Chris Isham Photography Blog | Wedding Fashion Beauty Lifestyle | Greenville, SC | Atlanta, GA | Charleston, SC | Destination Wedding » personal

fashion: tara.

chris — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:08:10 +0000

More personal work from a recent fashion shoot. Hope you enjoy.

A few film images…

Hair/Wardrobe styling: Allie DeCandt

Makeup: Sommer Porter

| Wardrobe provided by Augusta 20 |

fashion: celia.

chris — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:51:27 +0000

Hope everyone had a great weekend and a great start to the wonderful month of October! As some of you may know, Katie (my wife) started her OB/GYN residency this past summer. Leading up to her first day, all of the incoming first year residents had several opportunities to get together for dinner and start getting to know one another. Spouses were invited and all of these events had free food provided by the hospital…ahem, so I was there. At the first one of these dinners, I met Celia, one of Katie’s fellow residents, and found out that before med school she had a modeling background. Throughout the conversation, I twisted her arm to come out of retirement and I’m glad she obliged. We had a great time shooting, I had a fantastic team working with me, and I’m really excited about adding these to my portfolio. I hope you enjoy another recent personal shoot!

Hair: Erin Silver

Makeup: Jennifer Mederos

Wardrobe styling: Allie DeCandt

| Clothing provided by Augusta 20 |

portrait: nate.

chris — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:58:23 +0000

Some people in life just stick with you for better or worse. Nate’s one of those guys, and I’m blessed to call him a friend. We played basketball together in high school and have been close ever since. He was one of my groomsmen in my wedding last year, and we’ve also sucked it up way too much on the golf course – but we won’t go too much into that last part. He’s a great guy, and now he’s in ministry full-time as the youth pastor at Mt. Zion Christian Fellowship in Greenville. I’m so excited to see where God is leading him as he leads the youth of the church. To fit in with my recent stint of personal work, I wanted to add a few portraits of a guy to the mix, thought Nate would be a perfect fit, and he happily obliged. Hope you enjoy.

More 35mm film…I’m really loving this for a different look.

fashion: sarah.

chris — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:39:01 +0000

I got a phone call one day last month from a good industry friend of mine saying, “Hey, so I know this really beautiful girl who’s interested in modeling, but she’s never been in front of a camera before. I think she’d really be great – would you be interested in testing with her?” I said yes, and I’m so glad I did. This was Sarah’s first time ever in front of a camera (?!?), and I think she’s got a great road ahead of her! She really was amazing, so easy to work with, and I love the variety of the images we got. We’re planning on working together again sometime soon, and I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully you’re enjoying this little foray into some of my recent personal work! (Hair/makeup by Susan Grant)

I’ve just recently started shooting some 35mm film for a different look, and I’m really loving it. The next four images are from my first roll…

fashion: erika grace powell.

chris — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:16:12 +0000

Finally! I’m finally getting around to blogging the shoots I got to do during August! Yes, I know we’re halfway into September, but let’s just roll with it. I had some time last month to line up several personal shoots for things I’d been wanting to shoot for a while now, but just hadn’t had the time. It’s a poor excuse that I’d given for too long and was an easy way to let myself out of trying new things and pushing my work a little. Honestly though, after I’d gotten started, I quickly became addicted to shooting personal work! If you’re a photographer that’s only been shooting what you’re paid to shoot, try shooting just for yourself sometime and see what comes from it. One thing that really stuck with me from the Jeremy Cowart Vision workshop I went to last year was the concept of practice. He talked about how superstar athletes didn’t get where they are by only playing during games, but they spent (and do spend) TONS of time practicing, and the same applies to photography. You shouldn’t expect to grow as a photographer either without practicing your craft. So here’s to, well, practice.

If you’ve followed my blog for a little while, I’m sure you’ll recognize Erika from previous shoots such as this one (and the header image of the blog). She’s a good friend of mine and we have a great time working together. I’ve been wanting to start a beauty section of my portfolio and this was a really great way to kick it off. Moving into the studio earlier this year has been one of the biggest blessings for my business. I’ll always love location shooting, but having the studio option now is amazing, and I’m so thankful for it and the friends I get to work with here. I’m super excited to start showing some of the personal work I’ve been working on so here we go! If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen the next two as a preview from this shoot. I’m thrilled to add these to my portfolio, so I hope you enjoy. Happy Friday everyone! (Hair & makeup by Susan Grant.)

happy 4th.

chris — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:34:54 +0000

I know it’s after midnight so it’s not actually July 4th anymore, but just thought I’d throw up a quick post to say Happy 4th everybody – I hope yours was a great as mine!

charleston.

chris — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:04:25 +0000

Just got down to Charleston for the weekend for a wedding and had a little extra time on our hands after dinner tonight. This city is just amazing and I love to come down any chance I get. Everybody and their brother is down this weekend cause of this little thing they do every year called the Cooper River Bridge Run. As of the time of this post (late Friday night), they have 38,335 runners registered to run the 10K tomorrow! Anyways, just thought I’d share the nighttime view of where all these people will be racing/jogging/walking/etc. tomorrow. Yes, I know there’s lots of other posts that need to go up on here so forgive me on that one; they’re coming, promise. But for now, have a great weekend everyone!

help-portrait.

chris — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:30:14 +0000

First off, my apologies for not blogging for 2 1/2 weeks. But, this past Saturday was probably one of the most blog-worthy topics ever. Here is just a sample of what went on (this is the Nashville location)…

12.12.09: The first annual Help-Portrait event was in full swing – and a much bigger swing than probably any of us thought possible. What is Help-Portrait? Help-Portrait is a shift in thinking for photography, a movement really, that was conceptualized earlier this year by one of the best photographers working today and one of my biggest influences, Jeremy Cowart. The idea? For photographers anywhere and everywhere to use their cameras to give back to their local communities by finding people in need, taking their portrait, and then delivering a final print to them. Period. No money, no self-promotion – nothing. Well, except the opportunity to make someone feel beautiful, special, and loved.

So, this past Saturday, 12.12.09, I joined up with several other photographers from the Greenville, SC-area (even some from Spartanburg and Columbia) and set up at United Ministries in downtown Greenville from 10-4 and took portraits of about 50 different people. Men, women, children, and whole families together. It was without a doubt the most rewarding experience I’ve had yet as a photographer. One of the last couples to come in told us they had recently been married and they came in to have their wedding picture made. …and that was just one of the stories. Those of us that were there are already talking about how to make next year’s Help-Portrait even better, and even possibly doing one in the springtime just because. Just knowing that you’ve been able to use your camera to love on someone and watching their faces light up when they see their new portrait is indescribable and humbling in every way. (Just in case you’re wondering why I don’t have any of the portraits from the day, it’s because the Help-Portrait community decided to respect the privacy of those in front of the camera by not posting their portraits online.)

So like I said earlier, the first Help-Portrait was much bigger than any of us dreamed it would be. The final stats? Approximately 36,000 portraits given by 3,002 photographers & 4,422 volunteers in 511 locations in 41 countries. That is UNBELIEVABLE! If you haven’t watched the video above yet please do, and if you’d like to be involved in the next Help-Portrait here in the Greenville area just add a comment to this post or use the contact link at the top to send me a message. Keep in mind that to be involved you don’t have to be a photographer. You can volunteer in a number of other ways such as greeting/welcoming, doing hair/makeup, being a set of extra hands, providing or serving food, etc. The opportunities are endless.

If you’re reading this, you have been and are incredibly blessed. Take the time this Christmas season to let someone know they’re beautiful and loved. You won’t regret it.

thankful.

chris — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:21:06 +0000

As the sun set on this thanksgiving day, I started to think back on the past year of life. Jesus has really blessed me tremendously – far beyond what I could have imagined. Katie and I are engaged (!), I graduated from Clemson University, I’ve been blessed with so many new clients (friends), and life has really only begun. I want to live that life in a way that gives thanks everyday and not just once a year because the calendar says so. This time next year, I will be celebrating thanksgiving with my new wife and I will have a whole host of new things to be thankful for. But for now, I want to simply be thankful for what He’s done for me, what He’s doing for me, and what He will do for me – even more so, who He’s been, who He is, and who He will be.

“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” – Colossians 3:14-16