Yes, this isn't click bait. I am really getting rid of the oh so popular mini session this year.
Here's why.
TLDR: I want to make deeper connections with my clients and photograph candid moments of you making genuine memories rather than have you participate in more rushed, time-crunched, sessions.
Many clients partake in Mini Sessions for various reasons. I’ve been told they are more affordable, their children have short attention spans so they like the quick in and out or simply because they just like the “themed” photograph trends.
Despite producing beautiful images from these sessions, I’ve realized that I’d much rather my clients remember our experience together as relaxed and memorable, than restricted or pressured. This is why last year I modified my full length sessions to 60-90 minutes because when we are connected and relaxed, time flies and it's in those galleries where I see my photography thrive.
And this, my friends, is why I chose to forgo the “Mini Session” this year.
Believe me when I say it SCARES me. But, it’s because it SCARES me that I know I’m ready to do this!
I hope that by offering more unique sessions I will still hold on to many dear clients who value the experience of working together under no pressure. I also hope that I will meet new clients who value my vision and will admire the way I look for creative ways to make their memories more memorable.
Changing the way you reminisce about your session is my ultimate goal this year!
With that being said, I am in NO WAY shaming Mini Sessions. I’ve done them for years and I think they are a fun quick way to get some lovely updated portraits. But, I’m ready to make deeper connections with my clients and I’m confident that this is the way forward for Tall Oaks Photography.
Below are the new sessions I will be offering this year and bookings are open. I hope you like them as much as I do!
The Wild Ones of Summer
Join me and others as we explore in nature together as a group. I’ve created this experience to allow your children to be wild and free as I document their unique personalities without the pressure of a time limit. I will motivate them to explore their surroundings through touch, site and smell. I will encourage them to follow their curiosity as they wander through a beautiful private property with a running creek. I will encourage play, imagination and submersing themselves (and their toes) into gorgeous Mother Earth. They can stop to smell the flowers. They can squish their wriggly toes in the mud. They can create pictures on canvas or weave together a craft with the items we find in nature.
Allow yourself two hours to join in on this connected experience with Mother Nature all the while documenting the incredible joy it is to be a curious young creature of the earth. Parents can decide to join in on the adventures/photographs or take a step back and absorb watching as their children be children.
Gallery Delivery: 10+ images via a private online gallery
(you chose your top 10 images from a Proof Gallery and additional photos may be purchased)
Session Length: 2 hours approximately
Session Fee: $200 plus tax {1 parent + up to 2 children} {additional members + $15}
Dates: May 18th / Rain Date: May 19th or June 2nd {weather depending}
Autumn Sessions
During the Fall Season, I will be offering weekday evening sessions. These sessions are intended to replace the rushed “Fall Minis” and instead are lengthened to 45 minutes. Time slots are from 4:00-5:00, 4:30-5:30, 5:00-6:00, 5:30-6:30 p.m. or 6:00-7:00 p.m. during the week. The location will be discussed beforehand and the session will be focused on documenting love and laughter with the beautiful fall color backdrops.
Gallery Delivery: 30+ images via a private online gallery
Session Length: 45 minutes
Session Fee: $275 plus tax {family of 5} {additional members + $20}
Dates: Mid September to October
Holiday Tradition Sessions
The home is where traditions are passed on and new ones are created. So this year, instead of popping into my studio to document smiles for the Holiday Card, I’m asking for a personal invite into your Holiday Tradition(s). Does your family create a gingerbread house every year or do Holiday Baking? Do you wait for the first snow to decorate your home inside our out? Do you go and pick your own Pine Tree at your local tree farm? Do you have a pajama and movie day after setting up your Christmas Tree? Whatever your Holiday Traditions may be, this is the year to get it documented!
I assure you that we will also document the smiles for your Holiday Card tradition, but you may be surprised that the picture you chose may not be the one smiling at the camera. It may be the one where Dad got spattered with icing as Mom and kids laugh in the foreground. It may be the one where the tree’s been cut and the kids are cheering on with glee. It could even be the one where you’re outside building a snowman together or sipping hot cocoa to warm-up afterwards.
This year I chose to have my Holiday clients feel relaxed and bask in the true joy of the season while I document the Tradition(s) that will continue to be passed on through the generations.
Gallery Delivery: 40+ images via a private online gallery + USB
Session Length: 1-1.5 hours
Session Fee: $375 plus tax {family of 5} {additional members + $20}
Dates: November-December
Adventure Sessions
I am all about exploring! Whether it's new areas to hike, beaches to swim at, museums to explore, summer cottages or family camping trips. A wonderful way to create memories while holding onto them through photographs is by going on an adventure together. Invite me on your adventure and let’s document more than just smiling faces!
This session is not a timed session; therefore there is no time-limit. It can be from the waking hours of the morning as your family gets ready for the trip that day; packing lunches/snacks, the car ride, stopping for gas, the experience of the hike/museum/zoo. It can be arriving at your family cottage, settling in for the day, tubing behind the boat, lunching on the dock, roasting marshmallows by the evening fire.
Gallery Delivery: 60+ images via a private online gallery + USB
Session Length: 3+ hours
Session Fee: $475 plus tax {family of 5} {additional members + $20}
Dates: January-September
Heirloom Sessions
Our memories are often recalled by telling stories of the past through conversation, reading journals or letters from friends/family and more often than not, they are recalled through the photographs we take. Our current world thrives on photography. We have the privilege of documenting each and every milestone as our camera {aka phone} is constantly at our fingertips. But how often do we look back on those digital moments and how many moments are lost when they are sitting in thousands of photographs piled together on the “cloud” or on hard-drives?
This is why I’ve created Heirloom Sessions and let me explain how these work. This is a session that focus’ on a reflection of time; whether it be a special event such as your parents 50th Wedding Anniversary, a milestone Birthday, moving into a new home, a camping trip or visit to the cottage. The session is emotionally meaningful and is intended to be a reminder of this chapter in your story.
Heirloom, in its definition, is a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations. Although photograph albums may seem “old school” or out-dated, I am bringing them back and not in the Photobook Online Ordering kind of way (don’t get me wrong, I love and own several myself) but in the true manner of purchasing a vintage album, developing the photographs, and physically placing in each and every memory from our session together.
Growing up and still to this day, I love visiting family and pulling out their albums. I love asking questions about who is who in the older photographs that I do not recognize and I love the stories it brings up when we do so. When I look through these, I feel joy and I see moments in time that help re-tell the stories of my family members lives.
This will be a tangible heirloom that you can hold in your hands and which can also be passed down to future generations. It is a way to support locally owned print shops shop. The albums are sourced through local and far away thrift shops and are chosen to reflect your home décor/style of session taken place.
Gallery Delivery: 70+ via private online gallery, Vintage Photo Album + USB
Session Length: 3+ Hours
Session Fee: $575 plus tax* {family of 5} {quotes will be prepared for events/celebrations}
Dates: January-September
*Payment Instalment Plans are available for this session.
Nostalgic Home Sessions
Home is where we are nurtured. It’s where lessons are learned, where we feel safe, secure and it is where we grow. The reason why your home is a wonderful place for a session, whether it’s your temporary home or forever home, is because of your belongings in the background. They will be the things that transport you back in time. That patio door that creaks, the bookshelf filled with treasured stories you’ve read, the dining room table that was home to family meals, board game nights and craft sessions. It is in those small details in the background where you retrace your memories.
This session isn’t just for families though. You can be a single person in the early chapters of your life, going to school, working to fulfil your dream. You can be a couple who’s decided that the only family you desire is that of which consists of you and your partner (and possibly a fur babe or two!) You can be a couple who is striving for your own family dealing with much hardship. In the end, your home is still your safe space; a place to be nurtured. A place to be remembered.
Home sessions can also be an afternoon adventuring your home town and the “mundane” tasks of errands; the singing in the car, the grocery cart rides, the tiny hands grasping at anything that comes close to them, the tantrum after saying ‘NO’ for the 100th time down the toy aisle; the dinner preparation, the bedtime rituals. It’s not often we document those “mundane” moments, yet they are the ones we live through day in and day out, the ones that make up the mortar to our story brick walls, so why not also get them documented?
Gallery Delivery: 40+ via private online gallery + USB
Session Length: 2 Hours
Session Fee: $375 plus tax {family of 5} {additional members + $20}
Dates: January-September
*Heirloom Photograph Album May be added to this package
