Fall 2026 Mini Sessions

All photos in above carousel from 2025 Fall mini sessions

This is my 16th year doing mini sessions. I've had the pleasure of working with so many amazing clients and their children year to year and creating the memories that each of those families will cherish forever. This gives me great pride and satisfaction. I even have one family who has done a Fall mini session with me every year since 2011!

Fall minis are a great opportunity to get beautiful family pictures for your holiday cards & gifts! Sessions are 25 minutes, for immediate family members only. Well-behaved dogs are welcome too. We will focus on getting an awesome family portrait and then capture playful shots of siblings together, etc. Other shots we can pursue, if time allows, include playful photos of the family together, parents together, individual portraits of the children, and even updated headshots for mom/dad...yes, we've done this!

I'm going to gatekeep some of my locations this Fall. We'll likely use a nature preserve just north of Durham for some sessions, which was gorgeous last year. Other locations I'll consider are River Park in Hillsborough, Coker Arboretum and a woodsy creekside location, both in Chapel Hill, and Little River Park in Rougemont, another new location from last year. For most of the dates, I'll make a location decision based on Fall color/foliage a couple of days before our session.

Soon after your session I'll send you a gallery of proofs so you can choose your favorite five (or more) images. After receiving your faves, I will tone your images nicely for color and exposure and hand retouch each photo (whitening teeth, removing skin blemishes, softening wrinkles, etc.). I will email you another link to a separate gallery with the finished hi-res images. Additional finished images are $25 ea. Buy three additional images, get 4th free. Please allow one-three weeks for finished images after you make your selections.

Choose from one of the time slots below and email me at [email protected] with your desired slot and an alternate time in case your first choice is taken. Also please include your cell phone # and family members' names and children's ages. I continually update my blog with the word HOLDING and your family name in the time slot.

I will email you the date/time I'm holding for your family and my mailing address to send the check. Session fee is due upon booking and is non-refundable, unless we have to cancel due to inclement weather or you have a sick family member. I'll follow up with more details one-two days before our session. Any rain dates will be scheduled Nov. 7 and/or 8, if needed. If you see a date with TBD and that's your first or only choice please email me - if there's enough interest for that date/timeblock I'll consider adding it.

Please inquire about a normal session for any of these reasons: you desire a more detail-oriented approach, have a specific background in mind, have multiple different shots/settings in mind, or have a child who takes awhile to warm up.

I'm looking forward to seeing your family soon! Thank you, Jared

3p HOLDING YAPUNCICH

3:30pm PAID ADAMS

4pm HOLDING DOUTHITT

4:30pm PAID MACK

5pm HOLDING WOOD

5:30pm PAID DUTKO

3:30pm OPEN

4pm HOLDING CATER

4:30pm HOLDING PABON-RAMOS

5pm PAID ARNOLD

5:30pm HOLDING BRADNEY

8:30am PAID RHODES

9am HOLDING DANUS

9:30am PAID LEE

10am HOLDING CLARKE

10:30am HOLDING COULSON

*All photos above taken at Blackwood Farm Park during fourth wkd. in Oct. am. The park doesn't have enough shade for me on a sunny day, but it's great for cloudy days. And the color is amazing earlier than other locations in the area.

I look forward to my Fall mini sessions every year because I've had the pleasure of working with so many of my amazing clients' and their children year to year and creating the memories that each of those families will cherish forever. This gives me great pride and satisfaction. One family has signed up for every one of my Fall minis since I started doing them 12 years ago. This Fall, I tried out a new location, Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill, and returned to an old favorite, West Point on the Eno in Durham. I did 27 Fall minis over six half days between mid-late October, including many sessions at River Park in Hillsborough. My families were thrilled with the wonderful moments and beautiful portraits we captured, and I was too.

Chelsea, a graduating senior headed to Carolina, was so chill and easy-going - we had a great shoot! We started out in the Coker Arboretum on UNC's campus, headed over to the Bell Tower and then hit the historic South Building. This whole time I was using a softbox, which I really like for creating soft, beautiful light on the face and using the late evening sun as an accent light. The Old Well was packed in late April/early May with graduates waiting to take pictures, so we didn't use that spot on this shoot, but there are countless picturesque locations on UNC's campus! We finished up with some natural light portraits and a reflector back at Coker.

I've been photographing this loving family in Durham for four years and always have a great time! We started out with a fresh headshot of Bradley and then created some beautiful family portraits in their front yard. We then fired off shots of their boys running while holding hands together. I won't say how many times it took to nail this shot. ;) Their backyard sits on the Eno River, which makes for nice, scenic backdrops. We did a quick trip this time, so we wouldn't tire out the kids and wrapped up with another family photo on the front porch.

The Cater family from Chapel Hill is so sweet - this is my fourth shoot with them! Like most of my shoots, I did a scouting trip before the session to find pretty settings, current blossoms, and figure out the ideal timeframe for our session based on the date of our shoot. A week before our session the arch in the Arboretum had really pretty lavender flowers, but these had withered away and the arch was now filled with gorgeous orange blossoms. I love the Spring in NC! We moved to another shady spot with pretty flowers for some more casual and candid shots. And then we finished up with quick headshot sessions of Sarah & Reid (at their request), while my 16-yr. old daughter who served as my assistant on this shoot, played with their girls.

Colin is an amazing young man headed to UNC on the prestigious Morehead-Cain scholarship. Colin lives in my neighborhood, Churton Grove, in Hillsborough, so it was important to him to do photos in both his hometown, as well as where he's going to college. I priced out an extended session that would allow us time to hit both areas in one late afternoon/evening, and of course, I scouted out locations ahead of time to map out our session.