Thoughts on Mini Sessions

 It's time Photographers Start to value their Photography, if you want to do it for a living stop treating it like a hobby.

I am not trying make anyone mad with my opinions, but the price war has to stop .To each their own.  In the end, I’m simply trying to educate photographers so that together we can build the industry instead of killing it if we don't value what we do customers sure won't.
 
When everyone is scrambling to get their family photos taken like Spring,Easter,Christmas,Valentines Day why do we all feel the need to discount our services and offer mini session specials during the busiest times of the year?

Really.  It’s like gas stations charging less for gas over Labor Day weekend.  Or stores charging less for Chocolate before Easter  It always baffles me and so I thought I’d take some time to address the issue of mini sessions, how they can damage your business + brand.

Today I witnessed a gentlemen use the BS line that he wants to give back to his community so he is offering free 15 min mini sessions (sorry about being blunt but I call BS) I've seen it time and time again he is trying to get his name out and thinks he will find gold at the end of the rainbow, but the truth of the matter he is only hurting himself and others doing this.

I'm not saying mini sessions are all bad for example a quick mini session at a local fundraiser take a  quick picture and print free is giving back to the community with all proceeds going to the cause is great..

Let me break it down for you. If you're a professional photographer you know as well as I do you can't do a proper photo shoot in 15 min.

1.  Meeting the Mini session clients and introducing yourself (properly) 5 min.
2. getting the kids or family settled and placed for the first pose 5 min.
3. doing at least 3 poses another 5-10 min unless you don't care about closed eyes and your just going to hold the trigger down and hope for the best.
4. getting the clients information as in Email and documenting the file numbers so you remember the clients 5 min.
5. downloading the images of the camera and burning them to a DVD or CD 10 min that's without editing and if your offering professional Photos should they not be re touched? 

              So the best possible time is 30 min and in my opinion your offering less then a client deserves when you claim to be a professional photographer (Give them a professional Job if you claim to be a professional).

 If you want  to be known as a high-end professional photographer, the bottom line is that you're attracting the wrong type of clients with a mini session  like this.  you're  attracting bargain hunters that will not convert into regular clients.  Your mini sessions have to align with your business + brand or else they will kill your business.  At the end of the day, in this example, you spent all that time + effort on mini sessions to walk away with roughly $20 per client after expenses   And they aren’t going to come back and spend hundreds on products in the future.  Or become a cheerleader for your business.  In the end, is this worth it?  I think not.

I guess what I'm saying is if you offer mini sessions all the time when are you going to make real money customers are just going to wait for the 20 buck mini session and you will never be able to survive off of 20 dollar mini's, Add Value to your photography offer something nobody else is offering so your customers keep coming back.