After an AMAZING week of ferocious tennis, Belinda Bencic was crowned champion of the 2022 Credit One Charleston Open!!! After she had a chance to rest and recuperate from her 3-set triumph over Ons Jabeur, I met up with her in downtown Charleston for a few fun portraits of her with her new trophy!
At the end of Day 2, I had the pleasure of capturing the Iconic Photo Shoot for the Credit One Charleston Open! The two top seeds of the, Paula Badosa and Aryna Sabalenka, met us at the Belmond Charleston Place Hotel. We had a lot of laughs, photographing them in “the pool” of purple tennis balls. Then we walked across the street to The Riviera Theater for a few shots under the official marquis. Both these amazing athletes were an absolute pleasure to work with!
Maaany years ago in another lifetime, one of our bestest friends at High-Purity Standards was an adorable young lady named Andrea. Although we don’t see her as much anymore, we’ve never lost touch with the fond memories of our time together. So it was SUPER excited when Cody told me he’d gotten our name from Andrea! 🙂
Cody was calling to schedule a maternity portrait session for his beautiful wife, Sarah! She had broken her foot recently. They weren’t sure how it would work. But they really wanted to capture this special time in their lives! We picked Hampton Park as a beautiful backdrop with easy access to get Sarah around in a wheelchair since she still wasn’t allowed to put weight on her foot.
It turned out to be a GORGEOUS day!!! Sarah was absolutely stunning in her flowing hunter-green maternity gown, which really brought out her beautiful green eyes. Cody was awesome and clearly so proud to be a first-time Dad. I can just tell these two are going to be the most incredible parents to this wonderful child when it arrives next month. 🙂
CONGRATULATIONS Sarah & Cody! We wish you all the happiness in the world as you begin your new family together.
I owe a HUGE thank you to Pam at First Citizens Bank for referring us to Leslie & Colton!
Leslie works at First Citizens. So after Colton proposed to her and she started looking for a photographer, Pam gave her our information. I am SO GLAD she did because these two are an AMAZING couple!!!
We met up at the famous pineapple fountain in Waterfront Park. Wandering through the French Quarter, up to Rainbow Row, and back down the cobblestone streets of Adgers Wharf gave us so many beautiful backdrops to work with. Our grand finale on the dock overlooking Charleston Harbor and the iconic Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge coincided with the last glow of daylight. It was a PERFECT day with two beautiful human beings! I’m so honored that I got to meet and work with these two!!!
Leslie & Colton, we wish all the happiness in the world as you begin this new journey together…
After a wet and dreary couple days, it sure was great to have beautiful early morning sunlight for my photo session this Friday!
Tenet Physician Resources coordinated with me to set up at the Dodds Durst House to photograph a new team member for the East Cooper Medical Center. Rachel was a lot of fun to work with! She’s from Tennessee and joins the team as a nurse practitioner. She loves the doctor she’s working for. And the staff has made her feel right at home.
Using the warm early morning rays as a hair light, I augmented the natural sunlight with 4 speedlights. I attached a CTO gel on one Flashpoint, and placed it behind Rachel as a rim light to help even out the sun. The other three were mounted inside a Neewer octobox and placed on the opposite side from the sun to act as fill light and create a nice catch-light in the eyes. All images were shot on the new Nikon Z9 with 70-200 f2.8 VRII lens (using the FTZII adapter). Camera and lighting supports were provided by Manfrotto. ISO 250, f4.0, 1/160 sec.
CONGRATULATIONS to Rachel on joining a fantastic team!!!
I had a great time this morning photographing headshots for some new team members at Bridge Commercial!
I fired an SB-5000 flash onto the white backdrop to create a super-clean high-key look. The main light consisted of 2 SB-5000 flashes firing into a 60″ Westcott umbrella. The fill light was another 60″ Westcott umbrella with 1 SB-5000 in it. I used Manfrotto supports for the camera and speedlights. The camera of choice was a D5 with 70-200 f2.8 VRII, shooting tethered to my Lenovo laptop, set at ISO 400, f5.6, and 1/200 sec.
I got a call over a month ago from Jamey who was interested in booking a family photo session…with a twist! Jamey and her family were going to be vacationing on Isle of Palms. She wanted me to photograph their family portraits on the beach. At the same time, her oldest son, Lucas, was going to be proposing to his longtime girlfriend. She wanted to know if that could even be done, and how we might work it out so that Callie didn’t suspect anything. After sharing some ideas with Jamie, and talking it over with Lucas, a doubly-devious plan was hatched! 🙂
Lucas invited Callie to join his family on their beach vacation. Jamie booked the family portrait session with me, and told everyone (including Callie) what day and time they were all expected to be dressed and ready for photos. Arriving for the shoot that afternoon, I rang the bell at their beautiful beach house, and went inside to meet everyone. As introductions were being made, Jamey explained that she wasn’t ready yet and to go ahead and start with a few couple’s photo of Lucas & Callie. Callie & Lucas had just bought a house together, and had talked about getting a few photos of them made during the family session that they could hang in their new home. So this all seemed totally natural to Callie.
After photographing a nice variety of couple’s shots for them, I suggested some casual candids of them holding hands and walking down the beach. We picked a spot where they would turn around. This was Lucas’ cue. He and I had pre-arranged which side he would walk on, which way he would turn, and how to drop to one knee at the turning point to completely catch Callie off guard.
It worked like MAGIC!!! Lucas did a fabulous job of hitting his mark. Callie was completely surprised by the whole thing! And I just fired away, catching every moment of the excitement! After she said “YES”, Callie & Lucas came back down the beach towards me. At this point, Luca’s parents and his younger brother, who were all hiding back at the boardwalk, came running out to join them and congratulate them!
We still had plenty of light left to photograph a variety of family portraits. And we capped off the session with some gorgeous shots of Lucas & Callie (with a sparkly new diamond on her finger) in the dramatic setting sun. BUT WAIT!!! The surprise wasn’t over yet!
After we got back to the beach house, Lucas told Callie she should go ahead and call her parents to let them know the good news. Little did Callie know, her parents had secretly arrived in town the day before. While I was out photographing the “couples photos”, Jamey called them to say the coast was clear. They then snuck into the house while we were doing the family photos, and hid upstairs. When Callie face-timed her Mom, she answered and pretended she didn’t have a clue. Thinking her parents were miles away in Georgia, Callie excitedly began sharing the “big news” of how Lucas had asked her to marry him. While she was mid-sentence, Callie’s parents magically appeared on the staircase coming down towards her!!! The look of utter disbelief on her face was simply priceless!
What an AMAZING honor it was to capture Lucas’ Surprise Proposal to Callie!!! Congratulations to Jamey and Lucas for pulling off a massive DOUBLE surprise! And CONGRATULATIONS to Callie & Lucas!!! They are an absolutely adorable couple! We wish them all the happiness in the world as they begin this new journey together…
As most of you know, Cami has a HUGE heart and absolutely adores loving on every dog she meets!
This week, she’s been watching over Callie & Jax, whos owners are away for a much-needed vacation. She asked me if I wanted to come over to their house tonight to take a few pictures of these beautiful dogs for the owners. Not having had a chance to test out the Animal Eye-Detection mode of the new Z9, I jumped at the idea! Don’t worry, I didn’t do it for free…Cami rewarded me with a delicious Thai dinner, asparagus, and quinoa with brown rice. 🙂
But I had to earn my meal. So we went out to their back yard and I got to work. With the Z9 set to back-button AF, using Dynamic Area Auto-Focus mode, and choosing Animal Eye-Detect, any time I pointed the the camera towards Callie or Jax, it immediately snapped right onto their eyes. It was absolutely magical! The early evening light was spectacular. And we came away with some fun images for Callie & Jax’s owners to enjoy when they get home. 🙂
Nikon Z9 + Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII + FTZII adapter
McMillan Pazdan Smith is a regional, studio-based architecture, planning, and interior design firm whose mission is to help clients create environments that embody their vision, enrich their brand, and enhance the quality of their communities: https://mcmillanpazdansmith.com/.
I previously had the pleasure of photographing headshots and team portraits for the Charleston office, which you can find here: https://chrisandcami.com/environmental-portraits-for-mcmillan-pazden-smith-architecture/. A couple weeks ago, I was honored to be asked to also photograph the team in their Columbia office!
Many thanks to Kathryn and Abbie for all their hard work coordinating schedules and working out the details for this photo shoot. It was an absolute BLAST and I really enjoyed getting to know this incredible group of human beings!
I truly enjoy working with the fabulous team at the Weeks & Irvine Law Firm! Not only do I shoot for them, I use them for my personal real estate transactions. If you’re looking for an excellent firm to handle your closing, look no further than www.weekslawfirm.net.
My relationship with them began over a decade ago when I had the pleasure of photographing Robbie’s wedding. I also photograph a number of events for the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors (CTAR), which are sponsored by Weeks & Irvine. And of course I get to meet and photograph all their attorney’s headshots for the website.
Last week I got to travel to Greenville to photograph their newest office, which is in a really neat restored brick building. Carson was great to work with and we captured a variety of different expressions for him to choose from. Many thanks to Nicole for all her hard work organizing these photo shoots.
Photographing proposals is one of my favorite things to shoot! So when a random couple came up to me in Key West last week, let me know they’d just gotten engaged, and asked if I would take a few photos, I jumped at the chance!!!
Jason, David, and I were in Key West photographing another one of our Moto Photo Adventures episodes, which you’ll be able to watch on our channel at http://youtube.com/MotoPhotoAdventures in a few weeks. As we walked around, enjoying the sights, photographing the chickens and tourists alike, we happened upon the famous Hemingway House.
As we gathered outside this popular tourist stop to get a glimpse of the 6-toed cats, and inquire about tour costs, Andres must have noticed my more professional looking camera. While Natalia was at the booth buying their tour tickets, he told me that he had just asked Natalia to be his wife! How cool is that?!? And the best part is, she said YES! He asked if I would mind taking a couple photos for them to commemorate the occasion. And of course I too said YES!!! 🙂
We only had a couple minutes before they were to enter for their tour. Quickly switching from my “travel photographer” hat to my “couples portraits” hat, I captured a few fun portraits for Natalia and Andres while everyone watched. They were so much fun to work with!!! Andres was tall and strong…his khaki pants and penny loafers an indication of his laid-back demeanor. Natalia was stunning with her flowing hair and beautiful Bimini-blue blouse. It was an an absolute delight to spend a few minutes with these two amazing people before we headed down the road to find our campsite for the night.
Many thanks to Natalia and Andres for allowing me to have the honor of photographing their first portraits as a newly engaged couple.
Sheally Insurance is all about finding the right coverage for the best rate possible: www.sheallyinsurance.com
I recently became their new photographer and have really enjoyed getting to know this company and the fantastic team that works there! A couple days ago I had the opportunity to photograph Patrick. No newcomer to the industry, Patrick actually owned the previous agency that worked out of this office. But after retiring, he found he still had things he wanted to accomplish. So he joined the Sheally team on a part-time basis. His experience and expertise will be a welcome addition to this excellent team!!!
Many thanks to Elizabeth for helping orchestrate and provide creative direction for the photo shoot!
