Flash Freeze

I created this image at Erin & Jason’s wedding last week. Everyone was marveling at how dramatic the moon was that night. It didn’t take much prodding to get Erin & Jason to join me for a daring adventure to capture that drama in an image of them! šŸ™‚

Working with a minimalist amount of gear, I had my two Nikon D3’s, each fitted with a Nikon SB-900, plus one remote SB-800 on a Bogen 3333 stand I had used earlier for group photos.
I set the SB-800 off on camera right, zoomed to 70mm to concentrate the beam of light on them. I took the SB-900 off one camera and flipped it to remote mode (I LOVE how quickly you can switch modes on the 900 vs. the 800). This one was placed behind the couple for a rim light. I positioned Erin & Jason so that the street light in the distance was behind her veil. And there’s some landscape lighting on the famous Pineapple Fountain I liked.
To pick up the ambient light of the moon, street lamp, and landscape lighting, I used ISO 1600, f2.8. Even so, I was at 1/30th of a second. I was using the D3 with the 70-200. I had no tripod with me. So you’re probably thinking at that slow a shutter speed, this image is going to be blurry, right? Well, by carefully placing Erin & Jason so that all the ambient light was behind them, the couple was pretty much pitch black at this point. The only light hitting them from the camera side was the off-camera SB-800. This is VERY IMPORTANT! By doing this, I am essentially using the high-speed burst of light from the strobe to FREEZE them in place. At this point, the shutter speed of the camera is only affecting the ambient light, it has nothing to do with the exposure of the main subject. So even hand-holding that long lens at such a slow shutter speed, Erin & Jason are as sharp as a tack!
And that’s how you use Flash Freeze to save your behind when you don’t have a tripod with you! šŸ™‚

Robin & Leif

Here’s a few of my favorites from Robin & Leif’s fun family session. They have the most ADORABLE kids, don’t they?!? It was a little stormy that day. But they decided to take a chance and were WELL rewarded. This is PROOF that days you don’t “think” will be good for portraits are often the BEST days for portraits. The drama of that sky just ads so much dimension to the images! šŸ™‚

Corporate Head Shots

I had a fun shoot for the folks at the David Gilston Insurance Agency the other day. This was my second time out to their office. I know, it looks like this was photographed in some expensive studio somewhere. But we have an AMAZING portable studio setup we take on location to provide studio-quality portraits to our corporate clients IN THEIR OFFICE! They love it because there’s no “down time” for their employees. Instead of each employee trucking over to our studio and wasting an hour of their time, we set everything up there and they simply walk down the hall when it’s their turn. It’s so cool because while I’m shooting, the images are wirelessly flying over to my laptop. So each person can review their images to make sure they’re happy with the results before going back to their desk!

If you work in an office environment, or know of any companies that would benefit by having professional, executive-style head-shots, please let me know. We are accepting new corporate clients!

Apryl & Ben’s e-Session

Apryl & Ben have a couple months before their Big Day gets here. We tried twice before to do their Charleston Engagement Session…but both got rained out. Well…third time’s a charm!!! I had a GORGEOUS day, good spirits, and a couple that is SO CUTE and VERY MUCH in love! ;-)We started out at The Battery in downtown Charleston, walking up the rustic cobble stone section of Church St. Ben actually proposed to Apryl on this street! Then we zipped over to Folly Beach after a quick outfit change to catch the dramatic setting sun. We had a lot of fun. So I just know their wedding is going to be AMAZING…

Folly Beach Sunset

The entire Rodgers clan came descended on Charleston this summer. They were staying at Isle of Palms. But since IOP and Sullivan’s Island have an ordinance that bans professional photography on their beaches, we met up at Folly Beach. We all had a BLAST! And at the end of the session, we were rewarded with a SPECTACULAR sunset!

Family Portraits at The Sanctuary

Sabrina & John enjoy vacationing at The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island. But this is the first time they’ve been back with the kids. So they called us to photograph their VERY FIRST family portrait session on the beach. Since it had rained on their wedding day, we also did a mini Trash-the-Dress session at the end…woohoo! šŸ™‚

Kiawah Island Photography

I had a fun shoot with the Mayo family on Kiawah Island. It rained all afternoon and was still sprinkling when I arrived so we were really worried the beach photography session we had planned wasn’t going to happen. But after a few “backup” images in the beautiful house they had rented, the sky opened up and we got all these AMAZING images with the dramatic sky and vibrant sunset.

Folly Beach Family Portraits

Courtney & Aaron are from the Columbus, Ohio area…near my old stomping grounds. Cami is from Troy and I’m from Springfield (sort of). They came to Charleston on vacation and knew they wanted do do the classic Folly Beach Photography Session…khaki, white, barefoot…the whole nine yards! We had a lot of fun…such adorable kids. šŸ™‚

Historic Charleston Photography

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. šŸ™‚ 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! šŸ˜‰