Preston & Rhonda have been friends of ours ever since we met them at Ashley River Baptist many years ago. So it was with great pleasure that I photographed this session with them and their adorable children. My good friend and fellow photographer, Tamara Hart, joined us and got some fun shots of me taking pictures of them. š Preston owns Carolina Chillers, Inc.
Anticipation
In anticipation of their nuptials the following day, Susan & Henry decided to be ADVENTUROUS and join me for a fun, casual…and maybe a bit CRAZY…photo shoot at the beach! They wanted dramatic images that captured their spirit and their love for each other in a beautiful, scenic location. We had a BLAST! š
Charleston Rain
Driving home from a shoot in downtown Charleston that got rained out, this scene caught my eye. I waited for a break in the rain and grabbed this one image before heading home.
Amanda & Jason
State Farm is There
There’s a new State Farm office just outside of Hilton Head Island. The Agent’s name is Kevin Sevier. If you live down that way, make sure you go see him. He’s got to be the nicest, kindest, most honest and strait-shooting insurance agent I know! I’ve photographed his kids. And I’ve photographed his entire staff. Trust me, do yourself a favor and go see him if you need advice on insurance!
One thing that our corporate clients like about us is that for the initial assignment we will come to THEIR OFFICE to photograph all the staff head-shots. That saves productivity since each person just has to step out of their office and stroll to the conference room (or wherever I’m set up). Sure beats each person driving to the studio on their lunch break, right?!? As I photograph each person, the images wirelessly fly across to my laptop where they can see the images immediately afterwards to make sure they’re happy with them before returning to work.
But the real beauty is, several months down the road when a new person is hired, they can simply stop by the studio to have their head-shot taken on the same background with the same lighting as the others. That way even years down the road every team member has professional portraits that match and create an overall professional image for the entire company. John stopped by last week to have his picture added to the others we did for Kevin’s office last month.
If you work for a company that doesn’t have professional head-shots on their website, please let them know about our service!
The Artist at Work
Most of you know Shelia through her Collectibles. Cami and I know her through our church. She’s such a wonderful person and inspiring personality. I had the honor of photographing her in her studio this week. She’s been working on some new and unique concepts for her art. Watch our world…here she comes!
Susan & John
Susan & John came down from Charlotte to celebrate their 1-year Anniversary at The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island. Our friends and colleagues Bill & Kelli Nixon recommended us to them. (Thanks guys!) Susan & John brought their adorable yellow-lab named Molly with them. š Happy Anniversary you guys!!!
MaryBeth & Brad
MaryBeth called me a couple weeks ago from Kentucky. She is the SWEETEST little Southern Lady you could ever meet! Her and Brad were coming down to Charleston to visit family and had seen some of our work. Since they were recently engaged, she wanted to do their e-Session with me while they were down here. They wanted ther Engagement Portraits to be TOTALLY different from all their friend’s portraits. Since Kentucky isn’t a coastal state…what better place than a beach session, right!?! š


Folly Beach Family Portrait
Jean & Dutch’s family are all originally from the Dayton area of Ohio. As most of you know, that’s where Cami grew up and where we met when I lived there after college. So it was GREAT talking about old stomping grounds and getting to know their family! They were vacationing on Isle Of Palms, but elected to make the trek to Folly Beach for their session. They LOVED the diversity and uniqueness of the beach compared to the more tame landscape on IOP. So they were pleased about their decision. But the best part was, they stopped at the famous Ye Ole Fashioned Icecream, a Charleston icon on this side of town that “happens” to be right on the way back to IOP. š
Photography on IOP Beach is Illegal
Since Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island have passed ordinances making it illegal to have professional photographs taken on their beaches, we’ve had to find alternative locations for our vacationing clients. I know…it’s hard to believe that ANY town would put a ban on creating beautiful family photos that show the bonds of love, and preserve such special times in a family’s history. But that’s EXACTLY what they’re doing. Here’s a link: http://www.iop.net/FAQs.aspx.
Many of these families are made up of multiple generations, all coming from different areas of the country, who rarely see each other all together like this. And when an older matriarch or patriarch is involved, who knows when the NEXT time will happen that they’ll all be together again?!? So a portrait to commemorate the occasion holds a great deal of weight.
Fortunately for the Henley family, the beach house they rented sat on a beautiful property with lots of nice landscaping. So we were able to photograph their session without them leaving. Here’s a fun one of all the grand kids goofing off. š Still, they didn’t get any images on the beach…kind of the whole idea behind renting a beach house! Other families are forced to make the choice to drive all the way to Folly Beach…the nearest town without such a ban on it’s beaches.
Amy & Evan
Blue Sky Magic
I’ve had a lot of folks asking me how I get my dramatic “BLUE SKY” effect. It’s a technique I learned from the legendary Sports Illustrated photographer, Dave Black. And I recently saw a couple shots by Joe McNally with this technique as well.
Take this scene for instance. It was a dreary, overcast, hazy, UGLY GRAY evening sky. Who wants a BLAH background like that, right? So to make it POP, you have to set your camera’s White Balance Setting to a cooler tone. You can set it on the Tungsten setting if you like. I prefer to use the Kelvin Scale since it gives me more control. I often use 4,000K, which is a little warmer than full Tungsten. Now changing this in the camera means it’s a GLOBAL change…everything in your scene will be blue, including my subject.
So to get the right color back on my subject I place a WARMING gel over my flash and light him separately. I underexpose the sky by about a stop and a half to make this easier and to give the background more saturation. I have an SB-800 just out of camera frame on the left, zoomed to 105mm, with a full CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel, at about 1/4 power. I’m controlling this flash through Nikon’s CLS system (I didn’t have my Radio Poppers on me at the time). The flash on my D3 is an SB-900, pointed strait at the sensor on the remote flash. All it’s doing is telling the SB-800 what to do and when to do it. I was shooting from across the street with the 70-200 to frame the subject with just enough of the beautiful Spanish Moss covered oak tree overhead. This was shot last week at Legend Oaks Golf Course.
As you can see, legendary golfer Bill Kalback now has a nice warm shaft of setting sunlight on him, while the gray sky in the background shifts to a complimenting blue twilight tone. Next time you’re faced with an ugly sky, give this a try!