Gracie’s Senior Portraits

I’ve been photographing Gracie’s family for over a decade. Every year they vacation down here on Seabrook Island, during which we pick a fun spot around town to meet up for a fun photo session.  I just photographed their family earilier this summer.  But this weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of photographing an entire session just for Gracie!

It’s been such a joy documenting Gracie’s life from when I first met her as a shy little girl! Watching her grow into this beautiful, confident, inteligent and independant young lady makes me so honored that her family welcomed me into their lives and allowed me to preserve all her life-stages along the way.

I know Grace’s parents are so proud of her! And I am SUPER EXCITED for what the future holds for her. Keep an eye out for this young lady…great things lie ahead. And please help me congratulate her on achieving this fantastic milestone!!!

Victoria’s Senior Portraits at Morris Island Lighthouse

Kristin and her family are some of our favorite people on the planet! It’s been such a pleasure photographing her adorable girls over the years. I can’t believe how fast time flies!!!

Cami and I had so much fun photographing Victoria’s high-school senior portraits the other day! We met up with Kristin and her daughter at the Morris Island Lighthouse on Folly Beach. It had been raining all day. But we caught a break when the weather moved off-shore and the skies cleared up, creating a perfect window for us to do our shoot!

Victoria was such a joy to work with! She’s heading off to join her sister, Savannah, at Clemson University. She loves animals and plans on studying Wildlife Biology.  Since we’re big animal lovers too, we think that’s awesome!

CONGRATULATIONS, Victoria!  We can’t wait to see what amazing accomplishments await you…

* Nikon Z9, Nikkor Z 24-120 f4, SB-5000 speedlight, Sony XQD cards, DJI Mini 3 Pro, Manfrotto supports, ThinkTank bags *

Colored Powder Photography

One of my good friends and artistic inspirations is Reid Strauss. She is an absolute visionary, always full of the coolest and most creative ideas!!!

A couple days ago we gathered her adorable daughters together (or did we drag them kicking and screaming…I can’t remember which?). In any event, they somehow got volunteered to be our victims as we headed out to Folly Beach for a super fun photo shoot!

Reid had ordered some organic biodegradable colored powder for us to play with.  Made out of corn starch and natural dies, it was completely water soluble and wouldn’t harm the environment. When we started, the girls had no problem pelting each other with the fine grains…but when it was their turn, not so much! Just kidding!!!  They were in fact quite enthusiastic and so much fun to work with, which I appreciated. Once they saw how cool the shots were coming out, the competition was ON!!!

It was an overcast gray day. But this was supposed to be all about COLOR!!!  Gray just wouldn’t do. So I switched my Nikon D5 to tungsten white balance, which of course added an electric blue tone to the sky. Then I covered two of my Nikon SB-5000 Speedlights with orange CTO gels, which are thin colored filters for flashes.  For protection, each flash was placed in a zip-loc bag. Using one flash as my main light, and the other as a rim light, I was able to give the skin tones a nice “sunset glow” to them, which contrasted beautifully with the electric blue sky.  I used the compact and lightweight Nikkor 24-120 f4 VR lens so that I could keep my distance and move quickly. From that point on, it was just a matter of getting everyone’s timing down as they hurled fists full of colored powder at each other!!!

Many thanks to Reid, Sydney, Jacqueline, and Trinity for such a fun evening!!!

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Danielle & Mike’s Collage Recreation

Many moons ago I had the pleasure of photographing Danielle & Mike for a creative collage idea of theirs!

They had bought a new home and wanted some artwork depicting a low-country scene for a long empty wall. Being quite the creative genius that he is, Mike had suggested a series of 4 images, showcasing a panoramic marsh scene, but that included a photo of the two of them in one of the 4 images. I loved the idea and it turned out awesome!!!  Check it out here:  https://chrisandcami.com/mike-danielle-at-james-island-county-park/.

Fast forward to today and guess what? Mike and Danielle decided it was time to update their wall to include their beautiful 6 year old daughter! 🙂  Deciding to change it up a little, we chose a twilight beach scene this time. We had a fabulous time together on Folly Beach last night. And the new collage recreation turned out fantastic…

 

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Gadol Family on Folly Beach

What a fun evening with one of our FAVORITE families!!! Many thanks to the Gadol Family for enduring the gnats and no-see-ums to capture these wonderful family portraits on Folly Beach. And a special thanks for treating us to dinner with you guys afterwards!  🙂

To see more of their beautiful photos, visit http://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/p379364885.