Testing A New Location - Fall Family Photography

I’ve written before about what I look for when I scout a location, and this time I wanted to try something on the North Suburbs of Chicago that was closer to my client’s home and also had a different vibe than what I typically get in the city. 

After looking around, we settled on Ryerson Woods in Deerfield, IL. We picked this place because we were looking for a woodsy area that had nice Fall colors - check. 

I was also looking for multiple backgrounds within a short walking distance as I don’t like to waste time moving from point A to point B during shots and risk losing the attention/patience of the kids. This place had beautiful tall trees, a white picket fence, the Visitor Center had a nice farm and other white buildings, ample streets and open areas with little traffic for walking, beautiful wooden bridges under trees, and there was a meadow with wildflowers right by the parking lot – double check. 

The place turned out to be even dreamier a few weeks after I did my scouting, when the Fall colors became more intense, and the wildflowers withered a bit creating these beautiful yellowy background. We also lucked out with the most beautiful sunset ever on the day of the shoot.

See what we came up with, and scroll through to the end for the most gorgeous field of dried wildflowers at creamy golden light.