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Articles Tagged with: Charleston

Coastal Carolina Fair Photo Contest 2012

I was super excited to walk into the photography/art building at the Ladson Fair Grounds this week to find that my photo above, taken for Eco Fitness in Mount Pleasant, won 1st prize in the division 1 photo contest at this year’s Coastal Carolina Fair! Two of my other photos received honorable mentions as well.

This is one of my favorite shots I made this year, which was at the Change For Change benefit art show:

This third entry was from the photo shoot I did last month for Stella Nova Salon & Spa. I’ll share more about that shoot in a future post.

While I was extremely flattered to receive these awards, the big win for my family was to see my daughter take 3rd place in the division 3 contest with this photo that she made during the recent Worldwide Photowalk:

Photo by Mackenzie Nienstedt

And she also received an honorable mention for this photo:

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Photo by Mackenzie Nienstedt

We had prepared my daughter as best we could for a loss since this was her first time entering an art competition like this. We did the same with my son Kegan, who had entered a 3-D art sculpture through his art class at school. So when she won, it was truly a fantastic moment as a parent to see her surprise. Not only that, but Kegan received a 1st place ribbon for his piece as well!

Photo by Amy Nienstedt

What a fantastic day for our family! We are so proud of our kids, and it made the rest of the night a blast as we were so happy about the contests. I left my DSLR at home for this trip, opting to hang with the family instead of hanging behind the lens. I did have my iPhone and couldn’t resist snapping some shots like this sunset using iOS 6’s new panoramic photo feature (be sure to click on it to open up a larger version):

My wife, who had been having one of “Those” days, turned it around completely at the fair. I love how happy she looks here:

Finally, I have never had a caricature done of myself before. I was walking by the caricature booth, and this pretty young artist was looking at me with puppy dog eyes. She enticed me! Well, not really, I walked over and asked her how much. I’m sure she was thrilled to have such an easy ~~target~~ subject. So without further ado, here I am as a cartoon:

Caricature from the Coastal Carolina Fair

I think everyone needs a little bit of kitsch in their life, it makes me smile. I’ve got a lot more to share with you all, so check back soon!

2012 Worldwide Photowalk Decisions

Kayaks at Shem Creek

Paddleboardering Under The Bridge

This past weekend was the 5th annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk all around the globe. We had a couple of groups participating here in Charleston, and I opted to walk with the evening group in Mount Pleasant.

Above are my two favorite shots that I made from the walk. I got a bunch of stuff I thought turned out well for a photowalk, as these walks are more about hanging out with other photographers and helping each other out than making a world-class photograph. I had the pleasure of hanging out with my daughter Mackenzie who was shooting with my Nikon P7000:

Mackenzie scopes out the graffiti under the Shem Creek bridge

She also volunteered to take the group shot, but I wanted her to be in it, so I grabbed my tripod and set the timer on my D800 to take this shot of the walkers:

Backlit sunlight, shade, and incandescent lights? The D800 fared pretty well at dealing with this mixed bag of lighting in the shot!

So anyway, the worst part of these photowalks is deciding which photo to submit as your favorite shot that you took on the walk. I’m torn between the two shots at the top of the post. The kayak shot is definitely more striking and grabs you first, and it has some excellent lighting as it was taken just as the sun was setting. The paddleboat shot is a bit more dynamic in my opinion. The subject is just plain awesome, I love the kid looking up at her dad while he’s paddling. I love the sidelight of the bridge trestle and the pattern that it creates. I love that the subject is framed within it. Ugggh!

While the sunset itself wasn’t spectacular at all (no clouds = boring sunset), I did get a descent photo of it here:

But, I’m not gonna submit that one because it doesn’t speak to me the way the other two do. So which one do you prefer? The Kayaks or the Paddlboarder?

Harley

I’ve got another great senior to show you tonight – Harley is a guy who loves the guitar, drawing, and cars. He hates my Prius because he says that if he drove one, his friends would kill him! I guess his friends don’t pay for their own gas just yet 😉

Here’s a shot of Harley with his brother and sister. This is one of those rare moments with 3 teenage siblings where they all did an amazing job at the same time!

And here’s a close-up headshot. Check out those baby blue eyes. I love the blue and red contrasts in this shot.

I also wore him out with lots of jumping (that’s what you get for hating on my hybrid!!!)

Harley’s a great guy who’s got a lot to offer the world, I know he’ll graduate to doing great things!

Olivia

I just wanted to share some of my favorite shots from a recent senior photo shoot with Olivia. She’s an awesome teen who also happens to be our babysitter. Our kids looooove when Olivia comes over, so I was very excited to have her over to the studio to make her senior portraits.

We had so much fun shooting at the studio that we totally lost track of time. We tried a bunch of different looks and setups.

When we went to pack up and head downtown for some sunset shots, it was already dark! Whoops… Well, I made some time for her the next night and we took a bunch of shots in Charleston.

At the end of the evening, I wanted to try something a little different. It was just after sunset and I lit the photo with a speedlight in a softbox. The ghosting effect is from zooming my lens as I fired with a 1/8th of a second shutter speed. The flash freezes the action while the zooming creates the motion. I love trying new techniques with my subjects – it gets everyone fired up when you get one that works (and even when it falls flat, it still creates a memorable experience).

I’m still running my senior session promotion, so there’s a little bit of time to get some unique professional senior portraits for this year’s crop of seniors at a great price.

Art & Food Trucks

Charleston artist Patch Whiskey dominates the front of The Pour House

Today was another Food Truck Rodeo here in Charleston. This one took place at The Pour House on James Island.

Local food truck fans chow down on some good eats

I took my family to the event for lunch to enjoy some Roti Rolls (our favorite truck of the bunch), and my wife got an amazing sandwich from The Foodie Truck. We finished off with some peach beignets from The Creole Food Truck.

Maria Carlucci paints a flying frog mural on the backside of The Pour House

Prior to our trip to the rodeo, I had been shooting photos of some real estate for my wife, so I had my camera with me. It didn’t take long for me to break it out (I had barely given my food order for my “Abe Froman” sausage Roti Roll before I headed back to the car to get it). There were a bunch of local artists painting murals all over the pour house, including Patch Whiskey (featured at the top of this post and below), which of course piqued my interest.

Capturing artists making art while chowing down on local food truck cuisine – sounds like a good time to me 😉 See you all at the next rodeo!

Kara & Bryan

I just wanted to share a couple of my favorite shots from a recent engagement shoot I did in Charleston, SC.

We managed to get quite a few looks in two locations, the Charleston Waterfront Park and then sunset shots such as the one below at Mount Pleasant’s Waterfront Park! What can I say, I like the waterfront parks 😉

The couple was great and I hope they have an awesome life together!

The Philbeck Family

I was laying in the dirt for this shot, using my left leg to hold down some of the brush as I composed this shot. My wife Amy was on hand holding the light stand, and I think I may have disturbed an ant hill or two. The sun was falling so I had to be quick! Moments later, I hurried this family to the other side of the bridge into the tall grass.

The race was to get as many family shots off during the falling sun and to ultimately get this sunset silhouette of Allison & Eric:

My wife & I met the Philbecks a couple of years ago while we were on our first cruise. Like us, they were on their first cruise and they also got to leave their kids at home. Needless to say we hit it off! When Eric contacted me about shooting his family, I was more than happy to oblige.

It was interesting to get to meet their children, hopefully next time they make it down, they’ll get to meet our kids 😉

I was happy to give them a little personalized piece of Charleston to take home with them. Taking iconic photos in Charleston is almost cheating when it comes to location shots!

Come Together

One of the most daunting jobs in photography is the large group portrait. Getting dozens of people positioned so that every person can see your lens is one thing, getting dozens of people that span multiple generations from older folks who can’t stand around waiting to young kids who can’t stand still for 20 seconds is enough to make the most seasoned pro sweat profusely.

The Hatcher and Cole family reunion was held in Charleston this year at Sticky Fingers and I had the honor of capturing the event.

There was plenty of food, and a live band had the room dancing.

Here’s a slideshow of the event. I had a blast sharing this night with this fun family. I’ve had Superstition stuck in my head all week long 😉

Friday Night Lights

Just a quick share with you guys since it’s been a while. I was out at the Music Farm this evening to see my wife’s cousin, Jerry Jacobs play. He’s really matured with his musical style and it’s fantastic to see someone grow from a young kid starting out all the way into adulthood with a bunch of musical experience under his belt.

Afterwards, we stumbled upon some skaters in the bus depot and I held an impromptu photo session (as seen above).

I’ve been a busy bee lately and will fill you in on all of the goings on soon. In the meantime, make sure you’re following my Facebook page for the latest sneek peaks into what I’m working on!

Rock on for now, Wally Gator!

Senior Portrait in Charleston

I recently started my senior portraits campaign, and Haley, who is my 2012 model and ambassador, had her senior portrait sessions recently. To showcase a range of what I’m doing this year, I shot three different locations. Above is a shot at Folly Beach, and directly below is a shot in downtown Charleston, SC. I also did a few studio shots as well.

On location shoots, I like to capture an edgier and dramatic look. In the studio though, I tend to favor a high-key look like this:

A new product that I’m going to start including in my senior portrait packages is a Facebook banner. I used one of Haley’s shots to demonstrate this on the JWNPhoto Facebook Page.

Part of the fun of these shoots is in the experience. One moment that I’m sure will stand out for Haley and her father during this shoot was when we hijacked a Porsche!

As we were walking down Chisolm Street, I was making small talk with Haley and I said “Wouldn’t it be awesome if that lady let us take a shot using her car as a prop?” and then I proceeded to do just that. I love this shot because the car’s owner is in the background trying to get out of the way, but she really adds to the whole thing 😉

We also did some more traditional portraits just to have a little diversity.

Here’s a slideshow of all of her photos:

You can also view them on Facebook here and here, or on Flickr.

Now is the time to get your senior portraits made, so let’s book a session now. Time is running out on my current promotion, so contact me here.

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