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Where the Rays Play. | Perdido Key Landscape Photography

Earlier this week, I met the sweetest couple for a photo session. They were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. We had never met before, aside from a few phone calls to set up our location and date for the shoot. As we were standing there by the shore, we started talking a little bit about our personal lives. We both live here, but are not from here, and feel a special connection to the Gulf and all it offers. Lori had started telling me that they were treating themselves to a week at a condo on the beach and the day before, had seen an entire family of rays swim lazily through the calm, green waters. Not more than 2 minutes later and her husband interrupted us, exclaiming, “Turn around, LOOK!”. We snapped our heads around and saw 2 rays, that had seemingly come out of nowhere, swim right up to the shore! They splashed us, swam around, flipped their fins (fins, flippers??) did a little happy dance and then swam off! I couldn’t believe it!! Out of the entire coastline that lay before us, they seemingly chose to come right up to us and say “hello”. It was a magical moment for all of us. Luckily, I had my camera set on continuous high speed shooting (I always have it set this way on sessions) and had the presence of mind to snap around and capture every second thru my viewfinder. I didn’t realize that I had managed to capture them perfectly in a break of a wave. In my 5 years of living on the Emerald Coast, I have only been that close to them once. A family of rays swam through my legs a few years ago and I will never, ever forget it. I adore this Paradise I live in. I’m pretty sure this moment was just meant for the two of them (I was just lucky enough to be there to witness it), but it made our day non-the-less. The Emerald Coast and Perdido Key is where I call home; my children are growing up here and making their childhood memories on our sugar white sands and Emerald green waters. And for that, I am grateful. This is a small part of why my heart belongs to the Emerald Coast. PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE PINIMAGE