Today brings part 9 in the Bentley Photography history series.
Photographing at Sea Island you never knew what you would be called to do or who you might see. We photographed a little bit of everything. Depending on the time of year we might be called to shoot a family portrait on the beach or in one of the “cottages”. The next day we might be photographing a golf tournament or convention. In the summer most mornings were spent photographing children on the beach, crabbing, or taking tennis lessons. At night we would photograph honeymooners, families and couples as they came to eat. While I was walking to the beach club one day I ran into Kim Alexis out for a jog. On another day while I was photographing at the putting lawn I met Susan Lucci, from All My Children, and her children. We photographed her with the children and her family several times. The funny thing was that other guest were buying them to show their friends that they had vacationed at the same place as her. Toni Tennile – from The Captain and Tennile, Sam Donaldson, General Westmoreland, were just a few of others that we photographed while at Sea Island. And in 1985 or 86, the years run together, there was a local golfer named Davis Love III that got married. I had photographed him several times for other things and I was honored to be asked to photograph his wedding.
1986 was arriving and with it came several changes both at work and in our personal lives. Scott and I were avid SCUBA divers and spent a lot of time going on diving trips in Florida. We found a much nicer apartment with air-conditioning, it even had a paved parking lot and a pool. Most summers we had photographers return to work with us for the busy season. Some summers we would have to hire new photographers to come in and help us and in 1986 we had to replace several photographers and the office manager . We had seen the island grow and change a lot, and without even realizing it we had grown and changed a lot too. We would soon discover just how much our lives would be different.