Karson Photography Blog

Step 1: Meet with Wedding Planners, Step 2: Feel Stress Melting Away…

2010-02-07T22:00:00.001-05:00

Confession:

yes, I am in the wedding industry.

yes, I am always the one telling our brides "relax, don't let it stress you out."

...and yes, I have to admit, I was getting just a bit overwhelmed last week.

Ok, fine, so I was totally stressed out. I have to book my venue, I have to figure out my guest list, choose my florist, cake designer, photographer (yikes), answer a million questions: band or DJ, brights or neutrals, bridesmaids or no bridesmaids? Anyone who's planned or is planning a wedding knows it's a big job.

Instantly we knew what we needed to do.

We met with Creative Extraordinaire Candice, a.k.a. The Motivator and the budget-savvy and witty Erin, a.k.a. The Organizer of Yoj Events at their fabulously colorful and inspiring office on Spring Street downtown...

(yes, Kip was there too, behind the camera...of course) We had so much fun laughing, talking, getting to know each other that I didn't even realize we had planned our next steps, figured out a budget, narrowed down the look I wanted, set up meetings with vendors – and I didn't once feel stressed!

Dear Brides,

A) You should get a wedding planner, STAT. I can't tell you how much it will change things for the duration of your wedding-planning life, relationships, and personal sanity.

B) I highly recommend talking to these amazing ladies!:

Yoj Events

(www.yojevents.com)

47A Spring St.

Charleston, SC 29403

P: 843.614.3413

Email: info@yojevents.com

Sincerely,

Liz (and Kip)

Oh the Places We’ll Go (or Have Already Gone): venues, venues, venues…

2010-02-01T12:19:00.007-05:00

As you sit prepared to go to tackle your first planning initiatives with your green tea, stack of bridal magazines, and laptop at hand, you are probably thinking the same thing we have been…what type of wedding do we want? Beach?...Church?...Waterfront?… Downtown?...

We thought we’d provide some inspiration and show you a few great ones we’ve shot in the past...

Friends, Family, Flowers and Folly (Beach) – A Beach Wedding:

Gorgeous setting, right? Makes me want to head out to Folly Beach! Next stop, downtown...

- Kip and Liz

Time to “Ring” in the New Year…

2010-02-01T12:10:00.011-05:00

Welcome to 2010! Can’t believe the first month has already flown by! This is going to be a great, exciting, and busy year…mostly because the Karson Photography Crew has officially doubled in number…we’re getting married this fall!!

Kip proposed on a freezing and romantic December 28th in Marion Square after family had just arrived for the holidays (huge thanks to our friend and fellow photographer, Lauren Germeroth for braving the cold for these!):

So, yes, your photographers are planning a wedding too! We’re so excited...for all the obvious reasons...but ALSO because it’s giving us a fresh look into the experiences that our brides are going through as well. As professional wedding photographers, you might think we know the wedding planning process backwards and forwards, and some parts we do! But it's fun and different being on this side of things and there is SO much that we’re learning in the planning process as well.

So, we thought we would share our travels to venues, cake tastings, event planner meetings, etc with you all as a resource to help with YOUR planning. Stay tuned later this week for our first step: get us a wedding planner, STAT!

- kip and liz

Merry Christmas to all our fantastic clients, vendors, and friends!

2009-12-22T20:06:00.009-05:00

CHARLIE

2009-12-02T21:43:00.001-05:00

CHARLIE’s Holiday Gift Guide

Posted using ShareThis

Stage Surfing at the Charleston Visitors Center Bus Shed

2009-11-25T21:43:00.004-05:00

We shot an event for "The Stray Dog Society" last month. This is a good group of alumni and non-alumni who share a love for all things Citadel, you should check them out. I was told they wanted a photographer to get out there, explore the space and take shots as crazy and fun as the crowd was and it was a fun crowd. They later dubbed us their official photographers.., apparently the images met their criteria. Here is a shot of me, thanks to Liz, surfing the stage which was moving about 6 inches in all directions. Then a couple of what I was shooting.

Elizabeth and Michael's Engagement Session

2009-10-28T22:38:00.004-04:00

I love letting the couples pick their favorite images-it shows so much of their personalities. Yeah we did the cute cuddly shots, the romantic/sexy shots, the artsy shots where they look strait into the camera, eyes penetrating the viewers soul. But really the images below just capture these guys perfectly, they're the image I shot while pretending not to be taking pictures, the images in between the posed shots. Here are Elizabeth and Michael's favorites from their engagement session out on riverfront park. We all agreed the last one is our favorite.

An Afternoon With Benjamin.

2009-10-15T02:21:00.004-04:00

I can't help but to laugh when I look at these. I like how they go from a very energetic, combed haired, clean little boy--- to a sleepy, sweaty, dirty little boy passed out in him moms arms by the end of the shoot. We had a fun time playing on this shoot and Benjamin's mom is very happy to have some pictures on her wall of Benjamin being Benjamin.

Caleb's Senior Photo Session at Folly Beach

2009-10-12T21:27:00.006-04:00

So I asked Caleb "What are the three biggest things that you're into right now" his response "My Truck, My Music and The Beach"---nice, I am going to like this shoot. The dude says he has like 15 guitars at his house, crazy! Below is Caleb's Photo Shoot at Folly Beach. I don't know weather to call it a Senior Session or Musician's Headshots or Album Cover Photoshoot since we pretty much covered all three. Well we had fun as usual and shot some great stuff, and who wants to be labeled anyway.

The Greene Family's Lifestyle Session

2009-10-06T01:23:00.005-04:00

Early one morning at the crack of 11 am I ventured over west of the Ashley river to the Greene's house for a family lifestyle session. As I pulled up the drive I was excited to see that the house had a fantastic view of the Charleston harbor from its backyard. The Greenes invited me in, offered me food and drink and made me feel as welcome as if I were part of the family. We made our way to the back porch where we spent some time talking about each others family history over coffee and diet cokes. By the time we had finished discussing our Charlestonian roots I had already begun shooting images for the Greene's laid-back lifestyle session. Here is a view of the photo-book we made for them.

Lindsey and Petar's Engagements Session on the Riverfront

2009-10-03T13:26:00.007-04:00

Lindsey and Petar drove all the way down from Atlanta to have us shoot their engagement session, so the pressure was on to make it worth their travel. These two made it easy for us to capture some great emotion, they were cutting up and having just as much fun in front of the camera as we were behind the lens. We wanted to mix things up for the shoot so we decided to photograph just after sunset on the water to get those cool saturated colors of the evening sky highlighted by the street lights in the distance. Despite the bugs not being so cooperative we had a great time shooting that evening on the Cooper River and we got some fantastic shots for Lindsey and Petar's engagement.

Deborah Bordeau's Bridal Portraits

2009-09-16T20:32:00.003-04:00

These are just.., well beautiful, so I'm going to let the images speak for themselves.

Bonnie and Preston Ferrell's Maternity Shoot with soon to be Cole Preston Ferrell

2009-09-02T21:10:00.002-04:00

This is a special post that I'm really excited to put up. I wanted to congratulate Bonnie and Preston Ferrell on the birth of their little man Cole Preston Ferrell. He was born two weeks early at 8lbs 13oz 20 1/2 inches long at 11pm August 26th. If he would have waited until his due date I think he would have arrived with a mustache and an NFL contract. Anyway here he was just a few weeks earlier still cookin in the oven.

Charleston Strobist Gathering on Folly Beach

2009-08-22T01:36:00.007-04:00

A few other local photographers put together a "Strobist Gathering" at Folly Beach. A strobist gathering is where photographers trade tips and techniques about off camera flash and it's just a good time to hang out and talk shop. One other purposes of the meet-up was to bring awareness to the local photographer community of a great mentoring program, Charleston Kids With Cameras. www.charlestonkidswithcameras.org. Okay I know there is a potential that I may leave someone out and I shouldn't list names but I'm going to anyway just to say thanks to all the presenters who weren't afraid to share with us some of their trade secrets: Charlie Thiel, thanks for putting this together; Chris Smiths, I'm heading to the hardware store tomorrow to find those bungee cords; and thanks to Robbin Knight who cleaned my camera sensor for free.

Editorial shoot for Charlie Magazine at Seacoast Church

2009-08-14T19:11:00.006-04:00

I'm really glad I was able to grab this assignment for Charlie Magazine (twitter.com/readCharlie) on contemporary worship music in charleston churches that highlighted my church Seacoast.

Francesca Toney's Bridal Shoot at Middleton Place Plantation

2009-08-12T07:52:00.008-04:00

Oh man I have been wanting to show you guys these for months now but needed to keep the dress a secret until after the wedding which we just shot on Aug. 1st. We took these images on a gorgeous spring afternoon at Middleton Place Plantation which is such a beautiful location for a wedding or a bridal shoot that it is almost overwhelming. A big thanks goes to the staff at the Middleton Place Restaurant who were so helpful and accommodating.

A few images from the NAPP/Adobe Worldwide Photowalk in Charleston SC

2009-07-25T13:13:00.006-04:00

Last week I had the opportunity to hang out with some great local photographers and be a tourist in our own town for the 2nd Annual Scott Kelby's (the Adobe/NAPP photoshop guru guy) Worldwide Photowalk here in Charleston. It is great to break the standard workflow, shooting style and subject matter and to throw ones-self into new shooting paradigms; it really exercises the creative muscles. No alcohol was involved in the production of these image (that came later). We also posted some images on flickr to the photowalk charleston sc pool.

Wish We could have shot this Wedding Ceremony.

2009-07-24T11:01:00.006-04:00

My friend Daniel Nadeau (@dnadeau on twitter) found this youtube video of a wedding ceremony in Saint Paul, Minnesota and posted it on his blog yesterday. Man I we could have photographed this wedding. If this is the ceremony could you imagine the craziness at the reception! And speaking of wedding photographers check out the one in this video, I don't think he was really into all that was going on, guess he's not a techno lover.

North Charleston Art Walk at Karson Photography Studio and Gallery

2009-07-22T14:24:00.007-04:00

I just found these images of our show here at our gallery and Aunt Bea's during the North Charleston Art Walk (part of the North Charleston Arts Festival). It was a great show and we had a lot of fun putting it together and getting to hang out with all of you. I need to give a big thank you Mayor Keith Summey, Judge Debbie Summey and LoAnn for letting us use Aunt Bea's for this even (especially since we made them stay up way past their bed time to lock up the place after we did the take down of the show that night). Thanks also to the artist Alex and Sarah Radin and Jen Snyder and to Liz Bartoccini for designing the posters, flyers, and email campaigns for the show. Okay so let me share some of the images with you, Awh nostalgia.

A Sneak Peak at Hugh and Meredith's Wedding at St. Philips Church and The Mills House

2009-07-09T19:21:00.004-04:00

Drum roll please..., And here it is!

Charleston Writer Roger Saltsman gets "Agony Hill" hot off the presses

2009-07-01T15:35:00.004-04:00

We blogged last month about producing the design and photos for Roger Saltsman's new book "Agony Hill", well I got a knock on the door of the studio about 30 minutes ago and in walks Roger gripping his freshly printed literary creation. Good going Roger, I a proud of you for realizing your dream! Now go sell some copies and make a million.

Andrea's Head-Shots

2009-06-23T09:20:00.003-04:00

We had the privilege of photographing the gifted actress Andrea Catangay's head-shots a few weeks ago. Andrea, along with here husband Michael Catangay, are the founders of Deuce Theatre who will be performing "The 24 Hour Play" at South of Broadway Theatre July 31st-Aug 1st.

The New Book "Agony Hill" by Roger Saltsman

2009-06-10T13:19:00.005-04:00

Liz and I had the pleasure of photographing and designing the cover of Roger Saltsman's new book "Agony Hill" (a novel about a high school runner in Brevard N.C.) Roger just called the studio to let us know that the book was in the final stages and ready to go to print. Let me give you guys the links so you can preview the his book: http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=108442293452&h=i86_6&u=nlwCZ&ref=mf

Some Editorial/Corporate Head-shots of Marcus Debiasi

2009-06-03T12:52:00.002-04:00

A Sneak Peak of Kim and Aaron's Wedding on Folly Beach

2009-05-26T23:11:00.003-04:00