Holy City Photography by Jeanne Mitchum

If you remember a blog I wrote awhile back about a former co-worker of mine named Candace, then you are in luck because today I give you—her wedding! It’s always fun seeing a friend get married. Seeing these friends get married is especially fun, when you get to document the whole process from the engagement session to the wedding. I love when a couple hires me to capture not only their wedding day, but their engagement as well. I get to learn so much more about them and I get to tell more of their story. I love telling stories through the lens and these two certainly have quite a love story to tell. They met as toddlers because their parents were close friends. Life often separates close friends, and that’s exactly what happened. Brandon’s family picked up and moved to Maryland and Candace’s family moved to Charleston (excellent choice). Candace and Brandon found each other again in college, with their paths crossing from time to time. After college, Candace wasn’t sure where life would take her, and never thought it would take her back home to Maryland, that’s exactly what it did. She then got word that Brandon got a job in Maryland. The two of them met up again, hung out for a whole weekend and from then on were made a couple. Brandon would eventually propose to her and she would become his bride. It’s quite interesting where life takes us. Clearly these two were meant to be together. When two people’s paths cross that much—from when they were babies and through college—it definitely makes you wonder if God’s trying to tell you something. I think they listened and made the right choice. Their wedding was amazing, emotional, beautiful and fun! Yes, I cried. It also just happened to be at one of my favorite locations, what more could you want? Take a look….

 Candace practicing reading her vows. They both wrote their own vows and it was wonderful!

 LOVE the purple!

 Father daughter dances are always emotional, I love Candace’s face in this shot.

My blogging slacker mode kicked in a couple of months ago when I got slammed with work. It’s okay though, because now I have lots and lots of images to show and blog about. YAY!  My first blog after my hiatus—yeah that sounds good—is of a good friend of mine’s wedding. I first met Jeff Little at church?…at Charleston Souther University?….through some friends? I am going to say all of the above. That’s probably how we met. Jeff is a phenomenal drummer! We played together at church a few times that’s how I know this. He is also just all around brilliant and it’s no wonder that he married Taren who is equally brilliant. I had the pleasure of photographing their B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L Greek Orthodox wedding in Columbia. The ceremony was held at the new Holy Trinity in Columbia. It’s a gorgeous building complete with painted domed ceilings. You should probably check it out if you are near by. Not only was I impressed with the building, but their priest Micheal Plantanis was super cool!! No really this guy totally impressed me. Not only was I greated with a warm smiley welcome, but he also informed me in a gentle way of all the angles that I could shoot from and photos that I could take. If you are a photographer, then you know that hearing this is like gold. It was so refreshing to have someone actually walk up to me kindly and tell me what photos I can take. My usual experience is an unpleasant greeting of how I will be too noisy if I take photos at all in the church and therefor I am not allowed. It’s a shame because technology has come a long way and most photographers can perform their duties these days without you even knowing they’re there. Besides I am a firm believer in the fact that God will show up no matter what’s going on during a ceremony (stepping off my soapbox). This guy (Michael) clearly “gets it” and I will forever remember him for that. He was quite pleasant. Jeff and Taren are wonderful people. They moved to Japan immediately after their wedding because Jeff is in the Military. I am excited to see where life takes them. I think that’s enough chatter for now, take a look at the photos.

So I’ve been a little busy. When I started this blog I set a goal to write a blog every week. That was working just fine until I had 4 weddings, a zombie walk and an engagement session to shoot and edit. I am now realizing that there are times when the blog will just have to wait a week (or two). This is a post to say there will be more blog posts after this one to highlight all of the work I have been doing. Until then take a look at these images. I’m off to plan for a class I am teaching tonight and the two shoots and a wedding I have this week. Life is good!  :

I first met this beautiful Charleston bride named Candace while working at Starbucks in Summerville, South Carolina. We worked there together for a while—both of us not really enjoying our jobs (it’s a long story). Candace was a lot of fun to work with. I found her life fascinating (she probably doesn’t know this). We would talk about her plans to go to design school after Clemson and other random stuff, while serving coffee to the masses. Well as we all know life happens and we all go our seperate ways. I moved on from that job and so did Candace. I didn’t realize until she contacted me about her wedding that she had moved to Maryland, met back up with a wonderful guy whom she had crossed paths with numerous times in life, and was finally going to marry him. I was so excited to hear this news and even more so excited that she had chosen me to document her wedding day!! Here are the gorgeous bridal shots we did on the lovely Daniel Island, South Carolina. Stay tuned for her beautiful wedding at Middleton Place. I can’t wait to share those photos. 

Okay if you are a photographer please check these guys out! www.gettotallyrad.com  I downloaded the demo version of their “RadLab” recently and boy is it amazing. Not only does it save you a lot of time in Photoshop, but it’s super cool! The “RadLab” is sort of a program that loads right inside of photoshop with a bunch of color tones and sharpening presets. When it opens it automatically gives you a preview of your image and what it will look like with each of the different color effects. I found this super helpful. I scrolled through and clicked on the one I liked, did a few adjustments and clicked finish. It imediately updated the image in PS and I was done. See the second image below. I am in love with RadLab and that second image. Now you know I couldn’t leave it alone so I added a couple of textures and in probably less than a minute I was done with this image. This thing saved me a lot of time!  You need to check them out!

Before (straight out of camera)

 After Totally RadLab Color effects

 After some of my signature editing : )

I am not entirely sure if I am cut out for third world country missions work, but I sure am thankful for those that are. (I am currently contemplating a trip to Africa.) While I sit and ponder whether or not I can go, there is a team right now in Africa. We greeted them at the airport on Monday to say goodbye and to also cheer them on as they face a long difficult 2 weeks journey to help other’s in need. This team filled up a mountain of suitcases with books and medical supplies to take to the Pokot tribe in Kenya Africa. I know there are a lot of things that they have planned to do once they get there and those suitcases full of supplies are just the beginning of it. I cannot wait to hear their stories when they get back. This trip is filled with great potential to help so many people but it also has it’s risks—I’m guessing the reward of knowing that you helped numerous people potentially live to see another day—outweigh those risks. Here are a few images I grabbed at the airport:

 This is just a few of the suitcases they took.

 The bracelet attached to this bag is a survival bracelet. It’s made up of two or three cords that are about 7-8ft in length and can be used in a pinch if needed. The metal clasp can hold up to 500lbs as well as the cord which is made out of rock climbing rope. We sold these bracelets at church to help raise money for this trip. We also had some made for the kids in Kenya, I think they’re going to love it. (yes my focus is off : P )

 Here’s a group shot.

 Saying Goodbye…it’s hard sometimes.

 Praying….

 Watching them get through security. Does anyone remember when we could just walk through this area and wait with people before they left on a plane? I do.

 We also ran into Tim Scott while hanging out at the airport. That was kinda fun. I’ve never met a politician.

I had the pleasure of photographing 3 year old Luke this past month. It’s quite interesting and loads of fun photographing kids in their natural element. His mom messaged me to see if I wanted to come over and photograph him playing in the backyard and of course I jumped at the oppurtunity. It’s one of the best things and more freeing things to just show up at a home and click away. Last year I got to photograph Luke with his parents—they opted to join me at my house for some outdoor shots—we had a blast. This year was a fun experience as well. Getting to sort of watch a child grow up through my camera lens and the images I produce is a pretty incredible experience. Boy has this kid changed and it’s only been a year….

Here are last years images: (you’ll have to copy and paste it)

http://tinyurl.com/4yhjhol

           Let me start by saying if you are a photographer and you have not experienced the WPPIU, you are missing out BIG TIME! I cannot even begin to explain to you the wealth of knowledge I was exposed to. Let’s just say I am beyond inspired/motivated and a tad overwhelmed, couple that with the fact that I am listening to MUTEMATH right now which leaves me VERY fired up! (great band…and yes I am dancing in my chair). WPPI University…where to begin??? Well it all started with a free pass to go to WPPIU given to me by the wonderful Joel Meisels from Adorama. Yep that’s right a free pas to go—I was indecisive about going—that helped me make up my mind. I experienced thirteen brilliantly successful photographers speaking to me like no other in this business. They were encouraging, inspiring, and funny. They told true stories about their personal lives and shared with us how they run their businesses, all in hopes that we would go home and be encouraged enough to do the same—the same not necessarily being that we should do exactly what they do but that we should be inspired to: be ourselves, be our own brand, and have fun doing something we all love passionately while successfully running a business. I met so many new people (including THE Jasmine Star). It was a little surreal meeting someone who I have sat for hours watching teach a class online. She gave a great speech and made time to take a photo with each person that stood waiting in the horde of people that surrounded her when she was done talking.  For those of you that don’t know what WPPI (or WPPIU) is, it’s  “Wedding & Portrait Photographers International” a convention and trade show that is everything photography! The NAMM of photography (for my musician friends). What I went to was a VERY scaled down miniscule version of what they do in Vegas, yes that’s right, it’s held in Vegas and I am totally going in February. Did I mention there are giveaways? Yes, that’s right, they give away stuff and yours’ truly won a brand new 50mm 1.4 lens (and if you don’t know, that’s a fabulous lens!). It just so happens that I was about to purchase a new 50mm lens but torn about which one to buy. Now I don’t have to (God is good!). Let me also tell you that I am still in disbelief that I won this thing, this person doesn’t win anything—guess I can’t say that anymore…

This is me and THE Jasmine Star…yes I need a new pose, but I wasn’t thinking about that. It’s Jasmine Star!!

This is my happy face and the new lens that I won. You better believe I immediately put that thing on my camera and started snapping!

This guy made me laugh pretty hard but he also blew my mind with his posing techniques. Look him up people!! (Doug Gordon)

I photographed a beautiful bride “to-be” at an awesome vineyard here in Charleston, SC. This was seriously probably one of the hottest days but we managed to bear it and I think we got some really great shots. I should probably mention that while the day wasn’t very eventful, just a regular day doing a photoshoot, we got to see a dead alligator and a deer in the same spot on top of a hill. You ponder that one while you take a look at these photos.

Check out this photo!