I always enjoy heading out to Trident Construction’s headquarters in North Charleston to photograph headshots for new team members. Here are a few fun shots and behind-the-scene images to share a little bit of what we captured!
(Nikon Z9, Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8 S, Godox AD200 Pro flashes, Westcott umbrellas, Manfrotto supports, Sony memory cards, Savage seamless background)
It was such a joy to reconnect with our old friends Toni and Billy this week!
We’ve known Toni for a very long time…since way back when she and Cami worked at the same company. And we’ve known Billy since we photographed their wedding. It was great to see them again and photograph some new marketing photos for their beautiful business at the Summerville Flower Shop! Toni and Billy recently expanded and moved to this gorgeous new location. We love it!!!
Toni is an incredibly gifted florest. We are so happy that you found your true calling my friend! If anyone needs a great florist…we highly recommend contacting Toni and her team @SummervilleFlowerShop!!!
Last week I had the pleasure of going back to Rosen Hagood law firm to photograph headshots for new attorneys that have joined the team. Their marketing group prefers I photograph everyone as a 3/4-lengh portrait, giving their graphic artists options for using the images in marketing material….while still being able to zoom in and crop headshots out of these photos for the website. This is one of the many reasons I love shooting with the Nikon Z9. The high-resolution 45MP sensor on Nikon’s flagship camera gives my clients PLENTY of pixels to play with so that they can kill two birds with one stone!
(Nikon Z9, Nikkor Z 70-100 f2.8, Godox/Flashpoint AD200 flash, Manfrotto supports, Westcott 60″ umbrellas)
Seamon Whiteside is expanding! I’ve photographed headshots, team photos, marketing shots, and of course a ton of their engineering projects throughout North and South Carolina. I’ve done photos at their offices in Mt. Pleasant, Greenville, Charlotte, Spartanburg…and now they are opening a new one in Columbia!
It was my pleasure to meet up with the founding members of the new Columbia office at The Horseshoe on the University of South Carolina Campus (USC). We strolled around, found some nice backdrops, captured a variety of headshots, and photographed some team photos. Plus one of the guys from the Charlotte office joined us to get his headshot taken as well!
Many thanks to Brittany for helping organize everyone’s schedules to make this happen…
I photograph high-key headshots for a lot of firms in Charleston. That clean, modern, all-white background just seems to be a popular choice for many companies. Plus it’s also an easy background to knock out in Photoshop if your marketing team wants to change the background to something else. I know the Rosen Hagood law firm does that with all the high-key portraits I shoot for them.
Periodically, companies will switch up their marketing or change their web-design, and ask me for a different background to go with their new “look”. But I’ve been working with Bridge Commercial for probably over a decade and they just continue to love the simple and elegant look of the high-key background. What’s not to like?!?
The key to lighting a high-key portrait is the background light. If you don’t light the background separately from the subject, even the whitest background will still come out looking dull. That’s because of the inverse square law of light. As you can see in my setup, I’ve got two speedlights on the left-side stand as my main light, which is Group A. I’ve got one speedlight on the right-side stand as my fill light, which is Group B. The power ratios in both groups are about the same. But having one speedlight instead of two naturally gives me half the amount of light, providing a pleasing ratio between the highlights and the shadows on my subject. Finally, I’ve got one speedlight on the stand behind the subject, aimed at the center of the background. The ratio on this light is double the others because I want the background to be nice and bright.
(Nikon Z9, Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8, Godox/Flashpoint transmitter and speedlights, Manfrotto supports, Westcott 60″ umbrellas, and a twist-flex white background)
It was a real pleasure to meet and photograph Darien for Premier Physical Therapy. She was super sweet and fun to work with. Her heritage is from Honduras. So I got to practice a little Spanish, which was awesome. Jill is the owner of Premier Physical Therapy. I’ve been photographing headshots and marketing photos for her and her team for a very long time. And I have to say, she always seems to find the nicest people to join her staff!!!
I frequently get asked: “Why do you use flash for outdoor portraits?” There are a ton of variables that I evaluate before starting a photo shoot. But paramount to them all is the QUALITY of the lighting. Whenever possible, I seek out beautiful natural light. For outdoor portraits, “open shade” is one of my favorites to work with. For indoor portraits, I look for soft “window light” to work with. But when the location is surrounded by trees, creating a gloomy greenish-blue color cast to the light, I pull out the flashes. If I don’t have beautiful natural light to work with, I create my own with speedlights!
That’s what happened in this photo session at the Charleston Center for Birds of Prey. In the first test-shot, you can see how muddy and unflattering the natural light is. Because we were in a clearing surrounded by trees, the only available light is coming from directly above Angelina, creating those sunken “racoon eyes” and a hotspot on her nose. So I mounted a Flashpoint eVolve 200 Pro in a large softbox on a Manfrotto light-stand, and placed it about 30-decgrees off to her left (the camera’s right). This gave me a fantastic directional main light, which created a soft contour to her face, cleaned up the skin color, and produced a nice catch-light in the eyes. Then I mounted a Flashpoint Zoom LiOn II on another Manfrotto light-stand, and covered it with a CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel, which mimicks the color-balance of the late-afternoon setting sun. This speedlight was positioned behind the subject, aimed at the back of her hair, in a cross-light pattern opposite the main light. The result is a warm rim-light, which gave a golden glow to her beautiful hair, and helped separate her from the background.
Now that I had the lighting the way I wanted it, I mounted the Nikon Zf with the 70-200 f2.8 Z lens and a Flashpoint wireless trigger on a Manfrotto tripod…and the rest is magic!!!
The nice part about using this lighting setup is that it’s consistant and repeatable! Next time I show up to photograph a new staff member, whether it’s an overcast day or a bright sunny day, it doesn’t matter…the light hitting my subject will always be the same.
Last year I had the pleasure of photographing the International African American Museum for Seamon Whiteside. This year I got to photograph the beautifully renovated property right next to it for Trident Construction!
The multimillion-dollar renovation of the Charleston Maritime Center will usher in a new chapter for the building, part of which will serve as a waterfront marine-life educational hub, sponsored by Boeing, and managed by The S.C. Aquarium. The project broke ground in July 2023. Now, it’s complete and gearing up to welcome students. But Trident Construction had me scheduled to photograph the finished building today before students arrived.
Since the property has a prime view of Charleston Harbor and the rising sun, I arrived at dawn to catch the warm glow of early morning light skimming across the water. It was a beatiful, misty sunrise. I captured a variety of aerial angles with my DJI Mavic 3 drone. Then I switched to the Nikon Z9 for the remaining shots. About the time I was wrapping up the exterior photos, Sarah, Mariah, and the rest of the staff from the SC Aquarium arrived to show me around the interior. And Grace arrived from Trident Construction to guide me to some of the key elements of the design that they wanted to feature in the photos.
It was an absolute pleasure being a part of this amazing new project!!!
It’s always sad to hear when families are having to sue the companies that built their home. On April 29, 2019, only one week before the trial of a lawsuit against the builders of River Landing Condos, The Post and Courier published an extensive article titled, “40 Charleston Area Condo and Apartment Buildings Involved in Lawsuits Over Defects”. The article by David Slade discusses alleged construction defects with multi-family buildings and lawsuits related to these alleged defects.
Fortunately, the team at Glick Boem Architecture knows how to do things right! And they have a ton of experience with fixing other’s mistakes. GBA was founded in 1981 as a multi-disciplinary firm specializing in Architecture, Planning and Interior Design. Providing professional services throughout the Southeast, the firm has received major national and local design awards, as well as extensive coverage in professional publications.
GBA wase brought in to fix the water damage, insulation deficiencies, and mold issues at the River Landing Apartments on Daniel Island. They in turn brought me in to photograph some before/after photos mid-way through the renovation process. The difference is absolutely remarkable!!! Hopefully this massive undertaking makes these families whole again, allowing them to live the peaceful lives they dreamed their move to Daniel Island would be…
I work a lot with the engineering firm of Seamon Whiteside here in Charleston. But occasionally they request I travel to one of their other offices to photograph a project they’ve been working on, marketing photos, or headshots for new team members. Last week I had the privilege of driving to their new office in Greenville to photograph several new employees. We all had a great time! The guys seemed to enjoy hamming it up for the camera. And the photos turned out fantastic!!!
(Nikon Z9, Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 Z, Godox AD200Pro, Glow softbox, and Manfrotto supports)
Kevin’s father-in-law, Troy, was a well-known State Farm agent in Charleston. After Kevin joined the family, he followed in Troy’s footsteps, opening his own very successful State Farm office in Bluffton. Fast forward to today, and I had the pleasure of photographing Kevin’s son, also named Troy, who has joined his father’s firm. It was almost surreal to see “little” Troy all grown up after knowing his parents from before he was even born!!! While I was there, I had the pleasure of photographing a couple other fun staff members as well.
If you’re looking for a new insurance agent, I HIGHLY recommend Kevin: https://www.statefarm.com/agent/us/sc/bluffton/kevin-sevier-g738v1ys000. He has the nicest staff. And he treats his clients like family!
Getting 7 staff members to smile, look at the camera, and keep their eyes open for a new staff photo is hard enough. Adding 4 dogs to the mix makes it NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE!!! But we pulled it off! 🙂
CONGRATULATIONS to Jill and her team at Premier Physical Therapy for another successful year…
