Richard Bell Photography Blog

Earlier today, I (Valerie) had the sheer joy of doing an afternoon engagement session with Emily and Eric. 

I had SO much fun that I had to put up a “sneak peak” for you all to see….and yes, a sneak peak is just a teaser…so hold your horses, people….you will see more in a later blog post! (I promise!)

Being a former newswriter, I could attempt to describe to you in words just how sickeningly cute and head-over-heels-in-LOVE this couple is….

…or I could just show you a picture or three…

They were also game for all my fun and creative, artsy ideas….

And for every serious moment, there were LOTS of fun and silly ones!
(This couple could teach the class on “how to have fun on a photo shoot” – haha!)

Hey now…..calm down, there are LOTS more to share!

So stay tuned!

I (Valerie) had a really fun engagement photo session downtown with Leah and Justin! Their wedding isn’t until July 18th, but since neither of them live in Charleston, we were lucky to squeeze in their session!

We met up in Waterfront Park, but the majority of our session was spent walking around downtown! We walked over to the train tracks, then to the steps of the Customs House, up East Bay Street a bit (where we shot in one of my favorite alleyways!) and ended back in Waterfront Park.

Here are a few favorites from their session:

One Sunday evening back in April, I (Valerie) had the pleasure of meeting Julie and her husband Blake downtown for a fun lifestyle portrait shoot! They’ve been married for a few years now, and decided it was time to have new pictures made.

Per special request, I am reaching back into our archives (8 months of shoots ago is a “long time” for us, haha!!!) – and posting a few. Here ya go, Julie!

A few of my favorites from their shoot:

Talk about a cute couple!   Leah and Rob are getting married this coming April on a family plantation in a little town outside of Greenwood, SC. It’s going to be so neat and unique!

We had a great engagement portrait session! We started in Waterfront Park, and wandered around the Customs House, and a few alleyways on East Bay St.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Gil + Nicole = FUN!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a crazy fun afternoon engagement session with Nicole and Gil! Let me tell you, these two are my type of couple! Their fun-loving personalities matched perfectly with my creativity that day. I told Nicole that we have good “photo karma” – haha! They were up for anything, so we got some really unique and different shots. I can’t wait for their wedding!

I just love this one of them on the train tracks behind the U.S. Customs House!

One of my favorite Charleston attributes is all the fabulous wrought iron! The creative, handcrafted detail makes for a great photograph, if you ask me!

We often discuss at our studio how spoiled we Charleston photographers are to be around such awesome color & texture everywhere we turn! This is one of my favorite alleyways:

I love the lines of the tall staircase at the Customs House.
(Gil and Nicole were so great to let me “play” with them with all of my silly ideas!)

The downtown sunset was lovely that day too!

Don’t let the rain stop you!  Rebecca, Ayden and I had their engagement pictures scheduled for months ahead of time for the only opening that worked for all of us.   Now or never.  And it rained.  All day.

But no fear!  I do not melt.  We brought umbrellas to the beach and had a great time anyway.  Remember this everybody.  Rain does not have to ruin pictures.  Shooting in situations like that often yield great results because it forces me to think hard and outside the box to get good shots.  I’ve posted some of my favorites below, and here is a link to a slideshow.

You can't tell, but Aydin was really fighting the wind in this picture.

It almost got away from him.

We got to move up under the pier to get out of the rain, and take advantage of some of the directional light coming in.

I love it when we get to photograph siblings of past weddings we did.  Develen is Rhonda Crawford’s brother.  Rhonda and Chris got married a year and a half ago.  Mell and I were actually both the photographers AND the Best Man and Matron of Honor (yeah, that’s crazy).  So now Develen and Sarah are getting married and it’s time for Engagement pictures!  We met them at White Point Gardens downtown for pictures at the battery and southern King Street.

I've been experimenting with shadows in portraiture over the last few months. I'm pleased with this one.

Fun with the 16mm lens.

After many months of planning and anticipation, April & Justin are getting married this weekend! They have been so much fun to photograph so far, and I can’t wait!

Taken in hisotric downtown Charleston, their engagement session was a lot of fun. I thought you might like to see a few fun pics of this happy couple!