Peyton {Children} | CHARLESTON PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Peyton {Children} | CHARLESTON PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

This sweet family lives in Beaufort, but our ties run deep.  Peyton’s grandmother Gretchen became a good friend of mine years back when we worked together on her daughter’s wedding.  Gretchen is a design maven here in Charleston, so I am hugely flattered anytime she calls on me.  This time her call was to bestow my services as a gift to her son’s family.  Peyton is the first grandchild in the family and loved like the angel she resembles.  We chose to shoot downtown to take advantage of the Charleston scenery and revisit a few places special to Peyton’s parents. After chasing Peyton through the park and around several trees, she quite beautifully collapsed on her favorite blanket.  Then she rolled over and gave me these “older than her years” poses that made her daddy blush. This precious child LOVED to smell flowers.  And like most children, her curiosity for all things new overcame her desire to pose for the camera.  But these sweet and playful photos are exactly why I love to photograph children. Yes, she was waving at the tourists walking by….how adorable! This is where Adam and Amy stopped to show Peyton where they were married.  :...
Annie’s little sprouts

Annie’s little sprouts

Welcome back to the blog (I’m telling myself)…the holidays were heavily weighted in the direction of my family, and quite intentionly so.  The blog took a back seat to holiday portrait sessions, weddings, Christmas cards, albums….and so on and so forth.  The best part was that the kids got lots of homemade goodies and we made tons of holiday memories.   Where should I start?  Since I just visited Annie for a newborn session today, I thought posting her maternity shots from December would be a good place to begin. Annie, Jeremy, and Landon hiked all over the place for these photos.  Hard to believe Annie was just a few weeks from delivery here, and she never complained a bit about the long walk or the odd places I had her sit.  What an adorable...
Grace + Graham + a pinch of nostalgia

Grace + Graham + a pinch of nostalgia

I love that my clients’ tastes vary so greatly, that each client gets a product a little different from the last, and that I get to excercise some creative flexibility from shoot to shoot.  Christina came to me with a very specific goal…she wanted something classic and vintage that she would always treasure.  Her children Grace and Graham were perfect little subjects whose sometimes solemn and stoic expressions really do look like they were from another era.  With a variety of backdrops, editing finishes and textures, we have a precious collection of portraits of this adorable brother and...
Sullivan’s Island revisited

Sullivan’s Island revisited

Every year just before school starts, Margaret Ann and Cam bring their whole family to Sullivan’s Island for a week to enjoy the beach and each other’s company.  It’s a vacation but it’s even more than that, it’s now tradition.  It’s something I count on like my morning coffee.  I LOVE this family. As Margaret Ann would say, she knew me “when”.  When I was transitioning out of film and into digital.  When our friend and my mentor JD was still with us.  When she had a mere two grandchildren!  waaaaay back when…   And every year until this one, we have done a beach shoot. Posed, candid, matchy, non-matchy, and every other thing you can think of.  It was time to mix it up again. You may see the ocean in the background but we were not on the beach.  : )  Needing to stay close to their beach house, I scouted the area for something cool and photogenic.  This great big empty lot with a view of the ocean, a rusty old wrought iron gate on a crumbling brick fence, a big old oak on the lot, and plenty of wildflowers all over….perfect!  So I marched our troop onto the lot only to have everyone, children included, attacked by Biblical-plague-amounts of ants.  Maybe they weren’t fire ants, but they were fast and angry.  yikes!  I just got the shivers thinking back to that.  So we used the fence near the safety of the road and went back to the beach house to finish it off. This is the newest member of the family.  I believe Margaret Ann...
Henry

Henry

Meet Henry.  Things you should know about Henry:  he loves his mother, he loves water, he loves horses, and he LOVES bananas.  Henry looks so much like his dad Charlie, but dad steers clear of cameras.  You won’t see him in any of these pictures.  Amy (otherwise known as mommy) didn’t intend to be in too many of these pictures, but Henry loves his mom.  Wait, I said that already.  Henry has a special name for water.  I wouldn’t know how to spell it if I tried.  Nobody is quite certain where the name came from or what language it might be, but it sure is cute to hear him say it over and over. That’s his “all wet” face.  He immediately forgot about being wet because his favorite animals walked by.  I must say children are fascinating because they are so easily fascinated!  I love seeing the world through their eyes. Even though the family lives in Virginia, Amy and Charlie still call South Carolina home in many ways…her parents live here, they were married here, and let’s not forget they are the best Gamecock fans north of the Carolinas!  : ) This series is just too cute!  The faces progress from wanting to pet the doggy to running in fear from the doggy to wondering where the doggy went.These next few are my favorites.  Sweet and timeless.  They remind me of photos of my dad from his childhood. Thanks for coming all the way to Charleston so I could photograph Henry!  I’ll remember to bring bananas next...
‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the Season

The holidays are fast approaching!  My calendar is almost full with families and children making sure to get their sessions in time for their Christmas cards.  There are so many exciting new designs this year.  I’ll be posting samples from old and new collections here over the next few weeks as I continue to edit these sessions.  Here are a few from two-year old Adilyn’s recent...
Kids + Sun + Ice Cream

Kids + Sun + Ice Cream

It’s been *ahem* awhile since I posted some of the sessions I’ve been working on.  Let’s just say it took me FOUR (4) tries to remember my administrator passcode.  Where to start……how about early August? It’s 10am and already way too hot to expect children to smile about very much.  These three precious children are pretty stoic most of the time anyway, so it took some Skittles and promises of ice cream to even get their attention away from thoughts of jumping into the fountain. Mom wanted a picture of their feet at an age where feet are pretty, picture-worthy and time stamps of fleeting youth. And here is the precocious Miss Riley….hot or cold, happy or sad, this is the expression I get. And here is Miss Peyton….busy as a bee!  I’m not sure she even knew I was there that day.  : ) Big brother Zane was a reluctant participant as you can see by his expression here.  Having two little sisters is hard on a boy! Ahhh, but look at the smile he saves for just one special person in his life…MOM!  She was standing behind me when I snapped this brief but gorgeous smile.  And just as sweet is the way Peyton adoringly gazed at big brother here. By now any local can see that we were at the oft visited Waterfront Park in downtown Charleston.  The pineapple fountain definitely gives any picture a “Charletson” stamp, and that is just what this family wanted. The children (and the grownups) were hot under the August sun and overbearing humidity.  Next stop ICE CREAM!!!  Yes, that actually did...
Jackson’s 1st Birthday

Jackson’s 1st Birthday

There is a part of my work that I didn’t anticipate 10 years ago when I began my photography business…and that is the friendships that would develop with the brides and grooms I have photographed.  They have blessed me with beautiful little additions to photograph throughout the years.  Jackson is one of those joyful little surprises.  His first birthday was something Amber and Justin wanted to be sure and document as well as they had their own love story.  In fact, he is a continuation of that love story.  Amber felt that Jackson would be most comfortable in his own environment, so we shot in their home and their backyard.  Jackson’s best time of day just happened to be the brightest time of day, but full sun didn’t keep him from showing off his baby blues.  Jackson’s energy, playful curiosity, and total infatuation with his mom and dad were easy to pick up on and so much fun to photograph....
Labor Day

Labor Day

Labor Day is one of the holidays I usually find labor, i.e. work, to do…or work finds me.  This year has been all about regaining balance.  Work can inevitably push out all that is truly important if you allow it to do so.  So while years past have seen me work through the holidays, this is not one of those years.  This is one of those weekends that seem meant to be spent at the beach.  The last big swim in the ocean before the water cools down.  The last Saturday that doesn’t have hockey games, soccer games, and of course, weddings scheduled.  Warm sun, cool wind, warm water…perfect!Each of my children (and husband) got busy doing their own favorite beach activities.  Kevin and Nathaniel surfed.  Gracie built sandcastles. Nicolas collected shells. The waves were pretty choppy given Hurricane Earl had passed through a few days earlier. My “good” equipment was at home for safe keeping, so these images aren’t what they could be or should be.  I’ve learned that any image of the fam is better than none, though. Shell hunting went very well today.  The beach was littered with all sorts of beauties.  But I also noticed that the landscape of the beach was vastly different from last week.  The storm did lots of remodeling. This was the first little starfish they found.  We walked a bit further and found the whole stretch of beach covered in dead starfish (sea stars) of all sizes.  This is the first time any of us had seen something like this on Folly Beach. This little rareity was a six-legged star!...