So I'm pretty new to the industry and I got comfortable enough to offer Holiday Minis in my area. I did two dates, each mini was $100 (Extremely reasonable given that other photographers in my area were offering the same thing for $250+ but I kept my price low because I'm not as experienced and have never offered mini sessions) and I only got 3 bookings total.
Anyway, first shoot was amazing! The kid was a little tough but parents were SUPER involved in getting him to laugh, they were shocked I got photos of them with their kid at all as the goal of the shoot was just to get updated holiday photos of the kid for family. Second shoot doesn't go as well, the kid is about 2 and the parents do not care at all what he does. He un-decorates my tree which I tried to just work with and take pics as though he was decorating it, ultimately the pics weren't great but he wasn't having it and the parents didn't seem to care or want to control their child.
This brings me to my worst client and the one that has me questioning what to do. Family of 4, mom is ready, dad clearly doesn't want to be there, 3 month old and 2 year old. I took a total of 340 pictures, I extended my 15 minute window in a desperate attempt to get one good photo. By photo 45 the 2 year old had knocked over my entire Christmas tree TWICE and I removed it from the shoot. The mom and I were doing everything we could think of to get this kid involved in the shoot. I sang songs, I encouraged her to show me the plastic ornaments, to show them to her parents, to find the pinecones I hid in one of the gift bags, I tried to just take photos of her wandering, I tried to tell her to tickle her mom, kiss baby sister, give dad a big hug, etc. She wasn't fucking having it and the dad was ZERO help. Just sat there looking miserable the whole time. Of the 340 original images, I have 2 good ones. The rest are blurry, look SUPER disorganized, only have one person looking, or just overall look bad.
WHAT do I do? Do I offer a refund? Do I offer a reshoot? I didn't make hardly any money off these shoots as it is, and I truly don't want to work with these people again. But I also feel REALLY bad for the mom because it seemed like she desperately wanted a good photo of her family! What on earth do I do?
Alright folks are being real jerks and calling it tough love. I’m just gonna give you actual tough love that’s useful and not shitting on you. I’m a family photographer and I specialize in candids. If you want to see me work I have the link on my Reddit profile.
First: minis are like the boss level of a dungeon crawler. You have 15-30 minutes to get great photos of strangers. That’s hard. In a normal hour session, I need the first 15 just to get to know my subject and get them comfortable with me and the camera (especially if they haven’t had photos done before). So while I respect your effort in this one, I’d say instead maybe try offering like holiday specials, do 45 minutes for $150. They don’t make as much money compared to the 15 minute minis you were doing but they raise your chance for repeat clients because you have more time.
Second: I keep seeing a lot of folks talking about how you need and assistant for family photos, especially with little ones. I can confidently say, no you do not. I am a family photographer and I work alone. My family photos have won awards and the oldest child I’ve photographed is 5 years old. The key is communication with the parents. Put it in your contract and also discuss either them that they will wrangle the little one but you will engage with the kid to help entertain. You and the parents or adults are a team and you expect that team work will make that magic happen. So I have parents bring a toy, both ones the kids love and an aesthetic one if they’d prefer. I tell the parents I don’t mind if the kid plays in the grass if they don’t. I make sure the parents that hire me know I’m not there to get super posed photos, I’m there to get photos of their family, as it is. So if baby Tommy likes to eat dirt, then I guess we will have photos of that because I make it clear I will not be telling the children no or disciplining unless they are risking their well being.
Third: I understand why you took 360 photos in 15 minutes but I’m telling you, it’ll serve you much better to take less photos and slow down. I take about 250 photos in a one hour session with a family of four. You have to at some point trust that you can get the shot. Its hard to practice this without kids so I recommend either photographing pets or animals. They aren’t the same but they move similar to children which is unpredictable. Figure out how to master your autofocus or get quick at manually focusing. I personally don’t like autofocus, I prefer manually focusing. That’s just me! Something that can help you take less photos but more that you like overall, give yourself prompts to photograph and then only let yourself take one photo of the thing your photographing. This is a personal time project rather than a client one. Basically the goal is to slow down, compose the shot, and get rid of “will there has to be at least one good one in there.” Throw away the idea that the camera took a good photo. You are the photographer, you take the good photo.
Fourth: to get more families to practice with, while also not discrediting yourself, offer a special. This is going to be controversial but this is what I did and it helped a ton. Do a special like “everyone that books with me now through next week for the month of January will be entered to receive their session entirely free” or “I have three slots available in December for any families who are willing to allow me to experiment with some new concepts. The session cost is on me as a thank you for your participation.” Both of these allow you to get clients you can practice with and they remove the performance anxiety of being paid. They also don’t undervalue your work. I never offer discounts. Ever. No 50% off, no 10% off. It’s either full price or it’s free. I’m not on sale. I can gift my time but I will not discount it. There’s a huge difference in the two.
Fifth: I know it’s frustrating for us when the parents just don’t give a fuck but imagine how awful that lady felt with her husband for basically being a lump on a log while she wrangled the kid for photos. Like absolutely you’re allowed to be frustrated, not discrediting that! Also perspective usually helps me calm down.
Okay finally: what do you do about the photos for this particular client. Either let her know you only got a few you liked and you’d like to offer her a redo session for free, or find five in the 360 you took. The kid doesn’t have to be smiling or looking at you. Try to look at the photos as if it was your own kid if you need to in order to see the cutest moments or something. Even if you don’t want them as return clients, they tell friends and if they are sending the Christmas card out, imagine that that someone might ask who took the photos. So do what you need to do in order to feel proud of yourself or maintain your sense of integrity.
Sorry that was a novel. I just hate bullies and people who shit on new folks. Photography is my absolute passion and I’m a more the merrier kind of person.
This is very good advice and well said.
Thanks!