It’s an honor and a privilege to be selected as a guest speaker alongside legends like Eddie Tapp, Judy Host, Richard Bernabe, and Ben Hartley at the Create Photography Retreat over the next few days!!!
Here are a few shots from today’s outing at Middleton Place Plantation…
St. Philip’s Church is an historic church at 142 Church Street in Charleston. Built in 1836, this stuccoed brick church features an imposing tower designed in the Wren-Gibbs tradition.On November 7, 1973, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark.
Established in 1681, St. Philip’s is the oldest religious congregation in South Carolina. The first St. Philip’s Church, a wooden building, was built between 1680 and 1681 at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets on the present day site of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. It was damaged in a hurricane in 1710 and a new St. Phillip’s Church was begun a few blocks away on Church Street. After being delayed it was finished in 1723 but burned to the ground in 1835. Work on the present church was begun that same year and completed the next. The steeple was added between 1848 and 1850.
I recently had the pleasure of photographing this aerial photograph featuring St. Philips Episcopal Church. In the foreground we find one of Charleston’s iconic horse-and-carriage tours ambling up Church Street as it approaches the imposing structure. The dramatic Arthur Ravenel Junior Bridge gracefully spans the Charleston Harbor in the distance.
It’s no secret that the Charleston real estate market is on fire. Charleston is at the top of many Best Of lists, feeding the “I want to move to Charleston” craze!
Growth of the aeronautics, automotive, and tech sectors has Lowcountry area home builders working hard to build homes fast enough to keep up with growing needs. Due to the high demand, Charleston has a lower number of available homes on the market than most areas of the country. The Charleston real estate market only has a three-month supply of homes available, unlike most markets with at least a six-month supply! It’s no wonder there are so many new developments, new neighborhoods, and new construction projects going up all over town!
If you’re a home builder, this is a great time to capitalize on your share of that business. With our licensed, insured, and FAA Certified Remote Pilot, we are here to help you attract your piece of the pie through dynamic aerial drone photographs. Let us capture beautiful images of your projects today before it’s too late!!!
More and more corporate clients are turning to us for our new Aerial Drone Photography. Why?
EXPERIENCE:
Much like buying a nice digital camera doesn’t instantly make one a great digital photographer, simply buying a drone doesn’t make one a great aerial photographer! Just because someone can fly a drone doesn’t mean they know how to capture a compelling image. Mastering the tried and true techniques of lighting, exposure, composition, color, (and the list is a mile long) takes time! Cami and I have professional photography degrees, which means we’ve truly studied the finer nuances of beautiful art and imagery. Plus we’ve been photographing professionally for over two decades! That’s a priceless amount of experience and training that you just can’t pick up in a weekend workshop. Think about the revolutions and changes that have taken place in 20+ years. From medium format to 35mm, from film to digital, from crop sensors to full-frame sensors, from megabytes to gigabytes…we’ve seen it all! Which is why our clients feel confident in our abilities to deliver more compelling images.
EQUIPMENT:
Sure, the latest drones are easy to fly and take descent photos in their dumbed-down-out-of-the-box settings. It takes a lot of studying and experimenting with the deeper nuances and internal settings to eek out that NEXT higher level of quality and detail. I wonder how many new drone pilots never even read the manual?!? Flying the latest quadcopters on the market, and setting them up to take full advantage of every pixel they offer, we’re able to deliver a superior quality product.
EDUCATION:
Everyone has seen one news story or another about crashed drones or near collisions with other aircraft. Unlike a highway where you can only go one of two directions, airspace is a wide open fronteir. For the safety of other aircraft, and the safety of people below, the Federal Aviation Administration has implimented strict rules and regulations. Unfortunately, very few UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) pilots have taken the time to study, train, and pass the FAA certification process. We are proud to have passed the exam with the highest grade in the class, on our way to obtaining the FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Licesnse! This means we are legal to fly our drones commercially, and will do so with safety as a primary concern.
For more information, check out https://chrisandcami.com/gallery/aerial/. When it’s time for YOUR aerial photography assignment, please don’t hesitate to contact us! You’ll be in good hands…and you’ll be glad you did.
Citadel Square Baptist Church was the fourth Baptist church established in Charleston, South Carolina. The original “Citadel Square Church” is a daughter of the First Baptist Church of Charleston (est. 1682), the “mother” church of Baptists in the South. In 1854, approximately a dozen members of the church sought to establish a new church for the Upper Peninsula, to be known as Fourth Baptist Church.
The construction of the church building at 328 Meeting Street began in June 1855. The new building was opened on November 23, 1856. A Sunday School building was added in 1891, then replaced in 1921. In April 1951, an educational building was added to the campus. The church was the first in Charleston to televise its services, doing so for more than 40 years until 1998. In its history, six churches have planted by Citadel Square: Cannon Street Baptist Church, Southside Baptist Church, FBC Mount Pleasant, Ashley River Baptist Church, James Island Baptist Church, and Folly Beach Baptist Church.
With a break in the programming at an event I was photographing nearby, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to fly my drone and get a gorgeous panoramic aerial view of this historic church in the golden rays of the setting sun. Visible in the background is the iconic Mother Emanuel AME Church. And beyond that, the elegant Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge spans the great Cooper River.
Photographing great aerial images with a quad-copter is tough. Photographing great aerial images with a quad-copter AT DUSK is nearly impossible!!!
With calm winds at my back, and clear skies ahead, I was able to keep the stick steady enough for the drone to capture several beautiful images of CresCom’s West Ashley location. The glowing windows and doors are representative of the banks warm customer service attitude and welcoming personality! So the timing was critical. And I’m very pleased with how it turned out!
CresCom Bank, a leader in community banking, is dedicated to providing exceptional customer service and quality products to the communities it calls home, and prides itself on its strong knowledge of local business and economic trends. Currently, CresCom Bank has 62 branch locations throughout the Carolinas and also owns Crescent Mortgage Company. You should check them out!
I had the honor of photographing Pet’s Mobile Auto and Truck Repairs as part of a project for the SC Community Loan Fund. Their story will be featured in the SCCLF Annual Report.
“An older repair shop in Columbia’s Percival Road community has remained an eyesore to residents after falling into disrepair and shuttering its doors over a year ago. The closing of this facility left the community without a full-service automotive repair shop. Meanwhile, Pete’s Auto & Truck Repairs, LLC, a South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) was leasing a building in the Columbia area but the owners had a dream of purchasing their own shop. Once Pete’s owners Melvin & Sandra Wells discovered the Percival Road site, they sought to leverage Mr. Wells’ 40 years of experience in the automotive repair industry to attract the financing to purchase and renovate the shop.”
Congratulations to Sandra, Melvin, and their boys, who plan to one day carry on their father’s legacy as they continue to run the family business.
Cami and I had an AMAZING time photographing the Loghry Family in their spactacular new home of New Zealand!
From artistic photos of their girls on a picturesque dock at Nelson Lake to modeling photos on famous Wharariki Beach, from aerial drone photos outside their adorable home to family shots at Queens Court park…it was an absolute pleasure capturing these wonderful memories for this beautiful family.
Kevin and Laura are such good friends that took us in and treated us like family. Their adorable daughters are so fun and full of life. Thank you all for such an INCREDIBLE time in your gorgeous new home of New Zealand!!!
Known also as Old Sheldon Church, these ruins are all that remain of what was originally Prince William’s Parish Church.
The church was built as a chapel of ease in the English Georgian style, using the Roman Tuscan or Doric order, between 1745 and 1753. The traditional understanding is that Prince William’s was burned by the British in 1779 during the Revolutionary War, rebuilt in 1826, and then burned again in 1865 during the Civil War.
As a trusted Charleston aerial photography team, we had the pleasure of capturing this unique view of the old ruins with our high-definition drone, preserving this part of history before it deteriorates any farther. The effects of weather, erosion, and human traffic continues to have negative long-term effects on the failing structure. Enjoy it while you can!
Over the holidays, I had the pleasure of photographing aireal drone photography of the Hidden Cypress Golf Course.
Hidden Cypress Golf Course, located on the way to Hilton Head Island, is Sun City’s Crown Jewel. It features 6,946 yards of unique golf challenges. Golfers love the beauty of the course, but also face a unique battery of menacing greens and fairway bunkers. No wonder it gets so many excellent reviews on Golf Advisor!
One of my favorite images was this soaring panorama from just over 100 feet in the air, a compilation of 21 images from the DJI Mavic Pro.
