A little known me fact, when I first moved to Florida just after college, my first job was working at South Seas Resort on Captiva Island. It wasn't exactly a normal hotel job though. At 22 years old I had started my own business taking family portraits and had somehow convinced the executives at South Seas to allow me to be their exclusive photographer offering family portraits to all of their guests. This was a new concept at the time and none of the local hotels had an official photographer on site. I had an office right on the hotel grounds and did photo presentations to all of my clients right in the King's Crown (building pictured above). For a few years I made the hour long commute from Fort Myers to Captiva Island pretty much daily. I did all of the family portraits, pictures of the kids activities and even went along on the parasailing boat several days a week to capture guests enjoying their ride! And, my favorite part, I also started photographing most of the weddings that happened at the resort. It didn't take long for me to realize that the wedding part of my week was the highlight. Not to say I didn't enjoy riding around on a parasailing boat (and I had a pretty incredible tan to go with it!) but the weddings definitely left me feeling the most fulfilled. It wasn't a hard decision to eventually sell that business and the contract that I had with South Seas Resort and focus my efforts on weddings. Over the past few years I've continued to photograph weddings at South Seas. I still know all of those hidden little spots for wedding pictures and the best way to capture that amazing Captiva Island sunset. And I do still have to stop and take it all in when I stand on the T-dock and look at how amazing those ancient old Florida Palms look draped with twinkle lights during a wedding reception. That place will just always be magical no matter how many years pass. And if you do find yourself at South Seas Resort, be sure and have your family picture taken by the staff photographer doing family portraits. That service that I started is still there and going strong (although I believe it's been passed on to a few photographers now). However, if you happen to be out there on Captiva thinking about a wedding, definitely give me a call. I will take any opportunity to celebrate (and of course photograph!) on that beautiful island!
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