when we met courtney, her mind was already hummin’ with ideas for a unique engagement shoot. she had a connection to someone at the university of georgia whom we hoped could arrange for us to shoot “between the hedges” — that’s athens, ga, lingo for “inside the revered sanford football stadium.” very cool idea! alas, scheduling the open stadium during jordan’s time off from military duty just wouldn’t jive. happily, the seeming inconvenience worked out to our advantage. courtney happened upon this hauntingly beautiful plantation house, and we were thrilled when we finally got permission to shoot there — including inside the house. eileen and i arrived early in the day to shoot some personal work, then to prepare for courtney and jordan’s session! coming from a family involved in historic preservation, it’s an honor to document structures like these — which represent so much history and culture — before they disappear entirely.

for us, it’s an even greater honor to restore a little life and love to a forgotten place like this — allowing it, at least partly, to serve the function it was built for. courtney and jordan managed to pull that task off effortlessly. even with the last-minute threat of severe thunderstorms moving in on us, they showed up gung ho, ready to make the most of the evening! eileen and i were completely energized by their laughter and their obvious excitement at just being able to share a few rare moments together. neither hesitated to go anywhere or try anything, and i dare say they enjoyed the whole experience as much as we did!

thanks, you two! we’re so glad we got to spend such a memorable day with you after all, before your wedding this month! (here already. can you believe it!?) can’t wait to see you then…

would you believe these two were able to smile so freely — even while bees swarmed in and out of the old barn overhead? well, we were 99 percent sure they weren’t the stinging variety. (still, that 1 percent doubt would put a sour look on most people’s faces.) the barn on this side was a dark, dilapidated tunnel. still, we loved its potential — its layered texture and natural wood tones. we found a little added strobe light revealed the beams, framed courtney and jordan inside a natural vignette, and really made them pop along with the boards leaning in the foreground. (even the bees disappeared briefly to help clear the frame!)

the sky was just beginning to darken with incoming storm clouds. we wanted a few more outdoor portraits — maybe something more dramatic. we wanted the sky, but there were no objects of interest in the open (no high corn, no hay bales). so courtney and jordan didn’t hesitate to drop to their knees and “cheat the camera” a little. suddenly we had ourselves some golden, shoulder-high grass to surround them and warm the image. perfect!

i really liked these next images. something about shooting into the shadows adds such a feeling of intimacy and privacy. very romantic! even more perfect, if you ask me!

just put these two in civil war-era attire, and i think this might be a scene from “gone with the wind.”

just before i could snap this next shot, the wind barreled in ahead of the storm. branches suddenly started flying down from the giant oaks overhead. thankfully, nobody was impaled. and the resulting image is, to me, priceless. jordan immediately went into protector mode, pulling courtney close to shield her from the debris. what an awesome visual display of a man’s love and protection, you know? that’s a side of love you don’t see every day — and are even less likely to catch on film. actions like that, repeated over time, are the reason two people can look at each other the way courtney and jordan do here, finally inside and safe from the storm.