Elana and Spencer had a great idea…to have a Please Touch Museum Engagement Session in Philadelphia. We busted through a barrage of security in order to get some shots inside the museum. We had also not realized that it was a school holiday, so the place was swarming with kids! We had to be extra creative to capture photographs inside, but it was well worth it. The lighting was beautiful outside, so we ventured out back to get some awesome infrared shots with the blossoming trees and museum steps. We can’t wait to see them again for their wedding at the Crystal Tea Room in the end of June!
Please Touch Museum lives inside Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park, a beaux-arts landmark built for Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exposition. The building is one of the most architecturally striking in the city, with high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, and a rotunda that pulls in natural light at midday. The grounds behind the building are quieter and less visited, with formal gardens and tree canopy that turn extraordinary when the cherry blossoms come out in late spring. As an engagement session location it works on every level: indoor drama, outdoor bloom, and genuine character that a rented park gazebo cannot compete with.
Please Touch Museum engagement photos with Holga Camera
Holga Film Camera 1 !
Holga Film Camera 2 !
Love using my Holga camera with the square film format!!!
Why Please Touch Museum Works as an Engagement Location
Most people think of Please Touch Museum as a children’s destination, which it obviously is. But Memorial Hall was built as a world-class exhibition space, and that scale and quality of light does not disappear just because there are kids running through it. We had to work around the crowd that day, since it turned out to be a school holiday and the museum was packed. That actually made us more creative. We found the quiet corners, the stairwells, the light coming through the tall windows in unexpected directions.
Outside, the cherry trees behind the building were right at peak bloom. The infrared film work captures that in a way that regular color photographs cannot. Infrared turns green foliage white and skin tones warm, and against the architecture of Memorial Hall the results were genuinely striking. Elana and Spencer were both completely game for it, which is all you can ask for in an engagement session.
The Holga camera section at the end of this set is square-format film, which gives the photographs a completely different quality from the digital work. There is a softness and grain to it that feels appropriate for a setting this old. A building from 1876 and a camera that deliberately defies technical perfection make sense together.
Planning a Philadelphia Engagement Session or Wedding?
Fairmount Park and the surrounding Museum District have some of the most varied and interesting backdrops in the city for engagement sessions. If you are also starting to look at reception venues, check out the full guide to the best Philadelphia wedding venues for a broader look at what the city has to offer. The right setting changes everything.
Venue: Please Touch Museum, Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, PA
Wedding venue: Crystal Tea Room, Philadelphia, PA