Horizons Unlimited Virginia

Founded by Susan & Grant Johnson, Horizons Unlimited has been inspiring, informing, and connecting overland travelers since 1997.

Their events are all about overland adventure! Whether you’re a seasoned veteran with wisdom to share or a complete novice that’s hungry for ideas and guidance, it doesn’t matter if you ride a motorcycle, a bicycle, or drive an expedition vehicle…Horizons Unlimited meetings are for everyone who dreams of adventure along the road less traveled.

Each year Horizons Unlimited hosts 20+ events around the globe. I’ve had the pleasure of teaching photography workshops and presentations at the meeting in Virginia, and at the one in North Carolina. It seems adventure travelers are always keen on improving the quality of the images they take while they are riding around the globe on their epic RTW, or “Round the World” trip. This year, instead of presenting, I got to photograph the event in Virginia. The photos were so well received, I’ve already been hired to photograph the event in North Carolina this fall!!!

Here then are some of my images from the Horizons Unlimited VA event. I’ve also included a number of behind-the-scenes snapshots from my phone, depicting my personal experiences at the event, as well as my travels to and from. Enjoy!!!

Anastasia & Alex are Married at the Greek Orthodox Church

Congratulations to Anastasia and Alex!!! Their absolutely GORGEOUS wedding was held at the Greek Orthodox Church, with the reception following at Circa 1886, and home-base being the Wentworth Mansion.

With their blended international families, Anastasia, Alex, and I “clicked” right from the start. Anastasia was an absolutely STUNNING, elegant, and easy-going bride! Her Greek heritage had a lot to do with that, I’m sure. Alex was this tall handsome groom with a great sense of humor. Having recently returned from visiting his great country, I’m convinced his Australian heritage had much to do with that.

We had an absolute BLAST together on their wedding day!!! And I couldn’t be happier for these two! We wish you all the best as you begin your new journey together!!! 🙂

For more of their images, visit: http://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/anastasiaandalex.

K-Con Team Photos

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of photographing headshots and team photos for K-Con.

K-Con, Inc. is a Design-Build General Contractor offering turn-key construction & renovation/up-fit services, engineering, site preparation & installation. K-Con serves Commercial and Government entities in the local Charleston, SC area and throughout the United States. They proudly offer Government and Military building clients the advantages of GSA Federal Supply Schedule ordering nationwide.

I had so much fun photographing this amazing group. The really cool part was discovering how many connections we had in common! It turns out I photographed pre-school photos of one of the team’s sons. I also happen to be good friends with one of their good friends. But the biggest surprise was re-connecting with one of our first friends from when we moved to Charleston many many years ago! We had lost touch over the years. It was so neat to run into each other again!!!

I found everyone at the K-Con Team to be friendly, professional, accessible, and responsive. If you’re ever in need of their services, they will exceed your expectations!

Frankie & Rebecca’s Hidden Garden Proposal

Frankie’s Surprise Proposal in a private hidden garden in downtown Charleston is easily one of my absolute favorites EVER!!!

When Frankie contacted me back in March, I knew this was going to be a really special one. He had so many great ideas, and had really gone out of his way to make this extra special for his longtime girlfriend, Rebecca. He had contacted a friend, who knew someone with a beautiful home in the old historic district of downtown Charleston, that had an amazing hidden garden in the back. The home-owners had graciously allowed us to use this beautiful spot where Frankie was to ask Rebecca for her hand in marraige.

I made a special scouting visit several weeks prior to figure out the logistics of where the best place to propose would be, where the best place for me to hide would be, etc. When the Big Day finally arrived, everything went off like clock-work! The home-owners had even arranged for friends, Cory and Kayla, to hide with me and pop some Champagne for the beautiful couple when she said “YES”!!! It was such a beautiful moment, and I’m so honored to have been a part of this AMAZING secret marriage proposal.

CONGRATULATIONS Frankie & Rebecca! May your journey ahead be full of love and laughter all the days of your lives.

Preston’s Secret Proposal to Stevie at Magnolia Plantation

Preston is quite the gentleman! He contacted me way back in October to set plans in motion for his Surprise Proposal to his beautiful girlfriend, Stevie. He wanted everything to be PERFECT for her!!!

Well, the big day finally arrived. And everything DID turn out perfect. We had beautiful weather, very few tourists, and Stevie said “YES”!!! What could be better than that?!?

Preston proposed at the middle of the famous white bridge at Magnolia Plantation. What an iconic location to become engaged, right? Hailing from Kansas, he and Stevie have been dating for 8 years now. We wish them all the happiness in the world as they begin this NEW journey together as husband and wife!  🙂

Leila’s 1-Year Cake Smashing

From photographing Joe & Louisa’s wedding, to capturing Geer’s 1-Year Cake Smashing, it was a real joy to meet the newest addition to their family!

Leila is an absolute joy, such a happy kid, and so much fun to be around. We photographed an entire family session at Hampton Park, and she never got tired or fussy once!!! At the end of the shoot, Grandma Felicia brought out this cute little cake and we let Leila go to town. 🙂

CONGRATULATIONS Joe & Louisa! You two are truly blessed to have these beautiful, healthy, and happy children in your lives!!!

Create Photography Retreat

It’s an honor and a privilege to be selected as a guest speaker alongside legends like Eddie Tapp, Judy Host, Richard Bernabe, and Ben Hartley at the Create Photography Retreat over the next few days!!!

Here are a few shots from today’s outing at Middleton Place Plantation…

Trident Medical Center Service Awards

One of my absolute favorite events to photograph each year is the Trident Health Service Awards, rewarding top employees for outstanding service!!!

“One of the greatest assets we have at Trident Health is our talented team of people who carry out our daily mission of creating a caring environment where healing occurs,” said Trident Health Chief Executive Officer Todd Gallati. “Our patients are at the center of everything we do, and outstanding individuals like these are the reason Trident Health continues to rank among the nation’s top performing hospitals.”

I photographed the program with a Nikon D5, a Nikon D850, the “Holy Trinity” of Nikkor lenses, and 10 Nikon Speedlights!

Abby’s Model Portfolio

The daughter of a friend of ours, Abby was in town to model for Charleston Fashion Week. During some down time, we photographed a portfolio session for her at the old abandoned Naval Hospital.  It also gave me a chance to really test the limits of the astounding new Nikon D850!

The Charleston Naval Hospital Historic District is nationally significant as an example of the United States effort to mobilize medical support for the Navy during World Wars I and II. Now neglected and in dis-repair, it once exemplifies the Navy’s ability to create a permanent and professional medical service for Navy personnel and their dependents.  The complex is an intact collection of thirty-two buildings located in the northwest corner of the former Charleston Navy Base.

Abby was so much fun to work with!  She is a beautiful young lady, both inside and out!  And she has a very unique look.  I can see why she’s so popular on the runway!!!  We had a great time exploring the area, and coming up with some killer images for her to add to her portfolio.

Wild at Wingswood Gala

Photographing the annual Wild at Wingswood gala for the Charleston Center for Birds of Prey is one of my most anticipated events of the year!

It’s a very unique fundraiser, where live raptors, owls, and other beautiful birds soar through the air, gliding silently over guests and attendees under the big tent!
The Avian Conservation Center and the Center for Birds of Prey are doing AMAZING things for our natural world. If you’ve never been, they are open to the public on most Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. You’ve GOT to check this cool place out and see for yourself why nature lovers from all over the country speak so highly of this gem, located just a few miles outside of Charleston!

Check them out at http://www.thecenterforbirdsofprey.org/.

D850 vs D500

When my good friend and AMAZING wildlife photographer, David Archer, invited me to play with his new D850, I jumped at the chance! Thanks again, David!!!

I’ve read all the reviews, and seen all the stats. But what I wanted to know was how well it would stand up in those dim conference rooms and dark churches I frequently deal with when covering corporate events and weddings. The flagship Nikon D5 is my main camera. The D500 is my secondary. My question was, would the D850 beat the D500 in low light?!?

In my opinion, for what I shoot, the “Pixel Race” ended a LOOOONG time ago! Huge enlargements from any modern camera with a 20-24MP sensor will turn out gorgeous. So the D850’s huge 47MP sensor has no appeal to me. In most situations, I would probably shoot it in the Medium RAW setting, which is approximately 25MP. The REAL challenge that remains, is dealing with shooting in low-light conditions. I have yet to see a real-world comparison in this situation between Nikon’s latest work-horses, the D5, D500, and D850.

I already knew my D5 would be superior to both the D850 and the D500 at high-iso settings. Still, I brought it along and incorporated it in the test. There wasn’t even a comparison!!! And since my goal was to determine if the D850 would be a better secondary-camera than my D500, I simplified the comparison to just those two bodies.

David and I met for lunch at the delicious Ti-Ney Bangkok Thai restaurant in Summerville. I mounted my 70-200 f2.8 to a tripod. Because the D850 is so new, I knew I couldn’t open the RAW files in Lightroom. So all cameras were set to JPG. I mounted each camera to the lens and took 3 shots…ISO 1600, ISO 3200, and ISO 6400. That was it! That’s all I cared about!

Back at the work station, I imported all the images. Next, the D850 files were normalized to be the same size as the D500 files, bringing them both to approximately 21MP. Downsizing the 47MP file to 21MP surely helped improve the grain characteristics of that camera. But again, this was a “real world” type of test. In other words, if I’m faced with a difficult lighting situation, what’s the BEST low-light performance I can get out of each camera? No adjustments were made to noise reduction or sharpness in post-processing. Next to each high-resolution image, I also outputed a 100% crop. So the images go as follows:

D850 @ 1600
D850 @1600 100% crop
D850 @ 3200
D850 @ 3200 100% crop
D850 @ 6400
D850 @ 6400 100% crop
D500 @ 1600
D500 @1600 100% crop
D500 @ 3200
D500 @ 3200 100% crop
D500 @ 6400
D500 @ 6400 100% crop

One thing I did note was that the D850 files look softer than the D500 files. That may have been partly due to the JPG settings in that camera. Unfortunately I didn’t check to make sure both JPG profiles were the same. It also might be due to the fact that my 70-200 lens is calibrated to my D500 body and not to the D850. So the focus might have been off a little. But regardless, I’m very impressed with the D850!!!

What do you think?