People ask me this question ALL the time – and these guys are a great example of the difference. I met these three that really hot first weekend in June at the Boston Public Garden for a full photoshoot. Their parents were there, in the background, but they asked that we do pictures of just the kids. So this is a great example of a full, kids-only photoshoot in the same location where I normally do minis (see lots of examples of minishoots in the Public Garden at this link), so you can really get a sense of the differences.
For me, minishoots are 20 minutes, and full shoots are between 45 minutes and an hour. So obviously the difference is primarily time. But what does time equate to, in terms of my photography? There are a few ways to answer the question, but really it comes down to variety, spontaneity and flexibility. When we have the full 45-60 minutes to work with, we can do things like…
Get that good old fashioned great shot of all three looking in the same direction and smiling (of course)…
But we can also take our shoes off and show off our dirty toes…
We can explore parts of the Boston Public Garden that we can’t get to when we just have 20 minutes in a minishoot…
We can strangle sisters on the Make Way for Ducklings statues (with minis we’re usually rushing away from these statues – with a full shoot we have more time to play and be silly)…
And get overheated, so mom has to dump her water bottle on our heads…
And get annoyed when mom dumps water on big brother’s head instead…
Take the time to play, and just generally do all the fun, different stuff that the kids want to do…
And just be all wet and crazy – who cares?
We can even wander around holding sticks:
So I guess what it comes down to is, by necessity my minishoots are spent working to get those standard shots parents like to have – the kids together, the kids alone, the kids with each parent… but with a full shoot we have time to be creative and just play. Not to knock minishoots – they’re perfect for what they are – but they’re less expensive than my full shoots for a reason.
Does that help explain the difference?
