Archive for April, 2009
4-years Old
April 30, 2009Savannah
April 27, 2009Beth and I are both Savannah College of Art and Design alumni and we like to get down to Savannah every few months for a little inspiration and shopping at all the cool stores and galleries. SCAD has grown tremendously since I graduated 12 years ago, probably tripled in enrollment. They have campuses now in Savannah, Atlanta, Lacoste and SCAD Hong Kong is opening in 2010!
I don’t actually have any photos of SCAD in this blog post, it just happened to be the impetus to take these photo! Beth’s son Charles was along for the ride and I got a few shots of him as well as some flower photos from Elizabeth’s garden. Enjoy!
Charles Sleeping
No photos, please. Or as Charles says, “Turn it off.”
Flowers in Elizabeth’s garden in Garden City, GA. (appropro name!)
Jay & Chris WED in Beaufort, SC!
April 24, 2009Chris and Jay were married last weekend in the gorgeous, laid back, quintessentially Southern town of Beaufort, SC. This was very fitting as Jay is a Southern girl through and through and the color pink pervaded everything, down to the wait staff’s ties!
The tirelessly creative Katie Huebel of WED was the wedding designer and coordinator and did a fabulous job. Chris & Jay were married at The Parish Church of St. Helena with the reception at the Anchorage House.
Peonies are probably my favorite flower for weddings. I love the soft petals and they look gorgeous in these bridesmaids bouquets.
Jay was quite excited about her over-the-top Mary Norton shoes!
The veil that Jay wore has been passed down through a group of friends and her sister. Veils and dresses that come with a story are the bomb.
Pink! Pink was everywhere! From Chris’s bow tie and boutonniere all the way to the catering staff’s ties! Talk about iteing things together.
Chris and his two best men stand for portraits in the church yard. 
Chis and Jay were married at The Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort, SC
Our intern, Gillian Ellis, took this photo of the priest entering the church. She has been a wonderful asset to Leigh Webber Photography and has been coming to weddings with me and Jebb to help out. It’s great having her along!
After the ceremony, a bagpiper lead the guests down the street to the reception at the Anchorage House. What a party! Everyone came out of their homes to celebrate Jay and Chris’ nuptials!
A few portriats by the water.
Katie Huebel of WED coordinated the wedding and created a very stylish and hip reception at the Anchorage House. 
The wedding cake. 
After leaving under a shower of sparklers, Jay and Chris jumped in a golf cart and rode off into their new life together. Congrats!!!
Stamen
April 20, 2009I’ve suddenly become interested in photographing flowers. I credit the recent interest on the recent abundance of flowers blooming into life and the fact that I have my own little garden growing for the first time ever. (thanks B!)I’ve been using the macro lens and experimenting with focal points and composition as well as post-processing.
This is a photo I took the other day down near the Battery as I waiting for Ashely and Stephen to arrive for their engagement photos. Enjoy!
Love is in the Air!
April 17, 2009It’s that time of year again! The flowers are blooming and love is in the air. The next three months are filled with weddings, engagement shoots and bridal portraits and it’s hard to go downtown without seeing a bride.
This week, I had an engagement shoot with Ashley & Stephen, who are getting married here in Charleston in June. These two told me they weren’t so great at being photographed, but in reality, they were excellent subjects and took me to new locations and had several wardrobe changes.
Here are a few of my favorites!
I love this shot of them dancing in the gazebo at the Battery. There’s pure joy in Ashley’s face.
Down a secret little alley downtown. I feel like this could have been a fashion shoot.
Ahhh… the silhouette. I’m hoping this looks hip and not dated.
There was a party going on in one of the houses on East Bay street behind where we were. There was a great marching band playing, keeping the energy up!
A classic shot of these two.
All of these shots with the palm trees make me think of the tropics!
Stephen use to be a carriage tour guide and knew all the cool back streets downtown. I found a few new favorite spots thanks to him!
Skirt! Magazine
April 16, 2009This month celebrates the 4 year anniversary of me shooting for Skirt! Magazine. Wow, time has flown!
Each month, I photograph a variety of products that are featured in the magazine. They are always shot on a white backdrop and clipped out to go with the clean and colorful design of Skirt! Occasionally, I photograph for some of the advertisers in Skirt! as well. We just wrapped up a year+ long campaign with Lexus Charleston featuring women Lexus drivers.
I also photograph a each month’s “Girl Power”. Girls who are nominated for the Girl Power page are under 18 and have contributed something to the community, whether it’s recycling tons of paper, running for a cause, or being a star artist.
I feel like I don’t put enough Skirt! pics up on my blog, as most of what I shoots happens over a month before the issue comes out and I don’t want to give away the content! But here are a few shots form the past few months form issues that are already out.
Pics in Lowcountry Dog Magazine!
April 14, 2009Being a huge dog lover, I am always excited when I get asked to photograph for Lowcountry Dog Magazine. This shoot in particular was extra fun as it was all about puppies and babies!
Leah Engand, the editor, and I talked on the phone several times to come up with ideas for the shoot. Though we’d initially thought to photograph it in my new studio, we changed plans along the line and decided to shoot it at Baby Bloomers Home, over in Mt. Pleasant as they had a lot of props and settings we could chose from for the background.
On the day of the shoot, there was a litter of 10+ King Charles Spaniels, their breeders, 3 very cute (and well behaved!) “babies” and their parents, the owners of the store, my intern, Gillian and myself. Needless to say, it was a packed house. But somehow we pulled it off with out too many tears.
Here are my photos from the magazine. It’s a wonderful, free magazine and can be found all over Charleston and Mt. Pleasant and beyond in Harris Teeter, dog stores, vets, and more. You can view Lowcountry Dog in it’s entirety here.
Gabriella Brown & David Andrews Get Hitched!
April 13, 2009When Gabriella and I first met to discuss her upcoming wedding and to talk about photography, we both arrived wearing pretty much the exact same thing. I knew off the bat that we’d get along well!
Both David and Gabriella grew up in Charleston and they are very down to earth people who have a great love for nature and the outdoors. The ceremony was held at St. Michael’s Church downtown with the reception following in Secessionville, at Gabriella’s family’s country house. This spot is absolutely stunning! With views of the lighthouses at Sullivans and Folly, and an expanse of marsh 180 degrees around, it is just an amazing place.
The bridesmaids wore Lula Kate dresses and each carried a different bouquet of white flowers; some were lilies, others were tulips. I love how the turquoise sash matches the wrapping on the bouquets. 
Gabriella wore her great-grandmother’s wedding dress. It was re-worked into a more modern design and was one of the most gorgeous and history laden wedding dresses I’d ever seen! At the reception, two other women who had also worn the dress were there.
Gabriella and her bridesmaids standing in the graveyard at St. Michael’s.
The groomsmen all wore green ties with oak trees on them. Very fitting as the reception was under one huge and amazing oak tree!
David, the groom looking very handsome.
Gabriella was escorted down the aisle by her father. No photos are allowed in St. Michael’s during the ceremony, but I love the warm light in there. This photo was shot by my associate wedding photographer, Jebb Graff. He shoots all my weddings with me and is crucial to the “Leigh Webber Photography” team. Also on hand was Gillian Ellis, our intern.
Jebb also shot this photo of Mr. & Mrs. Andrews coming out of the church. Look at those smiles!
As a surprise, David arranged for an old red Ford pickup truck to drive from the ceremony to the reception. The look on Gabriella’s face was priceless!
The reception was held under this giant old oak tree at Secesionville. What an amzing place.
The party carried into the night, regardless of the storms that passed overhead.
David and Gabriella left under a shower of rice and took off by boat at the end of the night.
A long exposure form the dock after they left.
I am very pleased to announce that I know how to pick ‘em well!
In early 2008, I went to Gil Shuler Graphic Design, one of the most creative and illustrious graphic design firms ever, to see about having a new logo and branding material created. The design process began with a meeting with Gil and his team, Amy Pastre, Tina Garret, and Mark Lawrence, and we all threw around ideas and talked about what I wanted my branding to say to the world.
Creative genius takes time. Several rounds of ideas and mock-ups later, and I was in love with the colors and design of my new marketing material. Then… I had to wait for the printing. Much of the material is letter pressed and apparently, my new cards were in line behind P. Diddy’s on the press. So, I had to wait a little extra until his stuff was done. Finally, it arrived.
I have to say that the new logo and website have been very well received and I’ve been extremely happy and proud to show off my Gil Shuler Design creations. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I learned that it recently had won Gil Shuler Graphic Design a Gold ADDY Award for Collateral Material recently! Of course, they win ADDYs all of the time, it seems, because they are excellent at what they do. I’m just proud to have had them as MY designers.
