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Articles Tagged with: photographers

Charleston Fashion Week 2012 (Friday Show)

Friday night was a big night for the Low Country’s style scene, as Charleston Fashion Week had a big sold out show in Marion Square. I was on hand to capture images for Charleston’s TheDigitel.com and their non-stop coverage of all that is Fashion Week.

The photo pit was noticeably more crowded on Friday, and I had the pleasure of not only shooting with photog buddy Robert Donovan, but I also sat next to Paul Zoeller, who’s a local photog I’ve been a fan of for quite a while. He also happens to be a really nice guy! I also made new friends from Charleston Scene, including Marie Rodriquez.

So, you can read the entire rundown of the event in tomorrow’s Digitel article, I’m just going to show you my favorite looks and shots.

In addition to the local showcases (which were Mary Mojo & Gwynne’s of Mt. Pleasant) and the featured designer (which was designer Chris Benz), there were two competitions as well. In the first competition, the models got to duke it out in the “Rock the Runway Model Competition”.

Nikki Jansen took the women’s title and Samuel Roberts took the men’s title.

The Emerging Designer showcase was the most exciting part of the show for me, mainly because the design’s are the equivalent to concept cars you see at the car expo – they’re just far out there and interesting.

Hannah Goff advanced to the finals, which will be held tomorrow. Here’s a couple of her looks:

I was happy to have a different vantage point from Wednesday’s show, I was able to get some more creative shots from this low angle. Thanks to Paul for letting me in his spot for parts of the show!

To wrap it up, here’s a few more random shots. I’ve got a bunch of “red carpet” shots that I’ll be putting up soon, so come back if I took your picture out there! You can view all of my shots from Friday night here, and don’t forget to check out Wednesday’s post here.

Look, it’s Charleston Fashion Week creative director and the style editor for Charleston Magazine, Ayoka Lucas:

That was a lot of fun, I can’t wait to do it again!

Keep Shooting

I made the shot above after pouring a bowl of Cap’n Crunch for my son the other day. I liked the natural light coming through the windows and the vibrance of the colors of the cereal and bowl. After I shot it, I was working on my computer and I looked over as he was eating and saw a whole different shot of the same scene. I remembered being a kid and reading the entire cereal box while I would eat my sugary breakfast. Kegan was doing just that and when I picked up my camera again to capture this:

Same scene, but two completely different shots. I couldn’t say which one is better or more effective, but instead of one shot, I now have two that I love! I also recently parked near a church in downtown Charleston and decided to break out my camera. I started with the straight “real estate” shot:

First Scots Presbyterian Church - Charleston, SC

I walked around the church looking for interesting shots, and the view of one of the doors through the iron gates just screamed Charleston to me. Iron gates are one of the signature elements in the Holy City, as are the many churches.

I then recomposed for a vertical shot which turned out to be a very different photo:

As you shoot, it’s so important to move around and look for different approaches to the subject you are shooting. Joseph Stalin once said, “Quantity has a quality all of its own”, and as nutty as he was it makes a lot of sense. The more you do something the better you will get at it, and the more you produce, the better your chance of capturing the perfect moment or composing the perfect scene. In short, keep shooting.

Street Photography

Day 273 - Xylophone Man On Meeting & Market

0.4 sec f/2.8 11mm ISO 200

One of my favorite forms of photography to create is street photography. I remember showing the shot of the girl doing yoga that is featured at the top of this website (or by clicking here) to someone and they thought that it was weird that I was at the beach just taking shots of random people I didn’t know. I explained that that is the beauty of it – you are capturing real life, not posed life. Once people are aware you are photographing them out in public, they change. Sometimes that change ruins the shot.

I bring this up today because I was turned on yesterday by a post on Chase Jarvis’ blog to a very well known street photographer named Scott Schuman who runs the popular blog “The Sartorialist“. If you have a few minutes, watch the video that Chase shared (just under this paragraph) – it’s very inspirational – it will hopefully make you get why he does what he does.

It also reminded me of the legendary photographer Jay Maisel, who after retiring from doing commercial assignments in the 90’s, focused on street photography as well as teaching and selling fine art prints of his work. If you have a Kelby Training account, there is a fantastic series featuring Scott Kelby and Jay doing a photowalk through New York City. Guys like Jay Maisel and Scott Schuman both stress the importance of exorcising your creative mind, and they do it while approaching strangers so confidently that it’s tough not to be inspired by their skill.

1/60th of a sec f/5.6 200mm ISO 200

One of the things I’ve been known for here in Charleston, SC is my photographs of local scenes and events. I’ve been inspired to add a new “Street Photography” category to my blog to start sharing some of those posts in one organized place. It’s a way for me to have a place to talk about my life experiences when I choose to bring the camera along with me (which is most of the time). I’ve also added an “Insight” category, which is similar to the “Inspiration” category but focuses more on my soapbox type posts about technique, gear, or business, where the inspiration category is about things, people, or events that inspire me. Finally, I added a sub-menu at the top menu of the blog to quickly access these categories so you can browse the blog posts by whatever topic you’re in the mood to read about.

Have a great 1.11.11 – I’ll be more excited for 11.11.11 though 😉