Best Spring Break Ideas for Families in New Milford, CT

Family-Friendly Spring Break IDEAS

Near New Milford, CT

Spring break is the perfect time to take a break from routines and enjoy some quality time as a family. Whether you’re looking for outdoor adventures, hands-on activities, or quick day trips, there are plenty of fun things to do near New Milford, CT. Here are some of the best ways to make the most of your spring break!

1. Explore Harrybrooke Park

New Milford, CT
Harrybrooke Park is a local gem with scenic trails, a duck pond, and picnic areas. Kids will love running around, riding bikes and meeting the resident peacocks.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: A peaceful place to enjoy nature without traveling far.

2. Visit The Beardsley Zoo

Bridgeport, CT (About 1 hour away)
Check out one of the special programs or just say hello to all the residents of the zoo.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: A great day out for the whole family.

3. Hike at White Memorial Conservation Center

Litchfield, CT
Spring is a great time to explore the trails at White Memorial Conservation Center. Their boardwalk through the wetlands is perfect for spotting birds, turtles, and other wildlife. Make an ice-cream stop at Aretusa Farm in Bantham.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: Beautiful scenery, fresh air, and lots of photo-worthy moments.

4. Visit Lake Compounce or Quassy

Central CT
If you love theme parks and roller coasters then look no further than Quassy and Lake Compounce for a fun day out.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: Rides, games and lots of fun.

5. Explore the home of Yale University

New Haven, CT
New Haven is a fantastic family destination that offers something for kids of all ages. Whether you’re exploring a museum, hiking East Rock, or devouring world-famous pizza, it’s a day your family won’t forget!

📸 Why You’ll Love It: A little something for everyone!

6. Spend the Day on Bank St

New Milford, CT
Visit some of the shops and cafes on the New Milford green, check out the newly renovated library, get creative at the Village Center for the Arts, and catch a movie at the Bank Street Movie Theater – Tuesday is discount day!

📸 Why You’ll Love It: New Milford was one of the towns that was inspiration for Gilmore Girls.

7. Go Bowling & Arcade Gaming

New Milford or Danbury, CT
Spring weather can be unpredictable, so it’s always good to have indoor options! Head to places like New Milford Lanes Bowling in New Milford or Round 1 in Danbury for bowling, arcade games, and so much more.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: A great rainy-day activity that the whole family can enjoy.

8. Take a Day Trip to Mystic, CT

Mystic, CT (About 2 hours away)
For a fun family road trip, head to Mystic! Visit the Mystic Aquarium, where kids can see beluga whales and sea lions up close. Then, explore the historic Mystic Seaport Museum and grab a slice at the famous Mystic Pizza.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: A perfect mix of education, entertainment, and great food.

9. Take a Day Trip to Harkness Memorial State Park

Waterford, CT
For families who love to be by the water, you will love Harkness! The gardens and views are stunning, it is well worth a drive.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: The gardens, grounds, picnic area, and waterfront are open all year round, 365 days a year.

10. Have a Family Movie or Game Night

Right at Home!
If you’re looking for a cozy and budget-friendly way to spend spring break, plan a themed family movie night or game night at home. Make popcorn, set up a blanket fort, and enjoy classic movies or fun board games together.

📸 Why You’ll Love It: A simple but special way to enjoy family time without leaving the house. If he weather cooperates – make it a picnic in your own backyard.

This spring break, don’t just make plans—make memories. A custom portrait session turns a fun family outing into something unforgettable.

When you treat your portrait session as a family outing, everything shifts. Kids have more fun. Parents feel less pressure. The laughter is real, and the love shines through every image. At Planet Photo, we help you plan every detail—from outfit styling to location scouting—so your portrait session feels like a gift, not a chore. And when the session ends, your family’s already in the perfect mindset to enjoy the rest of the day.

Junior Tribe Photo Shoot Cereal

Planet Photo Junior Tribe

Photo Shoot Cereal

I love starting a new project and this summer I decided to start the first ever Junior Tribe for kids in 7, 8 and 9th grade. COVID means shooting mainly outdoors with small groups so the Junior Tribe was invited to pick four themed photo shoots over the summer so that we could spread everyone out and keep the groups small, safe and manageable.

We had so much fun getting to know one another and shooting our first cereal theme shoot. My kids could not believe their eyes when I came back from the store with a stack of fruity colorful cereal! Yes, I bought Lucky Charms and it wasn’t even St Patricks Day!

Everyone is a little nervous before a shoot so I invited Taylor from the regular Planet Photo Tribe to come and help put Caitlin and Katey at ease. As you can see from the images, they were amazing and I can’t wait to shoot with them again soon.

It’s not too late to join in on all the themed photo shoots that we have planned. The next Junior Tribe themed photo shoot is scheduled for next week – they are going to be floating in milk baths. Do you know a teen that would love to take part in our summer model experience? It’s great for self confidence and for trying something new with teens from other groups, schools or towns and it’s open to guys and girls.

Thanks to Katie, Caitlin and Taylor for making the first Junior Tribe photo shoot so much fun!

Planet Photo is scheduling family, senior and teen portraits outside this summer with limited availability. I will maintain a social distance and make sure that we are doing everything to keep your family as well as mine safe. Read more about our COVID policy here.

Personal branding shoots are also available with slight modifications. Your web and social media presence is as important as ever so let’s update your website images.

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Personal Branding Images

Meet Denise Watson

Business Performance Coach, Trainer, and PR Professional.

I had a chance to talk and get to know Denise Watson and she told me all about her love of business coaching. That of course led to a conversation on personal branding images, online first impressions, websites, consistency in branding message, and before you know it she was in my studio! I wanted to share her thoughts on choosing me as a personal branding photographer to create the images she will use on her website and social media.

In Denise’s own words:

Put Your Best Face Forward!

“As a business performance coach and public relations professional, I am quite discerning with my choice of collaborators – whether they are photographers, business partners, or patrons.

When you become your own business, it is imperative to have a personal and professional brand that complements the work you do – your vision, your mission, and your values. Quality images that portray your true and authentic self are an absolute necessity to that brand.

I knew immediately that I was in the right hands to help create the images for my brand when Janet asked, “Who is your ideal client?”

And, then she went on to talk about how to attract the ideal clients with a span of styles and poses. Essentially, her ideas of depicting how your true and authentic self goes into your brand dovetails perfectly with my own ideals.

Most importantly, Janet and I agreed that you must love what you see, or you simply won’t share it. Sharing the real you is essential to your success. For many, like myself, to face forward confidently for photos and then share them with the world is a daunting task. Photos are forever, right?

I can say wholeheartedly, “I love what I see! I am excited to share!”

Thanks to Janet, even my camera-shy self is devising what my future photo sessions will look like.

Janet Taub of Planet Photo is officially my photographer of choice. Her personal touch, astute awareness, and depth of talent supports the focus of her clients – personally and professionally.”

Denise Ann Watson | Ardent Image Designs, LLC.

MUA: Candee Caldwell

branding photography entrepreneurs headshots personal branding

Studio Portraits Bella

Planet Photo Tribe Studio Portraits

Bella

I was walking through my gym and as usual I checked out the magazine rack as I walked by, do you do that? I like to read books but there is something frivolous and special about a good quality fashion magazine. I am talking about Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harpers Bazaar with the luxurious glossy paper and the bold cover images. I love the slightly over-the-top poses with really over-the-top styling that you wouldn’t necessarily wear every day, but they sure are show stoppers. I decided then that we needed a series of these magazine cover styled studio portraits shoots with the Planet Photo Tribe. Kinsley was the first one last year and I loved her images, then I shot Samantha in January and I loved those too, so I wanted to expand on that studio magic that we had going on!

Bella rocked her posing and got just the right fashion model serious face.

Planet Photo is available for studio and location portrait sessions for teens and seniors, personal branding, editorial modern glamour, family portraits in New Milford, New Fairfield, Danbury, Newtown, Brookfield, Kent, Washington, Litchfield, Redding, Ridgefield, Wilton, and surrounding towns.

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Studio Portraits Taylor

Studio Portraits with The Planet Photo Tribe

Taylor

You know sometimes one item is all you need to figure out your whole outfit. It might be a certain pair of shoes. You know when you get that feeling that you HAVE to wear those shoes today so you build your entire look around them. Can you guess the focal point of Taylor’s styling (apart from already knowing that we were continuing with the studio portraits theme we had been creating with black and white bold outfits…..) If you guessed the white boots you were close, it was actually the black and white striped tights! I have had these stripy tights in my mind for a shoot for ages and I was SO excited to put them to good use so we started with those and built Taylor’s outfit around them. Because….

Stripes go with everything

And I could not agree more!!!!

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Studio Portraits Madison

Planet Photo Tribe Studio Portraits

Madison

You must have noticed the latest craze for Doc Martens? When I was growing up in the UK they were hugely popular with punks and the scooter riding subcultures, we called them DMs. Now it seems as if every girl in high school has a pair of “Docs” but not everyone has a pair of white leather ones and I was super excited when Madison pulled those out of her bag for our black and white magazine style studio portraits.

IT’S BEEN SIX DECADES
AND ONE HELL OF A JOURNEY
FROM FACTORIES TO FESTIVALS
STREETS TO STAGES
WHEN TOWNSHEND DESTROYED HIS GUITAR
WE WERE WITH HIM
AND WHEN PUNK BLEW UP
SO DID WE
AND WE’VE STOOD WITH YOU
THROUGH IT ALL
KICKED THE AIR WITH YOU IN JOY
AND KICKED WALLS WITH YOU IN FRUSTRATION
WHEN LIFE KNOCKS YOU DOWN
WE’LL BOUNCE BACK WITH YOU
NO MATTER WHAT. WE ARE
TOUGH AS YOU

Dr Marten’s TOUGH as YOU

The cold winter months in CT are the perfect time to get in the studio and just be creative! If you have always wanted to experience what it feels like to be a model for a day then a studio portrait session like Madisons would be perfect for YOU! Of course you could always join the Planet Photo Tribe!

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Sam Studio Portraits

Planet Photo Tribe Studio Portraits

Sam

Winter in Connecticut is the perfect time to schedule some studio time, we don’t need to worry about the weather and studio portraits give us the opportunity to have a little fun playing and experimenting with some gels and studio lights. I wanted her in black and white on a white background so we could definitely play up her beautiful eyes and make her features pop. With the emphasis to be on Sam we created a slightly more editorial feel with bolder make up and sharper posing angles. It’s fun to play supermodel for the day!

Here is what Sam’s Mom Jennifer said when she saw the latest images:

Over the past few months Samantha’s confidence has grown. Part of that is due to joining the Planet Photo Tribe. She has made new friendships, and strengthen a few old ones. Janet is a wonderful photographer, and gives these girls a place to express themselves in a way they didn’t know was possible before.

If you are interested in joining the Tribe then you better keep checking the blog because I am putting together the materials for the 2K21 Planet Photo Tribe! There will be group shoots, collaborations, studio shoots, a destination shoot to an AMAZING location and also the opportunity for service hours. Do you love fashion, social media and being a positive role model in your community? I can guide you through the process of being a social media influencer.

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Kinsley Studio Portraits

Planet Photo Tribe

Kinsley has great style. Whenever or wherever we meet or walk down the street people literally stop and tell her that they love her outfit or that they really appreciate her style. I wanted to shoot images of Kinsley for her application to this year’s model competition in San Diego. SPOILER ALERT – you probably already saw that she WON!!!! You’ll have to check out those images in the next blog post!

We used some of these fabulous studio portraits to show Kinsley’s great range as a model for the Society12 model competition. She is a natural in front of the camera and I can only imagine what the future will bring for her but I will have the great pride in saying that it all started with The Planet Photo Tribe!

The winter months are a great time to plan studio portraits. If you are interested in developing a portfolio of images or just playing at being a model for the day then we need to talk asap! I love when clients are involved in the preparation and inspiration for the shoot and if you love the styling part as much as Kinsley then we are going to create some amazing studio portraits!

People will stare. Make it worth their while Tom Ford

Can you guess what we used to get the dreamy cloud effect on the last one?

Bubblewrap!

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Emily’s Journey in Portraits

Roxbury Photographer Portraits

Roxbury, CT

Emily got her cancer diagnosis in December 2019 and her oncologist wanted to waste no time in starting her chemo treatment. Emily is a talented local wedding and family photographer and I follow her on social media so I had read her post about her diagnosis. She reached out to me in January to take a couple of portraits. She knew that the chemo would probably result in hair loss but she wanted to control that timeline. She wanted portraits of her with her long hair before any treatments started. That same day she shaved her head. She has chosen to control that aspect of her cancer journey.

I was touched by Emily’s story. She is a young beautiful woman with a young family and she is facing a tough battle with grace, humility and incredible honesty. She is lucky to have a loving family and an amazing support system but I wanted to do something special for her. I reached out to Karen at Joes Salon and Spa and Stacey from Skin and Tonic and they both agreed that we needed to make Emily feel relaxed, pampered and beautiful for her portraits. She started with a blow out at Joes and Stacey gave her some natural make up. We laughed and had fun before she left the studio to meet her new oncologist and the next chapter of her life.

We decided to document her journey in portraits. Chemo is scheduled every three weeks and our plan is to update her head shot before each treatment.

Treatment 2 – January 30, 2020

Emily’s hair is gone. Not everyone can rock a bald head but she can!

Treatment 3 – February 20, 2020

Emily was in great spirits but understandably a little nervous about her next treatment. It went pretty well so she came back with her family a few days later.

If you look at the dates of treatment 3 you will understand why we didn’t continue with the plan to photograph portraits before every treatment. The world shut down for COVID 19 and we all had to maintain social distancing.

Boho Festival Roxbury CT Shoot

Planet Photo Tribe Location Shoot

Roxbury CT Photo Shoot

When a group shoot starts with a styling meeting at a local boutique then you know it is going to be a good one. That is exactly how our latest group shoot began.

The Traveling Chic Boutique opened last year near Four Corners in Brookfield, CT and it has an amazing selection of boho, casual-chic clothing. One by one the girls arrived at the shore, and like kids in a candy store, they tried on clothes and we narrowed down the choices for our Roxbury CT photo shoot. Our theme was originally centered around a light and bright festival look but a rainy weather forecast sent us to Plan B. We were invited to shoot at a local farm and the outcome was better than I ever could have hoped! We still got that boho festival vibe just without light and airy blue skies.

Twilight Dreams Farm is located in Roxbury, CT and it is the most incredible property. The blue barns are the best backdrop to shoot against and we were able to dodge the rain and still get the shot. It has become one of my new favorite locations and the current owners are the sweetest airbnb hosts so if you are traveling to the area then you have to check them out.

Bella chose a brown teddy bear fur jacket and a super cute Free People body suit.

Kinsley looked AMAZING in these bell bottom jeans and Free People blouse and the pink drop necklace finished off the outfit.

Olivia was styled in a flowery dress and paired it with a leather jacket.

Taylor wore a pink floral Free People dress that looked so cute on her

Sam looked STUNNING in a Free People bias cut dress and a cozy but glam fur jacket.

If you happen to be Brookfield, CT then you HAVE to check out the Traveling Chic Boutique. It is so nice to avoid the mall and find some unique clothes and accessories – tell them we sent you and I know they will take extra special care of you!

Make Up Artist: Blush Couture

Styling: The Traveling Chic Boutique, Brookfield

Location: Twilight Dreams Farm

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