Kristin’s Senior Portraits

Visiting from Ohio, Kristin’s family thought it would be really cool to have her Senior Portrait Session in a unique and different setting than all her friends back home.

So we scheduled a 3-location shoot for her that included Folly Beach, downtown Charleston, and the Old Sheldon Church ruins. Many thanks to her brother, Andrew, for coming along and providing a lot of good laughs!

CONGRATULATIONS, Kristin! You’re a beautiful, talented young lady…we can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!!!

Sam & James at St. Andrew’s Church

I love teachers. And I love computer geeks. So I was DOUBLE excited when Samantha & James asked me to be their wedding photographer!!! Cami & I owe a HUGE thank you to our friend, Sam’s mom Tricia, for steering them our way!  🙂

Sam & James tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in the old original sanctuary at St. Andrew’s Church. Sam’s wedding gown was absolutely GORGEOUS…she looked like a princess in a fairy tale.  James was looking pretty suave in his suit and suspenders too! One of my favorite moments in the whole day was when they turned around from the alter and took a moment to look back at all the friends and family that had come out to support and celebrate this special day with them!!!

After a quick stop for some fun wedding party photos at White Point Garden, the festivities continued with a fabulous reception at the Historic Rice Mill.  I always love shooting there.  What a cool venue! From the first dance to the dramatic sunset photos, from the cake “smashing” to the exciting glow-stick exit, the reception was a non-stop party like you’ve never seen before. Everyone had a BLAST!!!

To see the rest of their photos, visit http://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/samandjames.

A big shout-out goes to all the vendors for helping make this day such a success. A giant hug goes to Cami for all her help and expertise. But most importantly, a huge CONGRATULATIONS goes to Sam & James! You guys truly have a love that is pure and true. We wish you all the best for a beautiful new life as you journey down this new path together…

Nester Family on Seabrook Island

It’s hard to believe…but it’s been TEN YEARS since the Nester Family began their annual tradition of coming to Charleston for the 4th of July!

I had the honor of photographing Suzanna & Jeffrey’s awesome wedding at Charleston Place Hotel in 2006. And each year, the whole family takes time out of their busy schedules to gather together at a beach house for the holiday week.  CONGRATULATIONS Suzanna & Jeffrey…it’s been a pleasure being your photographer, and your friend!

This year found the Nester’s back at a beautiful place just off the beach on Seabrook Island. Sadly, Suzanna’s brother and his family couldn’t make it this year. But they had an AWESOME excuse, as they recently welcomed a new little one into their family. Congratulations Tyler & Meghan! Another big congratulations goes out to Uncle Ron and Aunt Nancy, at the birth of their daughter Megan’s first-born! We missed you guys…but look forward to having you all back next year! For now, here are some picks to let you “absentee” family members see all the fun you missed out on this year…HA! 🙂

Let’s raise a toast to ANOTHER fabulous 10 years of crazy Nester Family Portraits!!!

Muro Family on Isle of Palms

I haven’t had THIS much fun in a looong time!!!
 
Many thanks to the Muro Family for another fabulous family portrait session at their beach house on Isle of Palms. Susan did a great job organizing everything, and bringing pinwheels for the kids. I always love photographing this wonderful gang. They make me feel like part of the family!
 
See what you missed out on, Christopher & Dana? That’s OK, you had a good excuse. We’ll see you next year with another beautiful “+1” for the group!!!  🙂

John Laurens, Radical Son

I can’t remember ever photographing on a film set before. So yesterday was a first for me!

I got to be the still photographer on the set of John Laurens, Radical Son. This documentary is based on the play of the same name, and features my friend and amazing photographer, Robbin Knight, as the lead character. Many thanks to him for including me in this project.

I can’t wait to see the finished documentary when it comes out!!!

Gilligan Family on Kiawah Island

Summer is a time for vacations, for flip-flops, for families, for fun, for sunshine, and of course…beaches. I had the pleasure of combining ALL these elements a few days ago with the wonderful Gilligan Family!!!

We scheduled their family beach portrait session on Kiawah Island to coincide with the cooler temperatures, less crowded beaches, gentle breezes, and of course that beautiful soft evening light of “golden hour”.  It was so much fun hanging out with this crazy crew! Since I have three brothers of my own, I felt right at home with the friendly ribbing Ryan and Kevin were dishing out.  🙂  Plus, Emilee and Reagan were absolutely ADORABLE!!!

Many thanks to Debbie for organizing everything, and allowing me to feel like part of their family for an evening…

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!