Courtney and Steven are actually one of our 2022 associate couples. We have a team of six wedding photographers, all in the Virginia area. They are all incredible and allow us to be a part of more weddings than I could ever do on my own. It has been so fun! Our amazing associate Carrie is capturing Courtney and Steven’s wedding next year at Eastwood Winery. But since I haven’t left for Hawaii quite yet, I got the pleasure of capturing their engagement shoot! It was such an adventure in every sense of the word. Haha!

I had never shot at Blackrock before and I didn’t know much about the spot. I had messaged my friends who had photographed there many times and they gave me all the tips. It requires a short hike to get there and the sun goes behind the mountain WAY before the sun actually sets. I’m so glad they helped me out with all of that since I couldn’t scout it ahead of time.

But we get there, are ready to go, and we do the short ten minute walk to the spot. Upon arriving, I was blown away by the views and what we saw. It was unreal!! I had shot at Ravens Roost so many times and I thought that was beautiful. This was even more mind blowing! There is this huge pile of rocks and all the way around, there’s practically 360 views of mountains. You’ll see below but it was awesome! It doesn’t look super sketchy in the photos but getting to the top of the pile of rocks is definitely not easy and it’s a bit risky!

We weren’t sure if we were going to climb up it or not so we did a lot of photos around on the path. But once the sun started to set, we got excited and decided to attempt the trek! We safely made it to the top and we had to pretty much stay in the same spot the whole time since climbing around on the rocks was pretty dangerous! But we found the perfect little spot with a view and I got creative with posing and moving a little bit myself so they wouldn’t have to. The shots are some of my favorites! While I don’t know if I would recommend climbing to the top if you’re not an avid hiker, I’m glad we did it!

After the sun had dipped below the mountains, we shared some of the champagne Courtney and Steve had brought. They even brought me a glass which was so sweet! Then it was time to climb down. I kept saying, “be careful, be careful” as we each took our next step like that was going to help but I felt just a little nervous about the rocks and making sure we got down safely. Well, my fear was not unwarranted. Just as we got down to the bottom, we hear one of the hikers behind us fall and scream as he was making his way down the rocks. He knew immediately he had broken his wrist.

We immediately stopped where we were and tried to think of what we needed to do to help. We didn’t have great service, the hiker was from out of town, the parking lot was ten minutes away… Oh, and the nearest hospital was over 30 minutes away. It was getting dark so we told the hiker we would get him to a hospital since he and his friend didn’t have a car or a phone. They had hiked into the parkway. The poor guy was crying and in so much pain as we walked back to the car. All I could do was give him a few Advil I had in my trunk for the ride to the ER. My clients were kind enough to take him to UVA and make sure he was taken care. They are seriously the sweetest souls!

So to say this shoot was an adventure would probably be an understatement! I’ve never before witnessed someone breaking a bone so it was a little traumatic for me. Haha! I’m SO glad it wasn’t anything worse and that we were there to be able to take him to the ER. I can’t imagine what would have happened otherwise! It was a wild end to our shoot to say the least but hey, the photos turned out unbelievably well! After that crazy story, you’ll probably view this shoot a little differently but you can’t miss it!! It’s too good! Hope you enjoy!

Na’Pali Coast Adventure Session | Kauai Elopement Photographer