After securing my camera bag in the pink basket attached to the front of my baby blue Schwinn, I hopped on and pedaled away in my flip flops. Weaving through tourists dragging coolers, wet towels and crying children as they exit the beach, I head toward the southern tip of Tybee. This is about five blocks from our apartment. The past two weeks have been my busiest since relocating to Tybee a few years ago. Seven family portraits and seven weddings in twelve days have kept me on the move.
The south end is one of my favorite spots on Tybee…oh ok you got me, they’re are all my favorite. The beach crossover at 19th and Chatham is where I usually meet up with my family portrait clients.
I have to brag a little about how amazing my studio set designer is. Perfectly placed driftwood, gently rolling sand dunes and precisely timed whitecaps, the backgrounds in my new studio are simply stunning.
All East coast beaches feature the sun rising over water, most have the sun setting over land. Here we get both blessed events over water. The sun rises over the ocean, and sets over the Back River. The Back River is the body of water to the south and west of the island that separates us from the rest of Georgia.
Watching the sunset is actually a daily event on Tybee. At any given evening, even during the winter, we will run into several people we know gathering at picturesque locations on Tybee, to watch the closing of another day in paradise. It is quite a magical moment. This is when I have a peaceful feeling that washes over me, knowing that we have slowed down our life enough to appreciate this beautiful occasion. “Coco’s”, a restaurant on Tybee even celebrates the sunset everyday by giving a round of shots to everyone sitting at the bar as they blow the conch shell and bid adieu to another day.
A few months ago, Sean and I went to Costa Rica. (You can read all about it starting with day one here.) Most nights we walked down to the beach, about few hundred yards from our cinder block hostel, and watched the sunset while sipping cocktails from a hammock strung between two palm trees. While we enjoyed our treasured time together and the sunsets were really pretty, we both decided that they did not compare to the vivid paintings that stretch across the Tybee skies every evening.
Unique layered clouds form as moisture gathers over the marshes and the Back River. This results in spectacular sunsets, especially if they follow a summer thunderstorm.
Three out of five clients begin texting me in a panic around noon. Their phones are pinging with alerts from weather.com, stating that a storm is on its way. They begin asking about rescheduling their session as a storm starts to develop. 95% of the time, the storm passes quickly and leaves the skyscape more beautiful than it was before.
Life can be that way too. We start to freak out when storms come our way. Not wanting to encounter the fury and power they possess, trying to avoid the dark clouds and scary booms that send us running for cover. But storms are what bring clean water that will nourish us and clear the air in our lives, washing away debris and slough. A new and more beautiful reality will present itself, if we hang on and wait for the storm to pass.
Are you in the midst of a storm? Are the dark clouds of life overhead? Hang on a little longer, this will pass and the colors will be beautiful once again.
