Why I’m Stepping Away From Themed Mini Sessions
This one is hard for me to write because if you know me, you know I love creating. I love dreaming up fun setups, hunting for props, building little worlds in the studio, and giving families something different throughout the year without the price tag of a full session. Minis were never just “quick money” to me. Honestly, most of the time they were the opposite.
The reality is this industry is expensive. Painfully expensive. Cameras, lenses, lighting, backdrops, props, studio rent, editing programs, websites, insurance, taxes, advertising, flooring, furniture, storage, packaging, gallery systems… it never stops. And when you’re the photographer who built everything from the ground up without financial help, you feel every single dollar that goes into it.
A lot of photographers understand exactly what I mean. Some of us saved for years to buy our first real camera. Then saved again for that dream lens. Then upgraded lights one piece at a time. Some of us built our businesses little by little while praying each booking would help carry us into the next month. That kind of struggle changes you. It makes you grateful. It makes you work harder. And honestly, it gives you a deeper respect for this career.
Living in a small town adds another layer to it. Small-town photography is tough. There are only so many clients, so many weekends, so much demand, and trying to market outside your area can feel nearly impossible sometimes. You put your heart, time, and money into creating something beautiful and affordable for families… and sometimes the bookings just don’t come.
That’s the hardest part people don’t see.
Themed minis take weeks of planning, buying, building, setting up, tearing down, advertising, cleaning, and editing. When they don’t fill, it becomes financially impossible to keep doing them — no matter how much you love them. I think what made this decision hardest is that I truly tried to keep these affordable. Most of my themed mini sessions were around $200 for 10–15 images, while my regular family sessions start at $300 for a very similar amount of shooting time and include 12 digital images.
When you look at it that way, the minis really were a pretty big deal for families. But when those sessions still don’t fill, it becomes hard to justify continuing to pour money into props, backdrops, advertising, setup, teardown, and all the work behind the scenes.
So unfortunately, the reality is this: if people wait too long to support the discounted sessions, eventually the discounted sessions disappear. So for now, I’m stepping away from most themed mini sessions.
Will they disappear forever? Probably not. I know myself too well. I’ll likely still throw together a random spur-of-the-moment mini when creativity hits, and I’ll still focus on my fall and Christmas sessions because I truly enjoy those. But the constant themed setups throughout the year are something I simply can’t continue investing into right now.
And to the photographers reading this — especially the ones quietly struggling — I see you.
I see the photographers questioning whether they’re good enough. The ones comparing themselves constantly. The ones trying to grow in oversaturated markets. The ones exhausted from social media. The ones who feel alone because this industry can be incredibly competitive and honestly… sometimes unkind.
I never want to be that kind of photographer.
If you ever need somebody to talk to, vent to, ask questions to, sit in the studio with, or just exist around someone who understands this industry without judgment — my door is open. I will never make another photographer feel small just to make myself feel bigger. There’s enough of that already.
At the end of the day, most of us started this because we loved creating something meaningful. I hope we never lose that part.
