Stephanie & Eric at the Cooper River Room

I absolutely fell in love with Stephanie & Eric when we met at Deep Water Vineyard on Wadmalaw Island for their engagement session: https://chrisandcami.com/stephanie-eric-at-deep-water-vineyard/. I knew then that this was a very special couple, and that their wedding was going to be AMAZING!!!

Last weekend the Big Day finally arrived…and it did notdisappoint! 🙂  When I met up with Stephanie and her girls getting ready for the main event, there was already an heir of excitement in their voices that couldn’t be contained. Laura and Cami went to photograph Eric and the guys getting ready, where apparently the men were in just as jovial a mood!

The ceremony took place on the lawn overlooking the Mt. Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Wark, with it’s gorgeous views of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, the lowcountry marsh, and the setting sun across the Cooper River. The reception was held in the beautiful Cooper River Room, located at the entrance to the park. Everything went off  splendidly. Even the uncharacteristically stifling heat of the afternoon could not squelch the energy or the mood. And it certainly didn’t put a dampener on the amazing love that Eric & Stephanie share for one another!!!

I would like to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped make Stephanie & Eric’s wedding such an amazing celebration. In particular, thanks to my good friend and amazing photographer, Mike Soto, for recommending me to Stephanie…to our friend and amazing wedding planner, Christy Loftin, for officiating such a touching ceremony, and for all her hard work coordinating the day…to the amazing Jon Feist of Melodic Entertainment for rocking the reception all night long…and to Cami and Laura for all their help in capturing every moment of this special day for these two lovebirds!

To see the rest of Stephanie & Eric’s photos, visit: https://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/stephanieanderic.

CONGRATULATIONS Stephanie & Eric! We wish you all the best as you begin this amazing new adventure together!!!

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!

Tru Hotel by Hilton

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing the brand new Tru Hotel by Hilton in Orangeburg, SC for the Naman Hotel group! As always, Dexter and Kristi from the marketing team were fabulous to work with. The staff was super friendly and accommodating. And the breakfast spread they are famous for was delicious!

Exaqueo Meeting

I always enjoy staying in touch with our clients!

Yesterday I got to go hang out with my friends at Exaqueo. They had recently hired a new team member, and were haveing one of thier planning meetings out at Wild Dunes Resort. I went out and photographed headshots of Jaclyn, as well as some fun updated team photos.

It was great seeing everyone again! What a great company…and such a nice group of people!!!

Field Trip to Bulls Island

If you like birding, pristine hiking, beach combing, and a chance to get away from the mainland, then Bulls Island just might be for you!

On behalf of the Center for Birds of Prey, and in association with Coastal Expeditions, earlier this week I had the pleasure of photographing a fun field trip with a group of students from Cainhoy Elementary School. In spite of living in the Lowcountry, some of these kids had never seen the ocean. So, imagine the wonder and amazement in their eyes as we explored Bulls Island together, the crown jewel of the Cape Romain National Wildlife System!!!

Many thanks to Daniel at the Avian Conservation Center for getting me on this project, and Captain Nick from Coastal Expeditions who was our amazing tour guide for the day.

Kevin Sevier State Farm

Remember the old Hairclub for Men advertisement, “I’m not only a client, I’m also the president”? For many of our clients, I can say “I’m not only a client, I’m also the photographer! 🙂

Last week I had the honor of catching up with our old friend, and our trusted State Farm insurance agent, Kevin Sevier. It’s truly amazing what he has done with his business! They finally moved into their new building last year. And they’ve added new members to their team. So Cami and I went down to photograph new team photos and updated head-shots for them.

We had a great time, and even got the behind-the-scenes tour!

Siemon Whiteside Development Projects

Variety is the spice of life, as they say. That’s one of the reasons why I choose NOT to be pigeon-holed into one particular genre of photography. Instead of doing the same thing over and over again, day after day…for me each day is full of unique assignments and new challenges!

Recently I have really enjoyed working with Siemon Whiteside, photographing a number of their projects. SW is a leader of environmentally conscious, low-impact advancements in engineering and site design. They are known for how they blend civil engineering civil engineering and landscape architecture to create beautiful yet functional holistic environments.

From wide sweeping landscape shots, to tiny detail images, to aerial drone photos…capturing the essence of these projects always pushes the limits of my dexterity and creativity. I absolutely LOVE that!!!

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!!!