mother's day mini sessions 2026

 

Saturday, May 9th,

MORCOM ROSE GARDEN, OAKLAND

I bet that Mom wants beautiful photos of her family more than anything else, this Mother's Day. The Morcom Rose Garden in Oakland is in bloom and looks beautiful, making it the perfect backdrop. Think of it as a two-for-one, photos and flowers that last forever ;)

 

This shoot is to celebrate mom. We will spend half the time taking photos of just mom and the kids, and the other half taking photos of the whole family together.

 

What you'll get:

  • 15 minutes of photography
  • 15-20 photos
  • An online gallery for sharing
  • A digital download of high-resolution photos edited in Manali's artistic style

$300

Family photo by Oakland, CA family photographer

Hi, I'm Manali

If we haven't met yet, I'm Manali and I'll make sure you feel comfortable in front of the camera.

 

Get ready to have a good time and get some beautiful natural and candid photos. Hope to see you soon!

 

Don't miss my pointers below on how to dress for your shoot. Keep scrolling!

How to dress for your photo session

It can be hard to plan outfits for a whole family, or even just two people. Here are some tips.

 

Start with one person's outfit and see if you can find complementary colors or neutral colors to go along with the first outfit. The clothing should also be a similar amount of formal or casual -- or right in the middle of formal and casual. Everyone should be striking a similar note.

 

Be careful with patterns! When incorporating a pattern into the whole ensemble only one person should wear a pattern. A dress with big black and white flowers reads as more busy than a black dress with small blue or brown flowers scattered about.

 

This family did a great job. They chose blues and khaki as two complementary colors. They also struck a great tone in the middle of casual and formal. They look like they are going to a nice picnic and no outfit overpowers another. They do have two folks in patterns but the little girls' beige and white dress is very subtle since those colors combined have low contrast. Just imagine if the beige were black instead, that would be much higher contrast and it might overpower the other outfits.

Here is another example of people coordinating their outfits well. They both look dressed up like they are about to go out for a nice dinner together, but they don't look so formal that they look like they are about to attend a symphony gala.

 

This couple also chose blues and neutrals. Her dress has a subtle pattern between the baby blue floral motif and white. His solid blue shirt in the same hue goes very well with her dress. He could have also chosen a grey, black or white shirt and that would have gone well too.

 

The colors don't have to match between the two outfits though you should pay attention to the tone of colors. Some greys are very warm toned, like they almost look green or brown, and some are cool toned. If he were to choose grey, a light cool toned grey would work with her cool toned dress.

 

Other outfits he could have chosen would be a grey shirt with the black pants in the photo or navy pants, or a white shirt with linen khaki colored pants. Both of those outfits are low to medium contrast which strikes a good balance with her look. I wouldn't recommend having him in a white shirt and those dark black pants. It's literally too black and white and tends to look like you're going to work which wouldn't feel relaxed enough.

 

Hope these examples of how to dress for your session help!