You might have seen posts in the past about where to find the biggest, best, and fanciest pumpkin patches in the DFW area, but do you have the kind of children who will sit still indefinitely while you artfully pose them on said pumpkins in festive attire and smile on command? Well, I don’t!
Instead of giving you the biggest pumpkin events in DFW, today I give you the best places to prop your children against a pumpkin, take a few shots with your phone, and pile everyone back into the car while supporting a local non-profit and taking home a nice pumpkin. So much win!
And bonus: how to crop out unwanted parking lot backgrounds.
Let’s get started with the locations. The secret to getting in and out of a pumpkin patch quickly is going to a pumpkin patch that is actually part parking lot. And, in these cases, church parking lots. Many churches in the metroplex now provide a wide selection of pumpkins throughout the week and on weekends when services are not being held. Most even have little photo op scenarios set up, like the one in the picture above. A few even have painted fall festive backdrops specifically for pictures!
Arapaho United Methodist Church
1400 West Arapaho Road
Richardson, TX
Opens October 4, 2014
October 4 10am – 8pm
October 5 through September 24 11am – 7pm
September 25 through October 31 10am – 8pm
Royal Lane Baptist Church
6707 Royal Lane
Dallas, TX
Opened September 27, 2014
Monday – Friday 12 pm – 7 pm
Saturday 9 am – 7 pm
Sunday 1 pm – 7 pm
Christ United Methodist Church
3101 Coit Rd
Plano, TX 75075
Opened September 27, 2014
All week 9 am – 7pm
St. James Episcopal Church Dallas
9845 McCree Road
Dallas, Texas
Opened September 28, 2014
Sunday – Thursday 12pm – 7 pm
Friday and Saturday 10 am – 7 pm
Closes at 5 pm on October 31
Technique
If you’ve got limited time, you will have to choose between the perfect angle and smiling children. Go for the smiling children and let me remind you of a magical function of most phones and (in a pinch) photo editing software on your computer: cropping.
You are in a parking lot, that is true, but that doesn’t need to be obvious in the final product. For example, the original photo from the image in the header looked like this:
All I had to do was crop that parking lot out and we got a much better shot!
I recommend using the “grid” function of your cropping tool to make sure your children’s faces are along one of the grid lines or inside one of the squares for optimal impact.
Another great tool that I recommend for iPhone photo editing is the app AfterFocus. (And here it is for Android.) With it, you can blur out the background of any photo so that only what you want to see is clear.
Good luck and happy picture taking!
We’d love to hear about other local tiny pumpkin patches!
Leave your faves in the comments!
Mater Dei Catholic Parish
2030 East State Hwy 356
Irving, Tx 75060
Bring the children and the whole family out to the Pumpkin Patch. We are located in Irving off Hwy 356 just East of Loop 12. There will be pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn and an area to take photos in the patch. Open daily from October 12th – October 31st from 10am-7pm.