Porello Family

Every 3 years or so, our family plans an extended family reunion. Being scattered all over the country, it’s a special time of re-connecting catching up, and making new family memories together.

It’s always so special when I see other families getting together to do the same. And it means a lot to me when families like the Porellos decide to include me in their summer vacation plans. We had so much fun earlier this week, capturing this beautiful time together. I know how much they will cherish these memories many years from now!!!

As an added bonus, even though the skies were overcast on the back side of Kiawah Island where the Porellos were staying, driving out the front side of the island on my way home, I found an open window to the sky where I was able to capture the dramatic sunset.  🙂

Hanna & Kenny at Waterfront Park

I had the pleasure of photographing Kenny’s brother’s wedding several years ago. We love their family to pieces!!! So you can imagine my excitement when Kenny and Hanna asked me to photograph their wedding too! 🙂

A couple nights ago, on a beautiful summer evening, I met up with these two amazing people at Waterfront Park. We had a lovely time walking all over the French Quarter, Rainbow Row, and along the Charleston Harbor. It was fun chatting and catching up on their lives, capturing beautiful images of their relationship and their love for each other as we went!

Visit https://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/hannaandkenny to see the rest of their engagement photos.

CONGRATULATIONS Hanna and Kenny! I can’t wait to be there for you both on your wedding day!!! 🙂

Using “Old School” Film

You may have already seen my post with Samantha and Todd’s engagement photos from a few weeks ago. If not, check it out at: https://chrisandcami.com/samantha-and-todds-extended-engagement-session/. Today, I’m SUPER EXCITED to add to their gorgeous gallery of images…with a few that were shot on FILM!!!

Without giving away my age, let’s just say that I’ve been in love with photography since 10th grade, worked my way up to yearbook editor by 12th grade, went on to get my degree in Professional Photography, and have been photographing professionally ever since. As you can imagine, I’ve seen a great many changes in imaging technology throughout my career. I went from exclusively shooting and processing my own black-and-white on old all-manual 35mm film cameras…to the introduction of 35mm color film…through the evolution of auto-exposure, matrix metering, auto-focus, and TTL flash…switching my entire kit over medium format film…and eventually enduring the arduous transition to digital. Even since digital capture was introduced to the professional market, there’s been a huge number of changes and advances.  But you get the point.

The funny thing is, in 2019 it seems that what was old is new again. It’s crazy, I know, but film is seeing a resurgence! Having read all about this new fascination with film photography (primarily from young millennials who never had the pleasure of experiencing the magic the first time around), I decided it was time to pull out one of my old film cameras and take it along on Samantha & Todd’s engagement session. I chose my trusty old Nikon FE, a classic Nikkor 50mm f1.8 manual focus lens, and reliable old Kodak Tri-X for the job.

They may be grainy, contrasty, full of imperfections, (and dare I say some are even out of focus)…but there’s definitely something magical and timeless about these images! I really enjoyed the trip down memory lane. Maybe you’ll see more of this old “film” stuff from me in the future. 🙂

Many thanks to Virgil at VB Photo Lab for the excellent processing and scanning service:  https://www.vbphotolab.com/

Accounting Firm Headshots

Dixon Hughes Goodman is one of our favorite clients to work with! This week I had the privilege of returning to photograph updated head-shots for existing team members, as well as new headshots for those who have recently joined the organization.

For this shoot I used a 109″ roll of Savage seamless background paper in Charcoal Gray. Many of our clients custom order specific background colors to go with their branding. For the main light, I used 3 SB-800 flashes on one of my triple clamps, firing through a 50″ Westcott softbox, slaved as Group A. For the fill light, I used a single SB-800 flash in a Westcott stripbox as Group B. And for a background light, I used 2 SB-800 flashes firing through a Westcott 60″ shoot-through umbrella, placed on the left side of the background to create the gradient. Triggering all the lights was an SB-5000 flash on the camera, using RadioPoppers to signal each remote flash when to fire. My camera of choice was the Nikon D5, with the Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII, tethered to my Lenovo Yoga laptop. Support for the camera, lights, and background, were all Manfrotto products.

DHG is the largest certified public accounting firm headquartered in the Southern U.S. and the 17th largest in the United States. It provides accounting, advisory and tax services to public and private companies. If you don’t already have an accounting firm, we highly recommend them!!!

Attorney Head-shots for Clawson & Staubes

It was a pleasure meeting and photographing Michael and Ashley this morning. Michael is from Charlotte. Ashley is from New York. Michael has recently joined the amazing team of attorneys at Clawson and Staubes. Although he loves Charleston, he’ll be working out of their Charlotte office…at least until the call of the ocean is too strong to resist! 😉 Ashley has been in town for many years. She’s worked her way up through the ranks to reach her goal of being an attorney at Clawson & Staubes. She’s recently engaged, and planning her beautiful destination wedding in Turks & Caicos!

We had a fantastic time during their photo shoot! I chose the Nikon D5 and Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII for this assignment. The natural light was augmented with a single Nikon SB-5000 off-camera flash, mounted on a Manfrotto light-stand, shooting through a 24″ softbox.

CONGRATULATIONS to Michael and Ashley on achieving their dreams!!!

Headshots for SC Community Loan Fund

This morning I had the pleasure of photographing the newest member of the team at SC Community Loan Fund. Everyone, meet Kelly!

Kelly moved to New Orleans about 10 years ago to help with disaster relief. She moved to Charleston about 2 years ago. Her and her fiance were recently married at Alhambra Hall. And now she’s a proud member of the awesome group of wonderful human beings at SCCLF, doing good works around the lowcountry!!!  🙂

We were blessed with beautiful light today, a gentle breeze, and less-than-scorching temperatures (which was quite nice compared to last week’s heat-wave). I photographed her with the Nikon D5 and Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII, mounted on my Bogen Manfrotto tripod. I used a single SB-5000 off-camera flash, firing into a 24″ Godox softbox, mounted on a Manfrotto light-stand.

Many thanks to Kelly for being such so wonderful to work with, and to Victoria for coordinating everyone’s schedules for the photo shoot!

Samantha and Todd’s Extended Engagement Session

Flying in all the way from Missouri, it was just wonderful to see our good friend Samantha again last weekend! It was also such a pleasure to finally meet her fiance, Todd. He’s an amazing guy! They are absolutely perfect together!!!

Recently graduating from Veterinarian School and Dental School, respectively, Samantha and Todd can finally turn their attention to wedding plans. It’s an absolute honor that they have selected Cami and I to capture this special time in their lives for them.

As part of that process, we hosted them here in Charleston for a really fun extended engagement session! The entire weekend could be described as part reunion (we haven’t seen Samantha for several years), part introduction (we had so much fun getting to know Todd), part vacation (Samantha and Todd were celebrating finally earning their degrees), part tourist trap (Cami and I made sure to take them to all the best tourist attractions and iconic restaurants in town), and of course part engagement session (we photographed beautiful portraits of them all around Charleston everywhere we went). As such, we had an absolute BLAST the entire weekend, while capturing more variety than any other engagement session we’ve ever photographed!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Samantha and Todd! We love you guys, and can’t wait to be there for you on your beautiful wedding day!!!

Nick Proposes to Hannah on Concord Street

Hannah was absolutely stunned…not that Nick proposed to her, but that SHE HAD NO CLUE!!! Shaking with excitement afterwards, she said:  “I was certain that if and when Nick decided to propose to me, I would somehow know it. He’s not good at hiding things from me! But I truly had NO IDEA he was proposing today!!!”

For months, Nick and I had been secretly planning all the details of his surprise proposal to Hannah. May 6th was her birthday. And May 8th was the anniversary of when they started dating. So he had planned a fun get-away trip to Charleston for the weekend to celebrate. Nick was so clever in using those other big occasions to conceal the REAL reason for the trip.  Now they have ANOTHER big day in May to celebrate!!!

It was an absolutely perfect afternoon in Charleston! With beautiful light, and gorgeous weather, I headed down to our predetermined location to get set up and hide before they arrived. To my horror, the normally deserted corner near Waterfront Park was packed with graduates out celebrating and having their portraits taken. Fortunately, everyone was super understanding when I told them what was about to happen on that historic street corner, and happily moved on to other beautiful backdrops for their photo shoots. With beating heart, I raced back to my spot just in time as Nick and Hannah rounded the corner!

To see the rest of their photos, visit:  https://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/nickandhannah.

I’m SO EXCITED for Nick & Hannah! We had so much fun during their authentic engagement session afterwards. They are an AMAZING couple, and absolutely perfect for each other!!!

Headshots in The Cigar Factory Basement

Being a professional photographer is not always roses and sunshine. Sometimes we are faced with difficult scenarios, yet expected to produce stellar results!

Photographing an assignment for Lee & Associates, I needed to create headshots for a couple of recent additions to the team. We normally do their shoots in The Cedar Room. This is the big beautiful ballroom in Charleston that’s known for its gorgeous historic brick walls. Instead, they offered us this wall in the bottom floor, which is now a a back service entrance in the basement of the old factory.

I got to work and set up my Nikon D5 with Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 on the Manfrotto 055 carbon fiber tripod. I mounted 2 SB-5000 flashes, both set to Group A, on a Manfrotto light stand with a 60″ Westcott shoot-through umbrella, as my main light. I set 2 SB-5000 flashes, on another light stand with a shoot through umbrella in the back. One of these flashes was set to Group B and directed at the subject to act as a rim/fill light. The other was set to Group C and directed at the wall as a background light. The camera was then tethered to my Lenovo Yoga laptop, which rested comfortably on the trash can in the corner.  Using Adobe Lightroom allowed the client to proof images as I shot, and allowed each individual pick out their favorite shots.

In spite of the conditions, with a little ingenuity, and a dash of creativity, we were able to make this dark hallway look as bright and beautiful as the gorgeous ballroom above!

Mary Beth & Bryant at Brittlebank Park

I’ve been looking forward to meeting Mary Beth & Bryant for a VERY long time! We finally met up this weekend, on a gorgeous spring day, to capture some beautiful engagement photos for their up-coming wedding. 🙂

Starting off at Hampton Park, I was quite surprised at how many flowers were already in full bloom! With vibrant colors from the flowers, huge oak trees, a black iron bridge, and long wooded walkways, we came away with some absolutely MAGICAL images! But to top it all off, we zipped over to Brittlebank Park to capture the last rays of a gorgeous setting sun over the Ashley River… and of course the beautiful twilight that followed.

I had such a blast getting to know Mary Beth and Bryant. I can’t wait to be there for them to preserve all the special moments of their amazing wedding this summer!!!

Marketing Photos for Lovely Law Firm

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of working with the amazing team at the Lovely Law Firm in Myrtle Beach. We picked the Grand Dunes Ocean Club for the backdrop of our photo shoot. It was a beautiful day and we came away with some awesome images!

This was my second time working with Justin and his company. They are a great group of people, and always fight hard for their clients!

Images shot with Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70, Nikkor 105, Sony XQD cards, and up to 4 Nikon SB-5000 off-camera flashes (depending on the scene).