We had an amazing time photographing one of our Spring wedding couples at both of Charleston’s most beautiful and picturesque venues.

We started downtown at our favorite spots and ended up having so much fun we made the trek to Middleton Plantation for a horse ride, then on to their wedding location-Magnolia Plantation.  We absolutely loved their energy and had a blast spending the afternoon with them.  Ivan began riding horses when he was five and this was a special place to them both as they had one of their first dates at the stable.  We know their wedding is going to be so much fun and are looking forward to meeting the rest of the family.

We are gearing up for the fall wedding season here in Charleston and wanted to do a quick post.  In the next few weeks we will also be working on a new website, so please keep checking back to see the new design.  We are also excited do what we love best in the coming month-creating unique, beautiful and authentic photographs.  

We had an opportunity to meet another amazing Class of 2014 High School Senior and her family on their recent trip to the lowcountry.  We were happy she wanted to schedule one of our signature “editorial” style senior portrait sessions.  Mom explained that her and Dad agreed to take her anywhere in the world this sumer-she choose Charleston.  She visited several years ago and fell in love our city, the architecture and “vibe”.

After her previous visit, she also wanted to take advantage of the amazing backdrops Charleston provides for her senior portraits.  We had a great time exploring downtown and creating these images to commemorate this important time in her life…and of course, we had to take a few of “the family”.

Here is a slideshow of some of our favorites from the shoot.

After meeting her we know this will probably be just the start of her career in front of the camera and expect to see her again on the cover of Forbes, People or Scientific American.  Have a great senior year!  

Wedding season is in full swing here in Charleston.  Over the past several months we have had a chance to meet some of our future brides and grooms during one of our signature E-Sessions.  Engagement sessions are a perfect way to get to know each other and a perfect way to practice for the wedding day!  We also love a chance to scout out some new locations and find interesting ways to shoot in out favorite spots.  Here is some of our favorites from recent couples…

We had a great time meeting Todd, Vera, Vivienne and Ava last weekend on their visit to Charleston.  We braved the 50 degree weather on the beach with 15 mile an hour winds which made it feel like 47!  The beach is beautiful this time of year.

We always keep our eyes open for new and interesting locations for family sessions, but for right now we just can’t get enough of the old antique barn.  Charleston is full of beautiful colors and textures which we use for “out of focus” negative space in our portraits.  The technical term for this element of photography is “bokeh“; the non-technical term is “awesome”!

Briefly, we now shoot primarily on a Nikon D800 which is a 36 megapixel camera and we have an arsenal of professional lenses.  Photography tools are changing daily, but I am finding myself going back to old manual focus lenses, shooting film and 4×5 view cameras. The choice of equipment is one of the many creative decisions made in an effort to create the best portrait possible for our clients; we know that these images will be cherished for a lifetime.  That said, I know these images will print beautifully on our new Canon IPF-8300 large format printer with our signature canvas.  Images shown only on the web cannot show the amazing beauty of a beautifully created and printed portrait.  Please let us know if you have any questions about our signature prints and canvas.  We will keep you posted when we find new papers we love and look forward to showing you the beauty of modern fine-art photographs.

 

Here’s a few of our favorites from the day…

 

 

 

We are gearing up for Charleston engagement portrait season and wanted to show one of our favorite E-sessions.  Engagement portrait photography in Charleston is so diverse because there are so many unique locations to stretch our “creative muscles”.

For the month of January we are offering our popular E-Sessions for $150 off.  Any sessions booked this month qualify for the discount.

Engagement portrait sessions also are the perfect opportunity to get a better idea of each couples individual style, get to know each other and practice for the wedding day.  Tony and Shannon loved our rich textured portraits and wanted to do something a little more “grungy” for an editorial style portrait much like you see in Vanity Fair Magazine!  We always try and “push the envelope” and we’re asked to leave several of the locations-thankfully, we have never had to spend a night in jail yet for making awesome art!  That said, using a “mug-shot” would be an interesting “save the date card”?

We also find that once we have had a chance to spend a few hours together it makes for a smooth wedding day as everyone is so much more relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera.  Engagement sessions are also a great way to create something unique and authentic.

We are looking forward to exploring more locations and hearing any unique ideas you may have for your engagement portraits.  For the month of January only we are offering $100 off our normally priced sessions ($650) which include all the creative photography and editing, as well as, a DVD copy of all the images from the day.  They are also great for “Save the Date” cards which we can help design or you can develop your own personalized ideas.  Please let us know if you would like to book the special $550 E-session this month and we can create some beautiful pictures for your engagement.

Charleston Portrait Photographer, Charleston Wedding Photographer, Reese Allen Photography

 

 

 

We had a chance to meet The Arnold’s on their recent trip to Isle of Palms for their annual event and capture some unique Charleston family portraits.  They spend every Thanksgiving here and have a running contest similar to the Iron Chef; which, I was told by the guys that they always win?

We had a lot of fun creating something unique family photography for them-especially after I found out the search words for finding a local photographer were: “quirky portrait photographer”!  I am not sure if it is a good thing, but they liked our style and we had a blast with the final concept.  It also makes me think of adding other keywords or even doing an AdWords campaign with the terms: crazy, nuts, eclectic, etc.?

We are looking forward to having them back in Mount Pleasant for next years family portraits, but this time I think we’ll have to stay for dinner!

The engagement portrait and wedding season is in full swing!  We are having a so much fun meeting everyone and making some beautiful pictures of people, after a few months of architectural assignments.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a great building, but when I get back to Charleston I am reminded about how much I LOVE shooting portraits.

There has been some amazing clouds in the Charleston sky, the kind that nature photogs wait months to capture.  We were fortunate enough to chase them down on Sullivans Island during Mary and Derrick’s e-session.  Along the way, we stopped by one of my favorite spots.  It was a great way to style an interesting editorial set of images.  The technical term for the “out of focus” elements in the pictures is “Bokeh” and is one of my favorite photographic tools to use while doing portraits.

The new D800 performed beautifully and, although you cannot see all the fine details in a web image, the retouched files are STUNNING!

Nina and Ryan were in town searching for venues for their upcoming Charleston wedding.  Even though they live in a tropical paradise in Costa Rica, they fell in love with the “Queen City” and wanted to capture some portraits for themselves and family!  This is the first time I have shot an engagement session at the “Angel Oak” tree and always love checking out new places for interesting backdrops.  Nina is a wedding planner/artist and couldn’t stop oohing and aaahing at the homes on Tradd St.

As a photographer it almost isn’t fair that our city is filled with such rich color and texture-a photographers dream.  I always love how diverse the images from a shoot look and the city offers everything from “Southern Charm” to textured patterns reminiscent of Cuba?

I love the image of their dog Mia “yelling” at them!