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{Charleston,SC} – January 25, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce Chris & Cami Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Photography!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, Chris & Cami Photography was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

Chris & Cami Photography is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes  the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Chris & Cami Photography for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that Chris & Cami Photography is one of the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee.

“We would like to thank all our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to your positive feedback we are honored to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for the fourth year in a row.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/chris-cami-photography-charleston/2eba290bf77aa8b9.html.  To learn more about the Bride’s Choice Awards™, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

It’s OFFICIAL! Last year’s Florida Birding Adventure was so much fun that I’ve scheduled another one this year.

Of course photographing people is and always will remain my passion. There’s nothing like capturing the emotions and energy of a wedding, the bonds and relationships of a family session, or the innocence and exuberance of a child’s portrait!

But being an animal lover, and enjoying the great outdoors with child-like wonder, it’s fun to get away and test my photographic skills at capturing some dramatic avian photographs. It’s a lot harder than it looks. Capturing a gorgeous, well-exposed, sharply focused wildlife photo takes a lot of patience, a vigilant eye for beautiful light, excellent camera skills, and anticipating “the moment”. Fortunately, all of these are paramount to being a good people photographer too! I find that one genre of photography sharpens me for the other.

Here are a few from last year’s adventure. I can’t wait to see what this year’s trip has in store!!!
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If you love to laugh as much as I do, you can’t help but love Holly & Jared! They are the neatest couple…so much fun and always ready for adventure! 🙂 I had such a great time with them on their Engagement Session at Waterfront Park a couple days ago.

We have a lot in common, and I really love their “How we Met” story! I’m so excited for Holly & Jared and can’t wait to be there for them on their wedding day this April.
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Since I’m such a prolific photographer, many folks ask me what I do to relax during my time off. The funny truth is, I go out photographing!!! 🙂 The trick is, I get out into the natural world where I can enjoy the solitude, the serenity, and the amazing creatures of God’s creation.

Here are a few favorites from a recent canoe trip around the Lowcountry. Some were shot with the Nikon D300 + 70-200VRII + TC20eIII combo (great for hand-holding). Others were shot with the D300 + 200-400VR + TC14eII combo. Between these two lenses, I get the equivalent of 105mm to 840mm of reach!
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Our good friends, Karen & Bart, were down visiting Charleston from their home in Hickory, NC. They brought their adopted 1-year old son, who I had the great honor of photographing for them. Isn’t he simply ADORABLE?!?
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I always encourage folks in my Lightbending Workshops to push their creativity by creating specific exercises and personal goals when they go out shooting. An exercise I like doing a lot is selecting one camera and one lens to carry on an entire outing. Rather than having my whole kit with all the different options easily available at fingertips, this forces me to really think outside the box and create unique image that I might not have “seen” otherwise.

Last week I went for a photo walk in Dungannon Plantation Wildlife Management Area. Normally for a hike in the forest you’d take a wide angle lens, right? I decided to go to the oposite extreme, carrying ONLY my long Nikkor 200-400mm f4. With the late afternoon light fading, I was pushing the envelope on hand-holding that beast. But it was a fun excercise, and I NEVER would have “seen the forest for the trees” if I hadn’t truly focused my creativity to that one lens.

The first image is actually a panoramic composit of 5 images, shot vertically, then stitched together. Each image was shot at 1/30th of a second, hand-held, at 300mm!!! In case you’ve been doubting, YES, vr technology works. 🙂
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One of the reasons Cami & I live near the outskirts of town is because we like to get out for a hike, a bike ride, or a canoe excursion whenever we find the time.

The Caw Caw County Park is just down the road from us and a great place to head for a hike. Their nature center is phenomenal, and the staff is extremely knowledgeable. I highly recommend this little known gem…and it only costs a buck to get in!!!

I photographed this red-shouldered hawk on my last trip out there. He was a beauty, practically posing for me for several minutes. Shot with a Nikon D300 + Nikkor 200-400VR + TC14eII converter on a Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Monopod.
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WHY – Nikon D4 Release Video from Corey Rich on Vimeo.

A film by Corey Rich

It’s ironic that a small pond near a bustling mall, of all places, would be such a popular hangout for these shy creatures! But if you’ve ever been to a late afternoon movie at the Citadel IMAX theater, you’ve likely noticed the thousands of birds that swoop and squabble over this roosting place for the night.

After catching a matinee the other day, I stopped to enjoy this wildlife show of a different nature. These are mostly cormorants, great herons, and white ibis. But plenty of other species abound. All were shot hand-held with a Nikon D300 + Nikkor 200-400VR combo. Enjoy!
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I had the privilege of photographing Nate & Brittainy’s wedding a little over a year ago. So when his Mom called to schedule a family portrait last week I was excited to catch up and see everyone again!

They elected to do one of our famous “Charleston Charm” photo shoots, where we meander around the old historic part of town with all its black iron gates, ivy covered walls, and cobblestone alleys.

It was wonderful to see everyone again and catch up on how they’re doing. Nate & Brittainy had some exciting news…by this time next year they’ll be parents! And Nate’s sister, Katie, just got engaged! CONGRATULATIONS to you guys as your family continues to grow!!! 🙂
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As tennis superstar Andre Agassi used to say: “Image is Everything”.

Bill at First Home Mortgage understands this and decided to start the year out right by getting a fresh new image out there in his marketing and promotional material. I’d had the pleasure of photographing Bill & Amy’s newborn son a couple years ago. So I was honored that he wanted to also use us for his business portraits.

If you’re looking for a new home mortgage, be sure to look Bill up. He’s a great guy and knows what he’s doing!
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As we begin the new adventure that is 2012, I leave you with a final frame from 2011.

While on my way home from a canoe trip on New Year’s Day, I saw several White Ibis foraging for food in the pluff mud on the far banks of a tidal pond. Knowing they’d eventually make their way around to my side, I slipped into the bushes to watch and wait. Sure enough, one of them slowly worked his way around to my end. Suddenly in a flurry of excitement, he dragged this huge crab out if it’s burrow under the mud! Seeing this from the other side, a rival swooped over to try and steal the prize. A wonderful skirmish ensued, ending with the poor crab in pieces, but with each of the winged creatures healthy and happy. May your 2012 be like that of the bird, not of the crab!!! 🙂

(Shot at 1/800sec, f7.1, with Nikon D300 + Nikkor 200-400 f4 VR + Nikon TC14eII, Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Monopod, Sandisk Extreme Media.)

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