Mini sessions are a favorite among many of my clients, especially those with younger kids. I am going to share with you how you can make the most of your mini session and make it enjoyable for you and your family. Check out these tips below for how you can make the most of your mini session.

Preparing For Your Mini Session

Whether you are celebrating a milestone, doing your yearly family portraits here is my guide to help make the most of your mini session experience.

• Make It Fun and Exciting: especially for younger kids who are shy or afraid of the camera, or never even had their photo taken professionally before. Use positive language and make it an exciting fun activity. Using language such as you have to smile or be good because it is setting the expectation that they won't like it. Instead, tell them that you are going to have a fun family day while someone takes your photos. The goal is to get authentic smiles and have fun. I will direct them to look at me if it is needed, but a lot of the time they will naturally look at the camera anyways.

• Pick Your Outfits: selecting outfits will impact how your photos will look, I highly recommend choosing clothes that are not distracting; such as no loud patterns, neon colors and clothes that you feel comfortable and confident in. I do recommend that you refer to my outfit guide to help you pick out clothes for your session. Pick coordinating outfits that aren't too matchy matchy, but compliment one another. Keep an eye out for logos as well, I'd recommend finding something that doesn't have a logo.

• Make Sure Everyone Eats: no one truly likes to do anything when hungry, I know that I don't! Make sure everyone is well feed and hydrated before the session (hydration is key for Summer sessions), make sure their teeth are brushed and wipe their faces! Bring extra wipes and tissues, sometimes little ones have runny noses and it's easy to keep tissues on hand to wipe their nose during the session.

• Be Early and Ready: especially for mini sessions, I recommend that you arrive early and not when or after your session starts. This makes the experience stressful not only on you but the kids as well, because they will feel rushed. Also for little ones in diapers this gives you time to change them if needed before your session starts, but if you arrive at your session time or later it does cut into your mini session time as I tend to sell out and book back to back.

• Give Little Ones Time To Get Acquainted: This is another reason why you should arrive early, if you know your little one needs time to warm up to a new spot; I highly recommend arriving early and just letting them explorer the spot and get comfortable.

• Most Importantly Have Fun: have fun and get silly, seriously I mean it! I promise you that you will laugh a lot and have fun! I am patient with you little ones, especially if they need a minute or two to run around after being in the car seat for a little bit. Plus, this is a new environment for them so if they are apt to explorer just let them. It's best to have what I call "exploration breaks" between photos so they can have an enjoyable experience.

By following this guide on how to make the most of your mini session, you can ensure that you will have a memorable experience and beautiful family photos. If you are looking to book a mini session; I typically host them a few times throughout the year, for early access to booking I recommend following me on Instagram and Facebook for my mini session announcements. If you have any further questions or would like to contact me tap/click the button below.