Finally! I am able to post these pictures.

Way back at the first of the year Jennifer (who serves with me in AmeriCorps) booked a portrait session with me. She wanted to give pictures to her boyfriend, Jay, for their anniversary. We toyed with a few ideas for locations- but none of them fit. Jennifer knows Jay loves the outdoors and wanted to include lots of pretty scenery in her photos. She came up with the absolutely brilliant idea to shoot at Cumberland Island. Jay lives in Georgia and is always boating in the area and it was also a place that Jen and Jay had visited together.

Because the ferry leaves the island while the sun is still high (and way too bright) in the sky, we had to have Jay take us to the island in his boat. We shoved everything in my backpack and tried to look inconspicuous.

She smile on her face as she looks at Jay says it all.

We hopped off the boat, sent Jay off to fish… and got busy.

We shot the whole session on the Dungeness estate. Dungeness is a ruined mansion which was the home of several families significant in American history. Revolutionary War Hero General Nathanial Greene purchased land on Cumberland Island in 1783. Following his death, his widow Catherine Greene, constructed a four-story tabby home that she named Dungeness. Thomas Carnegie and his wife Lucy began building another Dungeness on the original foundation in 1884. The Carnegie’s Dungeness burned in 1959 and today only the ruins remain on the site.

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Enough history-more of beautiful Jen. This is the entryway to the ruins.

I seriously love so many of the shots from that day

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The calm before the storm….isn’t she radiant?

And then we about got killed by wild horses. That black thing in front of/below the running horses would be my camera bag- and it almost got trampled. I seriously about peed my pants. I don’t think the horses actually meant us any harm, but they ran right toward us and veered off at the last second. I don’t care to go through that again!!!

Fortunately, Jen was able to keep being gorgeous.

I won’t say where we were for these next .  No need to incriminate one’s self.

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We thought we heard someone coming and scurried out. It was a good thing, too- I found this lovely light. This is the kind of light I would chase to the edge of the world.

and a few more…The bottom is how Dungeness looks today.