Kathleen & Michael at the Francis Marion Hotel

I owe a HUGE thank you to the Lazicki family for recommending us to Kathleen’s Aunt and Uncle!
 
They put me in touch with Kathleen and Michael, and we began chatting, emailing, and Skyping over a year ago. We got together over coffee one weekend when they were in town, finalizing plans for their wedding day. I felt such an instant connection with this beautiful couple…I just KNEW their wedding was going to be a special one!
 
Last weekend the Big Day finally arrived…and I was BLOWN AWAY!!! My assistant, Laura, and I were accepted into the fold as if we were family. Nothing in the world could have dampened the spirit of this special day. The energy in the air was simply electric!
 
Getting ready at the Francis Marion Hotel, Kathleen was absolutely stunning, in a very unique dress that I absolutely LOVED!!! Michael was quite dashing and debonair, himself. My favorite part of the day was when the two of them shared a special moment together (on opposite sides of her door) to exchange gifts and tell each other how much they looked forward to marrying one another!
 
Following the beautiful ceremony in the Gold Ballroom at the old historic hotel, the families headed over to Marion Square for portraits. A chance encounter with a street performer prompted a vicious “Dance Off” with Michael, to which we’re all still bewildered as to who the victor was…it was THAT good!!! The wedding party then headed into the scenic College of Charleston campus, where we had a blast laughing and capturing tons of great photos while the students are away for the summer.
 
Returning to the Francis Marion Hotel, Gillian and the amazing staff had transformed the ceremony site into a romantic reception hall. Michael had planned a raucous sports-arena-style Grand Entrance that did not disappoint. And Kathleen’s eloquent Welcome Speech raised a huge round of applause. The food, the fellowship, and the fun went on and on, non-stop all night long!
 
To see the rest of Kathleen & Michael’s photos, visit:  http://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/kathleenandmichael.
CONGRATULATIONS Kathleen & Michael!!! May your love for each other grow ever stronger as you walk together along this new journey together!

High-Key Head-shots

This morning I had another fantastic session with one of my favorite companies to work for, Colliers International!

I always set up my portable wireless studio in their office. This makes it so convenient for them. Instead of wasting their time fighting traffic, driving to a studio, finding parking, doing their shoot, than driving all the way back…each person just slips out of their office for a few minutes, does their shoot, picks out their favorites on the laptop, and they’re done! Plus, it’s always so fun for me to hang out with their awesome office staff, enjoy the camaraderie, and catch up on their lives!

Here are a few of my favorites from today.  If you or someone you know is looking for new head-shots, executive portraits, or staff photos, please let us know. We’d be delighted to help!!!

Graham & Clint with the Nikon D500

Graham and Clint are two of the TOP body builders in the entire state! Next weekend they’ll be competing in the IFBB NBC South Carolina Grand Prix. That means they are now in peak form. So I jumped at the chance to photograph them!!!

Even though they’ve been in Charleston a long time, one of their “summer bucket list” items was to finally visit the historic and picturesque Morris Island Inlet on Folly Beach. Since that’s one of my favorite areas to shoot in, we decided to meet there for their photo shoot. The late evening light was gorgeous, we got some KILLER images, and Graham and Clint were able to check one of their bucket-list items off the list!!!

To be the best of the best, Graham & Clint have to push their bodies to extreme limits. I thought, what better way to put the new Nikon D500 to the test, than to use it for this shoot? The snappy 10 fps allowed me to capture micro bursts of peak action. The beautiful 21MP sensor delivered excellent dynamic range. And the lighter weight body made it a lot less tiring to hand-hold.

But what most impressed me was the AF sensor’s ability to focus in extreme back-light situations. For the photos where the sunset is behind Graham and Clint, the subject is completely black and you have to squint really hard into the sun just to see their shadowy outline. Previous to this camera, I would have to take a couple steps to the side and acquire focus with the sun out of the frame…then step back into position to re-compose and shoot. With the D500, it effortlessly locked focused on the shadow-side of their faces without any trouble!

All images were photographed hand-held with the Nikon D500 and Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII. Natural light was augmented with 3 Nikon SB-800 flashes on my home-made triple-threat mount, attached to a Manfrotto 3333 light-stand off-camera. The setup was triggered via a Nikon SB-800 master flash on-camera, using a RadioPopper Px transmitter to communicate to the others.

I owe a HUGE Thank You to Graham & Clint for suffering through the humidity and bugs on a muggy Charleston evening! But we had a BLAST, and they were AMAZING to work with!!! You can follow their crazy life at #clintstagraham, where you’re sure to be inspired to better fitness. 🙂

First Corporate Event with the Nikon D500

I’ve had the new Nikon D500 for a couple weeks now. It’s been fun putting it through its paces on a battery of personal projects to make sure it was good to go for paid assignments. (I NEVER shoot an assignment for a client with a new piece of equipment without testing it thoroughly first.) Here are a few images from my very first outing with the D500 with ISO ranges from 800 to 12,800:  https://chrisandcami.com/first-shoot-with-the-nikon-d500/.  In the end, I was very pleased with the performance and the results from this little camera!!!

Here are a few shots from this event using the D500. If you’d like to see the full spectrum of images, and compare how it stacked up against the D4, check out this post: https://chrisandcami.com/withit-professional-womens-conference/.  I doubt you’d be able to spot any difference without some serious pixel peeping at 100% enlargement.

I knew that photographing in the Gold Ballroom at the Francis Marion Hotel was going to be a great challenge for this little crop-sensor camera. It’s a very dim conference room. Most of these shots were done at ISO ranges of 1600-3200…yet were completely usable! There is definitely a stop or so difference between this camera and the legendary D4 in terms of noise at these higher ISO settings. But that’s pretty impressive considering the D4 is a 16MP FX camera, and the D500 is a 21MP DX camera!

My kit for the last decade or so has usually comprised two identical full-frame flagship cameras, and one crop-sensor camera. I like shooting with two identical cameras with different focal lengths to make sure I never miss a moment. But I also like having a third camera that has a different set of “skills”, which I often use as a remote camera or a telephoto camera. Ever since the days of the D3/D300 combo, I’ve tried mixing in the D7100, D7200, and D810 as my third camera body. But none of them truly resonated with me. Now I feel like my third camera body has that magic mojo again!!!

For this event, I started out with a D4 + 70-200 f2.8, D4 + 24-70 f2.8, and D500 + 14-24 f2.8. For corporate events, I find the 14-24 is just TOO wide. I’ve often wished Nikon had a 16-35 f2.8 like Canon does. I do have Nikon’s 16-35 f4 VR as well. But it just isn’t as sharp, or as fast as the legendary 14-24. By mounting the 14-24 on the D500 crop-sensor body, I effectively make it a 21-36mm…which is a much more useful range for general event coverage.

Since this was a relatively small event, the D4 + 70-200 combo gave me PLENTY of telephoto power. But in the larger corporate events I shoot, I’m often yearning for more reach to get a tight crop of the speaker, for example. This is where the real benefit of the D500 comes in! Switching the 70-200 to the D500 gave me an effective focal length of 105-300 f2.8!!! Plus, the 14-24 goes back on the D4, allowing me to have those super-wide shots if I want them.

I haven’t even mentioned the phenomenal new focusing system in the D500, the super clean files, the spot-on white balance, the wicked fast processing engine, the whisper quiet shutter sound, the cranking 10fps, and the speed of the XQD cards. In the end, I was VERY pleased with the Nikon D500. It is definitely here to stay! Eventually I’ll probably replace the D4 bodies with D5 bodies. I think the D5/D500 combo will be a formidable setup indeed!!!

Withit Professional Women’s Conference

Retool. Restyle. Recharge. These were the themes at the Withit Professional Women’t Conference I photographed earlier this week.

The two-day event was held at the beautiful Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Charleston. The conference offered industry professionals at all stages of their careers the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally, develop leadership skills, and connect with industry peers.  This was also my first event incorporating the new Nikon D500 into the mix.

It was an honor and a pleasure to photograph this outstanding event!

Hotel Room Head-shots

While photographing the Withit Women’s Conference at the historic Francis Marion Hotel this week, part of my assignment included creating head-shots for the professional ladies attending the program.

The motivational conference was held in the elegant Gold Ballroom. So as not to distract from the speakers, and to give each lady the time and privacy they deserved for their photo session, I was asked to setup in one of the hotel rooms down the hall. The point of this post is to show that with a little knowledge, a smart selection of compact lighting tools, and some beautiful subjects to work with, professional portraits can be created just about anywhere!!!

My entire portable studio setup included 6 Nikon SB-800 speedlights, 4 Manfrotto light stands, 2 60″ Westcott shoot-through umbrellas, and a white pop-up style background. Utilizing the given space to suite my purpose, I arranged everything around using the white doors as a reflector for extra fill. A couple of the flashes were used as background lights to create the modern high-key look I wanted. A couple flashes were used to evenly disperse light through one umbrella as the main light source. And the last two were used similarly through the other umbrella as a fill light. This entire lighting kit fits into a large Manfrotto tripod bag for compact portability!

All the flashes were triggered through RadioPoppers, using a Nikon SB910 as the Master flash. The images were photographed with a Nikon D4, and a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII, tethered to my laptop. After each client’s portrait session, we reviewed the images together to make sure there was something in there that they LOVED!!!  🙂

Stein Family on Sullivan’s Island

It’s always so much fun when our good friends, Chris & Vicki Stein, come back to Charleston for a visit! Although they’ve moved away, they are still near and dear to our hearts.

While they were in town on vacation this week, Cami & I met up with them for dinner, a fun photo shoot, and a relaxing evening on the back deck of their beach house. We were blessed with an INCREDIBLE evening of mild temperatures and a DRAMATIC sunset sky!!! Those colors are not enhanced in the slightest!

We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the country…and to have such wonderful friends as the Steins.

Martin Family at White Point Garden

The Martins are one of my all-time favorite families! They are so fun, friendly, and willing to open their hearts to let a perfect stranger like me feel like I’m actually PART of the family. 🙂

Instead of doing the usual beach portrait session like we’ve done in the past, they decided to do something different this year. Driving all the way downtown from their vacation week on Kiawah Island, we met up at the historic White Point Garden. Also known as Battery Park, this is one of the most picturesque parks in Charleston!

In an interesting twist, this was my first portrait session with an absent member taking part in the photo shoot…through Facetime. Joey had to work and couldn’t be there in person this year. So the kids rang him up and made sure he appeared in a shot or two!

As always, we had a BLAST! Until next year…you guys ROCK!!!

Jennifer & Matt’s James Island Wedding

When Jennifer called to ask if I was available for her wedding date, I was so excited to say YES!!!

I had photographed her sister Ashley’s wedding several years ago and remembered how much I loved working with their family then. It’s been a pleasure getting to know Jennifer over the last few months as we ironed out all the details. Last weekend, the big day finally arrived!!!

Jennifer & Matt were married on her cousin’s lawn, on a gorgeous day, overlooking a beautiful creek on James Island Jennifer was absolutely stunning in her elegant wedding gown. It was an honor to finally meet Matt, who is an INCREDIBLE guy, and madly in love with Jennifer!

From the very first touches of makeup, to the grand finale when everyone jumped in the pool…it was clear that this was a match made in heaven! To see the rest of their photos, check out their gallery at http://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/jennandmatt.

CONGRATULATIONS Jennifer & Matt!!! May your lives continue to be blessed without measure…