Dawn Earles Photography »

Rachel and Casey shot their engagement portraits with me last week.  The weather was just perfect!  Which is great because this was our second attempt thanks to all this crazy weather we’ve been having.  I love the style they brought to the shoot.  I had loads of fun, and now i have loads of previews to share below!  (The first shot is my absolute favorite of recent!)

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I first met Cigi about 5 years ago – when i shot her senior portraits!  Now she is going to be a bride!  Wow, have i been doing this so long now that my senior clients are starting to become brides?  Oh how time flies! 

I was very excited about this session, not only because i got to work with Cigi again, but also because I FINALLY got to go see the REAL avery island.  (You know, the area past the “Do not go beyond this point” sign.)  Reid’s mom Maxine is from the island and we got a pass for the day to shoot their engagements out there.  Before the shoot, Maxine took me for a ride to show me around, and showed me the houses she lived in, where she worked and where she went to school.  She hadn’t been back there in years and i could tell it was bringing back so many memories.  We all have that childhood place, then grow up and move somewhere else, even if it’s not that far.  But I don’t think any of us could understand what it’s like to grow up in a place like avery island.   That place is so amazing.  They really live do live  in their own private paradise!  An entire town, so secluded from the outside world that no one can just drive by if they want to see it, you have to live and work there to have access to it.  And those who do live there have been there for generations.  It’s pretty amazing.  They name their houses, like most people name their boats!  Seriously, in the real world, we just have crumby numbers on our houses and on our mailboxes, but in avery island, they have these cute little signs at the end of their driveway that have the name of the house and a little logo to match.  I wish i could remember some of the names, but it think one was called froggy bottom, or something like that, and it had a little froggy painted on sign, so that should give you an idea.  If only I could go back  and just photograph the area and everything about it that makes it so special, so unique, so charming.  There really is no place like it.  I’m so in love!

There were so many cool spots to shoot, the old sugar mill with the creepy black birds perched on top, the fire station that’s covered in vines, Reid’s grandfather’s old shop, the cool little deli with it’s one gas pump, the sinkhole that i really wanted to shoot at but couldn’t find it in time…. i was told more than once that it’s “bottomless”…. so  i guess if you fall in you come out in china or something!  ;)  As always, it’s just impossible to shoot everywhere, but we managed to hit a bunch of spots and then we went to the gardens to finish up!   So here’s a tiny sampling, Cigi, Reid, and Maxine…. i hope you love them!

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I’ve always wanted to shoot in an orange grove, and i’ve always wanted to shoot at an old factory, so when i arrived to find Matt’s family’s plantation sitting in an orange grove, right next too and old factory, I nearly died from excitement!

It sits tucked away in Patoutville, hiding from civilization as we know it.  It has a beautiful orange grove bordering the property, and a sugar cane factory on the other side!  The whole property was just amazing, and we did our best to shoot over nearly every inch of it!  Including parts of the factory.

You can’t tell from looking at the pictures, but it was VERY cold outside and poor Brittany had no jacket, but she toughed it out and the resulting images are warm and happy!  It rained cats and dogs the entire day before and there were some areas that were underwater, which Matt and I both really wanted to shoot in, but Brittany locked her rubber boots in the car!  After bringing it up constantly through nearly the entire shoot, we finally got her to agree to go in barefoot, in the water, in the COLD!!!  I know she didn’t want to do it, but what a brave girl!  For a few minutes of torture, we got some great shots that they can enjoy for a lifetime!

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