Mineral Bluff, N. Georgia Elopement Photo Story Award

A photograph of the couple with the mountain landscape, a special photo request from the couple.

Email from John: "My fiancée and I are eloping at an AirBNB in Mineral Bluff, Georgia, the end of May. There are no guests, just us and an officiant. We were hoping you would be available to come take photos."

Thankfully, I was free the Thursday the couple had chosen to tie the knot and excited to see the cabin where they would be wed. (I love a good mountain cabin.)

John and Emily looked forward to getting away from it all and to enjoy the beautiful views of the mountains. They told me they wanted real photographs of the two of them enjoying their wedding ceremony and the celebrations following. Great, that's just what I do.

In addition, they requested one of those beautiful landscape photos where they would be small in the frame, which I affectionately refer to as “ant people” photos. Wait ...

I don’t take photographs like that very often. Hmmm ... maybe never?

So I studied up on the way photographers who take the beautiful landscape with tiny people photos on a regular basis frame the images, and the way they pose the couples. I imagined how I would place the couple into the north Georgia mountain landscape -- smoky mountains receding into the distance -- the couple perfectly placed on a bluff bathed in golden hour light.

But alas, when I arrived at the cabin, I remembered that the best-laid plans of mice and men often do not play out as planned.

The cabin was perched on the side of the mountain and there was no way John and Emily could walk off into the distance and become tiny in the frame. So, I had to do what photojournalists usually have to do, figure out how to work with what we're given. (See silhouette above.)

Emily walks down "the aisle" from the cabin door towards John.

The officiant makes Emily and John laugh.

John attaches the "We Do" topper to their wedding cake.

A toast to each other with a fine bottle of champagne.