Alex’ Bachelorette Weekend

A few weeks ago I had the BEST TIME photographing Alex’ Bachelorette Weekend!!!

When her sister, Blaine, contacted me about covering it for them, I loved all the fun, creative ideas she had! The weekend started out with a welcome dinner and a party-dress-up at Edmond’s Oast. From there we hit up several bars on King Street for live music and fun partying. The next morning found the girls on Pedicab tours that ended with Lingerie Luncheon at The Watch Rooftop Kitchen. Then after a little siesta time back at The Mills House, we hit up Candlefish for their scented-candle-making party.

The whole weekend was just perfect! All the ladies were a BLAST to work with! And Alex was absolutely the sweetest young lady on the planet!!!

Fisher & Whitehead Families at Colonial Lake

I always love photographing the Fisher Family! We go way back. Which means I’ve had so much fun watching their family grow over the years!!! 🙂  Over the weekend, I met up with Holly, Clint, and Kate at the newly renovated Colonial Lake in downtown Charleston for another family portrait session with them.  They even brought their four-legged family members!

As an added bonus, they also brought their good friends and former neighbors, the Whitehead family. It was so neat to meet another wonderful family that’s just as fun, friendly, and full of life as the Fishers!

We all had a BLAST and came away with some beautiful images, just in time for a dramatic sunset over the Ashley River!

Chris & Mandi’s Secret Proposal at Middleton Place

I feel like a SPY!!!

Chris and I have been in cahoots for several weeks now, planning his really cool surprise wedding proposal to Mandi. Chris is an incredible guy! Everything he’s planned out, down to the finest details, has all been to make Mandi the happiest girl in the world. I think it’s so honorable when a man does that for his future bride!!!

Yesterday, the big day finally arrived! It was Mandi’s birthday. Chris had planned it that way so she wouldn’t suspect he was proposing until the last minute…pretty sneaky! They drove down for a fun weekend get-away to Charleston. The first stop on their list was to visit Middleton Plantation for a relaxing tour of the gorgeous gardens before their dinner reservations.

Before they arrived, I took all the picnic items, and the painted pumpkins, and set them up under the oak tree Chris had selected for “the spot”. With eyes on the target, I was able to follow the Mandi & Chris as they strolled around the grounds, sneaking a few shots as they went. Once they began approaching the picnic area, I got myself hidden and waited for them to come into view

With heart pounding and hands sweating, I gripped the camera and captured a ton of great shots as Chris asked Mandi to be his wife! Photographing all the cute moments of their picnic was a delight. Finally I came out of hiding so that we could create some beautiful engagement photos of them in the gorgeous “Magic Hour” right before sunset!

CONGRATULATIONS Mandi and Chris! May your lives be full of joys too numerous to count!!!

Amanda & Alicia’s Lifestyle Shoot

With all the mayhem leading up to their BEAUTIFUL wedding (which was featured in Borrowed & Blue by the way), Amanda, Alicia, and I didn’t get a chance to photograph their engagement session. So instead, Amanda had this really creative idea to do a post-wedding “lifestyle” shoot in their home! We had SO MUCH FUN hanging out and creating these awesome images of life, love, family, and togetherness!!!

Head-shots at The Cedar Room

Yesterday I photographed another fun set of head-shots in The Cedar Room at The Cigar Factory! Lee & Associates is one of my favorite corporate clients. Plus I always love working in this beautiful space!

Shot with Nikon D4, Nikkor 70-200, an SB-5000, and 4 SB-800 flashes.

Dawson’s 1-Year Cake Smashing

I had so much fun photographing Graham’s 1-year old Cake Smashing 4 years ago. So when Whitney & Logan called to schedule Dawson’s Cake Smashing photo shoot, I was super excited! 🙂

We had a blast photographing family portraits on a gorgeous morning at a beach on Isle of Palms. Eventually we wore the little guys out and decided it was time to feed them some sugar. This is always my FAVORITE part!!!

Congratulations, Dawson…you’re a “Big Boy” now! 😉

Head-shots for ATI

Advanced Technology International (www.ati.org) is an organization that builds and leads technology development collaborations. They help team members reach consensus, establish priorities and produce technology solutions.

Working with their marketing department was a real pleasure. And everyone I photographed was super nice and fun to work with! We set up and photographed head-shots all morning, as well as a team photos and group shots.  Many thanks to Rebecca for all her help coordinating everything!

Being a technology solutions company, ATI wanted a clean and modern style to their shots. We accomplished this using six Nikon SB-800 remote flashes, a Nikon D4, and a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8.   All the wireless off-camera flashes were controlled by an SB-5000 using RadioPoppers for communication.  Everything was tethered to a laptop so individuals could view their images immediately after their shoot.

If you, or an organization you know, is in need of new head-shots or executive portraits for marketing and promotional material, we’d love to hear from you!

High-key Head-shots

Today was another fantastic day for head-shots. 🙂

This time, we were back at the South Carolina Federal Credit Union. We’ve been working with this awesome organization for years! We’ve styled a high-key look for their staff and executive photos that is bright, clean, and modern.

If you’re looking for head-shots for your office, or if you know someone with a company who could use our services, please let us know. We love creating dynamic and engaging images for businesses and organizations all over Charleston!!!

Kiawah Island Sunrise Family Session

I had another AMAZING family portrait session with the Evans gang this year!

For something different, we decided to do a sunrise session…which was GORGEOUS!!! Being on the east coast, sunrise is the only time we get to actually have the sun on the horizon in the photos. We lucked out with some dramatic clouds. Plus there was hardly anyone else on the beach that early…so we had it ALL to ourselves!

I loved everyone’s enthusiasm and we all had a blast creating these summer memories for this wonderful family! 🙂

Nikon SB-5000 does Head-shots for Clawson & Staubes

After receiving the new Nikon SB-5000 a few days ago, I put it through all the rigorous paces to make sure everything was working perfectly, and that I knew what every button and menu item did. This is Nikon’s latest, most advanced speedlight…and it has a few new tricks over previous models. I’ll get into those in a later post! 🙂

Yesterday was my first assignment with the new flashes, and they worked BEAUTIFULLY!!! I was photographing environmental head-shots of new attorneys for one of my favorite clients, Clawson & Staubes.

The images were made with a Nikon D4, Nikkor 70-200 VRII, an SB-5000 on the camera, running as the Master in CLS mode, and two SB-800 flashes as remotes, firing through a 24″ softbox. Everything ran beautifully! The new flash recycles extremely fast…the size is smaller…and the design of the button layout is even more user-friendly than all previous generations I’ve worked with.  The best part is, it’s completely backwards compatible with all other Creative Lighting System flashes!

Next, I’ll be working with the new Advanced Wireless Lighting (AWL) radio mode. Stay tuned…

US Grains Council at Tavern on 4th

After a long day of debates, lectures, presentations, and discussions…it’s always good to relax and have some fun!

I had the honor of photographing this wonderful corporate event at Tavern on 4th in Louisville, KY, for the US Grains Council last month. It was a really neat location, with tons of games and entertainment for folks to participate in. The resulting laughter and lively conversation was great for team-building and making new friends!

I absolutely love photographing company parties and exciting galas like this one!!!