Seamon Whiteside Columbia Office

Seamon Whiteside is expanding! I’ve photographed headshots, team photos, marketing shots, and of course a ton of their engineering projects throughout North and South Carolina. I’ve done photos at their offices in Mt. Pleasant, Greenville, Charlotte, Spartanburg…and now they are opening a new one in Columbia!

It was my pleasure to meet up with the founding members of the new Columbia office at The Horseshoe on the University of South Carolina Campus (USC). We strolled around, found some nice backdrops, captured a variety of headshots, and photographed some team photos. Plus one of the guys from the Charlotte office joined us to get his headshot taken as well!

Many thanks to Brittany for helping organize everyone’s schedules to make this happen…

High-Key Headshots for Bridge Commercial

I photograph high-key headshots for a lot of firms in Charleston. That clean, modern, all-white background just seems to be a popular choice for many companies. Plus it’s also an easy background to knock out in Photoshop if your marketing team wants to change the background to something else. I know the Rosen Hagood law firm does that with all the high-key portraits I shoot for them.

Periodically, companies will switch up their marketing or change their web-design, and ask me for a different background to go with their new “look”. But I’ve been working with Bridge Commercial for probably over a decade and they just continue to love the simple and elegant look of the high-key background. What’s not to like?!?

The key to lighting a high-key portrait is the background light. If you don’t light the background separately from the subject, even the whitest background will still come out looking dull. That’s because of the inverse square law of light. As you can see in my setup, I’ve got two speedlights on the left-side stand as my main light, which is Group A. I’ve got one speedlight on the right-side stand as my fill light, which is Group B. The power ratios in both groups are about the same. But having one speedlight instead of two naturally gives me half the amount of light, providing a pleasing ratio between the highlights and the shadows on my subject. Finally, I’ve got one speedlight on the stand behind the subject, aimed at the center of the background. The ratio on this light is double the others because I want the background to be nice and bright.

(Nikon Z9, Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8, Godox/Flashpoint transmitter and speedlights, Manfrotto supports, Westcott 60″ umbrellas, and a twist-flex white background)

Headshtots for Premier Physical Therapy

It was a real pleasure to meet and photograph Darien for Premier Physical Therapy. She was super sweet and fun to work with. Her heritage is from Honduras. So I got to practice a little Spanish, which was awesome. Jill is the owner of Premier Physical Therapy. I’ve been photographing headshots and marketing photos for her and her team for a very long time. And I have to say, she always seems to find the nicest people to join her staff!!!

Center for Birds of Prey – Why Use Off-Camera Flash?!?

I frequently get asked: “Why do you use flash for outdoor portraits?” There are a ton of variables that I evaluate before starting a photo shoot. But paramount to them all is the QUALITY of the lighting. Whenever possible, I seek out beautiful natural light. For outdoor portraits, “open shade” is one of my favorites to work with. For indoor portraits, I look for soft “window light” to work with. But when the location is surrounded by trees, creating a gloomy greenish-blue color cast to the light, I pull out the flashes. If I don’t have beautiful natural light to work with, I create my own with speedlights!

That’s what happened in this photo session at the Charleston Center for Birds of Prey. In the first test-shot, you can see how muddy and unflattering the natural light is. Because we were in a clearing surrounded by trees, the only available light is coming from directly above Angelina, creating those sunken “racoon eyes” and a hotspot on her nose. So I mounted a Flashpoint eVolve 200 Pro in a large softbox on a Manfrotto light-stand, and placed it about 30-decgrees off to her left (the camera’s right). This gave me a fantastic directional main light, which created a soft contour to her face, cleaned up the skin color, and produced a nice catch-light in the eyes. Then I mounted a Flashpoint Zoom LiOn II on another Manfrotto light-stand, and covered it with a CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel, which mimicks the color-balance of the late-afternoon setting sun. This speedlight was positioned behind the subject, aimed at the back of her hair, in a cross-light pattern opposite the main light. The result is a warm rim-light, which gave a golden glow to her beautiful hair, and helped separate her from the background.

Now that I had the lighting the way I wanted it, I mounted the Nikon Zf with the 70-200 f2.8 Z lens and a Flashpoint wireless trigger on a Manfrotto tripod…and the rest is magic!!!

The nice part about using this lighting setup is that it’s consistant and repeatable! Next time I show up to photograph a new staff member, whether it’s an overcast day or a bright sunny day, it doesn’t matter…the light hitting my subject will always be the same.

Headshots for Seamon Whiteside in Greenville

I work a lot with the engineering firm of Seamon Whiteside here in Charleston. But occasionally they request I travel to one of their other offices to photograph a project they’ve been working on, marketing photos, or headshots for new team members. Last week I had the privilege of driving to their new office in Greenville to photograph several new employees. We all had a great time! The guys seemed to enjoy hamming it up for the camera. And the photos turned out fantastic!!!

(Nikon Z9, Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 Z, Godox AD200Pro, Glow softbox, and Manfrotto supports)

Premier Physical Therapy

Getting 7 staff members to smile, look at the camera, and keep their eyes open for a new staff photo is hard enough. Adding 4 dogs to the mix makes it NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE!!! But we pulled it off! 🙂

CONGRATULATIONS to Jill and her team at Premier Physical Therapy for another successful year…

Marketing Photos for DWG Consulting Engineers

DWG Consulting Engineers is a 100% Employee-Owned full-service Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Protection and Communications engineering design firm in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The firm specializes in technical, economic, and feasibility studies; assessments of existing facilities, design of HVAC systems, plumbing, fire protection, lighting, power, fire alarm, data distribution, and project commissioning. But don’t worry, they also love beer,, street tacos, office crab-walking contests, and binging shows on Netflix!

It was a real pleasure photographing new marketing photos for this fun and friendly team of individuals. Many thanks to Cate for all her hard work organizing everything for the shoot!!!

Headshots for Novus Architect

I had a BLAST photographing all the fun headshots for Novus Architect here in Charleston last year. So when they asked me to drive to Raleigh-Durham to do the same with their staff up there, I jumped at the chance! Especially because I love the fact that they aren’t going after traditional headshots. Their use of the canary yellow background (which is a design element of their logo), the silly poses, and the fun props, makes their photo shoots fun and interesting!!!

Novus Architects took shape in 1992 – with one architect working for one new client. Strong, long-term relationships are the heart of what they do. And they never take for granted the trust clients place in them to listen intently to their needs, craft a custom process, gather a team with the right skills and passions – and together, bring to life spaces that serve people.

Many thanks to Lydia for coordinating everyone’s schedules and making this happen!

Seamon Whiteside Headshots

What a fun morning!!! It was an absolute pleasure meeting and photographing each of the new team members at Seamon Whiteside today. They are such a great group. And they always seem to hire the nicest people! In fact, I recognized Diandre, who used to work at Carolina Landscapes. I really enjoyed working with her there and photographing some of the projects she had designed for them. So I’m really looking forward to seeing what she does with her new projects for Seamon Whiteside!!!

Daniel Island Headshots

What a gorgeous spring day in Charleston!!!

Today I had the pleasure of photographing headshots and team photos for several new employees at Commonwealth Financial Services. I arrived early and set up in the open shade of their building. I put up a Flashpoint eVolve 200 Pro in a large Glow sofbox as my main light. And I placed a Flashpoint Zoom II in a small Westcott strip box, placed behind their shoulder as a kicker light. Both were triggered by a Flashpoint Mark II trigger on my Nikon Z9. I used the Nikkor Z 70-200 f2.8 lens to compress the background. Camera and lights were on Manfrotto supports. We had a lot of fun. And everything turned out great!

Many thanks to Katelyn for all her hard work coordinating everyones schedules!!!

Seamon Whiteside Surveying Team

It was a beautiful spring day for my photo shoot with Seamon Whiteside last week!

Lia had asked me to capture some marketing photos for her of their surveying team in action at the marsh near Patriots Point with the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in the distance. After that, she wanted shots of their construction administration team that has been working on the new Residence Inn at Patriot’s Point. We had a BLAST and came away with a variety of colorful shots for them!

Many thanks to Lia and Denise for coordinating everything for this shoot!!!

Headshots for Weeks & Irvine

It was a dreary, drizzly day to drive to Mauldin…which is up near Greenville. But photographing the newest team member for Weeks & Irvine was totally worth it! After photographing his headshot, I visited the North Charleston location to photograph two more new team members. Everyone was so much fun to work with! And the photos turned out great! Many thanks to Nicole for coordinating everyone’s schedules to make this happen. 🙂