Martin Family at White Point Garden

The Martins are one of my all-time favorite families! They are so fun, friendly, and willing to open their hearts to let a perfect stranger like me feel like I’m actually PART of the family. 🙂

Instead of doing the usual beach portrait session like we’ve done in the past, they decided to do something different this year. Driving all the way downtown from their vacation week on Kiawah Island, we met up at the historic White Point Garden. Also known as Battery Park, this is one of the most picturesque parks in Charleston!

In an interesting twist, this was my first portrait session with an absent member taking part in the photo shoot…through Facetime. Joey had to work and couldn’t be there in person this year. So the kids rang him up and made sure he appeared in a shot or two!

As always, we had a BLAST! Until next year…you guys ROCK!!!

Meredith & Peyton’s Secret Proposal at White Point Garden

It’s been a looong time coming!!!

Peyton, with the help of his incredible family, has been secretly planning his proposal to Meredith in the heart of beautiful downtown Charleston for months! Yesterday, the big day finally arrived. The dreary weather had finally cleared away, leaving us the perfect day for him to ask for her hand in marriage.

But when I got to the spot we had so carefully picked out at The Battery Park, the city of Charleston had roped it all off to let the grass grow in!  After a flurry of frantic texts back and forth, we had an excellent “Plan B” in place. Fortunately, Meredith still had no clue what was in store.  So everything turned out PERFECT!!!

After she said “Yes”, the three of us had a wonderful time strolling through the park, around the old historic district, and along The Battery, capturing amazing engagement photos as we went. Returning to the park, his family was there to congratulate the newly engaged couple, before sending them off on a romantic carriage ride.  To see the rest of their images, visit:  http://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/p393066554

Longtime sweethearts from ECU (and recent graduates I might add), Meredith and Peyton are absolutely perfect for each other!!! I was so honored, and had so much fun capturing this exciting once-in-a-lifetime event for them.

CONGRATULATIONS Meredith & Petyon! We wish you all the best for a beautiful new life together…

Anne’s Senior Portraits

Anne is an absolute NATURAL in front of the camera! And I love that her personality and interests are so grounded in reality and truth, not bling and fluff. The organic qualities that she brought to the shoot were absolutely AMAZING!!! It was so much fun photographing the raw beauty of this lovely young lady for her senior portraits. I just can’t believe how fast she’s grown up!!!

We’ve known the Doshers for a long time and love this family to pieces! It’s an honor and a pleasure to now photograph their second daughter’s senior portraits. It’ll be fun to see if their son is as photogenic as their beautiful daughters when it gets to be his turn. 🙂

Volvo Car Open – Champions Photo

With Sloane’s big breakthrough this week at the Volvo Car Open, a NEW Champion is crowned!!!

After winning one match in five previous Charleston tries, Sloane Stephens, the 23-year-old American, found her fire this year. She made her first-ever final here, saving a match in the quarterfinals and playing standout tennis before Angelique Kerber was forced to retire. In the championship bout, she stopped a red-hot Elena Vesnina, earning her fourth WTA singles title, third in 2016 and first-ever on clay.

To top it all off, besides winning the trophy, plus a $128,100 check, she gets a NEW CAR!!! With Volvo Car USA as the new title sponsor, it had one more surprise up its sleeve by presenting Stephens with a brand-new limited edition Volvo. “Oh my goodness!” a shocked Sloane said on court. “You guys, I Just won a car.”

As the official photographers, after our champion had a chance to freshen up and catch her breath, Alice, Arielle, and I whisked her away for a private photo shoot with her new hardware. We had fun using our cameras as “stand-in” trophies to test the light. It was a chilly, overcast afternoon. But Sloan was a real trooper. And her hardware was waaay prettier than ours. We all had a BLAST!

CONGRATULATIONS to our new champion, Sloan Stephens!!!

Riley’s Newborn Session

Welcome to the world, Miss Riley!!!

A few days ago I had the honor of photographing Sarah & Jeff’s beautiful baby girl, Riley. She is such a sweetheart, and so incredibly adorable!

Many thanks to Sarah’s sister, Mary, for helping with the shoot. It was so great to see all them again, after photographing Mary & Jan’s wedding LAST spring. 🙂

Since Riley’s shoot was right before St. Patrick’s day, here’s a little Irish Blessing for the “wee little one”, as they say:

“Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter. Lullabies, dreams and love ever after. A thousand welcomes when anyone comes….that’s the Irish for you!”

Gillis Family at Hampton Park

It just doesn’t get any cuter than a 2 year old chasing ducks in the park!!! 🙂

Photographing Erin and her extended family over the years has been such a joy to me. From photographing Erin as a girl, to covering her beautiful wedding with Rette, and now coming full circle in photographing THEIR daughter…it’s just such an honor to be a part of this family’s life!

Saylor is absolutely adorable! I was cracking up at all the crazy expressions she has in her repertoir. Congratulations Erin & Rette…you got yourselves a keeper!!!

Hannah’s Senior Portraits

It was an honor and a pleasure to photograph Hannah’s Senior Portraits for her this week!

Hannah is a beautiful young lady and star volleyball player. Her family is from Texas, vacationing in Beaufort for the holidays. Being the free-spirit she is, and marching to the beat of her own drum, Hannah decided not to do the “usual” senior portraits that all her friends were getting done back home. She wanted something UNIQUE!!! So we hashed out a plan to do all kinds of cool portraits of her in historic downtown Charleston, picturesque White Point Garden, and gorgeous Folly Beach!

We had an awesome time and captured some killer shots! Congratulations Hannah!!! And best wishes for whatever dreams lie ahead…

Lindsay & Tracy at Hampton Park

It’s been such an honor and a joy photographing Lindsay & and her beautiful daughter, Hannah, over the years. This year, they took it to the next level by sharing their new EXPANDED family with me!!! 🙂

It was a pleasure meeting Tracy and his girls, Hannah (#2) and Catelynn. I love that they picked Hampton Park for their photo shoot. It’s one of my favorite places in town!

We all had so much fun together! CONGRATULATIONS Lindsay & Tracy…you guys ROCK!!! 🙂

Charlestowne Landing Bridal Portrait

Waiting…

That’s the one thing I can’t stand about photographing Bridal Shoots!   🙂

I’ve been dying to share images from Catie’s beautiful Bridal Session last month. But of course her gorgeous wedding gown had to be kept a secret until the Big Day. Now that her and Justin tied the knot this weekend, I can finally show off how amazing Catie looked in her elegant and unique wedding dress.  The waiting is over!!!

I love this southern tradition of photographing Bridal Portraits about a month before the wedding. It’s quite likely that this is the most expensive garment a young lady will ever own in her life! Sure she’ll have a few shots of herself in the dress on her wedding day. But with the hustle and hurry of that stressful day, there just isn’t time to truly do it justice.  I always encourage my brides to schedule a Bridal Shoot to truly document how gorgeous they look in the gown of their choice.

These fun “fashion style” photo shoots are scheduled for a more relaxed time and place. Hair and make-up is fresh. It can be planned around the best light of the day (instead of being squeezed in wherever it fits among the zillions of other pictures to be taken on the wedding day). Due to time constraints, all the photos on wedding day are done at the wedding or reception venue. Bridal Sessions allow brides to pick a totally different location. Maybe it’s somewhere special to them (where they had their first date?). Maybe their wedding is downtown, but they want some photos at a plantation? A Bridal Shoot is a great time to be creative and come up with some cool and creative wedding photos that simply can’t be done on the wedding day due to the constraints of time and space.

Catie & Justin LOVE the many beautiful plantations around Charleston! After all, their wedding was held at the historic Boone Hall Plantation. However, leading up to the wedding, they also had photo shoots with me at Runnymede Plantation, Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, and finally these inspirational images from Charlestowne Landing.

Catie…you were absolutely STUNNING!!! What a pleasure it was to share this afternoon with you and your parents, capturing your amazing spirit, and documenting the spirit of your stunning wedding gown.

The Silly Outtakes

I could have titled this so many ways!
   “When Photo Shoots Go Awry”
   “The Train Goes off the Tracks”
   “You’re on Candid Camera”

The truth is, I absolutely love what I do! Life is just too short not to have fun, right? Plus I try to dig deep to bring out each person’s personality…really capture who they are (not just a thin fake representation).

So even when photographing what some photographers would view as boring old stuffy head-shots, I do a lot of goofing off to help my clients relax. When it’s working right, it’s contageous! Pretty soon they’re hamming it up and joking around with me in between takes. SOMETIMES…I just can’t resist snapping those moments just for the heck of it!!!

Here then, are a few of the silly outtakes from an awesome shoot I had for the amazing folks at ECS Carolinas LLP. They are an amazing engineering firm in town. I highly recommend them if you’re looking for any environmental consulting or geotechnical engineering on an up-coming project!

Olman’s Bridal Shoot

Now that Olman & Craig are married, I can FINALLY share some of her gorgeous Bridal Portraits from downtown Charleston!!!

Believe it or not, it was a dreary and drizzly afternoon. But since Olman & Craig had driven all the way from Atlanta to get these portraits, we had to work around it. Fortunately, I have a few tricks up my sleeve…favorite locations that are dry and covered…lighting techniques to mimic warm sunshine…and equipment that can withstand the weather. 🙂

Olman has such a positive spirit, her mom and best friend Maricar were great support, and we all actually had a BLAST creating these beautiful images together!