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Articles Tagged with: Charleston

Brittney’s Bridal Shoot

Brittney’s mom-to-be (well, now she’s her mother-in-law) asked me to do some bridal portraits as a gift for the new bride. We chose Azalea Park in Summerville, SC as our location and and met under the Gazebo…

From there we took a walk over the river using a little white foot bridge…

And then we strolled under the canopy of trees…

And took a walk on the grass under the Spanish moss…

Had a visit from a wee one…

And then the sun fell out of the sky and we reflected on the days gone by…

Congrats on your new life together Brittney & Zach!

Charleston CPA Nails It

Just a quick shout out to the gang at Molony & Phipps, LLC who had me come to their offices recently to create some head shots for their new website. The woman in the shot up top impressed me because she nailed that on the very first click! I usually see a huge progression as I ease my subjects into getting their portrait made. The first shot is usually looks a little on the nervous side, and I have to work a bit to find the best expression for the what the photo will be used for.

I remember taking the shot and chimping the back of my camera in amazement and saying, “You’ve done this before!” Some people are just naturals 😉

Fran & Coz

Coz contacted me a while back to schedule a “top secret” mission. I was to shoot his proposal to his girlfriend Fran.

As I waited in White Point Garden, which is the park along the battery in downtown Charleston, I was surrounded by bus loads of children. A bald guy with a goat tee in his mid 30’s hanging around a park alone with a camera. I was sure the cops were going to be called. Luckily, the kids left before my couple arrived (I wonder if they were just creeped out and it was more of an escape).

The glow and energy of what transpired was infectious. They really lifted my day up with their happiness. We walked around the battery afterwards and took some engagement portraits as well.

In the short time I spent with them, I could tell they were going to be a happy couple for many years to come. Congratulations Fran & Coz, I hope you two look back on these photos in 50 years and remember the day you got engaged. Don’t forget that bald guy with a ridiculously long goat tee who scared off some school children to capture these memories 😉

Pictures of Kayla

Kayla came by for a photo shoot as a gift from her mother. Like most teenage girls, she’s got a busy schedule of school, sports, and family life and it was my job to capture that energy of youth.

We started off in my studio and gave her the model photo shoot experience, fans blowing and all. There’s definitely a dynamic in her set of photos that showcases the many layers of this southern teenager. She’s sweet yet edgy, and I think you can see a different personality in each of these shots.

We headed to the park under the Ravenel Bridge in Mount Pleasant to put a glorious sunset behind her. The shot at the top shows a sensitive girl, yet you wouldn’t realize how bitingly cold it was down there that night from it. Here’s one of my favorite shots of the shoot, she’s got her mom’s coat on and is warming up and I took this shot of here off her guard:

We ended up in downtown charleston and put Kayla in some classic areas, including this shot of her in an alleyway in the French quarter. This is my absolute favorite shot of the session photographically because of the mixed light and the texture. It’s a priceless backdrop 😉

I love the connections photography makes with a family – after this shoot, Kayla’s mom had me shoot her future daughter-in-law’s bridal portraits, which I’ll be able to show you after her big day. It’s those connections with humanity that are the heart of what I love about photography!

Brewvival 2013 – A Tale of Suds & Mud

A couple of years ago, my buddies Chrys & Robert asked me to cover Charleston Brewvial. Last year I couldn’t make it, but this year I was determined to go as a participant so I could fully enjoy one of the greatest events in the greater Charleston area.

I originally planned on taking my P&S P7000 with me, but when I woke up on Saturday morning I realized that the rain was not going to be forgiving and I would be happier using my free hand to hold an umbrella instead. The rain was such a presence, in fact, that it became one of the stars of the event.

Not one sit idly by without letting the photographic itch consume me, I did make proper use of my iPhone to capture my experiences. This shot just above was of the first of many who decided to not give any fucks and start playing in the mud. Put thousands of people on a muddy field and someone’s gonna get dirty. Add beer, and a whole lot of people will join in happily.

Photo by Chrys Rynearson of me taking the shot above

Lets not forget the true star of the event. Beer.

This year, sour was all the rage. Most of the brewers had a signature sour beer and they were almost all fantastic. I only dumped one glass the whole day because I just didn’t like the taste at all. While that might sound sacrilegious to some, when you have a tasting event like this, if you don’t pace yourself you will most likely end up like the guys in the photos above. That means choosing wisely. The best part is when I found a beer I truly enjoyed, I couldn’t wait to share it with my friends (and even some strangers).

There are countless articles written about the benefits of having a camera-phone like the iPhone because the best camera is indeed the one that you have with you. My piece of advice with iPhonography is the age old photographic wisdom of “If you think you’re too close, get in closer”. Be concise with your storytelling and know the limitations of the camera. For events like this, it’s all I need because the lighting was perfect (cloudy and outdoors), it fits in my pocket, and I can focus on the experience with friends because I’m “just another guy with a camera-phone”. Besides, it’s nice to let your photog friends do the heavy lifting while you tip a few back and act stupid:

I could have sworn Robert took this photo, but I guess Chrys was standing next to him! I’ll give the credit to Robert Donovan anyway since I was exposing myself to him 😉

Check out the rest of my photos in this Flickr set, also be sure to check out Chrys’ set, CHSBeer.org, and the official Brewvival Facebook Page.

Help-Portrait MUSC Kids 2012

Photo by William Long

On Friday morning, I was joined by 5 great volunteers to gift portraits to the families of children at MUSC Children’s Hospital in Charleston, SC. This was the 3rd Help-Portrait event I’ve led at the children’s hospital and every year it gets better.

Top Row: William Long, John Lindroth, Joseph Nienstedt
Bottom Row: Katee Cornette, Jen Pfeffer, Kathy Hare

Due to the nature of the event we hold and HIPA, I don’t ask the subjects too much about the nature of their conditions. Instead, my philosophy is a little different than most other Help-Portrait events. My goal for the team is to make these kids and their families feel normal. We treat them as if they were coming into a studio and walk them through the whole process. We also provide them with craft photo frames that they design for their portraits, which is always fun for the kids.

Photo by William Long

One of the children asked to see my camera, so I showed him how it works. Then he wanted to take pictures of our next subject, so we let him – and the portraits turned out perfect! In fact, we printed those out and gave them to the subject, and they loved them. This is exactly what we wanted to provide for these families – a fun event that made them forget why they were in a hospital.

Photo by Kathy Hare

Here’s one of the portraits that Tyreq made:

Photo by Tyreq

There are a lot of meaningful things that the families and hospital staff say, but one that sticks out was a parent who’s child was too sick to leave the room but really wanted to participate. Because it was the parent requesting it, we were able to send a photographer into the room and take their family’s portraits – something they haven’t been able to do because of their situation. The photograph meant so much to the parent that she figured out a way to make it happen. This was such an example of the power of a photograph and what it means to someone in need.

Photo by William Long

Please take a moment and watch this slideshow of images from the event. I hope the images move you even slightly as much as they moved us:

Stella Nova Fall Campaign

Now that the advertising has run, I wanted to show you some of the work I did for Stella Nova Spa & Salon. The ad above was for the back cover of the Charleston edition of Skirt Magazine. The one below is from The Little Black Book’s back cover. The model is Karson Terrell, who had just won the crown of Miss Folly Beach Teen 2013 the night before. This was her second photo shoot of the day and she was still glowing.

Hair and make-up was done by Stephanie Murray Waltrip, who I met earlier this year at the Change For Change Art Show when I shot her family’s portrait.

I wanted to share with you some of the shots that didn’t get used, because we had so much fun making them and I believe it shows. This photo was the final “perfected” image for the similar shot above used on the Little Black Book. The one they used was actually a test shot, so the lighting wasn’t positioned correctly yet and she wasn’t “posing” – I just had her standing in place to test the lights! My guess is that the art director liked that fact.

In a similar fashion, the photo they chose at the top of this post was not a planned shot – it was just off-the-cuff playing against a wall because the light was great on our way to do this shot:

One of the things they asked for was the color blue, and they wanted something slightly editorial in nature. Stephanie and I thought this would foot the bill:

I think that this shot truly shows off Stephanie’s talent in the hair department:

And Karson’s eyes in this shot are hypnotizing:

When they told me which shots they were going to use, I was a little surprised because neither were what they had asked for! My first reaction was “I’ll never send anything but the absolute best shots to the client ever again” because they used a test shot. Then I realized just how silly that line of thinking is. These shots are for them, not me! If I gave them something they liked, then I did my job. More importantly, the art director did her job of finding an image that demonstrates their brand. By delivering more than what they asked for, we actually did the right thing. As an artist, the things I look for in my images are very different than what someone else might see. In portraiture, my job is to decide that. In commercial photography, my job is to let the client decide.

I shot most of the shoot in portrait because that is what the client asked for. This last shot was an alternate I did for myself because the scene looked too cool not to capture in landscape. I had Karson’s mother holding my light over the side of the roof while I was leaning over the railing to get this:

If you read my blog regularly, you may remember that the portrait version of this shot won an honorable mention at the Coastal Carolina Fair this year 😉 Be sure to check out the rest of the photos from the shoot in this Flickr set.

Country Wedding in the Fall

Congratulations to Bryan & Kara Peck on their wedding! I shot their engagement session in downtown Charleston, and now their wedding out in the country.

The wedding was outside on a perfect fall afternoon. Sunny weather, traditional BBQ, and great people made for a perfect day.

My wishes go out to Bryan & Kara for a long and fruitful marriage. I don’t think it will be long ’till I’m shooting some maternity/baby shots with the way these two lovebirds are going 😉

BarCampCHS 4

This past weekend marked the 4th BarCamp in Charleston, SC. What is BarCamp? It can be described simply as an attendee-driven conference. The attendees pitch, vote on, and present the content of the day. It’s a lot of fun and this was my 3rd year doing it.

Once again, I presented a class that was photography related. This time I tackled my portrait workflow in Photoshop. I had two examples prepared to demonstrate the techniques I currently use when editing photos. The first one was a headshot of one of the pediatricians at Sweetgrass Pediatrics. I showed a basic RAW conversion in Camera RAW, and then opened the photo in Photoshop to demonstrate techniques like blemish removal, teeth whitening, how to optimize the eyes, skin softening, and dodging & burning. I finished with my selective sharpening technique. This is the final retouched image:

Due to the nature of BarCamp, my class got scheduled in the very first time slot of the day, which is cool by me (who doesn’t want to get their session over right away so they can enjoy the rest of the day??). Unfortunately, the day started quite late due to the fact that almost twice as many people showed up this year compared to last year. I only made it halfway through my session before we had to move outside to get the group photo made. I promised the class that I would post the second half of my session as a screencast here on my website, so you’re all in for something a little different.

Before I get to that, I wanted to talk about the group photo. As I was packing up my gear in the classroom, my daughter came rushing in and said “Come on, Dad, everyone’s waiting to get the photo taken!” I grabbed my camera and ran to the balcony to see everyone all grouped together on the ground level. I looked down at the crowd and thought “Oh, crap”. Mid-day, cloudless skies. Sharp shadows from the building, and worse, the trees. Bright yellow warm light dappling big swatches of faces, and cool blue shadowy light on the rest. All inconsistent, and no time to get hundreds of attendees to relocate! Besides, where could I possibly relocate them to anyway? Well, I switched my camera’s bracketing feature on and organized the crowd to fit in the frame and fired away.

This photo is the end result of a lot of finessing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Color Effex Pro. I’ll save you from all of the gory details, but the dynamic range of my camera truly helped me save this photograph. I was able to use a highly underexposed photo (that still had blown highlights anyway) and create a useable image. HDR didn’t fly because there were too many moving parts. Doesn’t matter – people seem to like the shot regardless of the pixel gymnastics it took to get everyone somewhat evenly exposed.

OK, so here’s the screencast I ~~warned~~ told you about – Hope you enjoy it:

And here’s the final image that I retouched in this video:

CupcakeCamp Charleston 2012

Listen, I just can’t find any more things to say about CupcakeCamp that I haven’t said here, here, or here. But, you need to understand that it still remains the greatest event ever conceived. Bakers make cupcakes. People eat cupcakes. Nobody loses.

So how could we improve on this experience? Easy, you bake cupcakes for it! That’s exactly what my wife decided to do. She did the research and narrowed it down to two recipes:

Harry Potter themed “Butterbeer” cupcakes

“Sweet Potato Casserole” cupcakes

I’ll tell you what, those Butterbeer cupcakes barely made it onto the display. As soon as I took these pictures, they were snapped up in record time! Don’t mess with the power of Harry Potter.

Here’s some other shots of cupcakes for your enjoyment:

You can check out the gallery of shots in this Facebook album as well. Be sure to tag yourself in any of the shots! See you at CupcakeCamp Summerville on Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 3 pm!

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