A Peace of Soul Vegan Kitchen

Today found me driving to Columbia, South Carolina, to photograph entrepreneur and chef extraordinaire, Folami Geter. Folami created “A Peace of Soul”, which is a food truck, and soon to be restaurant, serving fresh and delicious vegan meals that are to die for!

The assignment was for the South Carolina Community Loan Fund, which is writing a piece on Folami’s success story. The SCCLF was instrumental in helping Folami purchase and renovate her restaurant building, which will open its doors soon.

I photographed this assignment with the Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70, and up to 4 SB-5000 flashes. Some of the shots include gels on the flashes for added color and drama to the otherwise drab interior of the food-truck’s utilitarian work space. I also captured some establishing shots with the DJI Mavic Pro.

Comcast Conference

Over the course of the two-day Comcast Conference, held at the North Charleston Marriott, I had the pleasure of photographing head-shots for over 150 executives, managers, and team leaders. It was hard work keeping on schedule and maintaining that pace. But everyone was so kind and gracious, and each individual was so full of energy. They kept me pumped up!  And I had so much fun! What a great group!!!

Headshots at Palmetto Community Care

This afternoon I had a super fun photo shoot with one of my all-time favorite clients!

Palmetto Community Care provides complete compassionate care, free testing and prevention measures, and referrals to medical care and support for those living with HIV and AIDS in the greater Charleston area.  “We believe no one living with HIV or AIDS should go without medical care, everyday resources and emotional support.”

I absolutely love working with Palmetto Community Care…not only because they are wonderful, vibrant, caring, and loving human beings, but because they are doing good things for the people of Charleston!

All images were shot on the Nikon D5 with my favorite Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII lens.  Lighting was provided by 6 off-camera speedlights.  1 Nikon SB-5000 was lighting the background for that bright “high-key” look.  3 SB-800 flashes in a 50″ Westcott Apollo softbox provided the main light.  And 2 SB-800 flashes in a Westcott 36″ shoot-through umbrella created a soft fill light.  Shooting tethered to my Lenovo Yoga, images instantly popped up in Adobe Lightroom and automatically had my special black-and-white preset applied to them so that individuals could approve of their portraits and pick out their favorites.

Sunrise Shoot in Cartagena, Colombia

While in Cartagena, Colombia, I had the opportunity to photograph an AMAZING sunrise photo shoot with my good friends and gorgeous models, Heidi and Stella!
Arriving on the deserted beach in front of the Hilton Cartagena before dawn, I saw a bunch of birds circling overhead in the dim light. Rounding the rock jetty, I saw they were keen on picking off the remnants of a boat full of fisherman. It was fun watching the men work the nets and show off their catch with glee. The egrets, herons, and frigat birds fought for the scraps around the perimeter.

When Heidi and Stella arrived, we headed over to the rock jetty and the dilapidated lifeguard stand. One of my favorite shots is the one of them in the doorway of the faded structure up on its wooden stilts. Shooting with a Nikon D850 and a Nikkor 16-35 f4 VR, I placed a Nikon SB-5000 flash behind them inside the room, and covered it with a CTO warming gel to create a warm silhouette against that electric blue sky. The great white heron perched on top was just icing on the cake!

The rest of the shoot was done with a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VRII, often mixing in the SB-5000 flash, mounted on a Manfrotto 5001 nano stand as either a rim light, kicker light, or an off-camera main light. I love Nikon’s new Advanced Wireless Lighting (AWL) system, which allows me to control the flash directly from the camera’s menu.

I had an absolute BLAST with Heidi and Stella as we enjoyed our final morning in Cartagena together! These two adventurous ladies were heading out to an island off the coast later that morning, as Cami and I boarded a plane for our flight back to America. 🙂

Headshots at The Cigar Factory

I love using interesting old brick walls and unique backgrounds for corporate photo shoots and head-shots! Here are a few from last week where I used part of the exposed brick walls at The Cigar Factory.

Congratulations to all the new members of the amazing team at Lee & Associates!!!

South Atlantic Bank

South Atlantic Bank’s new regional headquarters in Mount Pleasant is beginning to take shape. The in-ground items, including plumbing and electricity are in place and the concrete has been poured for the first floor. We will see the building “go vertical” as framing gets underway.

The 8,000 square foot, two-story building will house a full-service banking office on the first floor with space for tenants on the second floor.

It was a pleasure photographing head-shots for Michael Tawes the other day. He was responsible for locating and appraising the site of the new bank!  The setup consisted of 6 Nikon SB-800 Speedlights, 1 Nikon SB-5000, 2 Wesctott 60″ umbrellas, 1 Nikon D4, 1 Nikon 70-200 VRII, 1 Lenovo Yoga, and 7 RadioPopper Px units.

The Price Girls (see what I did there?)

This weekend, I had the pleasure of photographing one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE set of siblings!

I’ve been photographing the Price family for many years. They always come up with the most unique locations, and the coolest outfits, and the craziest ideas. All four girls bring such unique talents and personalities to each and every photo shoot we do together. But one thing they have in common is what beautiful young ladies they all are…inside and out!

As always, we had a BLAST…and came away with some amazing images!!!   🙂

Center for Birds of Prey

Last weekend I had the privilege of photographing a group of children involved in an immersive learning experience at the Center for Birds of Prey.

Thank you Kara for the wonderful opportunity to see the wonder and awe in these young people’s faces as they learned about these beautiful creatures!

And a special thank you to Audrey, Meghan, and Natalie for leading the wonderful program!

Chris & Mandi’s Secret Proposal at Middleton Place

I feel like a SPY!!!

Chris and I have been in cahoots for several weeks now, planning his really cool surprise wedding proposal to Mandi. Chris is an incredible guy! Everything he’s planned out, down to the finest details, has all been to make Mandi the happiest girl in the world. I think it’s so honorable when a man does that for his future bride!!!

Yesterday, the big day finally arrived! It was Mandi’s birthday. Chris had planned it that way so she wouldn’t suspect he was proposing until the last minute…pretty sneaky! They drove down for a fun weekend get-away to Charleston. The first stop on their list was to visit Middleton Plantation for a relaxing tour of the gorgeous gardens before their dinner reservations.

Before they arrived, I took all the picnic items, and the painted pumpkins, and set them up under the oak tree Chris had selected for “the spot”. With eyes on the target, I was able to follow the Mandi & Chris as they strolled around the grounds, sneaking a few shots as they went. Once they began approaching the picnic area, I got myself hidden and waited for them to come into view

With heart pounding and hands sweating, I gripped the camera and captured a ton of great shots as Chris asked Mandi to be his wife! Photographing all the cute moments of their picnic was a delight. Finally I came out of hiding so that we could create some beautiful engagement photos of them in the gorgeous “Magic Hour” right before sunset!

CONGRATULATIONS Mandi and Chris! May your lives be full of joys too numerous to count!!!

Amanda & Alicia’s Lifestyle Shoot

With all the mayhem leading up to their BEAUTIFUL wedding (which was featured in Borrowed & Blue by the way), Amanda, Alicia, and I didn’t get a chance to photograph their engagement session. So instead, Amanda had this really creative idea to do a post-wedding “lifestyle” shoot in their home! We had SO MUCH FUN hanging out and creating these awesome images of life, love, family, and togetherness!!!

Getting to Know your Nikon

Although I’m actually quite non-denominational, most folks know I’m a Nikon Afficionado. I love all the other brands, and have taught plenty of workshops where I had to even show Canon folks a thing or two on THEIR cameras. But I’ve been a Nikonian ever since my old film days.
Last weekend I had a wonderful group of folks take my “Getting to Know your Nikon” class, sponsored by the Charleston Center for Photography! We had a great time learning menus and technical junk. But to me, a class is no fun if you can’t have a little “play” time! 🙂
My friends, David & April, have four adorable daughters. Mary Catherine just happens to LOVE being in front of the camera…as she should since she’s an absolute natural model! “Mimi”, as we call her, has modeled for me before and is always amazing to work with. So I invited her to come be our model for a short “shout-out” at the end of the class.
For lighting, I built a hexagonal “beauty box” out of 6 remote Speedlights, all firing through umbrella diffusers. I love the catch-light in Mimi’s eyes from this light! We all had so much fun! And of course the class went way over it’s schedule ending. But we were enjoying our time together too much to stop. After all, this is what learning is all about…creating beautiful images!!!
If you missed the class and are interested in joining the next one, let me know. Maybe the next one should be about flash photography?!?
Many thanks to Robbin Knight for letting us use his studio space, to Mahmood Fazal at the Center for Photography for organizing everything, and to April Price for loaning us her beautiful daughter!

Light Bending 411

I would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Patty Hallman and the Professional Photographers of South Carolina for inviting me to teach my “Light Bending 411” wireless lighting workshop in Columbia yesterday!  We had about 30 AMAZING photographers there.  I loved working with our three gorgeous models.  Erika is an incredibly elegant creative dancer.  Her young prodigy, Lea, was simply beautiful.  And Megan was such a gorgeous bride.  Last but not least, a special thank you to the crazy group from Charleston that drove up to participate.  It was great to have a few familiar faces in the crowd!!!  More to come soon…