3 Reasons Why I Do Not Offer Family Mini Sessions
It’s hard to believe that it’s the tail end of August and the kids are back to school next week! I say it every year, but the summer sure has flown by! As fall approaches and families settle into their routines again I start to get many inquiries for fall family sessions. Once September arrives I tend to book up fall session spots very quickly. I only have a limited time available in September, October, and November to offer sessions, so if you’re thinking about booking a session, now is the time to contact me!
One very common question I get when I receive email inquiries is: “Do you offer mini sessions?” The short answer to that is: “No”. In fact, I do not ever offer mini sessions any time of the year. Amongst many reasons I do not offer mini sessions, here are 3 of the main reasons:
- My Style: I like to call myself a storyteller. A huge reason my clients hire me is because of my storytelling approach to sessions. I love to show you your ‘story’ and your family’s ‘personality’ through a series of photographs. I want to show you what it looks like when your child hugs you, or when you give him a big, obnoxious kiss on the cheek. Parts of your story include things such as personalities, relationships, connections…how your child twirls your hair when she’s cuddling you. How your child laughs when you tickle him. I want you to have these photographs so that when your family is all grown up, you can see and remember how these moments felt.
- Time: As I mentioned above. I love the art of storytelling through a series of photographs. Genuine moments with your loved ones (like the examples mentioned above) are very difficult, and sometimes impossible to capture during a limited ‘mini’ amount of time. During the first few minutes of our time together at your session I take the time to chat with everyone and get to know my clients a little bit so that everyone can relax. I will never just meet up with clients at a location and instantly pull out my camera and start shooting. It takes time for everyone (including me) to settle in and relax before we start the session. I find that kids do better once they get a chance to interact and chat with me first before I hold up my camera in their faces and start telling them what to do. Mini sessions are limited to a certain amount of time so it’s necessary to use every minute of the short amount of time allotted for shooting. I never rush your session. I never want my clients to feel like I’m rushing them. Rushing leads to stiff and stressed looking clients. We always take the time needed to capture the moments that will mean the most to you.
- Service: I offer a high level of service to all my clients. I’m what the industry calls a “Full Service Photographer”. Full service photography is much more than photographing your session and handing over digital files for you to ‘fend for yourself’ in terms of figuring out what to do with the portraits from your session. I take the time to help you plan everything from your wardrobe and styling, finding the perfect location for your session, to helping you decide on and design photographic ‘art’ pieces to proudly display in your home. I also fully believe in order to get those authentic, candid, and emotional photographs, I have to get to know the family a little bit before the session. From the moment someone books a session, I’m asking questions about their family, their story, what they want to remember about their family in this moment in time. In order to get to know clients on a deeper level than just “photographer” and “client”, it takes time and effort. The amount of time it takes to offer this high level of service is impossible to offer for mini sessions.
I hope I provided some good insight as to why I do not offer mini sessions. It really does benefit you to invest your time into a full custom session. In the end you will end up with photographs that are meaningful. Photographs that you and your family will cherish and enjoy for a lifetime and beyond! If you are ready to invest in a full, custom photography session and enjoy the whole process from start to finish with Melissa Maahs Photography please do not hesitate to contact me!
Hello and thank you for visiting my blog! I’m Melissa, the photographer behind the camera at Melissa Maahs Photography, a Durham Region, Ontario, full service family photographer offering custom family portrait sessions. I’m sure you’ve already come to the conclusion that I’m passionate about photography! Besides begin passionate about photography, I’m also passionate and dedicated to the experience I provide to my clients and the process of making pictures into tangible pieces of art for you and your family to enjoy daily. Your art pieces will truly be treasured family heirlooms.
I thoroughly enjoy meeting, getting to know my clients and listening to their family stories. I love collaborating with clients on the endeavour of transforming their family stories into tangible art pieces of moments shared with their loved ones that will be frozen in time – forever in a photograph.
Lastly, I believe in photographs. Printed, tangible photographs that can be held in your hands, enjoyed on a wall, or flipped through in an album. My mission is to help every client create their photographic family heirlooms that can be enjoyed by you and your family for many generations to come!
If you love photographs as much as I do feel free to contact me and we can chat about how I can help you to create timeless photographic art to display and enjoy in your home.
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To see more of my work please view my portfolio here.
