Family Picnic at the VMFA
“We actually don’t want to do a session at home this time.” I was surprised - of all the sessions I’ve done with this growing family since 2019 (two maternity sessions, two newborn sessions, two baptisms, and seven family sessions), only one family session was away from home. We’ve played in the front yard, the back yard, inside, on the back porch, and combinations of all of the above, as their family has grown from no kids to one baby to a baby and a toddler and to two toddlers. We’ve covered upstairs and downstairs and inside and outside.
So when Mom said she wanted something different this time, I understood. I sent her some location options that I thought would work for their family, and they chose the grounds at the VMFA, at 11am. 11am is not a typical photo time for outside photos - usually you’d want to pick something much earlier or much later in the morning for the best light.
But Mom had a plan - they wanted to have a picnic on the lawn at the VMFA, to make it special and different. I was thrilled. I’d wanted to do a picnic session for literal years. In fact, I had a woven reed picnic basket that I’d held onto for over ten years, hoping someone would want to do a picnic session. I just got rid of it last summer before we moved, as I gave up that dream. Irony.
So what did I do in order to meet the request of a mid-day photo session outside? I brought a flash. I popped a bit of extra light into our photos, not enough to make it look like I was using a flash, but enough to combat the shadows that you get at mid-day in bright sunshine. And we sat in the shade under the big oak trees on the lawn, to avoid the squints.
The actual, real challenge of having a picnic lunch session, is that in order to have the kids ready to eat at the beginning of the session, they have to arrive hungry. And there’s a very fine line between hungry and hangry. And once kids are hangry, they really very much do not want their photo taken.
But it’s fine. It’s fiiiiiiine. No, really, it was fine. Because hanger can be combated with food. And Dad packed so.much.good.food.
Fresh veggies and fruit, elaborate sandwiches on sourdough, tiny cheeses. He thought of everything. Including saving the juiciest, reddest strawberries for the end of the session, just in case there was spillage. (There was, because #toddlers, so good thinking, Dad.)
So they ate, and felt much better, and warmed up to me in the process. Then, between the lunch and the strawberries, we explored the grounds, checking out the reeds at the water and running up and down the hill in the sudden 90 degree heat we had in May. We ran and rolled and flopped in the grass, letting the kids expend their newly-attained energy. Then we finished up with the aforementioned strawberries back in the shade of the giant oaks.
Home sessions remain my favorite family sessions, for a variety of reasons. But if you’ve done six family sessions at home in the last four years, and need something different, a picnic lunch in an iconic Richmond location is the next best thing.
Not sure if a home session or a Richmond location session would be best for your family? I have a quiz for that. Take the quiz and decide for yourself!