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?
As a portrait photographer of 10+ years I would not offer 15min sessions. What a nightmare! My number 1 priority is making sure my clients are comfortable and relaxed and with some people that can take 30mins.I also do makeup and hairstyling, so that aids in setting the atmosphere and getting people to relax. I do wonder what the motivation for newbies to do minis is. It seems that you do not feel confident in your craft and thus you need to charge as little as possible.
Photography is important and should be highly regarded - That starts with photographera themselves. It's not fast food. You are capturing and documenting people's lives, moment, milestones and creating images to cherish.
Here's a tip, photograph friends until you feel like you should charge properly. Offer a mini shoot session to a group of friends and their kids on the proviso that they share and recommend you. Gather Google reviews etc. Get good at your craft! I'm much more a fan of newbies shooting for free rather than undercutting my profession. Also mini sessions undercut you. My sessions don't include any prints and my prints start at $200. I'm not even the most expensive, but I know my worth.
Here's the thing if you compete on price and discount your services you will attract complainers.
Your prices should be worked out based on what you need and want to make in a year, not by looking at what everyone else in your area charges and then undercutting because you don't think you are as good. Photographers need to stop doing that because at the end of the day, it's not real or sustainable. I guarantee those other photographer did the exact same thing with their pricing.
So offer them a reshoot AND give their money back. Make sure you win them over and they walk away living the experience and the photos. Don't set a timer, be there for as long as it takes. Connect with husband, he obviously felt uncomfortable. Make everyone smile and also don't forget how very important it is that the mother is present in the photo. So many women are invisible as they aew always the ones taking the pictures of the kids with dad. What an incredible opportunity to learn!! Good luck!