The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment Reenactors

This evening
after work I went out to Sol Legare Road to the Seashore Farmers Lodge #767 to
take some photos for my friend James.  
James, Ernest
and Joe are very actively involved in keeping the story of the 54th
Massachusetts Volunteer Infanty Regiment alive. Thursday, July 18th is the 150th anniversary of their ill-fated 1863 attack on Confederate Battery Wagner, Charleston Harbor and reenactors come from far and near to commemorate this event.  It was the central them of the movie “Glory”, a Union attempt to capture Charleston where the Civil War began.
The regiment
was one of the first official black units in the United States during the Civil
War. The 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, recruited from freed
slaves, was the first Union Army regiment organized with African American
soldiers in the Civil War, though many had fought in the American Revolution
and the War of 1812 on both sides.
I processed
the images in sepia tones to give them an old fashioned look.  I think it
suits the subject matter much better than color.

Ernest

James

Joe

A Celebration of Evie

It was a year ago exactly that my daughter Leigh went for her 20 week scan to find out whether her baby was a boy or a girl.  We had planned a celebration for that night, friends ready to gather and a blue or a pink cake on standby depending on the outcome.  It turned out very differently, as they were told that their baby girl was showing indications of brain, heart and digestive abnormalities.  The party of course was canceled as the family processed this turn of events.

Today our Euphrates Eve at almost 8 months old has two major surgeries under her belt but is a happy and healthy child.  We ordered a pink cake and celebrated with family members yesterday, the party that was a year overdue.

Her first taste of icing!

Big brother Gideon with sparkler

Evening Stroll in Downtown Charleston

The plan was to do a “rain shoot”.  You know those paintings you’ve seen with lights reflected in puddles and lots of different colored umbrellas.  The weather forecast certainly supported the plan, with flash flood warnings and 70%+ probability of rain, but nature does as she pleases and it didn’t work out that way.  Plan B was general Charleston cameos, tucked away places that you don’t always pass by, so we walked a few alleys, braving the squadrons of mosquitoes that threatened to carry us away.  Here are a couple of the images.

A Romantic Charleston Wedding

There’s so much romance in a Charleston wedding.  Over 20 years ago, we lived next door to a family with three girls much the same age as our two kids.  We shared meals, kids (Chantal always preferred our brand of Cheerios), good times and bad, and then sadly watched them relocate to Columbus, Ohio.  Recently Christiana met the man of her dreams and decided she wanted to get married in Charleston.  It was a joy and a privilege for me to photograph the event and catch up with their lives.  Here are a few of the images from yesterday’s celebration.

Quiet week at Work

This 4th July week has been quiet and it’s getting quieter.  Many folks have taken off and are spending time with their kids on summer vacation. There’s really very little going on in my department.  To occupy my time, I took my camera and macro lens, grabbed some safety glasses and spent an hour or
so wandering through our various laboratories, looking for some fun
detail stuff to shoot.  We are updating our website so we need the
imagery anyway, so it was a good time to do it.  I’m going to have to get really creative tomorrow …

Maternity Shoot at Middleton Place

Middleton Place is such a great place for portrait photography; lots of lovely soft backgrounds that are interesting, but that don’t necessarily compete with your main subjects, in this case Mary and Jay.  Here are a few images from a shoot we did a couple of weeks ago.

Supermoon of June 2013

The moon is really difficult to capture when the sky is dark.  The reason is that there is such a difference between the brightness of the moon and the darkened sky that most cameras are not able to record such a broad spectrum of exposure.  It just emphasizes the amazing capabilities of the human eye, that with all the technological advances we have made with digital cameras, we cannot simulate what the eye sees.  That is why most of the time your moon looks like a washed out white disk and the sky looks black.  It doesn’t stop me from trying however, so here are two images of the recent supermoon, one taken two days before it was full, rising in a late afternoon sky, and the other when it was full on Sunday evening, June 23rd.
Evening and high tide at the Charleston City Marina
Full “supermoon” rises over the James Island marshes and creeks

Downtown Hotel Shoot

So among other things this weekend (like chasing the Supermoon) we took a few photographs of a downtown hotel bar and cafe that has been recently renovated.  The clients needed a few updated shots for their website.  This kind of photography reminds me a little of landscape photography because it involves a lot of “composition thinking”.  Because websites are delivered mostly in a horizontal format, all the images should be taken that way, even if it is decidedly vertically-shaped subject matter. Therein lies the challenge of where in the frame to place it, relative to its surroundings so that it looks pleasing.  I really enjoy this type of work.

Weekend Aerial Gig

This last weekend I needed to photograph some property out on Kiawah.  It was a beautiful day with great visibility so we had everything going for us. Here are a couple of the images snagged along the way.
Western tip of Folly Island (Folly Beach County Park)

Kiawah Island Ocean Course Club House

Family waving at us as we buzzed overhead on the way back

West Ashley Greenway, Savannah Highway near Ford & Bessingers BBQ