MaryBeth & Brad

MaryBeth called me a couple weeks ago from Kentucky. She is the SWEETEST little Southern Lady you could ever meet! Her and Brad were coming down to Charleston to visit family and had seen some of our work. Since they were recently engaged, she wanted to do their e-Session with me while they were down here. They wanted ther Engagement Portraits to be TOTALLY different from all their friend's portraits. Since Kentucky isn't a coastal state...what better place than a beach session, right!?! :-)

Kerri & Wes are Married

I first met up with Kerri & Wes when I was in their hometown of Columbia shooting a wedding. Kerri is an AMAZING athlete and gymnastics instructor. Wes is a very creative and GIFTED musician! They had their wedding here at Alhambra Hall overlooking Charleston Harbor. Many thanks to Erin, Wes' sister-in-law, for being a guest at another wedding I'd photographed here a few years ago and recommending us to Kerri & Wes. :-) The ceremony was beautiful out under the Oak Tree on the Grand Lawn. And the Reception was one ROCKIN' good time, highlighted by Wes and the old gang taking over for the band and jamming to every one's delight! Click Here to check out their gallery of images. CONGRATULATIONS Kerri & Wes!!!

Folly Beach Family Portrait

Jean & Dutch's family are all originally from the Dayton area of Ohio. As most of you know, that's where Cami grew up and where we met when I lived there after college. So it was GREAT talking about old stomping grounds and getting to know their family! They were vacationing on Isle Of Palms, but elected to make the trek to Folly Beach for their session. They LOVED the diversity and uniqueness of the beach compared to the more tame landscape on IOP. So they were pleased about their decision. But the best part was, they stopped at the famous Ye Ole Fashioned Icecream, a Charleston icon on this side of town that "happens" to be right on the way back to IOP. ;-)

Photography on IOP Beach is Illegal

Since Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island have passed ordinances making it illegal to have professional photographs taken on their beaches, we've had to find alternative locations for our vacationing clients. I know...it's hard to believe that ANY town would put a ban on creating beautiful family photos that show the bonds of love, and preserve such special times in a family's history. But that's EXACTLY what they're doing. Here's a link: http://www.iop.net/FAQs.aspx.

Many of these families are made up of multiple generations, all coming from different areas of the country, who rarely see each other all together like this. And when an older matriarch or patriarch is involved, who knows when the NEXT time will happen that they'll all be together again?!? So a portrait to commemorate the occasion holds a great deal of weight.

Fortunately for the Henley family, the beach house they rented sat on a beautiful property with lots of nice landscaping. So we were able to photograph their session without them leaving. Here's a fun one of all the grand kids goofing off. ;-) Still, they didn't get any images on the beach...kind of the whole idea behind renting a beach house! Other families are forced to make the choice to drive all the way to Folly Beach...the nearest town without such a ban on it's beaches.

Amy & Evan

Amy & Evan flew into town this week to do a little wedding planning and do their Engagement Shoot. We had a BLAST! I can't wait to shoot their wedding in October!!! :-)

Blue Sky Magic

I've had a lot of folks asking me how I get my dramatic "BLUE SKY" effect. It's a technique I learned from the legendary Sports Illustrated photographer, Dave Black. And I recently saw a couple shots by Joe McNally with this technique as well.

Take this scene for instance. It was a dreary, overcast, hazy, UGLY GRAY evening sky. Who wants a BLAH background like that, right? So to make it POP, you have to set your camera's White Balance Setting to a cooler tone. You can set it on the Tungsten setting if you like. I prefer to use the Kelvin Scale since it gives me more control. I often use 4,000K, which is a little warmer than full Tungsten. Now changing this in the camera means it's a GLOBAL change...everything in your scene will be blue, including my subject.

So to get the right color back on my subject I place a WARMING gel over my flash and light him separately. I underexpose the sky by about a stop and a half to make this easier and to give the background more saturation. I have an SB-800 just out of camera frame on the left, zoomed to 105mm, with a full CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel, at about 1/4 power. I'm controlling this flash through Nikon's CLS system (I didn't have my Radio Poppers on me at the time). The flash on my D3 is an SB-900, pointed strait at the sensor on the remote flash. All it's doing is telling the SB-800 what to do and when to do it. I was shooting from across the street with the 70-200 to frame the subject with just enough of the beautiful Spanish Moss covered oak tree overhead. This was shot last week at Legend Oaks Golf Course.

As you can see, legendary golfer Bill Kalback now has a nice warm shaft of setting sunlight on him, while the gray sky in the background shifts to a complimenting blue twilight tone. Next time you're faced with an ugly sky, give this a try!

Whitney's Bridal Shoot

I've been saving these because I didn't want Logan to "accidentally" see Whitney's dress. But now that they're married, here are a few fun shots from Whitney's "Charleston Charm" Bridal Shoot...

Joe McNally

Joining a packed house of photographers, I was at the Charleston Center for Photography last night being inspired by the legendary Joe McNally. I've met him several times and been to many of his presentations. But his stories never seem to get old. He's been a big influence on my work over the years and is always engaging, insightful, and full of mischief and humor. :-) It was also wonderful to see his lovely bride Anne Cahill again. She's a Nikon Professional Services representative, of which I am a die-hard member. Stacy Pearsal has done a FANTASTIC job with the CCforP since taking it over from the great start by Jack Alterman. If you haven't been recently, get down there and check it out!