Adorable kids make me smile. Last night I had the joy of smiling A LOT!!! 🙂
It was so much fun photographing the Morrison family during their inaugural family vacation on Kiawah Island. They normally vacation a little further south at one of the islands off the Georgia coast. I’m so glad they decided to try Kiawah this year. And I’m so glad they picked me as their photographer!
Hopefully this was the first of many more years of fond family memories (and photo shoots) on Kiawah!!!
I had a lovely and unique photo shoot at The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island this week!
While they were in town on vacation with the whole family, Debbie and Russell had asked for a very special photo shoot with JUST them and their grandchildren. Normally these family photo requests include everyone in the family, of course. But I thought it was so special that these two love their grandkids so much that they wanted a private photo shoot of just them and their adorable little people. How cool is THAT?!?
We had an awesome time together. All the kids were fantastic. I could tell their was a very special bond between them! 🙂
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of photographing the Hogan family during their much anticipated family reunion on Kiawah Island!
With families spread across the US these days, it’s always heart-warming to see everyone getting together to renew those family ties. One of grandma’s biggest request as part of the trip was to finally get a family portrait of everyone together!
I had so much fun with the Hogan family and their adorable kids! 🙂
This morning I had the pleasure of photographing the latest member of the Clawson & Staubes team of attorneys. Tom was a great guy, and a pleasure to work with!
I absolutely love the Grindall family! They are such an amazing group of kind and generous human beings. I had so much fun catching up with them last night at our annual family beach shoot on Kiawah Island!!! We started off in what I call the “Enchanted Forest” near The Sanctuary. Then finished up on the beautiful beach in front. We had an absolutely GORGEOUS day!!! Here are a few of my favorites… 🙂
Every 3 years or so, our family plans an extended family reunion. Being scattered all over the country, it’s a special time of re-connecting catching up, and making new family memories together.
It’s always so special when I see other families getting together to do the same. And it means a lot to me when families like the Porellos decide to include me in their summer vacation plans. We had so much fun earlier this week, capturing this beautiful time together. I know how much they will cherish these memories many years from now!!!
As an added bonus, even though the skies were overcast on the back side of Kiawah Island where the Porellos were staying, driving out the front side of the island on my way home, I found an open window to the sky where I was able to capture the dramatic sunset. 🙂
Many thanks to my good friend and amazing photography, Gary Coleman of Coleman Photography, for sending me on this awesome assignment last night!
I got to photograph the Wrap Party for Danny McBride’s HBO show, The Righteous Gemstones, starring John Goodman, Danny McBride, Adam DeVine, Cassidy Freeman, and many monre. What a BLAST!!!
The event was made extra special since my brother Dan, a recently retired commander in federal law enforcement, was in town visiting from Oregon. He got to come along as my personal security team…making me feel like a celebrity too! 😉
Being a professional photographer is not always roses and sunshine. Sometimes we are faced with difficult scenarios, yet expected to produce stellar results!
Photographing an assignment for Lee & Associates, I needed to create headshots for a couple of recent additions to the team. We normally do their shoots in The Cedar Room. This is the big beautiful ballroom in Charleston that’s known for its gorgeous historic brick walls. Instead, they offered us this wall in the bottom floor, which is now a a back service entrance in the basement of the old factory.
I got to work and set up my Nikon D5 with Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 on the Manfrotto 055 carbon fiber tripod. I mounted 2 SB-5000 flashes, both set to Group A, on a Manfrotto light stand with a 60″ Westcott shoot-through umbrella, as my main light. I set 2 SB-5000 flashes, on another light stand with a shoot through umbrella in the back. One of these flashes was set to Group B and directed at the subject to act as a rim/fill light. The other was set to Group C and directed at the wall as a background light. The camera was then tethered to my Lenovo Yoga laptop, which rested comfortably on the trash can in the corner. Using Adobe Lightroom allowed the client to proof images as I shot, and allowed each individual pick out their favorite shots.
In spite of the conditions, with a little ingenuity, and a dash of creativity, we were able to make this dark hallway look as bright and beautiful as the gorgeous ballroom above!
Yesterday found me traveling to Lancaster, SC for another shoot with the South Carolina Community Loan Fund.
The assignment was to tell the “story” of the Lancaster Christian Services Center. The SCCLF had helped this organization secure the financing to purchase a bowling alley to house a number of their community outreach programs, including two churches, a food pantry, meeting rooms for education programs, and of course a fun place for youth to hang out.
Images were captured with the DJI Mavic Pro and Nikon D850 with either the 14-24 f2.8 or 24-70 f2.8 and as many as three SB-5000 off-camera flashes, depending on the scene.
The Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Water Polo team has its sights set on a three-peat for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship in 2019.
The Sagehens are coming off of a historic season in which they repeated as SCIAC Champions and went a perfect 14-0 in conference play. The Sagehens went 22-11 overall and had impressive regular season wins over the Chinese national team and Brown before falling in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament to UC Irvine.
Many of the experienced players from The Sagehens return from seasons past with a total of eight seniors to lead the team, including star goalie Morgan Stockham. This season, Morgan appeared in 29 games with an 18-8 record and 125 saves.
I had the distinct honor of photographing Morgan at the team’s training center in Claremont, CA. Many thanks to her amazing mother, Sarah, for inviting me on this shoot, and capturing the behind-the-scenes shots as I worked!
The soggy December rains kept ruining our plans for another annual Rogers Family Christmas Portrait.
But Dr. Lori of Belle Hall Eye Care is such a wonderful, easy-going, and understanding human being! She kept rolling with the punches. And on the 3rd day of the New Year, we FINALLY captured her family portraits at Pepper Plantation! With ponies, puppies, and even a chicken, the session was a real treat. Plus, at one point Ellie got a hold of my remote control and started taking their own photos. So of course I HAD to jump in! 😉 We had so much fun!!!
We absolutely love this beautiful family to pieces!
I get a lot of funny looks and silly questions when by-standers and tourists see me using my off-camera light-stand, especially when I’m on the beach, and in broad daylight!
So I decided to take a before-and-after to show what a difference it makes. I’m using four Nikon SB-800 flashes, attached to my home-made Quad-Bracket, mounted on top of a Bogen light-stand. Each is triggered by a RadioPopper Px receiver, and controlled by an SB-910 mounted to my Nikon D4. All flashes were in Group A and manually dialed in at 1/4 power. Camera settings were f5.6 at 1/250th and ISO 50. The stand is placed 30-degrees to camera right.
Many thanks to the Clark family for another AWESOME annual family photo shoot!!! 🙂
