Chris Isham Photography Blog | Wedding Fashion Beauty Lifestyle | Greenville, SC | Atlanta, GA | Charleston, SC | Destination Wedding | 864.256.0745 » personal http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog Wed, 16 May 2012 14:17:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 personal work on ilford hp5 http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/personal-work-on-ilford-hp5/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/personal-work-on-ilford-hp5/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 14:30:56 +0000 chris http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/?p=4901 A few mixed frames of personal work from Unleash 2012 at NewSpring Church and downtown Greenville, SC from a recent roll of 35mm black & white. Shot on Ilford HP5+ pushed to 1600, processed by Richard Photo Lab. I love this film. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/personal-work-on-ilford-hp5/feed/ 2 greenville http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/greenville/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/greenville/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:43:17 +0000 chris http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/?p=4387

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shot on 35mm Fuji 400H.

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/greenville/feed/ 0 billiamjeans http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/billiamjeans/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/billiamjeans/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:47:51 +0000 chris http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/?p=4385 Talented people inspire me. Throw serious passion into that mix and now I’m hooked. My friend Bill is one of those people. Shortly after we became friends in college at Clemson, he told me that he was going to start a designer jeans business and give a portion of his profits to fight sex trafficking here in the US. Let me repeat – this was the conversation in college. Wow. People young and old talk a lot about their ideas, but Bill was bold enough to make his a reality. His company, Billiamjeans, is based here in Greenville, SC, and let me tell you, he is excellent at what he’s doing. I LOVE good jeans and I’m super picky about them. Bill custom fit me for my first pair of Billiam’s a few weeks ago, and they certainly won’t be my last. After picking them up, I really wanted to promote him & his jeans because I truly believe in what he’s doing – and the jeans are seriously amazing. :) I stopped by last week to shoot a few behind-the-scenes images of his workshop, & I asked him to give me a brief history of how things got started and what Billiam is about for me to share with you. Introducing, Bill Mitchell of Billiamjeans…

________________

Everything sort of began out of nowhere. I had a friend that tailored his clothes and in the summer between my junior and senior years of college, I started doing the same. It really was just t-shirts and button-ups, but once I got back to Clemson, people started bringing me pants, jackets, tuxedos, dresses, etc. After fixing a whole lot of stuff, I thought it might be neat to make something of my own and the item I chose was jeans.

It’s really funny where we are now, not saying that we have “made it” yet, but we are more than just a hobby and our cause has cemented why we do what we do. I have spent hours upon hours online learning everything I can about machines and manufacturing, while at the same time calling everyone I can to ask them for help. Over the past two years, we have gained tons of momentum from simply not giving up when times got tough but continuing on to fulfill the promise we made to fight sex trafficking.

As far as the cause goes, I sort of stumbled upon it as well. I heard a few things about sex trafficking but after trying to find information online about it, everything I found was either really cheesy or seems like it was just a scare tactic. Our generation will be a generation that uses creativity to fight problems and pairing jeans with trafficking was something nobody was doing.

Everything is still so ambiguous right now but we are in the process of presenting ideas to people that will make a difference and encourage others to live out their dreams.

 

Currently, Billiam is only making men’s jeans, but ladies’ jeans are on the way very soon!

 

 

 

 

 

Love this.

 

 

 

 

Posted on their wall is a Billiamjeans Bucket List with a list of names of people they want to own/wear a pair of their jeans. The list is incredibly impressive, with several of the names already crossed off. I love how they dream big.

 

 

 

 

We make and sell jeans to donate 20 percent of our profits to organizations who fight sex trafficking in their respective city.

Our goal is to choose one organization per major city to support and give the consumer the choice of which city they’d like their money to go to. Currently we partner with Wellspring Living for the city of Atlanta as our sole beneficiary but are interviewing other cities.

All of our models are former victims of rape and we screen print a story on the inside of each pocket. These stories tell what happened to them and how through Jesus, and only Jesus, they have been able to forgive the man/men that did this to them. We have four stories thus far and our goal is to send a message to other girls who have never gotten help to come forward and get help as well. We provide professional counseling for all of our models as well as a connection with another girl who shares her story and has gone through the process themselves.

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If you’d like pick up your own pair of Billiam’s, and join their fight against sex trafficking while you’re at it, send Bill an email at billiamjeans [at] gmail.com to get things started. Every pair is handmade with dry selvedge denim and an exceptional attention to detail. Currently, they are only making men’s jeans, BUT ladies jeans are close on the horizon! So ladies, if you’re interested, I’d highly suggest contacting Bill soon because I know the waiting list will fill up quickly for the new women’s cut. Also, visit their website (billiamjeans.com) and follow them on Twitter (@billiamjeans) to keep up with the latest Billiamjeans news & info!

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/billiamjeans/feed/ 0 downtown greenville on polaroid http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/downtown-greenville-on-polaroid/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/downtown-greenville-on-polaroid/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:54:58 +0000 chris http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/?p=4257 Shot on Fuji FP-100C.

 

 

 

 

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/downtown-greenville-on-polaroid/feed/ 0 shades of gray http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/shades-of-gray/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/shades-of-gray/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:31:42 +0000 chris http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/?p=4230 One of my goals for 2012 is to just simply shoot more. And by that, I really mean shoot more just-for-me personal work to stay creative. Sometimes it’s really easy to only shoot for paying clients, but the problem with that is creativity tends to kinda dry up a little bit. As I’ve been shooting more film lately, the itch to just shoot has really hit me. Whether it’s medium format, Polaroid, digital, or something as simple as my iPhone, I just want to shoot and be better at my craft. So hopefully you’ll start seeing some more personal work show up on my blog this year in addition to the paid work. :) Just thought I’d post a few shots from the end of 2011 that I finally got processed – mostly from Christmas 2011 in Georgia at my in-law’s and a couple from the end of Erika’s Miss SC USA shoot. Hope you enjoy!

Shot on Ilford HP5+ 35mm pushed to 1600 through my Canon EOS 1N. Developed & scanned in-house by Jeff Hall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/shades-of-gray/feed/ 0 fashion: tara. http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-tara/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-tara/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:08:10 +0000 chris http://blog.chrisishamphotography.com/?p=3228 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 |

 

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-tara/feed/ 0 fashion: celia. http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-celia/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-celia/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:51:27 +0000 chris http://blog.chrisishamphotography.com/?p=3216 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 |

 

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-celia/feed/ 1 portrait: nate. http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/portrait-nate/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/portrait-nate/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:58:23 +0000 chris http://blog.chrisishamphotography.com/?p=3174 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.

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/portrait-nate/feed/ 0 fashion: sarah. http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-sarah/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-sarah/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:39:01 +0000 chris http://blog.chrisishamphotography.com/?p=3121 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…

]]> http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-sarah/feed/ 0 fashion: erika grace powell. http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-erika-grace-powell/ http://chrisishamphotography.com/blog/fashion-erika-grace-powell/#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:16:12 +0000 chris http://blog.chrisishamphotography.com/?p=3112 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.)

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