- [Narrator] Funding for "View Finders" was provided by-- - [Woman] Let's imagine what outside can be.

- [Man 1] Outside is important.

- [Woman] It's musical.

(woman laughs) - [Man 2] Together we can create an outside with space for everyone.

(gentle guitar music) - [Narrator] Funding for "View Finders" is provided by Troncalli Subaru, located on Highway 9 in Cumming.

Visit Troncalli Subaru or find out more online at troncallisubaru.com (upbeat music) - [Man 3] At Terrapin Beer Company, we make beer for life's adventures.

Be they far from home, or right in your own backyard.

Terrapin, good everywhere, best outside.

(ethereal music) - 36,000 acres accessible only by ferry.

- 17 miles of pristine beaches.

- This is Cumberland Island.

I'm Chris.

- I'm Jason - [All] And we're the "View Finders."

(upbeat guitar music) - Hi, my name is Chris Greer.

I'm a Professor of Instructional Technology at Georgia College.

I teach in the college of education.

I work with undergraduate and graduate students, helping them learn how to use technology in the K12 classroom for student learning and achievement.

When I'm not teaching at the university, I'm taking pictures.

I love landscape photography.

I've done it for many, many years and it's taken me to beautiful locations, and provided me with some fantastic opportunities.

A few years ago I authored a book named "Georgia Discovered," that has led to a second project a pure photography book called "Naturally Georgia" that's gonna be published to you shortly.

- My name is Jason Clemmons, and I'm from a little mountain town in Georgia called Blairsville.

There, along with my wife and family, I own Sunrise Grocery, which was nominated as the most charming general store in the South by Southern Living.

I have numerous businesses located in the county that display my art, which I'm very thankful for.

One of my favorite things to do here is hop in the car with my wife and find a local hiking trail.

I'm strictly a landscape photographer.

It makes you go out into the woods early in the morning or staying a little late and walking back in the dark.

But when you catch one of those special moments it's something that you always remember.

(upbeat electronic music) - Here we are finally, Cumberland Island, Jason and I are very excited to be here.

It's just full of photography opportunities and we've got some great weather, and even better, we're being hosted by Robin with the National Park Service.

Bin kind of showing us around, taking us to some of the really iconic locations.

Robin, thank you so much.

Tell us a little bit about Cumberland.

- Absolutely.

Cumberland Island is really an incredible place.

Just as a couple stats about it, it is the largest and southernmost island in Georgia , and it's a barrier island.

So it's right on the edge of the ocean and the land.

So there's a lot of overlap between those two types of ecosystems.

So there's a ton to see out here.

The island is just shy of 18 miles from end to end, about three and 1/4 miles at it's widest point, right about where we are now, at Plum Orchard, and about a 1/2 at it's narrowest point to Sea Camp Ranger Station.

The island in total is about 36,000 acres which is a huge area to explore.

So it's hard to see the whole thing in one trip.

But you don't need that much time to really see some cool stuff.

- [Jason] The sun was beginning to set, so we hiked down to the Southern end of the island to explore Dungeness and the surrounding area.

The crumbling ruins of Dungeness are an iconic reminder of the incredible wealth amassed by the Carnegie family who at one point owned 90% of the island.

- The Carnegie family first purchased property in Cumberland Island in 1881.

And it was Thomas Carnegie, the younger brother to Andrew, who purchased a property here on Cumberland Island.

Both those brothers were involved in the steel industry and amassed quite a wealth in that time.

When Andrew and his wife Lucy came down here to Cumberland Island, they began building a home that would serve as their winter home.

And they named it Dungeness, after the previous Dungeness mansion that was built by Catherine Green, the widow of Major General Nathaniel Green from the American Revolution.

- Cumberland Island's the crown jewel of the Georgia Coast.

All of our islands are special.

And our coast is largely conserved which is something we're very fortunate to have, but Cumberland Island has globally significant habitats.

And it's our longest island.

It's famous for it's iconic maritime forest which you see in the background behind me here.

These oaks with the power meadows and the understory, very complex and rich canopy and ground cover.

Some of the birding habitat is very significant with our shorebirds.

The dunes and the areas where our shorebirds live and up along the marsh.

So it's just a absolutely gorgeous place but it also has a nationally and globally significant habitats.

- I don't know what happened to Jason.

He's off somewhere here in the estuary taking his own composition.

- All right.

My sun set composition, I'm thinking about this one.

There's some strong ripples in the sand right here from when the water was up a little bit.

- You can see the sun is dropping.

I've got this snaking estuarial creek, kind of winding out to the bay.

- And it created this really bumpy texture.

Then when the sun goes down, that light will be raking across the top of these ripples and really making that contrast really pop.

- It's all kinda coming together.

There are even some clouds that have formed.

So this could end up being a better photo than I thought initially.

- Then I'll have the sun low in the horizon.

So I plan to make this like a dreamy image.

I'll shoot it vertical, real low to the ground.

- No matter what, I'm on Cumberland Island.

It's beautiful, it's been a wonderful day, Jason and I have gotten some good pictures and seen some really, really beautiful things.

So, there are no complaints no matter how this image turns out.

(camera shutter clicks) (calm electronic music) (fire crackles) (ethereal music) - So Cumberland Island is a national seashore, which means, it is one of the over 420 national park sites found across the United States.

It has been protected as a national seashore since October 23rd, 1972.

The mission of the National Park Service is to protect special places across the country for future generations, but also provide opportunities for recreation.

At times, this can be a challenge to balance those two mission statements of the National Park Service.

- I think the visitor experience on Cumberland Island would also be very different if the park service hadn't enacted a policy limiting the number of visitors daily allowed on the island.

It's something that lends a degree of safety and security and certainly protects the natural resources.

- It's fascinating period of time in the late 1960's that led to the conservation of Cumberland Island, along with a number of our other islands, there's only two or three of 'em off the Georgia coast that are federally protected.

And Cumberland is one of the most notable, and is the only one that's a national park.

- Due to its remote nature, Cumberland Island is nationally protected from a lot of the pressures that you can find on other islands here along the Atlantic Coast, which makes it a really wonderful and unique place in the national park system, where it is intentionally undeveloped.

And when you come out here, man, it is so much different than a lot of other parks.

It's easy to get away from the crowds and really have your own slice of wilderness out here on the island.

- While Cumberland is really committed to making sure that we are responsible stewards now of this natural resource so that the future generations can continue to benefit from these resources in perpetuity.

So it's really important to us that we manage the human impact on this place carefully.

- [Chris] What do you think?

- Man, just sitting under these huge trees, Cumberland is just one of those places that, it's mesmerizing.

It's like every turn is a big tree or it's a-- - [Chris] I know.

- [Jason] It's a horse.

- I think one reason I really like it here is it's so diverse.

It's in one area.

So we can walk from the estuary to the beach, we can visit these super historical ruins, we can photograph horses and wild turkeys, and all types of other creatures, and that's like a span of an hour.

- [Jason] Yeah.

- There's very few places that you can do that, and not also be overrun with crowds.

- [Jason] Some of the best trees in the United States, this to me offers just as much as the redwoods.

The character of these trees, the moss that lines them, the ferns that grow on 'em.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Jason] I mean, they're just unbelievable.

- [Chris] They are.

- So while we're sitting here appreciating Cumberland, I do think we need to have a little conversation about this morning.

- Oh man.

- It's been on my mind all day and I'm trying to stay focused on the photography aspect, but I keep seeing those strips of bacon laying in mayonnaise on your sandwich and I can't get it outta my head, man.

I couldn't believe it.

So I mean, I guess some people like mayonnaise on their BLT and I get that, but-- - No, that's not what you said this morning.

- Well, it was six in the morning.

- You were saying people don't put bacon-- - And mayonnaise - All right.

Okay.

- That was the argument.

- You came back with the BLT argument and I will concede the BLTs typically have mayo.

Mine don't.

- I pretty much won the argument.

- Mine don't.

You don't necessarily vocalize this.

It's just an understood time of day when mayonnaise is not allowed, and that is up until about 10.30am in the morning.

So after that, all bets are off, put the mayonnaise on whatever you want, but you should not be putting mayonnaise on anything at six in the morning.

- No.

- Especially bacon and eggs.

- It's physically impossible to swallow bread without mayonnaise.

(Chris laughs) (instrumental country music) (camera shutter clicks) - So let's talk about phones for a minute, because all of you can be photographers very easily without investing money like we have in expensive gear.

And you can still take really good pictures.

In fact, sometimes our phones kind of surprise us.

Like we're kind of irritated almost how good it looks outta the phone with so little work.

- Yeah.

It's a joke sometimes.

Like you're saying, we'll take a picture and bypassing a lot of the hard work with editing and the fancy high-dollar cameras, this phone will spit out a fantastic photo.

- Yeah.

I mean, if you just are interested in kind of picking up some photography and trying to express yourself in a creative way, and give you an excuse to get out and explore some beautiful spots near your house or beyond, then you don't have to spend any money.

You can just get out your phone and think about your compositions, and your eye, and finding a subject that's interesting to you that you wanna kind of convey that to the viewer and finding a creative way to take that image.

And so, Jason and I have been doing a little bit of that today.

- Actually I've taken two images today with the phone and I like 'em both.

They actually, one was vertical and the other was landscape.

- And in some ways the phone is nice 'cause it simplifies things.

You don't have to worry about swapping lenses.

You don't have to worry about zoom shots and compression and all of that.

You kind of, you got what you got, whatever your phone is capable of shooting, there's not much you can do to change that.

So then it all comes down to how you compose your shot, and a bit of how you edit it afterwards.

And there's a lot of editors on the phone, you can use the built-in one, there's ones you can download.

So you can still get creative afterwards like we do with our images out of our more professional equipment.

- And it lets you bypass this thing 'cause this will go right in your pocket.

- But at the end of the day, when my feet are tired and my shoulders are aching there's times where I think it would be nice to just be using this.

- Yeah.

- Well, Jason, here we are last day on Cumberland.

We sure had a good time here.

Explored, hiked all over, saw some areas of the island we've never been before.

We were shown some locations that we really didn't know much about.

It's always fun here.

We've never had a bad experience and we can't wait to get back (soft piano music) And we're back.

- And we're back.

- [Chris] Six months later and we decided we wanted what?

Fog?

- [Jason] Let's hope.

- [Chris] Night sky.

Maybe some meteors.

Yeah.

We want it all.

- [Jason] We came here this time of year, last year.

- [Chris] Yep.

- [Jason] And we kind of learned that there's some of the vines and some of the growth here has some fall colors, some yellow.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Jason] This tree right behind us has some nice color to it.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Jason] These yellow vines are on these big live oaks adds a nice touch of color and gives kind of a sense of season.

- [Chris] Last time we didn't spend as much time in the woods as we wanted to.

And the maritime forest here is fantastic.

- This is the longest stretch, the Eastern Seaboard, large intact maritime forest.

The soils are more developed here on Cumberland Island, so you tend to have larger trees and more dense canopy.

The moss hangs down, it's the iconic Spanish moss.

Looking at it it almost doesn't look real.

There's so much Spanish moss on these trees on Cumberland Island.

Somehow the trees on Cumberland Island just don't look like anywhere else in the country that I've seen.

They have very unique appearance.

(ethereal music) - Last night, we contemplated coming down here to the ruins and shooting the Geminids meteor shower.

It was at peak last night, we knew we were gonna have a battle with the clouds, but we got up around three-ish, and we had crystal clear skies.

So we hopped on the bikes.

- Yeah.

I mean, when we first got here, there were some stars so we got a few shots, and then the fog showed up and it got kinda real gloomy and atmospheric and so we just kind of embraced that.

- [Jason] Yeah.

- I did a lot of light painting, which is cool, and there's a lot of trial and error with that, but it was kind of a fun way to pass the roughly four hours between when we arrived here for the meteors, and when the sun came up.

- This morning, when we light painted we actually light painted the face, and we came back on the other side and kind of shot beams of light through the windows and the doors.

Here are the images that we got this morning and I hope you like 'em.

(camera shutter clicks) (upbeat blues music) (shutter click) (upbeat blues music) - [Charles] When you take that ferry over from St Mary's to Cumberland Island, you're entering a different world and you get the privilege and the joy of getting off the ferry, going on a short hike into this maritime forest, you also get to see these iconic horses that represent the island.

And a lot of times what people really remember is the horses.

- [Jessica] I first visited this place as a young person myself, as a photographer and fell in love with it.

I returned over and over for the course of 25 years.

And I think that when you return to a place consistently you have a different understanding and appreciation of that resource and how it changes over time and how humans can impact a place over times.

- The ruins that they have of some of the old mansions that belong to the Carnegie's, and you realize about this amazing period during the American Enlightenment, when some of the richest families in the world were calling this their winter home.

So there's just all these different aspects of it.

Then at the end of the day you get back on the ferry, and you're back in St. Mary's and gonna enjoy a good meal and a soft bed.

The energy here on this island is just over the top.

Every time, I've been over here so many times, and every time without fail, no day is the same here.

- Well, even when Cumberland disappoints-- - It never disappoints if that makes sense.

- [Jason] I've been saying to you that I think this is one of my favorite places on earth and I'm a mountain guy.

I love the mountains, but Cumberland just has something, it has the it factor.

- It's incredible.

We wanted fog, we didn't get it.

We wanted the night sky and the meteors, we didn't get 'em, but it was still awesome.

- Yeah.

- And we got some good stuff.

And we saw a lot of wildlife.

The conditions were really nice, like for camping-- - Yeah, it had nice flat light, which is, didn't really have any harsh light.

- I rode all over the island yesterday, got a lot of good exercise-- - [Jason] Yeah.

On my bike.

- Yeah.

That electric bike that you pedal twice per mile, Jason's been a little upset that my bike has a battery and a motor and his doesn't.

- [Jason] So mine has flat tires.

- Well, that's on you, you should have put a little air in those tires before bringing it out here.

It's sad that the day's here that we have to pack up and leave Cumberland again, but we know we will be back.

We will continue to come back.

This is a jewel for not only the Southeast but really for the entire world.

I mean, people come here from all over and for good reason.

And so I can't wait to get back here.

- Yeah.

If you love the outdoors, I would highly recommend visiting this place.

It's one of those places that kind of changes you a little bit, and it makes you want to preserve it.

(upbeat country music) ♪ Hollows in the woods call out ♪ ♪ Trails up mountains climb ♪ ♪ Waves and sand keep beat and time ♪ ♪ Mossy blankets, swirling streams ♪ ♪ Over rocks and dirt ♪ ♪ Run at pace with all the earth ♪ ♪ Could we capture nature's wonder ♪ ♪ Find our way to getting lost ♪ ♪ Freeze a frame to save forever ♪ ♪ Adventure worth the cost ♪ ♪ Bees and dandelion grain ♪ ♪ Dance in sun-soaked fields ♪ ♪ Wind and gleam together yield ♪ ♪ Pocket worries fade to dim ♪ ♪ Wait on focus new ♪ ♪ Wild is coming into view ♪ (upbeat country music) - [Narrator] Funding for "View Finders" was provided by-- - [Woman] Let's imagine what outside can be.

- [Man 1] Outside is important.

- [Woman] It's musical.

(woman laughs) - [Man 2] Together we can create an outside with space for everyone.

(gentle guitar music) - [Narrator] Funding for "View Finders" is provided by Troncalli Subaru, located on Highway 9 in Cumming.

Visit Troncalli Subaru or find out more online at troncallisubaru.com (upbeat music) - [Man 3] At Terrapin Beer Company, we make beer for life's adventures.

Be they far from home, or right in your own backyard.

Terrapin, good everywhere, best outside.