The Mini Session Phenomena

I've been taking photos for nearly sixty years, and doing it professionally since 2009. When I started you had to buy film, take the photos, send the film in for processing, and wait a week or more on average to see what you got. The advent of digital photography presents an opportunity to give your clients nearly instant gratification. You can take a photo, recompose it or change the exposure, and show your client a color preview within a minute. Wow, that's a treasure.

Some photographers, however, in their effort to find a niche in a crowded photography market, offer "mini sessions" where you might pay under $100 for a fifteen or twenty minute slot of time . . . AND, get upwards of fifty digital images! Sounds great, right? It depends on what you expect. You will get a rapid fire set of minimally creative and generally similar images that have either not been edited at all (so why not just take your own with your phone??) or run through some automated software. You will pay substantially less than other professionals. You won't get a print to hang on your wall, put on your desk at work, or send to grandma.

The mini session craze doesn't bother me, because I'm not chasing the bottom of the marketplace. I never competed in the "I'll do your all day wedding for under $1,000" mania, and was never afraid to let a couple know that I probably wasn't the photography for them, and more importantly that they weren't my client. On the other hand, I don't have set minimum packages for my clients to invest in, and my prices are less expensive than my professional peers. A mentor of mine once told me that what is invaluable to your clients should be expensive, because kids grow up, grandparents die, we all get less attractive over time, and those moments captured in time are precious. If those memories are on your phone only, and not being shared, what's the point of having them?