1 Camera, 9 Flashes

Last night I had the oportunity to photograph the Charleston Legislative Group before their first meeting of 2017.

With limited time, a confined space, and heavy foot traffic through the area, I elected to use an all wireless setup. This was a simple bank of windows in the study area of the Lowcountry Graduate Center. The last thing I needed was students tripping over power chords as they hurried past me on the way to classes and meetings!

For a soft bank of main lights, I mounted 2 SB-800 flashes on a Manfrotto stand with a 60″ Westcott shoot-through umbrella to camera right, and the same to camera left. These were set as Group A. For a kicker or rim light, I mounted a bare SB-800 on a tall Manfrotto stand and set it up high in the left corner, aimed back towards the group’s heads. The same setup was repeated on the back right corner. These were set to Group B. To add a little color to an otherwise drab background, I placed blue gels on 3 SB-800 flashes, and mounting them to one of my triple-threat brackets, atop another Manfrotto light. These were set as Group C and placed outside the building, aiming back at the blinds from behind. All stands were sand-bagged with BoaBags for safety.

The image was shot on a Nikon D4 on a Manfrotto tripod, tethered to a Lenovo Yoga laptop. All flashes were triggered by an SB-5000 on the camera, via RadioPopper Px radio transmitters. The final shot was cropped for 16×20 output, with space for graphics left at the top of the frame.

Waypoint Recovery Center

I always get an extra sense of gratification when I have the opportunity to work with a client who I know is making a difference in people’s lives. Photographing head-shots and promotional images for Waypoint Recovery Center was just such an assignment!

“Waypoint Recovery Center offers a comprehensive intensive outpatient program for drug addiction and alcoholism. Our goal is to collaborate, encourage, and support a changed lifestyle, fully independent from substance use.”

I set up my portable studio, complete with camera, lights, background, and laptop, at their office one morning. After each person had their business portraits taken, they were able to look through them on the laptop to make sure they were happy with the images. Everyone loved the instant gratification. And their favorite shot was sent off to our retouching lab to get cleaned up!

I’d like to give a personal shout out to the amazing folks at Waypoint Recovery Center. Thanks for EVERYTHING you guys do to help those folks looking to get their life back on track!!!

South Atlantic Bank

South Atlantic Bank’s new regional headquarters in Mount Pleasant is beginning to take shape. The in-ground items, including plumbing and electricity are in place and the concrete has been poured for the first floor. We will see the building “go vertical” as framing gets underway.

The 8,000 square foot, two-story building will house a full-service banking office on the first floor with space for tenants on the second floor.

It was a pleasure photographing head-shots for Michael Tawes the other day. He was responsible for locating and appraising the site of the new bank!  The setup consisted of 6 Nikon SB-800 Speedlights, 1 Nikon SB-5000, 2 Wesctott 60″ umbrellas, 1 Nikon D4, 1 Nikon 70-200 VRII, 1 Lenovo Yoga, and 7 RadioPopper Px units.

Head-shots at The Cedar Room

Yesterday I photographed another fun set of head-shots in The Cedar Room at The Cigar Factory! Lee & Associates is one of my favorite corporate clients. Plus I always love working in this beautiful space!

Shot with Nikon D4, Nikkor 70-200, an SB-5000, and 4 SB-800 flashes.

Head-shots for ATI

Advanced Technology International (www.ati.org) is an organization that builds and leads technology development collaborations. They help team members reach consensus, establish priorities and produce technology solutions.

Working with their marketing department was a real pleasure. And everyone I photographed was super nice and fun to work with! We set up and photographed head-shots all morning, as well as a team photos and group shots.  Many thanks to Rebecca for all her help coordinating everything!

Being a technology solutions company, ATI wanted a clean and modern style to their shots. We accomplished this using six Nikon SB-800 remote flashes, a Nikon D4, and a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8.   All the wireless off-camera flashes were controlled by an SB-5000 using RadioPoppers for communication.  Everything was tethered to a laptop so individuals could view their images immediately after their shoot.

If you, or an organization you know, is in need of new head-shots or executive portraits for marketing and promotional material, we’d love to hear from you!

High-key Head-shots

Today was another fantastic day for head-shots. 🙂

This time, we were back at the South Carolina Federal Credit Union. We’ve been working with this awesome organization for years! We’ve styled a high-key look for their staff and executive photos that is bright, clean, and modern.

If you’re looking for head-shots for your office, or if you know someone with a company who could use our services, please let us know. We love creating dynamic and engaging images for businesses and organizations all over Charleston!!!

Nikon SB-5000 does Head-shots for Clawson & Staubes

After receiving the new Nikon SB-5000 a few days ago, I put it through all the rigorous paces to make sure everything was working perfectly, and that I knew what every button and menu item did. This is Nikon’s latest, most advanced speedlight…and it has a few new tricks over previous models. I’ll get into those in a later post! 🙂

Yesterday was my first assignment with the new flashes, and they worked BEAUTIFULLY!!! I was photographing environmental head-shots of new attorneys for one of my favorite clients, Clawson & Staubes.

The images were made with a Nikon D4, Nikkor 70-200 VRII, an SB-5000 on the camera, running as the Master in CLS mode, and two SB-800 flashes as remotes, firing through a 24″ softbox. Everything ran beautifully! The new flash recycles extremely fast…the size is smaller…and the design of the button layout is even more user-friendly than all previous generations I’ve worked with.  The best part is, it’s completely backwards compatible with all other Creative Lighting System flashes!

Next, I’ll be working with the new Advanced Wireless Lighting (AWL) radio mode. Stay tuned…

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!!!

Hotel Room Head-shots

While photographing the Withit Women’s Conference at the historic Francis Marion Hotel this week, part of my assignment included creating head-shots for the professional ladies attending the program.

The motivational conference was held in the elegant Gold Ballroom. So as not to distract from the speakers, and to give each lady the time and privacy they deserved for their photo session, I was asked to setup in one of the hotel rooms down the hall. The point of this post is to show that with a little knowledge, a smart selection of compact lighting tools, and some beautiful subjects to work with, professional portraits can be created just about anywhere!!!

My entire portable studio setup included 6 Nikon SB-800 speedlights, 4 Manfrotto light stands, 2 60″ Westcott shoot-through umbrellas, and a white pop-up style background. Utilizing the given space to suite my purpose, I arranged everything around using the white doors as a reflector for extra fill. A couple of the flashes were used as background lights to create the modern high-key look I wanted. A couple flashes were used to evenly disperse light through one umbrella as the main light source. And the last two were used similarly through the other umbrella as a fill light. This entire lighting kit fits into a large Manfrotto tripod bag for compact portability!

All the flashes were triggered through RadioPoppers, using a Nikon SB910 as the Master flash. The images were photographed with a Nikon D4, and a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII, tethered to my laptop. After each client’s portrait session, we reviewed the images together to make sure there was something in there that they LOVED!!!  🙂

AM Conservation Group National Sales Meeting

Last week the AM Conservation Group held their annual National Sales Meeting at Palmetto Hall in Wild Dunes Resort on Isle of Palms.

I’ve had the honor and pleasure of working with this amazing company for the last few years. The AM Conservation Group is a world leader in Water Conservation Products, Energy Efficient Products, Energy Efficient Lighting, Weatherization Products, and more.

I arrived early at the event and set up a portable studio where attendees could get their head-shots and business portraits made during the various breaks. When I wasn’t photographing those, I covered the president’s address, keynote speakers, experts in their field, and panel discussions to document the entire event.

Photographing such corporate events, company meetings, and awards ceremonies is one of our specialties. But doing so for companies like the AM Conservation Group who are doing their best to help our planet, makes it even more enjoyable!

Southern Current Company Photos

Yesterday I had a really fun photo shoot at Southern Current, South Carolina’s premier solar development company.  If you are looking for a renewable energy solution, these are your people!!!

Going for a casual, modern style to fit the personality of this forward-thinking copmany, we decided on a clean, high-key lighting technique. Everyone was so much fun, and the shoot went absolutely flawlessly!

Many thanks to Maddy and the gang at Obviouslee Marketing for trusting us to create these photos for use in Southern Current’s branding and marketing campaign for 2016.  You guys ROCK!!!

Business Portraits for Lowery Legal

I had the distinct honor of photographing new Business Portraits for Marie Lowery last week!

Marie was a very kind referral from Scott Falls, who’s head-shots and promotional portraits I photographed last year. Both are amazing attorneys in their respective fields, though often collaborating together together. So when Marie was considering having some new images made to help market and brand herself in 2016, he gave her my name. Thanks Scott & Ashley!!!

Marie and I had an awesome time, finding some fantastic backdrops in the old French Quarter in downtown Charleston. Congratulations on your incredible success, Marie! Here’s to an even more amazing 2016!!!