Cherokee Rock Village | A Go-To Destination For Portrait Photography
Back in February of 2022 I had the honor and privilege to capture some of the most beautiful and scenic portraits in my portfolio of Jim and Emily! These two love a great place to enjoy the outdoors and were also the ones to introduce me to Cherokee Rock Village in Leesburg, AL. The drive there was absolutely worth every mile because of how vast and scenic the park was. This month I wanted to talk more about my day there and how we all climbed some rocks to get some of these incredible shots!
Arriving To The Park
I live in Birmingham, AL so the trip to Cherokee Rock Village was nearly a 2 hour drive away from home. This was my first time ever hearing about Cherokee Rock as well as visiting. When we arrived there was a nice amount of parking available and the layout of the roads in the park were very simple to figure out. All the scenic trails were in walking distance from the parking lot so there was no need to park your car in a specific location. Being February however, it was pretty cold! Not only was it cold, we were higher up in elevation than normal so the winds were a bit rough at times. Jim and Emily handled the weather like pros when it was time to take photos! When you go down into the rocks away from the parking lot is when you’ll see just how high up you really are! Below is a photo of the overlook we were able to enjoy the entire photography session.
A Photographer’s Dream
The park is filled with so many places for you to explore you could easily spend many hours taking pictures at this park! Cherokee Rock Village is well known to many who are passionate rock climbers. The park has rocks that go as high as 200 feet for you to climb and the rocks are properly maintained throughout the year for safe rock climbing fun! I started the session on leveled ground near one of the camping grounds offered by the park. It was a great way to get my couple comfortable with me taking pictures of them, but I could tell they were naturals in front of a camera! From there we began to venture out into the rocks where we were able to capture photos of the surrounding boulders towering over us. The day we went to the park there wasn’t much activity, but I think that was also because it was a bit cold to be taking sunset photos. Jim and Emily had one particular spot in mind that they loved going to every time they visited the park. It was also one of the places I was able to capture some very unique photos of them being themselves 100%!
Reaching The Top
One of the things I like to do prior to any photography session is scan my surroundings to find the best places to photograph my couples. I knew I wanted to find an open area where the overlook was clearly visible, but it was going to require a little bit of climbing to do so. The overlook photos I captured that day required me to climb roughly 30 feet of rock so that I could capture some gorgeous mountain top photos. While 30 feet does not sound like much, the climb was more vertical than you can imagine. Not only that I was carrying my camera bag full of various lenses. My heaviest being my 70-200mm lens. Jim and Emily were very much prepared for climbing some rocks if it meant we were going to capture some amazing photos! It was much easier climbing to the top of the rock than it was going back down, so I wanted to take as much time as I could before we lost all our lighting! I must say that our efforts to take photos on top of this boulder was worth every minute!
Should You Visit Cherokee Rock? Absolutely!
Overall if you’re looking for a very scenic place to capture portraits of your couples, Cherokee Rock Village is a go-to destination! There are plenty of locations throughout the park for you to explore and take lots of pictures of your couples. Due to the various terrain you will encounter, plan to wear some more heavy duty footwear. I would also advise you to ask your clients to wear comfortable and durable shoes as well if you plan to capture any of the overlook shots I have on this blog. You will need to climb some of the boulders to get these overlook shots where the tree line isn’t obstructing the view. As you can also see sunset shots are ideal for this location. The weather conditions were great besides the fact it was freezing cold outside, but I would say it is worth taking photos at this park all year around if you’re willing to handle the hot or cold! Before I finish this blog post for the month, I want to send another shout out to Jim and Emily for this opportunity to introduce me to Cherokee Rock Village! This amazing couple picked this park for their engagement photos and I’m happy to say that they now married and spending the next 5 months on the Appalachian Trail for their honeymoon! Congratulations to them on their marriage and for their safe return home from their honeymoon!