Anniversary Photos at Table Rock | Semeen and Shehzad

I spent a perfect spring evening with Semeen and Shehzad right before their one-year wedding anniversary. We took photos at one of my favorite South Carolina parks, and one of my favorite places in South Carolina: Table Rock State Park in Pickens. I love that Table Rock Mountain is so easily recognizable from a distance, and I love that we can take photos with both water and mountains here.

Semeen and Shehzad had met before Shehzad came to the US for grad school, but they stayed in touch from across the world. Over the years, they became very close, and they knew that they wanted to get married and live in South Carolina together. When Shehzad came back to India, he proposed to Semeen. With Covid regulations in place in India, they opted for a small wedding just a week after their engagement so that they could be married before Shehzad came back to the US. As the Covid situation became more complicated, Shehzad ended up not being able to fly back to the US for four months! They made the best of the situation and spent that time adventuring together around India and Europe until they could move to South Carolina.

We originally had a different state park in mind for these photos, but when it was time to go, it appeared this park was already closed for the day. Shehzad suggested Table Rock instead. This is one of my favorite parks and I even had my own family photos there, so I agreed. They decided to have one outfit that was more American-looking and one that was more Indian-looking. Shehzad wore a kurta, which is like a long shirt, and Semeen wore a dupatta, which is like a shawl. I loved the sparkle and color the dupatta added to the photos!

When I first met Shehzad through the photography club at Clemson, he had only lived in the US for a few months. He said he loved taking pictures of the trees in the fall because he had never seen trees change colors before and he wanted to show everyone in India how beautiful it was. When we got to Table Rock, there was a tree with beautiful pink blossoms that I knew I wanted to use in their photos, but of course Shehzad pointed out an orange tree along the water too.

Enjoy Semeen and Shehzad‘s anniversary photos at Table Rock State Park!

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South Carolina Mountain Engagement | Libby and James

Libby and James were engaged in November outside Williams-Brice stadium! They wanted their engagement photos at Pretty Place, or Fred W. Symmes Chapel at YMCA Camp Greenville. This chapel is right on the North Carolina border in Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area, just down the road from Caesars Head State Park in northern Greenville County.

Since this was the one day Libby and James would be in the area and the chapel was closed for an event that evening, I suggested getting there at sunrise to get better light than if we went closer to midday. I had also heard from other photographers that it’s better to be there at sunrise because the chapel faces east, where the sunrise colors are. I was surprised, but happy, when they agreed to get there that early!

Well, apparently Pretty Place is the place to be at 7 AM on a Sunday, and it wasn’t as intimate as what we were hoping for (read: tons of people in the pews facing the exact spot we wanted in the background). We spent about 20 minutes getting sunrise photos there before we headed back down the road. Luckily, our other two locations only had one car there when we arrived! We took some photos at the Bald Rock overlook and in the trees there before heading to Wildcat Wayside for some waterfall photos!

Enjoy the photos from Libby and James’s sunrise session in the mountains of South Carolina!

Does this look like what you and your partner have in mind for your photos? Use the contact button below to send me a message, or check out some of my other work below!

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Chimney Rock Proposal | Leah and Jacob

Leah and Jacob were engaged at Chimney Rock, right above the clouds on a perfect spring morning! 

They decided to spend the weekend in Asheville for Jacob’s birthday. Jacob drove up from Orlando and Leah flew in from Chicago. They were planning to check out Chimney Rock, which they heard was beautiful, and hike to Hickory Nut Falls. What Leah didn’t know was that Jacob’s friend Courtney, who is now an event planner, was actually the one planning the whole day, and that the timeline started with getting engaged! 

Jacob, Courtney, and I got on a Zoom call and looked at the maps, since none of us had ever been to Chimney Rock State Park. There was a windy 3-mile road from the entrance to the park to the base of the overlook. From there, we could either take an elevator or a 500-step staircase to the overlook. We decided to get there right when it opened for two reasons: the light would be better when the sun was lower in the sky, and it would be less likely to be crowded that early on a Saturday. I had no idea if we would have cell service, so I told Jacob what my car looked like and we came up with a plan for me to signal to him when I’d found the spot with good light and a good background. 

After driving through fog for a while, I started to see some blue skies. I texted Jacob when I was waiting at the entrance, and he texted me that his car was right behind mine. I booked it to the elevator—if I got in there before them, it would have to go back down and back up before they would be up there with me, which would buy me some time to pick out a spot. For a minute, I was the only person up there, which was pretty surreal. Then, it was just the three of us. I stood across the overlook from where the clouds covered the mountains, and Jacob walked over with Leah and got down on one knee. Of course, Leah said yes, and we took some pictures in that “we just got engaged” feeling!

We were all so amazed at how beautiful it was up there that day. The American flag was at half-staff, which made for some cool framing, but also served as shade when I had Leah and Jacob facing the sun. I went up to the Opera Box for a few photos to show them with the whole overlook. We had to come back to the spot where they actually got engaged because the clouds went away, showing the view we had come there for in the first place. By the time we finished up, it still wasn’t too warm or crowded, so Leah and Jacob could still do their hike. I caught a few photos of them telling their family and friends the news before they left! Since the engagement was so early in the day, they had plenty of time afterwards to celebrate being engaged.

Enjoy these photos of Leah and Jacob’s spring engagement in the mountains of North Carolina! 

Looking to spend a day like this with your favorite person? Click here to send me a message, or check out some of my other work below!

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