This session was a whirlwind, and just goes to show that it's never a dull day in a photographer's life!
I had planned to meet this sweet young couple at the top of Pilot Mountain on yet another dreary, cloudy November evening, but as we pulled up to the entrance of the state park, a not so friendly ranger was waving us on, telling us the park was full and no one was allowed in. Having driven an hour and a half to this beautiful space, this wasn't the best of news. I chatted with Daniel and Alexine, hanging over the edge of their car window, as we weighed our options, which were bleak at best. I also got to hear their story, which is the cutest, serendipitous mix of Myrtle Beach love at first sight turned long distance relationship between this Marine and college girl. Since they live four hours apart, they love having random photo sessions during their weekends together, and since their story hits home for me - as my boyfriend too lives four hours away - I was giddily excited to help memorialize this phase of their relationship for them.
We sadly decided to reschedule our session for the next weekend - with fingers crossed we didn't run into the same dilemma - yet as I was on the highway entrance ramp back to Charlotte, I got a call from Alexine telling me the ranger was now gone and the entrance was open. I made a split second decision, despite the drive and the quickly fading light, to turn the hell around and gun it back to the mountain so we could salvage what we could out of the evening, and save everyone the hassle of redoing this epically planned session.
We all reached the summit, and with our golden hour now turned blue hour, and surrounded by a mind numbing amount of other photographers and their clients - I may or may not have had to photoshop out a pregnant woman or two - we created some beautiful images and memories of vast proportion with a tight timeframe. It's easy though when your clients are simply stunning SOOC (straight out of camera), you're a moody photographer, and Lightroom is just so darn great.