Charleston Wedding Photographers: Patrick Hall» commercial shoots

How To Shoot Wakeboarding In Charleston

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:12:20 +0000

When I’m not busy shooting weddings in Charleston, I spend a lot of my time pursuing other fields of photography. This last fall I wanted to setup a big wakeboard photoshoot here in Charleston and explore the idea of shooting wakeboarders in the studio which isn’t done very often. After about 4 days of shooting, over 30 assistants and wakeboarders, and countless hours of editing photos and video, the newest Fstoppers Original featuring yours truly has finally been released. Even if you aren’t into the technical side of photography you will probably still enjoy this video. If you want more information on the details on how I shot this or wish to see more photos, head over to the how to shoot wakeboarding post on Fstoppers.com.

Ad Campaign For Nikon Pocket Wizard FlexTT5 and MiniTT1 Units

admin — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 08:02:22 +0000

As a Charleston wedding photographer, I depend on Pocket Wizards to remotely control my small flashes during portrait sessions, the reception, and when guests want to fire the photobooth. So when I was one of the few photographers contacted by Pocket Wizard to beta test their new Flex and Mini units I was really thrilled. When I shoot commercial photographs, I always try to make something that grabs people’s attention. So I knew I wanted to create a photograph that would not only show how the new Pocket Wizards were useful but also make an image that would have a strong visual impact. Check out this behind the scenes video of my photoshoot with basketball player Chelsie Ravenell and head over to Pocket Wizard’s website to see the final image used in their current marketing campaign. If you want more details on this shoot, head over to my other site Fstoppers.com where we posted a more detailed outline of the shoot.

Fstoppers: Our iPhone Photoshoot Hits It Big!

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:12:59 +0000

If you have not checked out my other photography based website, www.fstoppers.com, it is basically a blog that features behind the scenes videos of photographers and videographers working on their current projects. Since Lee Morris and I launched it back in Feb, it has become one of the most exciting projects I have been working on outside of wedding and commercial photography. To help inspire other photographers, we decided it would be fun to try to organize a normal fashion photoshoot but instead of using a professional camera we would use the worst camera we owned: the Apple iPhone 3Gs!
I have never experienced posting a viral web video before but over night we had the most highly viral video of my career. Within 8 days, the video had been seen by over half a million people world wide and was featured on thousands of big named websites. Our own website was crashing, my email was being swamped with notes from people from every country, and our site had 10x more viewers than before the iphone video. It was fun having Lee doing all the photography as I filmed the whole shoot. I’m scared we may never top this Fstoppers Original video but it was a blast to create. I hope you feel inspired!

Wakeboarding

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:37:20 +0000

So the 2009 wakeboarding season is done in Charleston and I must say, I feel like I spent more time wakeboarding myself than I did photographing wakeboarding! I guess that leaves this coming summer to knock out the big wakeboarding project in the works (more on that later). So all you professional and seasoned boarders, let’s rip it up come April and show everyone what you are capable of doing on the water!

In the meantime, here are a few photographs from the 2009 season. My friend and fellow photographer Lee Morris (RLMorris.com) wound up shooting on beautifully sunny days while somehow I always got stuck with the overcast days but I think it was all just a test run for what is to come in 2010. I shot the video clips off the D90 and look forward to shooting more video as our new camera’s have much better video capability now. Big thanks to Jerrit Pruyn for mixing down the video into this small clip despite the goofy music

Soccer Ad shoot

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:00:07 +0000

Here is a fun little shoot I did over the summer. Landon is a model from Los Angeles and had the perfect look for a soccer shoot I’ve been meaning to do for some time now. So we packed up the lights and softboxes and headed out to the field. I’ve included a few behind the scene images just so you can see the amount of work that goes into some of these productions. What I can’t show is the amount of bone crushing pain poor Landon endured as I demanded “one more take” during the horizontal layout kicks. Some of the B-footage is fun to look at but I’ll just leave you with the final shot!

Charleston Wedding Magazine Ad

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:58:06 +0000

Many brides ask me what happens on a typical bridal shoot if they wanted to have some photographs taken of them in their wedding dress. Well this post is not about the TYPICAL bridal shoot at all! The photographs taken for an ad in Charleston Wedding Magazine were going to feature a local model living here in Charleston. This shoot required a lot of planning, and it really showcases the efforts of many different local artists.

Hillary Fisher, a successful print model from Charleston, was a real pleasure to work with on this commercial shoot. Much of the time as a photographer I am having to make people feel comfortable in front of the camera while I juggle all of the technical acrobats that come with creating a stunning image. If someone does not feel comfortable in front of the camera then you are going to be hard pressed to knock out a great looking image. Being able to work with Hillary made my job that much easier because I could pretty much let her do her thing which allowed me to really focus on the details of the image. Makeup was provided by Lisa Burson from Charleston Makeup Design who is one of the best wedding makeup artist here in charleston. The dresses were provided by WHITE located out on Daniel Island. The flower arrangement was made especially for this shoot by Thuy Patterson with Jade Water Designs. Thuy is one of the most amazing florists I’ve worked with in Charleston; if you are looking for wedding flowers definitely set up an appointment to meet her! The location for this shoot was the magnificent William Aiken House located on King Street and Ann Street. Even if you are just visiting Charleston, you have to stop by this historic mansion. Each room is completely different and they host some of the most upscale weddings I’ve seen.

When shooting something of this scale, you really are aiming only for one perfect image. Most of the time when I work with a bride, the goal is to take a variety of images in different locations and with different expressions. Those types of shoots are always fun because you are trying to be creative throughout the whole process as you move place to place. This shoot, while enjoyable in its own way, really required a lot of fine tuning and therefore moved at a much slower pace. When I knew we took the perfect image, Hillary decided to try something more along the lines of bridal fashion. Since she had a small destination wedding of her own and very few photos, I thought it would be cool to work with her to create something really unique that very few brides would ever try themselves. I hope you enjoy the final photograph used for the wedding ad as well as some of the more artistic images we created after the main shoot.

Click Image for more Photos

Ralph Lauren test shoot

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:28:34 +0000

Earlier in the week local model Clayton Brannon contacted me about doing a fashion shoot for an upcoming audition he had in Atlanta. The theme was beach casual with clothing from Ralph Lauren. It just so happened that a nice heavy front was heading across Charleston during our shoot which made for some really dramatic scenes. For all you photographers out there, try hitting up Sullivan’s Island during low tide while a powerful storm is brewing Unfortunately sometimes bolts of lighting hitting the ground can also cut your shoot short!

Bikini Shoot

admin — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:59:39 +0000

As a commercial photographer I get asked to shoot all sorts of images. I always enjoy shooting different projects because it really gives you the opportunity to grow as a photographer as well as learn new interactions with those in front of the camera. Here are a few images from a scheduled shoot with the lovely Megan Hucks. I first met Megan at the 2009 Charleston Fashion Week event, and we wound up teaming up together to shoot some swimwear on a perfect day in Charleston. I’ll be honest, swimwear isn’t really something I shoot often but when the weather is this great and you need a break from wakeboarding it’s hard not go out to the beach and shoot! Plus I wanted to try something different with my waterproof housing. I really enjoy sharing funny moments from my photoshoots so I’ve included a little bit of a scare we had while in the water….I guess I failed to inform Megan these waters are infested with monstrous fish that jump ha!