Lori & Seth live in the Pacific Northwest, but decided on having their wedding in the north Georgia mountains to have a central location for their family and friends who most live across the southeast U.S. In early May they were going to be in the area visiting family and doing a walk through at their venue, so we thought it would be a great chance to do their engagement photos. These two have a huge love for hiking, camping, and exploring the outdoors together. They really wanted to have a scenic location with a mountain view, and I will jump at any chance to combine landscape and portrait photography! After doing some checking at a few different locations, I found one that fit the bill perfectly and we set everything up to do their engagement session at Preacher’s Rock.
Preacher’s Rock is an outcrop in the Blood Mountain Wilderness in the northern Georgia. One of the shortest day hikes along the Georgia portion of the Appalachian Trial, it’s also one of the most beautiful! Starting from the Woody Gap Trailhead, it’s only a 1 mile for an incredible payoff. With almost unobstructed views of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east, this has easily become one of my favorite locations in the north Georgia Mountains!
The website AtlantaTrails.com has a great guide to this hike if you’d like to check it out yourself.
The weather on the day we planned for the photo shoot was looking a bit spotty but rescheduling wasn’t an option. We had to go for it rain or shine, and I’m so glad we did! By the time that I got to the trailhead, the clouds had broken and we were lucky enough to get those awesome mountain views.
I think even more than the incredible view, the thing I remember most of this engagement session is how much we all laughed together. Lori & Seth couldn’t help but smile at each other even when I asked them to try not to – it was absolutely my kind of shoot!
The weather in the mountains is always unpredictable and can lead to some wonderful surprises.
The valley went into shadow, but then the clouds opened up right on the rocks where we were and created a perfect spotlight on Lori & Seth – I’m so glad we were ready for it!
And then just like that, the light changed again!
Lori & Seth had the awesome idea to include their love of camping into the engagement shoot.
They went all in and brought their tent all the way from Washington! I’m so glad they did because it made for the perfect addition to their photos.
Here’s some technical info if you’re interested:
I shot on all the photos on Kodak Professional Portra 400 and TRI-X 400 films with my Pentax 645n and Canon EOS-1v cameras. The film was developed and scanned by my friends at Dunwoody Photo.
Thank you guys again for making time on your trip to get together these photos!
Lori & Seth’s engagement session at Preacher’s Rock was such a highlight for me. The best part of all was getting to finally meet these two awesome people in person!
I’ll be sharing some of my favorite moments from their fall wedding in the north Georgia mountains soon, so be sure to check back!
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