As I enter my 10th full season of my 5 Minute Mini Sessions, and with the intent to blog/share a lot more this year, I thought it would be fun to take a little trip down memory lane because the last 10 years have been an incredible time. I’ve captured babies & toddlers grow into teenagers, so many extended families who I feel like I could be a part of every one, new babies, new puppies, and also hugging and supporting dear ones who have lost the loves of their lives, more than I can count. It’s been an absolute honor my friends, to capture it all.
It started out as a very limited run of 5 minute mini sessions in September of 2014 as a fundraiser for my trip to Seoul, South Korea to learn about their NICU care there. I had this little nugget of an idea that we could do a quick micro session and still capture a handful of adorable photos. Sharing just a few, but these families still come see me every year, which I treasure so much.
In 2015 I brought the idea back in my busy Fall rush as an experiment to see if there was still any interest in these quick little sessions. I didn’t have much time to offer them but I still had a great turn out!
Then in 2016, I told my husband I had this “crazy” idea of what if I focused solely on these 5 minute micro sessions, could it be something. In all my years in business, it was always the first 5 minutes that we got the best out of kids (and husbands), so I thought, “Well, why not?”
That first season in 2016, I photographed 263 regular 5 minute mini sessions and 35 very short ones for a charity fundraiser I did in front of a mural. It was definitely something people were excited about and worked out so well for me being able to streamline sessions so well.
2016 was also the only year I did a mini session tour at Kauffman Stadium. I booked a tour that had us walking around to all the cool photo spots around the stadium to get family photos, including the 2015 World Cup, the dug out, and the press room. It was a bigger time commitment for families as we all had to stick together over the 90 minutes in the stadium but we got great images and had a lot of fun!
And some fun at the Kansas City I’m So In Love mural doing a fundraiser! (It’s since been painted over at this location but the artist painted it similarly somewhere else downtown)
The vineyard was another one we tried that year, though it really proved challenging to work with the very fast changing sunlight being that it faced south. I have thought about doing a couples only mini session run at a vineyard again, though I just need to find one I can work within the operating hours. It’s tricky!
And just some assorted from the year, all these kiddos have grown SO much! Sunflowers were great that year, Unity Village was a gem (though they charge now to shoot there, which if I did a location there again it would be a small upcharge to cover the cost), and I sure loved that wooden bridge in Shawnee Mission Park (sadly gone now and concreted over).
And it was the first year we started our traditional holiday photos at Union Station in December when it got too cold to shoot outside. A tradition I treasured every year until they made it near impossible in 2023 by locking the upper gallery for the first time during the holiday season, not to mention the crowds are just bonkers these days. Broke my heart.
9 seasons later in 2024, my total mini sessions came in at 521 + assorted portrait sessions. Since 2018, after 3 seasons of getting the word out, I now photograph 500 families a year, because as it turns out, the “Why not?” was a big hit.
Thank you all for spreading the word, enjoying our crazy fast but crazy fun sessions, and coming back year after year. I’m really excited for this 10th season with some great plans in the works!
P.S. This year I’ve launched my exclusive Senior portrait website over at www.jessicastrom.net, the mini sessions are still going strong as always but I’m excited to expand into the Senior space! Please consider working with me for this very special milestone!