We absolutely LOVE our home city of Charleston, but we also love destination weddings and feel fortunate to be invited back to Savannah to photograph Erin and Ben’s beautiful day.   This is our third wedding for their crew and also downtown Savannah. After hearing about Erin’s plan for the wedding, we were excited to have some new locations to explore.  Much to our surprise, every flower and wisteria bush in downtown Savannah was in full bloom.  The majestic Wormsloe Park has one of the most incredible Avenue of Oaks and was a perfect backdrop for creating the most romantic and artistic portraits! As soon as we arrived and began meeting both families and close friends, we knew it was going to be an amazing day.  The ceremony took place in the quaint Isle of Hope wedding Chapel and then moved to the marina for some down home cookin, a sunset and a little dancing?  Wrong…absolute mayhem broke loose on the dance floor!  As you can tell from the photos the energy was “off the chain”,  We have never seen such passionate lip syncing of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”!  It was so much fun to be a part of the fun and want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone for making our day such a blast. The night ended with the crowd singing “Piano Man” in chorus; however, apparently they do it differently in Minnesota?

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!

Charleston Wedding Photographer, Charleston Portrait Photographer, 2008 Election, Chicago, Grant Park 2008 Election

In 2008 I was fortunate to land an assignment in Chicago shooting a Kimpton Hotel the same week as the election.  I knew months in advance that I was going to have an opportunity to capture unique moments in history-regardless of who won.

As the hotel began filling up with bloggers, writers and news photographers, I tried to call in some favors with friends who shoot for the NY Daily News, Getty Images, etc. to get press credentials to the northern part of Grant Park.  After much effort, I resigned myself to the realty that there would be no ticket to the main event for a wedding photographer!  So I moved to plan B knowing I would be hanging out with all the “commoners” who would be crowded into the other side.

In my fifteen years doing photography, my mantra has been that if someone is standing next to you with a camera shooting the same thing, you’re probably not in the right place.  With this in mind, I was considering setting up a studio lighting station and doing some full length, perfectly lit portraits-but there was no power and schlepping a generator downtown wasn’t feasible.  I decided to go as light as possible. I also had no idea whether I would be able to get into the park looking too professional and without a press pass.

Earlier in the day, I took a taxi to Obama’s precinct in an effort to get something different.  I ended up talking with a polling station worker who captured Obama on her cell phone walking into the voting booth-I guess this is a bit different type of cell phone photography-picture of an actual cell phone?  I kept looking for images throughout Chicago, but everything seem too contrived; usually between moments, I can shoot details or a fun portrait of the ring bearer in order to tell a story of the day.  Some of the daytime portraits were part of the atmosphere in and around the city.

Following much deliberation, I headed out with one small camera bag, my new Nikon D-700 and a handfull of memory cards in order to capture history.  Once inside the park, it was a surreal environment.  Perhaps I looked the part, maybe it was the grey hair or my confident stride, but I gained access inside the roped areas and roamed wherever I wanted to capture these images.

As the night moved on, I studied almost everyone in order to be prepare for the moment the winner was announced.  All the years spent photographing weddings, ceremonies, environmental portraits and composing architecture went into capturing these historic photographs; most of which I have never shown to anyone until now.

Once I returned to the hotel, the atmosphere was energized with those who spend their lives creating news.  All the photographers with credentials informed me they were so far away from the President giving his speech, unable to move from the bleachers and only able to get images on their 400mm zoom lenses-which still weren’t that effective.  Turns out that being denied credentials was one of the best things that could’ve happened!

Some of the additional images included in this gallery have been made within the last four years.  However “mushy” this may sound, although this glimpse of epic moments in history are compelling, I believe the portraits and weddings stories I have captured over the last four years are more meaningful in telling the story of America-one family at a time.  I love what I do!