Tomme Hilton Gallery » Charleston SC Wedding Photographer and the life that shadows.

Monthly Archives: November 2008

Nov 23 2008

Natasha and AJ

When I first met Natasha and AJ, the first thing I noticed was AJ’s beaming smile. I knew he’d take great photos and I was right. Natasha has so much charisma and is very animated. She kept me rolling and having a great time…..they kept trying to get me to do shots. I told her that would make for some very interesting photos, but she was so comfortable with us that she made us feel like friends. Here are some of the great shots from their day.

The dress hung by the window. Reflected, I thought was really beautiful.

I always like a little phrase or something on the bottom of the shoes. They get some lens time too. I asked Natasha what she wanted them to say and this is her personality….after a year plus of planning, she was ready to go!

Before the wedding. I am not trying to advocate this for everyone, but I love it when couples meet before the ceremony. I have never been much of a traditionalist but certainly understand the couples that uphold their traditions. The meeting beforehand is intimate. It’s seeing his expression for the first time to drink her all in, not in a crowded congregation where his nerves are in high drive sharing her with the guests. It’s a moment that produces the best emotions from the entire day. I get to be there front and center instead of crouched on a balcony with church rules to inhibit where and what I get. It also allows for much more time to take photos of the couple instead of feeling rushed to run to the reception. It works. I have asked brides afterwards if they felt like it cheated their day and all of them said ‘NO’. They said it helped calm their nerves and they ended up getting great photos as a result. So think about it.

I am in love with veils. Ok, you figured me out. I like veils of all sorts. The long ones where we can drape over the couple and diffuse the light…..the short 20′s style versions. They just give a certain flavor and I love to shoot veils.

Bet that was hard to figure out.

I also like bricks and textures so this worked out good too.

The men folk had cigars and just gave them the sopranos feel. I know, we all wished we were that cool.

Until next post.

xoxoxoxo

View full post »

by Tomme

1 comment

add a comment

link to this post

email a friend

November 28, 2008 - 10:00 pm

Jaime Kesler - Hey Tomme,
As always, I love your stuff! Thanks for continuing to inspire me! I miss being near you! So wish I could have worked with you more before leaving SC!
Still your biggest fan,
Jaime

Nov 08 2008

Whew!!

Yes, I was run over by a bus and have been recovering, therefore haven’t been able to bring my broken body to the computer. Ahem, now….the truth of the matter is- October was FUN! a WHIRLWIND of wonderfully amazing weddings. Did I say amazing? Oooh, that really doesn’t justify how great they all were. Some of my sweetest, most favorited brides got married this month. So, I had seven weddings this month. And I’m just trying to catch up. If that’s possible. For all you brides waiting on photos….Your photos will be AMAZING so be patient with me.

Now, blogging is a whole other feat within itself. It takes me hours to prepare one blog to post. I have to edit the photos I want to post….resize all of them, upload them to my FTP and then blog about them. It adds up. So generally when I’m as busy as I have been blogging gets neglected. I have slowed down a bit so I will be posting quite a few of these weddings now that I can generate the time.

This is Mike and Laura’s wedding. They live in Massachusetts and came down to get married at the Planters Inn in Historic Charleston. The bride. WOW….was gorgeous! (I hadn’t met her, we had all our transactions over email) so when I showed up to finally meet her, she was RADIANT! Mike had that Boston accent that I kept trying to emulate most of the night, unsuccesfully I might add but it didn’t stop me from attemtping.

Smokin Hot!

This was my favorite shot of the night. For no particular reason. I just thought it seemed ethereal and dreamy. Ethereal and Romantic is what I try to achieve consistently.

Smokin' Hot! Mike is a firefighter in Ma. and one of our bridesmaids flagged down the firetruck for a photo op. I love my pro active bridesmaids. They help me so much, set up shots, see shots, think of shots. Thanks to those girls that look out for their friends. I also like the officer on the bike here. I removed him from their final proofs, but I really think it adds to the service feel and makes it more ‘Charleston’.

The kiss!! MUAH!

Don’t let Mike here fool ya. He wasn’t necessarily hating this. I love his crinkled nose.

I generally don’t do selective coloring, but Laura asked for a few specifically and this one looked like a good choice. I loved the pink flowers against the black. A little splash of color goes a LONG way!

This is the bridal party. I didn’t have much time to execute many shots as I would have liked to, I was hired for two hours but this one came together well.

Since this was downtown Chas by the market, there were lots of pedestrians walking around… I thought if you can’t beat em, join em and incorporate them into the shots. I like it!