Why Can’t We Just Take a Few More Photos
After Our Mini Session?
You’re already dressed. Everyone is already there. The kids are finally cooperating.
So when the 30-minute mini session ends, it can feel perfectly reasonable to ask:
“Can we just take a few more?”
I completely understand why.
But those extra five or ten minutes usually aren’t quite as simple as they seem.
A mini session is designed around a specific amount of time, and that reserved time is one of the biggest differences between a mini session and a full family session.
Fall Mini Sessions Are Scheduled Back-to-Back
During fall mini session days, families are typically scheduled one right after another.
Your 30-minute session isn’t sitting inside an open hour on my calendar. There may be another family arriving immediately after you, followed by another family after them.
If I photograph one family for an extra ten minutes, the next family either loses ten minutes of their session or spends ten minutes waiting for me to finish.
And then the entire schedule starts running behind.
Neither option feels fair.
Each family reserved the same amount of time, planned outfits, got everyone out the door and arrived expecting their session to begin when scheduled.
Protecting that time is part of the experience.
“Just Five More Minutes” Adds Up Quickly
Five minutes doesn’t sound like much.
But on a mini session day with several families, giving everyone “just five more minutes” can quickly turn into being 20, 30 or even 45 minutes behind.
And I would never want the last family of the day to receive a rushed session because earlier sessions ran long. The boundaries around mini session timing aren’t there because I’m watching the clock waiting to kick you out. They’re there because I want every family to receive the experience they reserved.
Thirty Minutes Goes FAST With a Family
This is something I really want families to understand before choosing a mini session.
Thirty minutes goes incredibly fast.
We have to get everyone settled, let the kids get comfortable with me, photograph the entire family, parents with the kids, siblings, individual children when appropriate and still leave room for the candid, playful moments that make your gallery actually feel like your family.
That is a lot to accomplish in half an hour.
It’s also exactly why my mini sessions are 30 minutes instead of the increasingly
common 10, 15 or 20-minute mini sessions you may see advertised.
For some families, 10 or 15 minutes is enough time to MAYBE settle in.
Especially with toddlers or kids who need a little time before they’re ready to interact with someone holding a camera.
Could I technically take photographs that quickly? Absolutely.
But I don’t want to spend your entire session saying, “Okay! Everyone look here! Smile! Next!”
That isn’t how I photograph families.
Thirty minutes gives us enough time to create variety while still keeping the session short and streamlined. But it is still only thirty minutes, and it moves quickly.
Your Session Time Is Part of What You Reserve
When you book a 30-minute mini session, you’re reserving exactly that: a 30-minute photography experience. Within that time, my job is to create as much variety as possible without making the session feel rushed or chaotic. I also intentionally build a little breathing room into those 30 minutes because I photograph real children.
Someone might need a minute.
A toddler may decide the stick they found is dramatically more important than family photos.
Someone may suddenly become shy.
That’s normal.
But if you know going into your session that you want more time, more variety and more images, there is a much better option.
If You Want More Time AND More Images,
Book the Full Session
This is probably the biggest thing to consider when deciding between a mini and a full family session.
My mini family session is $525 and includes 10 final images from your gallery
from at least 20 images.
You absolutely have the option to purchase additional images or upgrade your gallery afterward. But if you already know you’re likely to want all of the images, take a look at the full family session before booking the mini.
Once you book the mini and purchase the entire gallery afterward, you’re getting pretty close to the cost of a full session anyway.
The difference?
With the full family session, you also get approximately twice the shooting time.
Instead of trying to fit everything into 30 minutes, we have about an hour together.
That extra half hour is valuable.
It gives your kids time to settle in. It gives us more room for movement and connection. We can create more combinations, change things up, follow your kids’ personalities and let moments happen instead of constantly being aware that our thirty minutes is disappearing.
And your complete gallery is already included.
If you know you’re going to want more than ten images and you don’t want your session to end after thirty minutes, the full session is almost always the better value.
Minis Aren’t Supposed to Be Tiny Full Sessions
This is really the heart of it.
A mini session isn’t a full session squeezed into half the time.
It’s a different type of session.
Minis are intentionally shorter and more portrait focused. They’re wonderful for families who update photos regularly, know they only need a smaller collection of images or have children who do really well with a quick session.
Full sessions are for families who want more.
More time to just be.
More candid images.
More variety with lifestyle shots.
More breathing room for the moments to unfold.
More opportunities to let kids be kids without worrying about how quickly the clock is moving.
Neither one is better. They simply serve different purposes.
It’s About Fairness, Not Rigidity
I never want clients to feel like I’m standing there with a stopwatch.
I’m paying attention to your family, your kids and the photographs we’re creating.
But I’m also paying attention to the family who trusted me with the session immediately after yours. They deserve their full 30 minutes too.
So when our mini session time is finished, even if everyone is finally having an amazing time and it feels tempting to sneak in “just a few more,” we’ll wrap things up knowing we used your reserved time intentionally.
And if you’re reading this thinking:
“There is absolutely no way I’m going to be ready to stop after 30 minutes.”
Perfect.
That’s exactly why I offer the full family session.
