Benson Park Family Photographer

The Town of Hudson sets the hours by ordinance, and they change four times a year: May 1 to August 31, 5:00am to 9:00pm; September 1 to October 31, 5:00am to 7:00pm; November 1 to the end of February, 5:00am to 5:00pm; March 1 to April 30, 5:00am to 7:00pm. The autumn closing time is the one that catches people out, because it is the season most families want and seven o’clock arrives before you expect it. Every session here is scheduled backwards from the gate.

No permit is required for a portrait session. The park is free to enter and free to park at. The town does ask groups of fifteen to fifty people to file a Benson Park Usage Form to reserve a gathering — there is no fee for it. Most family sessions, including large extended-family ones, come in well under fifteen. If yours does not, I handle the form at booking.

Yes, on a leash, anywhere in the park — and there is a fenced dog park just inside the entrance if you want to let them run off some energy before we start. Tell me in advance and I plan the route and the timing around it.

Among the best on my list. The paths are paved, level and hard-surfaced, the parking is at the entrance, and there is no hill, no soft ground and no long approach anywhere in a session. If somebody in your group cannot manage a field, a beach or a woodland trail, Benson Park and Assabet River are the two places I would suggest first.

Benson’s Wild Animal Farm — “The Strangest Farm on Earth.” John T. Benson, an English-born animal trainer, bought the land in the early 1920s to quarantine and train animals for circuses and zoos, then opened it to the public. It ran for six decades as one of New England’s great day trips, complete with a wild animal circus, a miniature railway and Colossus, a five-hundred-pound silverback gorilla once entered in the New Hampshire presidential primary as a stunt. It closed at the end of 1987, and the Town of Hudson reopened the land as a free public park in 2010. The Old Woman in the Shoe, the elephant house, the gorilla house and the old railroad station are all still standing.

Four kinds of ground, all within a short flat walk of the Kimball Hill Road lot: the pond with its low stone wall, the granite steps set into the wooded slope, the pine allée with its long sideways light, and the glacial boulders and evergreen hedges out in the lawn. We plan the order around the light, your group and the closing time.

It is the best location on my list for one. The granite steps seat about twelve people on three levels with every face visible, the lawns take a standing group of any size, the walk from the car is flat and short, and there is no fee for anybody. The largest group on this page is twelve. Above fifteen we file the free town form, which is the only extra step.

The first three weeks of October, when the leaf on the wooded slope above the steps turns yellow and the pines still hold. That said, this is one of the few locations I photograph in three seasons — there is late-spring work on this page with the flowering shrubs out, and midsummer work in deep green under the canopy. Winter is quiet and the five o’clock closing makes it tight.

Portrait commissions begin at $1,450. Most families invest between $1,500 and $4,000 depending on the artwork selected. Every commission results in finished wall art or an album — digital-file-only packages are not offered. Request the full experience guide for pricing detail.

About twenty-five minutes, straight up Route 3A and over the state line into New Hampshire. It is an easy run for families in Chelmsford, Tyngsborough, Dracut, Lowell, Westford and Nashua, and for anyone already on the New Hampshire side it is closer than most of my Massachusetts locations.