Dahlonega Engagement Session

– Posted by Mark

I know. It’s been a long time since we’ve posted ANY engagement sessions. Trust me. I. KNOW.

So we’ll be working on that over the next few weeks. Engagement sessions all over the place. Everywhere. And on your face. Well, okay – not on your face. Because that would be weird. (This post was not approved by Leah!)

So. Since we’re going to be posting engagement sessions – we figured, why not start out with something a little different. How about an engagement session in an old abandoned gold mine? And then how about we throw in the part where we’re shooting right in between the groups of children on their guided tours?! And then water dripping down from the ceiling everywhere, and areas of really bright lights, but mostly extreme darkness! Yeah. Let’s do that.

But you know what’s even better than all of that? – having clients that want to be in there with us. THAT is better than Chinese food. (Well, it’s a close second because damn, I really, really like Chinese food. Like ridiculously love Chinese food. Ummmm….)

So this is Jordan & Zeke. They don’t live in Dahlonega and neither do we, so we all made the hour drive up from Atlanta and met in the town square – where we had some coffee, and then hopped into a car and drove down some crazy winding dirt road up and over some perilous mountains where it seemed there would be a landside anyminute.

Okay not really. This mine is actually next to a Walmart – seriously. Next. To. A. Walmart.

You know what else is awesome? Intern Abby. (Okay – that really should say ‘who’ and not ‘what’.) Abby drove up with me and really helped out a lot during this shoot (that means she carried my gear and angled light stands and made funny faces when I was the only one who thought what I said was funny.)

I have to admit though – when we finally got down into the mine, and I saw the darkness – I wasn’t exactly sure how things would work out. We always say to the Interns that it’s always a game of ‘stump the photographer’ – no matter how much you plan, things are going to change. You just have to be better than the obstacles you’re presented with. Overcome everything and everyone in your way. But most importantly, darkness really is your friend. (Okay, that’s not really the most important thing, but it kind of sounds good.)

Basically – it all goes back to being ready for a shoot. And I don’t mean ready as in having the right gear, or feeling ‘inspired’. I mean being ‘ready’ in that you’ve shot enough, you’ve experienced enough – and even more important (no for reals time) – being ready creatively. Not getting stuck just because conditions aren’t what you thought they would be. Or your timeline disappears. Or you have to work with tours of children walking through your photoshoot. (Actually if you know me – had the tours been suitable, I would’ve worked them into the photoshoot.)

One of the weakest excuses I regularly hear is something along the lines of ‘I just wasn’t feeling it.’ – you know what professionals do? They get to work. Period. They don’t care about whether or not they were ‘feeling it’ or if they were ‘inspired’. And if you ever find yourself saying that during a shoot – just picture me, punching you in the throat.

What else am I trying to say? I’m saying that everything we work on around here – is practice for some future shoot that we don’t know is coming up. That’s why we photograph everything and it’s mom. We don’t always post it all for everyone to see – but we’re definitely always shooting as many different things as we can, so that when we’re presented with something new… it’s not really new at all.

The Interns probably complain about some of the boring shoots we do – and that’s fine. Because you know – for me – even when it’s really bad, the fact is that in that moment, I’m a photographer – and there are few things I’d rather be doing.