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! 🙂
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. 🙂
I had the pleasure of photographing Kenny’s brother’s wedding several years ago. We love their family to pieces!!! So you can imagine my excitement when Kenny and Hanna asked me to photograph their wedding too! 🙂
A couple nights ago, on a beautiful summer evening, I met up with these two amazing people at Waterfront Park. We had a lovely time walking all over the French Quarter, Rainbow Row, and along the Charleston Harbor. It was fun chatting and catching up on their lives, capturing beautiful images of their relationship and their love for each other as we went!
Visit https://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/hannaandkenny to see the rest of their engagement photos.
CONGRATULATIONS Hanna and Kenny! I can’t wait to be there for you both on your wedding day!!! 🙂
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!!!
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!!!
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!
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!!!
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!
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!!!
Today was an absolutely PERFECT day to be “Playing Tourist” in Charleston! I had the pleasure of working with my good friend, and amazing photographer, Gary Coleman, as we covered a fun incentive trip for one of his clients. The first part of my day included covering a sailboat trip out on the breezy and picturesque Charleston Harbor. The second part included a wonderful walking tour through the old historic district, led by the lovely Joyce Sauls.
Early in the spring of 2018, a young man by the name of Tom reached out to me:
“My girlfriend and I will be visiting Charleston in early February, and I am planning on proposing to her…are you available February 9th?”
Tom spent the following weeks corresponding with me and planning every detail of his surprise proposal to Katie. I could tell he was an amazing guy, and that he wanted everything to be perfect for the girl if his dreams! It was. She said yes. And it was my distinct honor to capture that special moment when he slipped the engagement ring on her finger: https://chrisandcami.com/katie-toms-secret-proposal-at-white-point-garden/.
It was so much fun getting to know Katie & Tom through that experience. Imagine my excitement when several months later they also asked me to photograph their wedding in Tampa!?! Having been there for them in the beginning when Katie said “YES”, it was such a joy to be there on this special day in the spring of 2019 when she said “I DO”!!!
Katie & Tom’s wedding celebration was absolutely perfect. With a rehearsal dinner at the Tampa Yacht & Country Club, wedding day preparations starting off at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, and the wedding/reception held at the Davis Island Garden Club, I couldn’t have asked for more picturesque locations. The sun was shining, the ocean breezes were blowing, and the temperature was absolutely perfect. Katie was absolutely stunning in her gorgeous wedding gown and colorful bouquet. Tom was quite dashing in his blue suit with choral necktie and complimentary boutonniere.
Throughout their special day, the energy was palpable, and the excitement ecstatic! I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much at a wedding. It was like every member of the wedding party was hand-picked to fit a perfect cast of comical characters with charisma and charm to boot. Everyone had so much fun…and I had so much fun capturing every moment of it all!!!
Many thanks to Katie’s Mom Sherry for all her hard work in pulling everything together. I am so grateful to Christi Windsor of Windsor Events, everyone at the Davis Island Garden Club, Olympia Catering, FH Events, DJ Kevin Cramer, UDream Events, West Palm Wines, Femme Akoi, Tampa Lights, Connie Dugin Linens, OMG Trolley Company, and everyone else who played a part in making this amazing day come together so beautifully for Katie & Tom.
To see more of their photos, visit: https://chrisandcami.zenfolio.com/katieandtomwedding.
CONGRATULATIONS Katie & Tom! We wish you all the happiness in the world as you begin your new journey together.
