Daniel + Emily: President Heads Virginia Engagement Session
Updated: 1 day ago
Creative engagement session at President Heads Virginia
In Croaker, Virginia, stands a sight that would make just about anyone stops in their tracks. 43 ghostly effigies of presidents past crowd together in the tall grass. Some of the 18-to-20-foot busts have crumbling noses. The statues are all that remains of Virginia’s Presidents Park, a now-defunct open-air museum where visitors could once walk among the presidential heads. But their presidential visions soon (literally) went bust. First, the park, which cost about $10 million to create, went belly up due to a lack of visitors in 2010. Then, doomed in part by location—hidden behind a motel and slightly too far away from colonial Williamsburg’s tourist attractions, the park went into foreclosure.
That’s where Hankins, who helped build the park, comes in. Before the land was auctioned off, he was asked to destroy the busts. Hankins didn’t feel right about it and offered to take the heads and move them to his 400-acre farm. So began the laborious process of moving 43 giant presidents, weighing 11,000 and 20,000 pounds, to a field ten miles away. Hankins estimated the weeklong process cost about $50,000 .
Hankins’ field wasn’t officially open to visitors. But intrepid explorers and photographers have found ways of getting to the crumbling presidential ruin anyway.
Go ahead and contact me if you want to get a photo session for any occasion of yours. It can be taken anywhere in the world, just let me know when and where and I will be there! I will be glad to help you in all possible ways!
Explore more engagement photography by Mantas Kubilinskas.
How to plan a session like this
Start with the experience rather than a long list of poses. Choose one or two visual priorities, build the route around the best light, and leave enough time to walk, talk, and settle into the session. When several locations are involved, fewer stops usually create a stronger gallery because there is more time to photograph what is actually happening.
What helps photographs feel natural
You do not need to know how to pose. I give simple direction when it improves the composition, then let movement and conversation take over. Comfortable shoes, an outfit you can move in, and a little flexibility with timing make a bigger difference than trying to reproduce photographs from someone else's session.
