Last night I had the privilege of photographing a private high-profile event on the U.S.S. Yorktown. For privacy reasons, I’m unable to show any people pictures. But here are some shots of the beautiful setup, orchestrated by Lee and the amazingly talented team at Absolutely Charleston…
Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending and photographing the Horizons Unlimited traveler’s meeting at Iron Horse Lodge near Robbinsville, North Carolina. This is an event that I look forward to with great anticipation every year!
I packed my trusty Honda CB500X with my camping kit, camera kit, and a few day’s supplies. On the ride up, I made a detour to Givi USA in Charlotte to have replacement engine guards installed when my originals developed a defective hairline crack. I stayed with my friend Jenn and her awesome family for the night. Jenn is a fellow TASOK student from our days growing up in Zaire. On the second leg of the trip, I took the scenic route down the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Iron Horse Lodge.
Horizons Unlimited was founded in the 80s by Susan and Grant Johnson during their RTW, or “Round The World” adventure. It’s a wonderful resource for overland travelers, especially those tackling grand trips on their motorcycles. But more importantly, it’s a fantastic gathering of kind, creative, and like-minded individuals who are full of life and passionate about this great planet we live on and the amazing people we share it with! Horizons Unlimited has gatherings all over the world. This particular one in North Carolina, hosted by Mike Kilpatrick, was celebrating it’s 15th Anniversary this year!
In addition to photographing the event, I also led a couple photography presentations. I always enjoy sharing my love for photography with others! Check out more details about the event at: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/events/north-carolina-2018. And check out the events page to see if there’s a meetup near you. Hopefully I’ll see you at one soon!!!
As always, it was a wonderful weekend. And I look forward to coming back next year. 🙂
Last week I had the opportunity to join an all-star team of amazing photographers to document all the action and adventures of a really neat corporate incentive trip on the island of Maui. While there, we took the opportunity to spend a few extra days driving the famed Road to Hana, hiking in Haleakala National Park, relaxing with Hawaiian green sea turtles on Ho-okipa Beach, and photographing the amazing sunset from the dormant volcano’s picturesque summit.
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!!!
I always love working with my good friend and AMAZING photographer, Gary Coleman! So when he called and asked if I’d help him cover this fun corporate event for Westinghouse, I jumped on it!
Besides, the company outing was going to start out with a tour of one of my favorite places in town…the Charleston Tea Plantation. I don’t do coffee. But I LOVE a good tea! It just amazes me that the only operating tea plantation in the USA is right here in Charleston! Their tours are always fun. And Bill, the owner, is full of fun stories, and always up for a good laugh!
From the tea plantation, the tour continued on to Irvin House Vineyard and Firefly Distillery. This is the only vineyard in Charleston. And of course the famous Firefly sweat tea with Vodka needs no introduction. I take my alcohol just like my coffee…don’t touch the stuff. But it was a hoot watching everyone “loosen up” and really enjoy their afternoon together!!! 🙂
A family-owned and operated corporation headquartered near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Asplundh has grown to employ 30,000 service professionals throughout the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Since 1928 the Asplundh Tree Expert Co. has been performing tree pruning and removals, right-of-way clearing and maintenance, vegetation management, and emergency storm work.
I had the distinct pleasure of photographing their annual Corporate Event, held this year in Mobile, AL. With a fun-filled Mardi Gras them, incredibly music performed by The Bandidos, amazing magic by Carl Michael, a jaw-dropping quick-change act by David & Dania of AGC fame, (not to mention all the other buskers, street-performers, cigar-rollers, and more), it truly was an unforgettable evening!
Many thanks to Gary from Coleman Photography for this assignment, Bobby & Jenny from Absolutely Charleston for the coordination, Craig from Event Talent Resources for all the entertainment, and Shasha from Loluma for the colorful decore.
