Looking Forward to 2019

In 2018, I had sessions or weddings across 6 states.  From fulfilling my lifelong dream of meeting Piglet in Disney World to adding beautiful Kentucky to the list of states I’ve been to, it’s been pretty exciting.  There were pink and white trees, green trees, red and yellow trees, and trees with lights in them.  I shot in Falls Park on the day of prom and right when it stopped pouring down rain after 4 days.  It’s been a year of growth for my business, but I’ve also been lucky to keep shooting for other incredible photographers in the area.

What’s in store for 2019?

First of all, my aunt Diane helped me come up with a new logo last week.  My original logo was meant to be pretty versatile because I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to focus on.  Once I got a better idea of what would better reflect the work I do, I changed the font and formatting to reflect that a little better.  I kept the same colors I’ve always had, partly because I just like them, and partly because I’ve come to like the elegance of navy with a hint of a bright green that you wouldn’t normally see at a wedding.

Miss Clemson University

I’ll be starting off the year with Miss Clemson University on January 12th.  This will be my third year with the pageant and I can’t wait to meet the new winner and have a session with her! 

Headshots

I’ve had a few headshot sessions this year and I’ve realized how much I enjoy them!  This will become a service that I regularly offer.  It’s important for professionals, small business owners, and pageant contestants to have updated, high-quality photos of themselves so people can become more familiar with the person they’re about to get to know.  Just like with a portrait session, I’ll help you decide what to wear and how you want your hair and makeup so you can look and feel like yourself.  Since this will only be a 30-minute session, I can have these sessions during the week in Greenville!

Education

In the past year, I’ve become more passionate about helping people learn to take better pictures because it’s a skill anyone can benefit from.    You don’t have to be an aspiring photographer to take advantage of this.  This can help you if you want to have a picture of your cute kids before they grow up, you want to show better photos of a product you want to sell, or remember a pretty place you went to.  To let me know you’re interested, join my mailing list and you’ll be the first to know when I have something new to share!

For Couples

You’ll still have a complementary engagement session with your wedding, but there are a few things I’m excited to expand: bridal portraits, albums, and prints.  As someone who’s been through wedding planning and continues to be part of it from the vendor side, I think it’s important to use my experience to help your first day of marriage go as smoothly as possible.  Part of that is to make you feel comfortable with me before the big day comes, and part of that is to help you build your relationship with each other.

Here are a few of my favorites from 2018.  Here’s to what comes next year!

Kimpton Brice Wedding, Savannah, Georgia | Amethyst and Matt

Remember Amethyst and Matt, who had their engagement session in Disney World this past April?   They celebrated their happily ever after on a warm and sunny December day in Savannah, Georgia! 

My day started with a Forrest Gump impersonator chatting with me at breakfast and telling me to congratulate the couple for him, which I think is pretty cool.  The day ended with a sparkler exit along the street with trolley passengers cheering and passing cars honking.  Before the ceremony, I took pictures with Amethyst, her family, and her bridesmaids with ivy and palmetto trees. My second shooter, Shain, took Matt, his family, and the groomsmen to the nearby square with lots of giant oak trees and Spanish moss.  The ceremony took place in the courtyard of the Kimpton Brice Hotel, which faces the Savannah River.

Although this was not a Disney-themed wedding, there had to be Disney references throughout the day, since that’s where Amethyst and Matt met and began their adventures as a couple.  Not only were there some Disney songs carefully placed throughout the day (I especially loved the songs from The Goofy Movie as the wedding party entered the reception), each entrance into the reception space had a Disney quote about love on it.  Like any Disney princess, Amethyst wore a tiara.  Since Beauty and the Beast is one of Amethyst’s favorite Disney movies, Matt had notes and roses given to her throughout the day.  As we took their photos in the square after the ceremony, Matt gave her one more note and a rose.  I only know that part of that note said “I’ll love you until the last petal falls” because Matt pointed out that this rose was artificial, so no petals would fall.

When you’ve spent years working at “the happiest place on earth,” where do you go for your first adventure as a married couple?  Well, “the happiest place on earth” actually refers to several places in different parts of the world, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Here are a few of my favorites from this beautiful wedding day!

Venue: The Kimpton Brice

Videography: Palmetto Digital

DJ: Jus Music

Florals: the couple and their families

3 Tips for Choosing Engagement Session Outfits

What should you wear for your engagement photos? Here are some of my suggestions!

While I love all the excitement and details of a wedding day, engagement sessions are unique in their own way.  Not only is it intimate, it also gives couples a chance to showcase their personalities and stories through the location and outfits they choose.  In this blog, I’m sharing a few tips on what to wear!

I believe that photos that make us happy are mostly because of how we feel at the time the photos were taken.  I want everyone to feel their best before they even see me, so I give everyone a portrait guide before each session.  Much of that gives some insight to help you decide what to wear.  I recommend having two outfits, but some couples choose to wear one, either because they really like it or because they don’t want to take time out of the session to find a place to change.  Here are a few tips to help you narrow down your options.

1.       Dress comfortably.

You don’t want to remember your engagement session as the day you wore a top that was too tight or an itchy sweater.  If it’s 100 degrees, try to wear something that’s won’t make you sweat more.  If it’s 25 degrees (like in Katherine and Anthony's session, pictured above), make sure you have layers under your outfit and gloves to put on between photos. A scarf and a peacoat can be just as pretty as a sundress.  Check out my Pinterest board for some of my favorite outfits for cold weather sessions!

Also remember to wear comfortable shoes! Take it from me: after I finished my graduation session, it was about a half mile walk back to my car. I really didn’t want to make the choice between wearing the shoes that hurt me for the whole session and walking barefoot. If you’re dying to wear a certain pair of shoes for your session, make sure you have a more comfortable pair to change into if you have a lot of walking to do.  Here’s a tip that I picked up from my high school color guard days: carefully placed electrical tape on the insides of your shoes can save your feet a lot of pain.

2.       Coordinate with each other.

You can coordinate colors without matching, like the “red top, black pants” my cousins and I would wear for our family pictures at Christmas when we were little.  You could choose a color scheme, such as wearing different shades of blue or both of you wearing something red and black.  You could also complement each other’s outfits.  If your favorite dress is purple and your fiancé(e) doesn’t have anything purple, you can choose an accessory in a similar color to something they do have. 

While Matt and Amethyst don’t “match,” they “coordinate.” Matt’s blue shirt and red tie both complement the flowers in Amethyst’s dress. Her dress also was perfect for this April session and looked beautiful with the colors of Disney’s Polynesian resort! Which brings me to #3…

3.       Consider the location.

You can coordinate your outfits with the color scheme of the location.  If there are lots of fall leaves at this location, you could wear warmer hues to complement them.  If your session is in the snow (which would be amazing), you could wear bolder colors to stand out.  Tori and Michael’s first outfits complemented the colors of the desert garden so well, and their second outfits showed off their matching shoes while coordinating with the sunflowers.

Ready for the best day ever?

My name is Christine (Scott) Gow and I’m an elopement photographer based out of Greenville, South Carolina. I’m a wife and a beagle mom. The three of us have visited beautiful places in every corner of South Carolina, to include all 48 of our state parks. We love finding new outdoor places to visit, but we also love hanging out on the couch and watching Pixar.

One thing I love about South Carolina is that it’s not just the beaches and colorful houses that you imagine when you picture it. Whether you’re looking for mountains, beaches, or anything in between; I can help you find the perfect place for the two of you and make it as smooth of a day as possible. No matter how you two choose to spend your day, I’m happy you’re doing it the way that you want.

I can’t wait to meet you!

Caesars Head Engagement Session | Sierra and Remington

I have a lot of pictures to take in the wonderful month of October, and the first were for Sierra and Remington’s engagement session in the mountains!

When I first met Sierra and Remington in July for Sierra’s graduation photos at Clemson, they told me they were about to celebrate their 4th anniversary as a couple.  Right before that day came up, Remington told Sierra to make sure her trunk was shut because he got something out of it earlier and he wasn’t sure if it had closed all the way.  Thinking he was at work, Sierra opened the trunk to find three boxes with letters and pictures of them together.  Remington came from behind the house and proposed!  How pretty is the ring he picked out? And yes, I looked all around for red and yellow leaves before Sierra and Remington got there so I could do a fall-looking ring shot, even though it was still a few days before the fall temperature kicked in.

Sierra and Remington told me that they really wanted their pictures to have a pretty view, so I suggested a few places I’d been to in the upstate.  They chose Caesar’s Head, which became one of my favorite places in the whole state of South Carolina after I did an engagement session there last fall. Sierra and Remington drove up from Newberry and the sunset did NOT disappoint!  There was a small group of people who had come to the overlook to see the sunset, and I heard one kid say, “They look like they’re getting married!”    

I’ve found that people in other states tend to forget that there’s more to South Carolina than Charleston, but Charleston doesn’t have a view like this!   Check out some of my favorites from this session with an awesome couple in a beautiful place.

Digital Files, Prints, and Albums

Seeing your images for the first time is always such a fun experience, but deciding on what to do with the images can be difficult.  You probably value being able to share them on social media or hanging your favorites in your home, but what else is there to consider?  Here are some of the benefits of having digital files, prints, and albums.

Digital Files

When I was in middle or high school, a friend mentioned not having any baby pictures.  I couldn’t understand why since my family had so many pictures of me from when I was little.  His parents did take pictures of him when he was little, but his house had burned down when he was in elementary school, and any pictures that were in that house were gone.  This was before digital photography became the norm, so any pictures they had that were taken before the fire were either copied from photos given to friends and family, or from the school’s database of school pictures.  

This is the biggest reason why I never think twice about offering digital files.  Yes, I would be able to print them off again if you asked, but by that point, you’ve probably gone through the pain of telling so many people about this horrible thing you went through, and it would probably be easier if you didn’t have to go through that again with me. Another reason is that it’s always nice to be able to share your photos with so many friends and family members at once and to have them on your phone whenever you want to show someone, and you can get more prints if you need to years after I’ve given you the files.  But only having digital files isn't ideal for every situation.

Prints

When I got engaged, my grandma, who was losing her memory, asked me every time we talked on the phone what my ring looked like.  My grandma didn’t have access to a cell phone or a computer, so she couldn't see a digital file unless someone came and showed it to her. My ring was kind of hard to describe, so I texted a picture to my aunt, who I knew visited her often.  Still, my grandma would ask me during every conversation what it looked like, insisting that my aunt had never shown her the photo, even though I knew she had several times.  I printed off a photo and mailed it to her, along with some photos from our engagement session.  That way, they could hang on the fridge she passed every day, and she wouldn’t forget what my ring looked like or whose ring it was. 

So why would you want to order prints if you can just print the digital files yourself?

The short answer I give in my portrait guide is that I give you the option to order prints from a professional lab so that they’ll last longer over time and look closer to what you see on your screen.  Plus, it’s easier than downloading the photos and re-uploading them to wherever you’re printing them.

As for lasting over time, I always think back to the section of the athletic hallway at my high school with all the photos of teams that won state titles.  The color and clarity on some of these photos was pretty typical for the years printed on them—large, pixelated photos with overexposed faces from the 80s and 90s, and then smaller black and white photos from the 70s.  Then there was an ivory-colored piece of paper in a frame, where you could see outlines of something if you got really close to it in good lighting.  It was on a wall that faced away from the windows, presumably moved away from the sun a few years too late, but it was still there as a reminder that some team had won a state title sometime.  I'm not sure that any teachers could tell us what the picture was, but I was sure that the team members would be upset if they came back to visit and the important picture of their winning team was all but gone from the wall.

As someone who took lots of photos of the Clemson football team, color accuracy in photos is important to me.  I’ve seen so many pictures where the purple in their uniforms looks blue—I remember watching a “Purple Out” game against Duke on TV and it was so hard to tell whether the fans were wearing blue or purple.  I’ve seen lots of photos where the orange in the football uniforms would look like Tennessee orange, Texas orange, or even red.  I worked hard in my editing to make sure the colors in my photos looked like what I saw in person.  Still, I soon realized that this didn’t always matter if I was printing from the least expensive print source I could get to, because the print could be more yellow or blurry than the file I sent.  In college, I'd either pick up smaller prints from a pharmacy in a flimsy envelope, or the larger ones would be mailed to me in a cardboard tube.  Not even millimeters separated my prints from whatever could be happening outside.  What if a bigger package fell on it?  What if I spilled something on the envelope on the drive home?  Well, I can assure you that the prints that come from my galleries come from the same lab as the photos that hang on my walls.  They came in thick boxes with tons of layers, and you can see that our wedding colors are CLEARLY purple and orange.

Albums

Let’s go back to my grandma:  my dad made my grandma an album of family photos he had scanned, dating back to before my grandparents were married.  He said that when he showed her the photos, she was suddenly able to recall specific details about the photos.  Around that time, I made my sister's wedding album as her wedding gift, and my dad asked me to make another copy for my grandma.  I sometimes had to describe my cousins' weddings to her, even though she was at all of them, and we wanted her to remember how happy she was at my sister's wedding.  The album had pictures of the extended family, my sister’s accessories, and the sign they got with their names and wedding date on it.  She could pick it up from her coffee table and remember what my sister’s new last name was, the date of the wedding, who was there, and what everything looked like.  And someday, my sister and her husband won’t remember that day so well, and they’ll have the album to show their kids.

I decided to make my own wedding album because it’s something I like to do.  And I did make it…a year after my wedding.  It wouldn’t surprise me if other couples planned to make their own and just never did.  Unless you’re like me and you’re obsessed with detail shots, you probably won’t have prints of your shoes and rings hanging on your wall, but you would want to have some photos in your album that highlighted some of the important items from your wedding day, like any heirlooms or the lace on your veil that you love so much.  You wouldn’t hang pictures that included every guest, but you’d put some of them in an album so you can remember who was there.  Plus, looking through my grandparents’ wedding album is so much fun because everything was so different back then, and it’s only when I look at those photos that my family and I see how much I look like my grandma.

My approach to delivering photos has always been to serve you the best I can without making things too complicated for you.  Everyone has different photography needs, so hopefully this has helped you get a better idea of what your needs are.  Thanks for reading!

Want to talk about your vision for your wedding photos? Let’s set up a time!

Clemson University Engagement Session with Cacti and Sunflowers: Tori and Michael

Tori and Michael first met at governor’s school and became friends when they became counselors for the governor’s school summer camp program. After they both graduated from Clemson with engineering degrees, Michael proposed to Tori on a cruise to the Caribbean. 

Since so much of Tori and Michael’s story took place at Clemson, that’s where we went for their engagement photos. I've done lots of sessions at Clemson and even had my own engagement photos there, but I love how every session I've had there shows a different part of campus that each person wants to look back on.  We didn’t just take photos around campus, we went into the botanical gardens and the student organic farm as well. There’s a section of the botanical garden with all desert plants, so until we moved to the grassier areas with palmetto trees, it would be hard to tell we were in South Carolina if you weren’t there to feel the humidity. With a high of 84 degrees that day, it was even hard to remember that it was July. Although their clothes got caught on the cacti a few times before we came up with a new plan for where to stand, I’m happy to say that the only time anyone got pricked was when I set up the shot of Tori’s ring on top of a cactus with a flat top and little tiny spines around it.  Luckily, I didn’t really feel them and they came out pretty easily.  

I thought the outfits Tori and Michael chose were awesome and looked amazing against some of the plants in the area. Their first outfit complemented the colors of the desert garden so beautifully. They coordinated their second outfit with the sunflower field in mind, using their matching yellow Converses to complement the sunflowers and stand out from their black and white outfits.  

Here are some of my favorites from this Arizona/South Carolina/summer-feeling session! I had a lot of fun with these two and I can’t wait to be part of their wedding day! 

The Pines at Sheltowee Wedding: Samantha and Tim

Samantha and Tim's wedding was one of those days that you'd picture if you imagined a peaceful summer wedding in the south.  They were married at the Pines at Sheltowee, under the shade of the trees with the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky right behind them.  

The barn was elegantly rustic on the inside with big windows everywhere to let in plenty of natural light for Samantha's bridal portraits.  Her gown had a beautiful lacy train and she carried a bouquet in a pastel pink and blue palette, while her bridesmaids carried baby's breath.  The reception hall, where Samantha's family served food they made themselves, was decorated with hints of blush.  The clouds rolled in during the wedding ceremony, keeping the sun off of everyone on this 90-degree day.  The rain held off until after the ceremony and it only began sprinkling towards the very end of the bridal party photos.  Luckily, the sun was back out during the golden hour, and you know how I love the way golden hour sun lights up hair like Samantha’s.

Their dog, Tux, walked down the aisle with Tim’s parents and sat quietly for the ceremony and some pictures.  Since Tim is a herpetologist (someone who studies reptiles), his brother and best man mentioned during his speech that he was only allowed to have one room in the new house for critters.  It only made sense for their getaway car to have drawings of some of the many animals he’s worked with. 

I had always imagined that Kentucky would kind of look like West Virginia, where I first started to be conscious of taking “good” pictures of the mountains that would show people who weren’t there exactly how beautiful something could be.  After many years of learning to take better pictures, combining a backdrop like that with the joy of a wedding makes me so happy.  Samantha and Tim’s wedding perfectly combined those two and more.  Here are some of my favorites from this gorgeous Kentucky day!

Venue:  The Pines at Sheltowee

Photographer:  Christine Scott Photography

Dress:  Bridal and Formal, Inc.

Florist:  The Master’s Bouquet

Cake: Root-A-Bakers

Music: Jessika Brust

Tuxes (not including the dog): Men’s Wearhouse

Diana and Andrew's Wedding: Fort Mill and Charlotte

On Thursday, Diana became an alumna of Clemson’s engineering school. On Saturday, she became Andrew’s wife. I did this Clemson couple’s engagement photos on a cold January day in Clemson.  Here are their wedding pictures from a 90-something degree clear day in May!

The wedding ceremony took place in the Fort Mill church Diana grew up in and a priest from Andrew’s church delivered the sermon. Diana wore the same veil that her mother and her mother’s sisters all wore on their wedding days, except Diana added a pretty gold headband to it. And how beautiful are these rings? Diana’s yellow-gold rings look so pretty together!  Diana’s favorite color is gray, so her bridesmaids wore gray, but most of Diana’s accessories were gold and there were hints of blue in their bouquets, with Diana’s rosary wrapped around the bridal bouquet. 

After the ceremony, we found a shaded area by a pond near the church for bride and groom portraits, then crossed the border of the Carolinas to Diana’s aunt’s house in Charlotte for the reception.  Diana and Andrew love the movie Up, so “adventure” was a common theme throughout the reception.  They had a few single-tier cakes from All In, a coffee shop in Clemson where everything tastes amazing, including their cakes.  After a night of line dancing and partner dancing in the backyard, Diana and Andrew walked through a tunnel of their family and friends blowing bubbles that came from champagne bottle-shaped bubble containers, which I thought was adorable, before heading to Asheville for their first adventure as husband and wife. 

Enjoy the photos of this beautiful celebration of love between two sweet people!

Ceremony venue:  St. Phillip Neri Catholic Church, Fort Mill, SC

Reception Venue: Private residence, Charlotte, NC

Photographer: Christine Scott Photography

Florist:  Fresh Blossom

Catering: Famous Toastery of Dilworth

Clemson Graduation Portraits: Spring 2018

NOTE: prior to the pandemic, the stadium would be open to the public for certain hours on weekends of home football games and home baseball games. I do not have current information on how to take pictures in there.

For the Spring 2018 semester, I had 8 Clemson graduation portrait sessions, with 2 more happening after graduation. Here are some of my favorites of each session at the best university. 

Holly

Holly is graduating with a degree in health sciences. She grew up near University of Georgia and became interested in Clemson after they beat Georgia in football.   We rescheduled her session for a cloudy afternoon that turned into a bright and sunny afternoon, which made the lighting a little different, and some gorgeous blossoms!

Logan and Connor

Logan is a political science major and Connor is a computer science major. They were also part of my wedding; we all met through Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity. These were also the guys I spent the College Football National Championship with, as well as a lot of that football season. 

Kinsey

Kinsey is graduating with a degree in chemistry. We arrived at the stadium to find out that the football team had decided to move their practice into the stadium at the last minute, meaning we couldn’t go inside and we had songs like Back in Black blasting through the stadium to pump us up for our other pictures. She did get to come during my next session and get her stadium photos, though! 

Peter

Peter is a management major who will move to Atlanta after graduation. He paid tribute to the football team’s national title from his junior year by wearing a Deshaun Watson jersey for some of his shots around the stadium. 

Mindy and Megan

Mindy and Megan grew up in Tennessee. Although they didn’t have any family ties to Clemson, they both fell in love with the school and are graduating with engineering degrees. 

Taron

Taron is also a chemistry major and wanted to explore the botanical gardens for the first time during her session. We were originally scheduled to have the session when the trees would be blooming, but it poured down rain on the day we scheduled. Her yellow dress looks so perfect in the gardens though! 

Tracy and Katie

Tracy and Katie have already graduated from Clemson once, but now they’re graduating with their Masters in Business Administration. Since all their MBA classes are in Greenville, they wanted to have a session in Greenville instead, which was a new experience for me!

Glenn

Glenn is graduating with a degree in history. His session was right after most people moved out, so the campus was so quiet that day. Since there were no cars and his girlfriend had come along, I tried a shot of the two of them on the paw print at the 4-way stop. 

 Congratulations to Holly, Logan, Connor, Kinsey, Peter, Mindy, Megan, Taron, Tracy, Katie, and Glenn on their graduation from Clemson! 

Check out some of my other work from around Clemson below, or read more about my portrait services!

Elopement at Clemson

Clemson Bridal Portraits

Where to Take Engagement Photos at Clemson

Miss Clemson University 2021

Tara | Miss Clemson University 2018

One of my first Clemson portrait sessions was for my friend Tracy when she was crowned Miss Clemson University 2016.  Two years later, I got to cover the pageant and see Tara become Miss Clemson University.  As the representative for the Clemson Rally Cats dance team, she had such an awesome dance routine to a Gloria Estefan mix, taking home the overall talent award in addition to the crown.

I finally got to get to know Tara on what was probably the most perfect day ever for a portrait session—it was a quiet, 65-degree and sunny day with the trees and flowers in full bloom.  Tara is a health sciences major and a sister of Alpha Delta Pi.  She was the 2016 Distinguished Young Woman of America.  A few weeks before our session, she was on the basketball court with the Rally Cats when Clemson men’s basketball team made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in over 20 years.  A few days after our session, Tara and the Rally Cats went to Disney World to compete at Nationals.

Of course we had to have some photos of Tara in the stadium with her Rally Cat uniform, where she also posed for some pictures with excited Clemson fans who had come to take some pictures with Howard’s Rock.  When we were taking pictures over by Tillman Hall, there was a group of little girls playing on Bowman Field who kept running up to us, then saying to each other, “I think she’s a REAL beauty queen!”  They finally came close enough for Tara to show them the crown.

Here are some of my favorites from this beautiful day with this sweet lady!

For more information about Miss Clemson University, visit my Miss Clemson University page or contact the Clemson University Mortar Board. Check out some of my other photos from around Clemson below, or click here to get started with scheduling your session!

Elopement at Clemson

Clemson Bridal Portraits

Where to Take Engagement Photos at Clemson

Miss Clemson University 2021

Disney World Engagement Session: Amethyst and Matt

Matt and Amethyst are not just a couple who likes Disney enough to have their engagement session in Disney World.  They are a couple who have such a significant part of their story in Disney World, so of course their engagement session would be at “the happiest place on Earth.”  

Amethyst and Matt first met while working at the same Disney World resort.  This past February, Matt got all of Amethyst’s friends in on his plan to propose at the top of the Orlando Eye, a giant Ferris wheel. When the ride was delayed due to a fire alarm going off, the group decided to take some pictures in front of the Ferris wheel while they were waiting. When it was Matt and Amethyst’s turn to have their picture taken, Matt popped the question.  Fast forward to the day of the engagement session: seeing the Winnie the Pooh characters react to a couple saying they’re engaged is the cutest thing ever.

We started the session on the beaches by some of their favorite resorts.   Yes, we had a beach and Cinderella’s Castle in the same shots!  That Winnie the Pooh song that says “and the rain rain rain came down down down” is a perfect description of what happened partway through.  Amethyst and Matt pulled out their Mickey and Minnie umbrellas, which was not only adorable, they looked especially gorgeous when a little patch of golden hour sun peeked out for a few minutes. To top it off, we saw a rainbow for a minute!  Luckily, there were lots of gazebos in the area, so Matt and Amethyst could stay dry while dancing to Disney songs.  Keep an eye out for a hidden Mickey in one of the gazebos!

I don’t normally shoot after the sun goes down, but we were in Disney.  We headed to Main Street and watched the fireworks and light show at the castle.  I asked Matt and Amethyst if they wanted some pictures with it.  They said to wait until the grand finale, when there would be the most fireworks.  There may have been a ton of people around, but the rush of catching the right moment was incredible.

I knew as soon as Matt and Amethyst told me where they wanted their engagement photos that this would be so much fun.  Hope you love looking through these photos from the most magical location!

“People do crazy things when they’re in love.” –Hercules

Miss Clemson University 2018

I had the pleasure of shooting the Miss Clemson University pageant once again!  This time, I'm sharing some of my favorite photos of each contestant in a blog post.

After the opening dance in which all 19 contestants introduced themselves, Miss Clemson University 2017, Brooklyn, entered with the Tiger and Miss Clemson Life, Megan.  Brooklyn was an MC for the event with Rachel, who was Miss Clemson 2016, which led her to become Miss South Carolina and the runner-up for Miss America 2016.

(for information about purchasing photos, visit my Miss Clemson University page).

I had the pleasure of meeting Caroline a few weeks before the pageant to do her pageant headshots.  She was given the Miss Congeniality award at the pageant.

Reese represented the Clemson cheerleaders and performed the cheer routine to Tiger Rag, the Clemson fight song.

I'm loving this shot from Johanna's dance!  She was awarded the 4th runner up.

Laney looked like she was having so much fun with her belly dance routine!

I had to post a shot of Kyndall's dress from the back because that cape is just so cool!

Alyx sang Orange Colored Sky with an orange jumpsuit.  Perfect for Clemson!

I also did Margaret's pageant headshots a few weeks before the pageant.  She received the People's Choice award at the pageant.

As a lover of all things vintage, I loved Carlyle's evening gown with her hair!

Tiffany's gown looks so sparkly in the stage lights!

Shea represented Clemson Dancers, the only organization represented at the pageant that I was part of during my time at Clemson.

Katherine played one of my favorite Disney songs (When You Wish Upon a Star) and had the perfect dress to go with it!

Claire had such a fun Irish dance for her talent!

I have so many favorite photos from Logan's dance routine!  She was the first runner up and had the most ad sales.

Tara's Gloria Esetefan dance routine won the award for best talent.  It was a compilation of songs I used to dance to in elementary school, but of course Tara looked better :)

This is my new favorite evening gown photo!  Morgan was given the philanthropy award.

It's not my best picture of Cara's talent, but it's the one that shows off her outfit the best.

Nicole's dance routine and gorgeous white evening gown helped get her to 3rd runner up as just a freshman.

Abigail also sang jazz in a Clemson colored jumpsuit, wearing purple and singing Fly Me to the Moon.

The interview portion of the pageant took place earlier in the day, so I didn't see the interview for which Makenzie was given an award.  She also was named second runner-up.

Brooklyn made her final walk as Miss Clemson University.  She was joined onstage by her dad and brother.

The contestants returned to the stage for the award ceremony, which started with the first-ever crowning of Miss Clemson Life, Megan.  Brooklyn passed on the crown she was given for Miss Clemson University 2016.

After all of the other awards were given, Tara of the Rally Cats was crowned Miss Clemson University 2018!

To see more, and for more information on purchasing photos, visit my Miss Clemson University page.

Clemson University Engagement Session: Diana and Andrew

One day at Clemson, Andrew and Diana walked hand-in-hand through President's Park.  Andrew did not know at the time that superstition says that means they'll be together forever.  This time, they held hands and danced through the park, knowing their wedding day will be here before they know it.

I've done lots of portrait sessions around Clemson, and I had my proposal, engagement, and wedding pictures at Clemson, but this was my first time shooting an engagement session at Clemson, so this one holds a special place in my heart.  It was also my first time doing a session in January; I don't know what colors are the most festive for January, but I'm pretty sure that Diana and Andrew wore them for the session, and Diana’s purple coat is so perfect for a session at Clemson.  At such a cold time of year, there were no leaves on the trees to hide some of the buildings on the main part of campus, so Tillman Hall could be in the background of our photo from the steps of Sikes Hall and the photo of Diana’s yellow-gold and sapphire engagement ring.  Diana has been on Clemson’s rowing team all four years of college, so we took some pictures down at the lake on the dock with a tiger paw painted on it.  With a high of 37 degrees that day, we couldn’t see or hear any people or boats, making it a peaceful time for Diana and Andrew to snuggle up in a blanket on the dock and watch the sun go down over the water.

Here are some of my personal favorite photos from Diana and Andrew's engagement session.  After having so much fun with them at their session, I'm even more excited now to be part of their wedding day!

Crozet, Virginia Engagement Session: Katherine and Anthony

I always watch the forecast closely and frequently in the week prior to a session, and Katherine and Anthony's session was no different.  Yet somehow, I woke up, saw that the forecast had changed from "cloudy" to "partly cloudy," then looked out the window to see the roads covered in snow!  Nobody in the area was expecting this to happen.  Luckily, it melted enough to clear the roads so I could meet Katherine and Anthony for the session.  This would be the first session I'd ever done in the dead of winter and it would be in Virginia, so I knew this would be my coldest session yet.  What I didn't know was exactly how cold it would be.   Although the snow all melted before I could get a shot of Katherine's ring in the snow, it was still cold enough for us to take pictures in front of a frozen pond.

After meeting through their friends a few years earlier, Anthony proposed to Katherine in Washington DC on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, which faces the Washington Monument.  They wanted to have their engagement photos in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, so in the week between Christmas and New Year's, we met up in Crozet, slightly west of where Katherine and I both grew up. Their outfits were the perfect winter engagement session outfits; the colors were so classically wintery, Katherine's red sweater was a perfect fit for that time between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and Katherine's mom made the scarves that both of them wore to the session.  Katherine's yellow-gold ring was covered by her gloves for a good part of the session, but it made for some cute photos of her trying to keep Anthony's hands warm.  We ended the session a little earlier than I usually do because the windchill was so brutal (by our Virginia standards), but the golden hour lighting kept us out for just a few more pictures.  

I'm so glad we were able to brave the cold at least for a little while and that the snow didn't keep us from driving to these mountain views.  Since apparently everyone else in Crozet decided to stay inside that day (not that we can blame them), we had this gorgeous landscape all to ourselves.  It's always an honor to be part of putting these sweet moments into pictures, but it's even more special in the wide open with absolutely nobody else in sight.  I can't wait to come back to Charlottesville for the next part of Katherine and Anthony's story!

Happy New Year!

Another year over, a new one just begun.

2017 was quite the year for pictures!  Clemson football won the national championship in January, I shot the Miss Clemson University pageant, Dan and I got married in July and took our honeymoon to British Columbia, there was a total solar eclipse in August, and there were all sorts of awesome people in front of my camera in between.  So what's happening in 2018?

If you've been following me for a while, you may have noticed this year that there's been a shift in my focus from individuals to couples.  I think getting married has given me the desire to help more people have the best first day of marriage possible with pictures everyone can look back on for years to come.  There will be more weddings and engagements on the blog in 2018 and I couldn't be more excited to be part of these couples' stories.  I'll still be taking portraits though, so 

I will be shooting the Miss Clemson University pageant again this year!  If you're competing and you don't have professional headshots for the program yet, let me know and we can set up a session.

Thank you so much to everyone who's supported me in my photography so far.  Whether you've chosen me as your photographer or you've given me some words of encouragement, it means so much to me.  I wouldn't have reached this point without your support.

Here are some of my favorite photos from everything I shot in 2017.  I'm always striving to be better at what I do, and I can't wait for all the pictures 2018 has in store!

December 2017 Clemson Graduates

Another semester has gone by!  It was wonderful to be back in such a sentimental place to walk through college memories with these awesome ladies.  These were two of the most beautiful days that this November had to offer.  The stadium looked a little different; the gate had been redesigned to commemorate both championship titles and the tiger paw replaced the tiger.  I was also happy to see that the paw was painted on the field for both of these sessions.  Congratulations to Kate and Aria for finishing this chapter of their lives and receiving their diplomas from this amazing university.

Kate

Kate is graduating with a degree in biology.  She asked for one picture in the life sciences building with artwork inspired by Petri dishes.  Not only was Kate the service vice president for Clemson's chapter of Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity, she was a co-chair for the Blood Bowl, an annual competition between Clemson and University of South Carolina to collect the most blood donations on campus in the last full week before the Clemson-USC game.  The year that Kate was co-chair, the Blood Bowl trophy came back to Clemson for the first time in 9 years!

Aria

Aria is graduating with a degree in civil engineering.  Not only did she spend a semester in an engineering co-op, she spent her second-to-last semester studying abroad in Spain--I could see from our email interactions that she has her email set to Spanish.  After her semester in Spain ended, Aria spent the summer backpacking through Europe, sometimes a new country every day, then came back to Clemson for her last semester and graduation.  

Downtown Greenville Christmas Engagement Session: Noel and Graham

Graham proposed to Noel last December.  Between that and having a name like Noel, how could we not have an engagement session in December in front of a Christmas tree?

We didn't know until that day that we had scheduled the session on the day of the Christmas parade, so after spending a while looking around for parking and wondering whether we'd be able to get to the tree, we found a parking garage (where we were given candy canes), and we discovered that the tree wasn't blocked off after all! There was a crowd of people near the tree.  When we asked if they were waiting to take pictures there, they said they just wanted to watch, and then they left when we were finished.

We were offered hot chocolate, we heard Christmas music playing, and we saw Christmas lights turning on.  Only the weather could have made the day more festive, but we couldn't complain about it being 60 degrees and sunny.  As we walked through Falls Park, it started to seem more like a fall engagement session.  There were still a few trees with red, orange, and yellow leaves left, which also complemented the outfits they'd picked out to go with the Christmas tree.

Noel and Graham have been together since high school! I heard them say "I love you" so many times during the session.  Things like that are what make engagement sessions so much fun!

Caesars Head State Park Engagement Session | Alexis and Skylar

Take 1:

Alexis, Skylar and I decided on Caesars Head State Park for their engagement session. None of us had ever been there, but the pictures looked gorgeous. The forecast said it would be cloudy with a 15% chance of rain. Apparently when the elevation is that high, "cloudy" can mean intense fog, so I had to turn my headlights on and drive slowly, even though it was 3:30 in the afternoon.  It's hard to get phone signal around there, so I knew I had to just push through and meet Alexis and Skylar at the top to discuss what to do.  It was raining when I finally met them, even though the weather channel still said it wasn't. We looked out onto the overlook...

...and decided to come back another time. 

Take 2:

There was a freezing cold wind when we came back, but it was sunny and we could see everything.  Here's what we saw from the same overlook this time:

Alexis loves elephants, so Skylar gave her this plastic elephant when he asked her to be his girlfriend.

He stuck with the theme when he asked her to be his wife, only this time, there were real elephants involved.  They took a trip to the zoo and he got down on one knee in front of the elephant exhibit.  Since he didn't actually give her an elephant this time, they bought this little elephant at the souvenir shop afterwards to commemorate the day.

Of course, Alexis had some other cute elephant figurines to incorporate into their session.

The sun made for some amazing rim light through the trees, something we wouldn't have had if we tried to shoot in the fog.

The sunset was perfect, something else we would have missed out on if we'd tried to shoot on that cloudy/foggy day.

There was so much laughter during this session on both sides of the camera.  I had such a fun day with them!

"Never Mind the Great Ideas, Just Life Itself"

When I was a freshman in college, I was part of a play with the theatre department called Hotel Cassiopeia by Charles Mee.  There were many parts of this abstract play and its existential dialogue that pulled at our heartstrings, but one scene stood out to us as we prepared for our final performance, the last time we would all be together onstage, the last time we would play a part in this story, and when the beautiful experience of putting together this show would all come to an end.  Here’s the dialogue from that scene (exactly as it is written):

MATTA
What sort of future do you see?
what sort of future of humanity and of the world

DUCHAMP
what new forms

MATTA
what new visions

DUCHAMP
this will be the job of the artist

MATTA
this will be the artist's only job

DUCHAMP
because the great changes in the world
the changes of consciousness
the changes of our sense of life itself
will not come from the reasoned arguments
of political scientists or philosophers
but from the visions of artists
not by arguing well
but by speaking differently

MATTA
or is this a promise that has failed, or is failing?
new visions are easy to come up with
but the world goes on ignoring the best of them
the world is littered with so many utopias

DUCHAMP
so many visions of wondrousness
so many great ideas

MATTA
and even ideas that were possible at one time or another
beautiful things

DUCHAMP
or never mind the great ideas
just life itself
the moments of life itself
transporting things
things that will last a moment
and then vanish forever
vanish forever
how does one cherish even what has happened
let alone what might have happened
how does one relish it
how does one relish life itself
it slips through the fingers so quickly

MATTA
this is where the work comes from
if one is an artist
from the shooting stars
water in a stream
a love
a young girl
a woman
a ballerina on the stage
snow flakes
the lifespan of a butterfly
all gone

The whole script is available for you to read online here.

One of my first photography adventures (and one of my first meetings with Clemson Photography) was to the penthouse of Clemson House.  Clemson House was built as a hotel in the 50s, but was later converted into a dorm.  We needed special permission to go up there and the view was stunning, especially at sunset.  I met Alex, who quickly became my friend and later became my co-president of the club, my roommate, and a trusted fellow photographer.

We've tried to recreate this picture because I was still new to using a DSLR, but he still likes this one the best, and edited it to look a little more vintage.

We went back to the penthouse with the club a few more times.  We somehow all climbed on the actual roof, which was one of my favorite memories of college.

Photo by Madeline Hemmingson

We played with light after sunset, which was always a good time. 

Playing with the steam from the laundry room coming through the pipe.  Photo by Alex Stewart

Same spot, different day.  Photo by Alex Stewart

Here’s the photo that eventually went on my business card was taken at the penthouse.

Clemson House was Dan’s freshman dorm (where he lived when we first started to become friends) and he eventually proposed to me at the penthouse. 

Photo by Michael Scott

On our wedding day, we took some time to drive to the main part of campus for some pictures.  We went to Bowman to get Clemson House in the background.  We knew for a while that there were plans to demolish it, but we found out a little before the wedding that the demolition would start within the week after our wedding.  Right before it started storming, we took some wedding pictures with this building that meant so much to us and held so many important memories. 

Photo by Photography and Design by Jenny

One day on the honeymoon, not even a week after our wedding, we were just lying on the bed talking.  At some point, one of us was on Facebook and saw a Facebook Live video of the first step of the Clemson House demolition: removing the iconic neon sign.  This was where I met Alex and so many of my photography club friends, and where we climbed on the roof and collaborated on photo ideas we had.  This was where I took so many photos.  This was where Dan proposed to me.  This was where we took some of our wedding photos as the thunder started.  And now we were watching that place go away, and nobody else would get to experience what we did.

We were two of thousands who watched as this iconic part of campus was slowly taken apart.  We saw the Facebook comments rolling in:

“I lived here all 4 years!”

“I was married in the penthouse in 1974.”

“I made some of my best friends on the 4th floor.”

Throughout the day, several Clemson Photography alumni who shared some of those memories with me tagged me in some Instagram posts from our trips up there.  We saw that day that even though our connection to the building was unique, we were far from the only ones who felt such a strong connection to this place.

What was unique, though, was that our engagement was PROBABLY the last reservation made at the penthouse, and we MAY have been in the last photos ever taken of the building before the demolition.

Someday, our grandkids will be showing their kids our wedding pictures in front of a building they never got to see in person, and telling them, “That’s back when Clemson House was still there.  That’s where they got engaged and they think they were the last to reserve the penthouse and the last people to take pictures with it.”  If our descendants are Tigers, that’ll be something they can show their friends.  Future Tigers will see those pictures the same way we look at pictures taken with the “Hollywoodland” letters, Old Man on the Mountain, or the Pont des Arts.  I was in Clemson last week and saw that the windows have been removed from Clemson House.  We’ve been married for four months and our wedding portraits are practically already antiquities.

The thing is, we don’t always know when we take a picture that something in it won’t be there in a year.  It could be a building, a person, a connection, a time in your life, or a feeling.  That’s why it’s so important to have pictures, and that’s why so many of us have the drive to give people the best pictures possible. 

Note: Everything in this blog about Clemson House and my own wedding day was drafted before I actually started shooting weddings myself.  I hadn’t published it yet, but now I have something to add to it.

I was recently a second shooter for a major wedding photography company.  With this company, I’m hired to shoot for the whole day and then upload all my RAW (unedited and uncompressed) files for someone else to edit.  The couple receives their whole gallery within six weeks.  One night, a little under three weeks after that wedding, I got a text from the main shooter:

“Hey Christine, sorry for the late text, but can you check your email?”

Well, that’s a text that normally signifies something important.  I nervously opened my email.

“Hey Christine, do you have any pictures of the guy with the glasses?  He passed away and the couple would like some pictures to be able to show at his funeral.”

I froze when I saw the picture he attached.  It was a picture of the groom standing next to a guy with glasses holding his son, the little boy who’d caught the garter.  I remembered that he’d held his son on his shoulders so he could catch the garter.  The main shooter knew that I had pictures of this guy because he was a groomsman and I’d been assigned to take pictures of them getting ready and take group pictures of them.    I couldn’t even remember this guy’s name, but I apparently had some of the last pictures ever taken of him.  I knew that I’d have a picture of just him and the groom and a picture of him getting ready with the groom.  I looked through my pictures and saw pictures of him dancing with his young daughter at the reception, and then a few of him holding hands with his wife as they danced around their son and daughter.  They just seemed like sweet photo ops at the time I decided to take them, not very different from photos from other wedding receptions, but now they were so much more than that.  These moments were how he would be remembered because there are pictures of them.  

Things happen and it’s sometimes hard to explain to other people what life was like before then, but seeing pictures on a wall or in an album doesn’t always require an explanation. The groomsman’s children are 8 and 4.  They won’t have as many memories of him as they’d like, but they can look back on pictures of him to remember how he smiled or that day they all danced together at the wedding reception.  I won’t be able to show my future children where Dan proposed to me, but they’ll be able to see pictures from that day, and they’ll have a better understanding how perfect of a view that was for a proposal.  This is why I do what I do: of course we want to remember the significant events of life, but the little moments that aren't pre-planned or talked about are just as important to us to remember.

"Never mind the great ideas, just life itself." 

-- Charles Mee, Hotel Cassiopeia

Eva's Senior Portraits--Keswick Vineyards

I don’t normally take a weekend trip for portraits, but this was a little different.  First of all, it was in my hometown, where I could stay with my parents.  Second, despite being from the Monticello Wine Trail area, I’d never actually done a portrait session in one of the gorgeous vineyards that surround the city.  Third, it was for Eva.

Not only did I used to babysit Eva, her mom babysat me.  I think I was actually a baby when Cindy and I first met, so we go way back.  Cindy had asked me around December about doing Eva’s senior pictures.  We decided on doing them in September in a vineyard.  We eventually chose Keswick Vineyards, where I actually had my own senior portrait session.  Eva and I explored the vines and the pond while our moms caught up on the porch over a glass of wine.

Before Eva and Cindy arrived, my mom and I took a walk through the vines and marked the numbers of the ones that looked like they had the most grapes so I could come back to those with Eva.  What I wasn’t expecting was for a whole section of one row to turn red in mid-September. 

Eva had a whole bag of outfits that fit a fall color scheme, so we had fun looking through that to pick out which ones to use.  I loved the burgundy against the blue and green of the landscape!

Not pictured: me straddling the fence like a horse.  She's much taller than me so standing on the ground wasn't really an option.

I had so much fun with Eva's session and I hope to come back to Virginia for more vineyard sessions!

If you're interested in a portrait or headshot session in the Greenville, SC or Charlottesville, VA area, click here to get in touch.