If you've booked a photo session, and you are starting to think about location choices, this is the blog series for you!
Last week, I started a series highlighting my top requested and favorite locations in Central Illinois for photo sessions. My first blog introduced each locations with a brief descriptions and highlighted key factors on whether that location might be a good fit for you. You can check it out here!
Now to continue the series, I am going to dive into some of those locations in depth, showing you exactly what each has to offer.
Exploring Centennial Park, Springfield, IL
Centennial Park is absolutely beautiful and has so much to offer throughout the whole park. Whether you want a pond, hilltop photos, trail, trees, wildflowers, or an urban skateboard setting this park in Springfield, IL has you covered.
Wildflowers
In the summer and early fall, the wildflowers at Centennial are at their peak for blooming, and it is a beautiful spot for photos. Past Centennial Park's dog park is a large strip of wildflowers where you can surround yourself with or stand in front of to get a colorful, beautiful background.
Clearings
Another layer to the wildflowers is behind the patch is a grass clearing between the flowers and trees. This is a great area for family pictures to have trees and flowers on both sides of you, "framing" your family. Having the clearing adds dimension and draws attention to your family.
Trees and Nature
You will also find a variety of trees throughout Centennial Park which is another great touch to the popular photo choice location. Whether you want trees planted in a line together, a large tree in the background or to be surrounded by a tree-line, you will find it here. Trees are a great way to add depth and variety to your gallery because leaves have different shades of color, while keeping the focus on you!
Sangamon Valley Trail
The Sangamon Valley Trail in Springfield, IL is a 38-mile trail that starts/ends at Centennial Park. The trail is accessible near the bill hill and also by the wildflower fields. This is a very pretty section to add a paved sidewalk surrounded by trees for your gallery. One of the best parts about this park and this section of the park is everything is very close together. Which means when you choose Centennial Park, you will be able to get pictures with wildflower fields, grass clearings, trees, AND with the trail with a 60-minute session.
Pond
If you want to add a more "peaceful" addition to your gallery with some water, Centennial Park in Springfield has a large pond! In addition to the great spots to get pictures in front of the pond, there are little grass areas surrounded by canals that are great for "framing" and drawing attention to you. If you are looking for a mix of classic, peacefulness along with nature, this feature at Centennial provides that.
The Big Hill
One thing Centennial Park is known for is its bill hill. If all of your family members are physically able (sidewalks lead up to the hill), this would be a great spot to end your session at. One side overlooks the pond and the other overlooks fields and trees. I would highly recommend this part of Centennial Park once sunset is reaching its peak!
Below are two quick phone pictures I snapped to show you how beautiful it is up there!
You simply cannot go wrong with choosing Centennial Park. If you ask me for a recommendation on a location this will likely be one of them I share with you because it just has so much to offer. Stay tuned to hear about Washington Park in Springfield next week!
