Neosho is known as the City of Springs. In the heart is Big Spring Park, at least 150 years old. It has a large, cold spring that runs throughout the park. A popular attraction in the park was Big Spring Inn, which served trout fresh from the stream beginning in 1928. Sadly, the inn burned in 1966 and was never rebuilt.

These family portraits are taken almost exactly where the inn stood.

This is the inn before it burned. The creek runs under it!

More old photos of Big Spring Park. If you love local history, follow the Big Spring Park page on Facebook. They post interesting tidbits and old photos as they surface. (You can also join Friends of the Parks Neosho and help keep these beautiful places thriving into the future!)

The stone bridge still stands, well-worn and with some stones so smooth it’s hard to keep your footing. It’s the perfect spot for little girls to sit in the sun and watch the water.

The park has more than one lovely spot for photographs. What location I use depends on time of day, since I like to keep the sun behind the subject but keep soft, open light on their faces. These were taken close to the stone bridge.

On the north side of the park, there are a few wide open spaces that allow the light to come through the trees for photographs like these:

This Session took about an hour, compared to a Studio Session which would take about 30 minutes for the same amount of people and images. Working with the variables of changing outdoor light, wind and people always takes longer.

Here are the images the customers viewed when they returned to the studio. If you watch the slideshow carefully, you’ll see the daughter playing near the water in the background while I photographed mom and dad. From all of these, which one do you think was their favorite?

Did you guess this one? It’s now a 30x30 Signature Canvas in their home, with a few other Canvases sprinkled throughout. But this one captured their heart, and if you’ve ever had a six-year-old girl that still loves to be snuggled- you know why. They won’t always fit so tightly within your arms, so make sure you have photographs while they still do!

What do you think about Big Spring Park? Do you have memories there that you’d like to share? If you want to have your own family or children’s portraits created there, email me with your thoughts or questions!