a family of 10 adults in a mini-session within 10 minutes. But all were adults, easily took direction, and knew exactly what they wanted and communicated that to me prior to their mini-session.

• Children or adults that need time to warm up to the photographer
  I love working with kids and adults, but some times they need a little extra to warm up to me in order to get really good photos. And that’s definitely ok! But a mini-session doesn’t provide that warm-up time. It might not be the best for our family.