Doug reached out to me back in March. He was hoping to do an extended family session with his family, his sister’s family, and his parents while they were all in town from up north. They wanted to shoot at Brookside Gardens, and for good reason. I used to shoot at Brookside Gardens quite a lot many, many years ago during the Groupon days, but as the location became more and more popular with photographers (and novice photographers in particular who don’t yet know how to behave themselves), they eventually introduced a permitting process, and then later a permitting fee.
With a lot of alternative options out there, the permitting fee naturally cut down on the demand, and I don’t find myself there quite as often. As frustrating as the change in policy was at the time, one could hardly blame them. Brookside Gardens is one of the region’s most beautiful, well-maintained, and varied parks. Photography sessions can have a disproportionate impact on the upkeep of the park and the experience of the park by other visitors. It’s really only gotten nicer since the changes, and honestly, my less frequent trips help me to personally appreciate the space so much more.
I talked through the permit and the fee with Doug initially, and we did explore some alternatives just so that they could get a sense of what was around. With the special-occasion nature of the session though, the fee and the permit hoops were well worth the extra effort. We scheduled our session for a beautiful day in April when we would be gambling a little bit with the rain but could be pretty sure the park would be in vibrant bloom.
As usual, we met outside the visitors’ center. I first ran into Doug’s parents—a quintessentially mom-and-dad couple, covered in smiles and jokes, and obviously thrilled to be out in nature with the grandkids. Then Doug’s sister, followed by her husband, marching up from the car with their toddler. Doug’s wife and two almost-teenage children were also milling about. We spent a few minutes chatting and getting to know each other a little bit until Doug emerged a couple of minutes later from the visitors’ center with the permit he’d reserved a few weeks earlier.
We opted to hold our session in one of the last official slots of the day, both for the sake of the early evening light and because the last time slot of the day affords a little extra time, which I anticipated we would want to use with a group this size. After a few minutes addressing the family, going over our plan, priorities, and expectations for our shoot, we headed straight into the gardens, following the southern footpath which forks either toward either the Rose Garden or the Japanese Tea House.
We stopped for our first shot with the whole extended family barely 50 paces down the path—this was one of our top priorities for the day, and something we would want to focus on before the toddler started to break down. I arranged everyone on one of the big rocks. The family was perfectly coordinated in blues, greys, whites, and pops of color here and there. So, matching, but not matching matching. The light was a little spotty, with slightly thicker cloud cover than would have been ideal, but when arranging things with sky obstructions behind them, and wide open sky behind the camera, the lighting conditions were close to perfect.
Everyone was feeling good and having a good time together, so we took the fork in the path to the left, which leads towards the Camellia Garden—an area of winding mulch paths that move beneath a fairly dense canopy. We stopped here for shots of Doug’s sister’s family playing with their toddler, and then a shot of Doug’s daughter sitting and reacting on a bench, being an all-around champ playing along and following instructions.
Our lighting conditions under the canopy were trickier, but we found nice pockets of light that would minimize the shadows under the eyes from the overhead light. Although the Camellia Garden is beautiful in real life, it’s challenging for a portrait, so we headed out without spending much more time there.
We soon came across a tree covered in lush white blooms, which I used for a pseudo-abstract shot of Doug’s family together. From there, we headed south toward the reflecting terrace where I got a few shots of Doug’s son giving his very best impression of someone who didn’t hate having his picture taken, and doing a pretty good job at it too. The brother and sister acquiesced to a photograph together, which involved almost no violence at all. While we were there, I also pulled Doug’s mom and dad together for a quick romantic shot, the likes of which they probably haven’t seen since their wedding day.
The reflecting terrace offered a lot to work with, and the light bouncing off the light grey stone was good for photos. We captured a cute photo of Doug’s nephew and his brother-in-law holding him. This kid wasn’t so sure about the camera, but he was steadily starting to warm up. Before we wandered off the terrace, I put together shots of Doug’s family and his sister’s family, each with their parents. I used the same red maple tree for both, but from different directions.
We walked across the tiny stone bridge toward the Japanese Tea House where we stopped for photos with Doug and his wife, and a photo of Doug’s mom at the sly request of her husband. We used the same bright pink azalea bush for both of them. We walked our way through the Tea Garden and found another good spot for a shot of Doug’s children together. I realized behind me that Doug’s mom was playing a game of peekaboo with her youngest grandchild, and I quickly stopped what I was doing to spin around and shoot that because he was finally all smiles.
We continued making a lap around the Tea House garden and found a nice, brightly colored spot for Doug’s sister and brother-in-law. Not wanting to spend too much time at the Tea House, we looped back around toward the reflecting terrace again, this time along the paved path which runs along the east side of the park. I found a nice little spot for another shot of Doug’s daughter, with a ton of personality, among some pink and white flowers.
As we continued onward, we used a small grass clearing for a dramatic black-and-white shot of the family walking toward the camera. At this point, it had been more than an hour, and it was clear that the patience with the experience was starting to dry up among our youngest participants. We moved back through the reflecting terrace and put together one more shot there. This time I arranged the full family around the rocks that were lying low by the pond. I hurried around to the other side for a dramatic shot across the water with the longest lens I had on me at the time.
From there, we were beginning to wrap up but went through the Fragrance Garden where we did a shot of the grandparents and their grandchildren with the purple and white poppies—their grandmother’s favorite flower—in the foreground. We found a very nice spot beneath the hanging wisteria and cycled through a few nice-to-have groups before coming to a close just outside the Rose Garden beneath a big red maple.
We did one more shot of the whole group, as well as shots of Doug and his kids alone, and his wife and kids alone. As we wandered out of the park, I did one last shot of the youngest with a decorative sunflower sculpture behind his head while he looked on with a quintessential disinterested toddler expression. He had used up all the smiles on peekaboo.
I felt good about this session as I pulled away. We covered a lot of ground and took a lot of different kinds of photos, and visiting Brookside again was as rewarding as ever. This session was a great example of how, when the pieces come together—light, location, and family—we can make a lot of great images in a very short time. This was one session, but we covered ground like it was three, and I love how these turned out.
Check out some of my favorites from the shoot!
