Morgan & Shayne | Side Quest at The Curioporium, Southington, CT
The plan was a cemetery. That should tell you everything you need to know about Morgan and Shayne.
It rained too hard to even get there. Not a light drizzle, not a “we can work with this” kind of situation. A full washout. Both of us still in transit, we made the call on the fly and started looking for somewhere else. What we found was a place called The Curioporium, and it ended up being one of the best Side Quests I’ve ever done.
The Plan That Wasn’t
Morgan and Shayne had picked a cemetery for their Side Quest. I want to be clear that this was not a gimmick. This was not a couple trying to be interesting. This was a couple who actually, genuinely, wanted to spend a few hours in a cemetery together because that is the kind of people they are. It made complete sense.
Then the sky opened up.
There’s a version of this story where the rain ruins everything and we reschedule and it’s fine but forgettable. That is not the version we got. We were both already driving when we made the call to scrap it, figured out a new plan in real time, and ended up finding a place called The Curioporium on Center Street in Southington.
Neither of us had ever been. We walked in and understood immediately that we had not made a mistake.
What Is The Curioporium
The Curioporium is a curiosity and oddity shop at Factory Square in Southington, CT. It has been there since 2018. It is the kind of place that collects things that do not belong anywhere else: vintage photographs, paranormal artifacts, tarot cards, Connecticut folklore books, glass specimen cases, objects that have no obvious name but feel important.
The light inside is low and warm. The shelves are dense. There is a lot to look at. If you are a person who finds something comforting in old and unusual things, it is very easy to spend a long time in there without realizing it.
Morgan and Shayne were those people. They moved through it slowly. They picked things up, held them, showed each other things. They did not perform. They just existed in a place that happened to be exactly their kind of place.
That is all I ever need from a Side Quest.
The Right Couple for the Room
Not every couple would walk into a curiosity shop full of paranormal artifacts and immediately relax. Morgan and Shayne did. It took about ninety seconds for them to stop thinking about the camera and start just moving through the space the way they wanted to.
They have a dark aesthetic and a lot of warmth. Those two things coexist in them without any tension, which is rare and makes for great photos. One of them would find something on a shelf and hold it up, the other would react, and I would just stay out of the way and let it happen.
What Happened Inside
I did not direct much. I never do on Side Quests. The point is to let you be somewhere you want to be, doing what you actually do, while I stay out of the way and pay attention.
What I noticed was the warmth. Not the look of the place, though the place looked great. The warmth between them. They kept showing each other things. “Look at this.” “Come over here.” There was none of the self-consciousness that some people bring into a photo session, the awareness of being watched and documented. They forgot about me pretty fast, which is the best thing that can happen.
At some point Morgan picked something up and Shayne looked at her the way he does and she laughed before he even said anything. I got that frame. That is the whole session in one photo. The weird object in her hands, the low light of the shop around them, him barely doing anything and her completely gone over it.
That is what a Side Quest is supposed to find.
Why Side Quests Work
I call my engagement sessions Side Quests because that is what they are. They are not a warmup photo shoot. They are not a way to check something off a list. They are a couple going somewhere they actually want to go and doing something they actually want to do, and me coming along to document it.
The best ones are the ones where something goes sideways. The cemetery did not happen. The rain came and it did not stop. We ended up in a shop full of Victorian oddities and tarot cards and Connecticut folklore, surrounded by old photographs of strangers, and Morgan and Shayne were completely at home there.
That is not a backup plan. That is the story.
Their wedding is coming. I already know what those photos are going to look like. Dark wood, warm light, a couple of people who know exactly who they are and are not apologizing for any of it. This session told me everything I needed to know about how to shoot their day.
If you have a place you love, a thing you do together, or a completely unhinged idea you think might be too weird for a photo session, reach out. Those are usually the best ones.
Planning a Side Quest in Connecticut?
A Side Quest is how I shoot engagement sessions. A real place, something you actually do, and up to three hours of me documenting it. No posing checklist. No fields you found on Pinterest. Just you two, somewhere that means something, with a camera in the room.
If you’re getting married in Connecticut or New England and want to talk about what your Side Quest could look like, I’d love to hear from you.
Location: The Curioporium, 168 Center Street, Southington, CT 06489
Photography: Ladman Studios, Connecticut Documentary Wedding & Engagement Photographer
