The task that is holiday mini session planning begins long before the holiday season. While we’re still enjoying baseball and beach weather, I’m thinking of holiday mini sessions. I used to be that person who wasn’t fond of retailers starting to fill their shelves with glitter and gold goodies in September but to be honest, pre-holiday shopping is very much necessary in the photography industry. Decorations, themes, and colors are all considerations in planning for these special sessions.
If you would believe it, I get inquiries all year round about my holiday sessions. I’m still amazed that my clients, even now, bring up my rustic truck sessions from years’ past. It is a challenge to come up with something that will be appealing to everyone so this year, I posted a poll on my page simply to get feedback about whether outdoor or indoor sessions were most wanted. The overwhelming response was that outdoors was preferred and so began my tribulations with dates, weather concerns, lighting, location, and how many sessions I would book. Last year, we got rained out on the second day of shooting and then on the night before the reschedule date, it snowed AND the park where I was shooting placed a LARGE sand pile RIGHT in the spot where I had been setting up! Ugh! I was determined not to fight Mother Nature AND the Hunterdon County Park system this year!
So, this year, I decided to go the route of a tree farm. I wanted to stay in my rustic theme (after all, this IS Hunterdon County, NJ!) and find a photographer friendly farm where I could be comfortable. After touring several tree farms, I visited a special little place called The Farm where I met Karen and her family. She was lovely and welcoming right from the start and I knew my clients would love this spot! She graciously allowed me to visit multiple times to check out the lighting, find the perfect little nooks to shoot and do a mockup. Thankfully also during this process, I had a wonderful friend helping me all along the way. Things kinda get a little crazy with holiday mini session planning and Rosy had helped me last year so she knew what she was in for this year! LOL. I really couldn’t have done it without the warm welcome from Karen and the overwhelming amount of trust and confidence I put in Rosy to help me make my vision come to fruition. Thank you so much ladies!!
I chose to shoot in early October this year as warmer weather is always more conducive to having smiling children! 🙂 Our days couldn’t have been more perfect and things went so smoothly, I had to pinch myself. I truly enjoyed myself, photographing both new and returning clients and keeping things a bit more intimate with less sessions this year. The star tent was the main prop this year and the kids had so much fun hiding in it, running around it, throwing ornaments in and out of it…that’s exactly what you want for playful photos. And I couldn’t have been happier with the star garland and the decorated trees. Rosy and I were very particular about the decorations we chose so that there was a perfect balance between rustic and sparkle. The backdrop of the farm and the red barn were also the perfect compliment to my rustic theme. It all tied in together so nicely and allowed the kids to explore a little bit (and interact with the VERY friendly farm cat that wanted his picture taken too! LOL). I couldn’t have been happier with how it all came together.
Here is a collection of some of my favorites. Of course, there were SO many more that I loved because all of these children were just so sweet. You can only imagine my excitement when the Christmas cards started rolling in. EVERY client sent me one and each one brought a smile to my face. Receiving holiday cards in the mail is definitely one of my favorite parts of the season! I hope everyone had a very merry holiday!