Cold weather is the ideal time for Studio Portraits

It's been too cold for anyone to smile with any sincerity outside, so I took some portrait shots of Diane in the studio today. Here are a couple that I liked.

Mansfield Plantation,Georgetown, SC

Here are a couple of images from this authentic, uncommercialized plantation. One is of the stables and the other overlooks the rice fields. There are more images posted here on my photo website www.vanessak.com.

New Year in Georgetown, SC

So a friend and I decided to leave the party animals in Charleston to do their thing on New Year's eve, and we took a trip to explore and photograph the Georgetown area, overnighting in the most amazing plantation / guesthouse, Mansfield Plantation. We left early Friday morning to be on the Georgetown waterfront at sunrise, which is when I shot this image with the old steel mill as a backdrop. Will upload a couple from the plantation grounds later. Happy New Year!

Family portraits

Christmas seems the perfect time to update family portraits. Here are two portraits taken yesterday of visiting Maryland family. Good thing we found the time yesterday because today is miserable and snowing - in Charleston!

Merry Christmas

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

I set my alarm for 2.30am this morning to see the eclipse and it was worth getting up and getting cold for. It was a huge challenge to photograph and this is not good! Photographers will notice that the stars are streaked which happens when your exposure is longer than a couple of seconds. Everything is in motion so the image is not sharp. This was 8 seconds at 400 ISO with a 200mm lens using a 1x1.4 converter - the trade-off when you don't have a $2,500 camera and fast 500mm lens(yet!). Anyway, lousy image aside, it was wonderful to see.

Today's "over-the-top" Christmas Yard Pick