Years ago a Santa session only used to be a quick fast, 5-minute session that was built on low prices and high volume mentality. But then came along the understanding that there could be more to this. Something deeply meaningful.
Think about it. Santa is the most magical thing to a child. The time of year is special as we decorate with wonderful lights, ornaments, a tree, and gifts. It’s the highlight of every child’s year, other than their birthday.
But instead of doing a fast mini-session (nothing wrong with that by the way), what if we created a session that gave the kids time to actually interact with Santa? Be entertained by Santa? Get to know Santa beyond a couple of – “what do you want for Christmas?” questions. Now we’re talking about something really special. Very unique.
There are a number of things to consider when doing the interactive Santa. First and foremost is time. Time is money. Time for the session and time for post-production work. The photographers that do this type of photography are photographing for a gorgeous storybook album. Yes, wall portraits can be sold from this also but the photography has to support an album telling a story.
So the photography has a great variety of images to be edited to help tell a story that will be assembled. Then in post-production, the album pages need to be created and special effects must be added to the images. Also, the words to the story need to be included on each page. This also takes time.
All this time must be calculated in order to help you understand how much you need to charge for this type of session and what type of sales average you are targeting. Once you have that figure in mind you have to determine if your market can support that type of price point.
But this is the type of session that is going to create a buzz in your community. You will create an experience and memories for families that will last a lifetime. Plus they will have a gorgeous album to show for it.
The key to a successful session is having an authentic Santa. A Santa who has experience. A real suit, the ability to interact with children, the whole 9 yards. You will also have to train your Santa how to pose tho. Besides entertaining the kids he has to know how to position his head to get the best image. The sort of photography you are doing is almost journalist. Santa is guiding the kids but you are quietly directing from the camera. Very few, if any of the images have the kids looking into the camera. Showing Santa a sample of the album after a test one is done will help him understand how he can help guide the story.
This takes practice. Your set needs to also be authentic. No Ikea-type furniture. This has to be a living room that can easily be transitioned to Santa’s real workshop. And any special effects like magic stars and dust coming out of Santa’s hand needs to be choreographed ahead of time so Santa knows what to do. There’s a lot of preparation that goes in ahead of time to make it successful as you can’t just tell Santa what to do each time.
It’s a labor of love and there are people like Chris Fritchie, McKinney, TX who specialize in this type of photography and teach it. I highly recommend you take his class. I’ve seen the albums from studios who have studied under him come thru Marathon and it’s really impressive. Check out his website here.
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