The Honeymoon Silhouette

Last week I received a phone call from a really nice couple from Louisville, KY who were on their honeymoon on Hilton Head Island. We set out to get a silhouette image to eventually become a large print on their wall at home. Despite the time of day and other obstacles we were able to get this image.

South Carolina Hurricanes

I have discovered that the best way to predict a hurricane in South Carolina is to wait until the clouds start to gather and the wind starts to blow. If these two things happen, there is a really good chance that a hurricane may be coming ashore.

I have discovered that the best way to enjoy an oncoming hurricane is to surf. Thanks to the many tropical storms in the recent past that have skirted our shores there has been some phenomenal surf. I have surfed at least twice a day for the last week and I would like to thank them for the great waves.

I think the one to watch out for is Ike. If I were into making hurricane T-Shirts; I would create one that read “YIKES…WATCH OUT FOR IKE!”

Brand New Gear!

This next year is going to be an extremely exciting year for Strainephotography. I am now shooting with some of the finest digital camera and lighting equipment in the industry. I have some big plans for some very cool new projects. I would like to send a huge thank you to all of my clients over the previous year that I have had the awesome and unique pleasure to work with. In the next month, I will be updating my entire outdated,current portfolio with this years work. Please stay tuned for this update.

Here is an image I shot at a wedding on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina just a couple weeks ago.

It's been a long hot summer!

The summer on Hilton Head Island is winding down. Today might possibly be the nicest day of the whole summer. We had a big rainstorm yesterday and it really cooled things down nicely. I was hoping for some nice waves today but that simply did not happen, nor does it happen very much at all here on Hilton Head Island.

I believe it has something to do with the Continental Shelf cutting down the size of the swell moving shoreward. You really need a big swell to have decent waves on Hilton Head. So what else?

I have updated all of my photography equipment and I am now shooting with some of the nicest digital equipment available. It has taken about 10 years of photography for me to be able to appreciate what my new camera can actually offer. The images it produces are spectacular.

I will be revamping my entire portfolio on my website very soon to include my last year of work which is not even up at all yet. This will include photos from when I was on assignment in British Columbia, as well as some work from my years operating a dark room in northern Vermont.

I am also going to try and update this blog more often. If you happen to be looking for a Hilton Head Wedding Photographer, please get in touch with me through strainephotography.com

BROADWAY PHOTO IS A SCAM

I apologize ahead of time for this blog post but I felt I needed to let you know about it. There are several photo companies on the internet that claim to offer the lowest prices that are actually scams. Broadway Photo is a scam. Their web address is http://www.broadwayphoto.com/about.aspx
Do not buy anything from Broadway photo. There are several more out there like it and I am working on compiling a list of those that are scams. It is such a shame that companies like this are able to exist. The internet is a lot like the wild west. It is wild and lawless for the most part. So just be careful of who you buy your stuff from on the internet.

Can you believe those tornadoes in the mid-west? Unbelievable. I have never seen a tornado but at some point I would love to see one. I think it would be awesome to see it from a distance.

Hilton Head Island Wedding

On Sunday, Mothers Day, I photographed a really, really cool wedding. The family was from outside Louisville, Kentucky and they had to be one of the nicest families I have ever had the pleasure to meet.

They rented a big house in Palmetto Dunes and the entire family was staying at the house. The wedding ceremony was just down the street at the Beach House overlooking the ocean.

It was a very simple wedding with just close friends and family in attendance but they sure had a good time. It was such a nice feeling to be able to be the photographer for such an amazing group of people. I don't think anyone stopped smiling all day long.

I left feeling better. When you are around people that kind and cool for so long and you are the one in charge documenting one of the biggest days in their lives it is difficult not to have some of their natural warmth rub off on you.

I felt honored to be their photographer. The sun broke out just before the ceremony and stayed out for just an absolutely spectacular sunset. The colors were amazing. Just perfect light for photography. The party went on into the evening and a warm ocean breeze kept the bugs at bay and air just cool enough for some good ol' fashioned dancin'

We were taking photographs at the home before the ceremony with just the family and Anna, the bride, pulled me aside and asked to take a picture of me with her. I had never had anyone ask and it was kind of cool. I have probably taken over 200,000 photographs in the last few years and I don't think I have any of me. Well, hardly any. But, it was cool. It was neat to have her ask and the photo turned pretty good. So, I thought I would share it. Here I am with Anna, a super cool bride, just a couple days ago.

The groom used to sing in a rock band in Louisville and his best man was the rythm guitarist. They were both awesome folks and I will never forget chatting about Aerosmith live in the 1970's with the brides Dad over a couple beers with the waves breaking and great people pronouncing their love for one another. A big, beautiful thing and in a world full of news that sometimes can be annoying and a shame, it feels good to see love.

south carolina wedding photographer Daniel Straine

French Broad River Festival

Well,
May has arrived. I apologize for not updating this blog any sooner then now and unfortunately this post here is going to be a bit short. I have been out photographing, designing and surfing; not writing. Working too...here and there.

So, last weekend I was up deep in the mountains of North Carolina in the little town of Hot Springs where I was photographing a music festival. It featured some of the best bands from around Asheville, NC and those beautiful mountains around those parts. Absolutely amazing blend of music all weekend. Imagine bluegrass and country on speed. Imagine rock and roll dipped in bluegrass soul. Imagine classic rock in the mountains on a big raging historic river.

What a great weekend. I will do my best to keep this blog better updated. I am off to photograph a wedding in Palmetto Dunes on Hilton Head Island. The couple is from Kentucky and I am really looking foreword to meeting them.

Happy spring and welcome summer.
Daniel Straine

French Broad River Festival

Well,
May has arrived. I apologize for not updating this blog any sooner then now and unfortunately this post here is going to be a bit short. I have been out photographing, designing and surfing; not writing. Working too...here and there.

So, last weekend I was up deep in the mountains of North Carolina in the little town of Hot Springs where I was photographing a music festival. It featured some of the best bands from around Asheville, NC and those beautiful mountains around those parts. Absolutely amazing blend of music all weekend. Imagine bluegrass and country on speed. Imagine rock and roll dipped in bluegrass soul. Imagine classic rock in the mountains on a big raging historic river.

Here is a photo of the band Acoustic Syndicate. What a great weekend. I will do my best to keep this blog better updated. I am off to photograph a wedding in Palmetto Dunes on Hilton Head Island. The couple is from Kentucky and I am really looking foreword to meeting them.

Happy spring and welcome summer.
Daniel Straine

Spring in South Carolina has arrived

Spring has arrived in South Carolina. It is everywhere you look. You can smell it; you can see it; you can feel it. A few minutes ago we had one of those spring showers that all those laundry detergents are always saying their product smells like; they don’t come close.

Last night, for the first time in a long while, Hilton Head Island got some waves. They were chest high and not too shabby. I caught about a dozen waves. That morning I surfed Tybee Pier in Georgia, just after sunrise and through the mist rising off the 64 degree southern waters, I was able to make out the glassy five to six foot sets rolling in.

I had my first wedding last Saturday in Savannah, Georgia in what is shaping up to be my busiest wedding run ever. I am nearly booked every weekend from April 1st through Oct 1st. I already have one date booked for November.

My equipment has all been upgraded and I am proud to say that I am now shooting with L-Series Lenses from Canon.

As far as music photography goes; I will be photographing for The French Broad River Festival May 2nd – 4th in Hot Springs, NC, just outside of the funky mountain town of Asheville. This should be an amazing weekend and I just cannot wait. Erin and I will be entering the whitewater raft race on Saturday morning which will be followed up by great music all day and night.

Was that a decent post? I felt I needed to pay some attention to my blog and so I did. Thanks for reading if you were reading and take good care.

Camping on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina

The many dedicated readers to this great and wonderful blog already know when I say Erin, I am referring to my extremely cool, awesome girlfriend. hah! I actually don't think anyone reads this blog but perhaps they do. Perhaps, I don't just write to the wind. To the internet spaces deep out there in cyberland.

To my story already... Well, alrighty then. So, last weekend Erin and I decided to go set up the tent on the beach minutes before a huge storm was about to strike. In fact, tornado warnings had sounded. The weather folks, they said, don't go outside and we not only went outside but we planned to sleep outside on an open beach under a sky full of lightning and threatening thunder.

The tent was soon erected in gail force winds mind you, but securely constructed and holding steady against the strong winds and pitter patter of rain.

Then, all was quiet. The storm had passed. Or so we thought.

The tarp came off and minutes later the rain came back in full force. So, there I was hopping around under a sea of lightning putting on a wet tarp and the bugs came out to greet me. They bit me hard. They swarmed me and made me cry like a little baby.

Thats the story. I live today though. Many welts later but here I am. It was a good character building experience. And afterwards, I was fully convinced, Erin is a bigger lady than I. She didn't once wimper against the wrath of the bugs and the dangers of the sky.

Strainephotography branches into fashion design

I am currently working as a Marketing Director for a real estate company on Hilton Head Island. I handle all of their graphic design, copywriting and photography needs. However, I love to design outside of work. I recently opened up an online store where I am selling clothing with my designs on them. I call it The Indie Rock Cafe. You will notice that my prices are not any more expensive then what you would pay in a store and the shirts are all top quality. Please take a look around via the link below.

Love the weather in all of its forms

“We are certainly having bad weather here.” “Oh, the weather is awful.” “:Everything is just fine, except for the damn weather.”

I don’t get it. Rain is cool. Clouds are cool. The wind is fun. Snow is heavy to shovel but fun to ski and make snowmen with. Hail kind of sucks. Thunder is awesome. It is natures drums and the lightning…well that is just neat to look at. Puddles can be jumped in and ice turns would be football or soccer players into hockey players. Plus it can be very cool to look at.

Now, come on you weather haters…it is time to embrace the weather in all of its forms. Embrace the cold, wet and raw days that come along, as much as the sunny ones. Before long…you will be saying. It is just beautiful; no matter what the sky decides to dish out.

All this stemming from overhearing people in my local coffee shop bitching about the rain. I should probably add that I love the rain.

The Lunar Eclipse

Did you see the Lunar Eclipse the other night. I sure did. It was very, very cool indeed. It was little extra spice in the night sky. A little salt and pepper where it was once rather bland. A bit of extra light on a normally mundane subject.
I set myself up out on a dock near a couple old rickety shrimp boats down in Bluffton, South Carolina. I set up my tripod, put in some 100 speed Fuji Velvia film into my Nikon FM2 body and pointed my telephoto lens to the stars or to the moon to be more exact, and took my first image. I then clicked an image every five minutes until the show was over. Its always a long shot with long exposures but all one can do is hope, is rely on your years of previous long exposure experience and the sometimes dissapointing results in the darkroom, and hope that you got the exposure you wanted. Time will tell. But, it was very cool indeed. At one point the moon turned bright red and all the wispy clouds that misted around its circular glow were suddenly bathed in a reddish hue. I think the moon was blushing because of all the sudden attention it was receiving from the stargazers on Earth. Sorry, no images yet...

Concert Photography

My last few posts on this blog have all revolved around music and so I am sticking to that theme for just a bit longer. I have years and years worth of concert photography just waiting to be released into various books and films. For the first time in years I am starting to go through the archives and pull out some material that if not stored correctly would certainly have cobwebs tangled around the flimsy edges of the negative. (CAN COBWEBS GATHER UPON DIGITAL FILES TOO?) I don't think so. Perhaps, their is some sort of digital version of the cobweb and if there was such a thing it would most certainly have found a home on these rock files.
Anyhow, it feels good to be going through the old files and starting to get them out there. Nearly all of my work has never been seen. I would say 98% of it has been locked up in binders full of overflowing negatives. The other 1% is on filled up hard drives filled with digital files and the other 1% is on my website http://www.strainephotography.com
It's time to release the files! alright, alright. So, check out this little movie I made of the rock band RAQ. It is over 300 still images laid out side by side. That's right. This is not moving images. These are all stills shot by strainephotography.

Northeast Kingdom Music Festival

For the previous two years I have worked as the house photographer for the Northeast Kingdom Music Festival in East Albany, Vermont. It is a three day music and arts festival that features rock and roll from around the world. The producer of the event, Ed Dufresne does an incredible job of putting together an eclectic musical lineup that is sure to please a wide range of listeners appetites. Everything from bluegrass to hip-hop to hard rock to soul can be heard. The stage, lighting and production is top of the line. This is not your backyard bbq/music shindig by any means. It is a full-on rock and roll festival and it attracts a lot of great people who come out to dance, hear new bands, meet up with old friends and toss back a few beers. I put together a short slideshow with some of the images from this past summer. check it out.
Thanks for reading about my photography. I am looking foreword to some great beach portraits on Hilton head island. Call me or visit my website to book your beach portrait on Hilton Head.
Daniel Straine.

Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals

I will never forget it. I was on my way home from working for the previous 6 months as a photographer on assignment in the San Juan Islands of Washington State and British Columbia and I had two tickets to go see Jack Johnson open for Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals at The Gorge in Washington. The reason I had the extra ticket is a sad story that I am not going to get into here.
Well, I did not know much about Ben Harper except for what I had heard my brothers car. I was prepared for a lot of cheesy, tear jerkin' love songs. No sir. Not a chance mam. Ben Harper threw down one of the most hard rocking performances I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. It was borderline heavy metal and I loved it. Every note of it. Jack Johnson was much less impressive. Sounded exactly like he does on his studio albums. But Harper, whew! AMAZING. I have a little clip below from You Tube that gives you an idea of what I am saying. Check it out!

Iron and Wine. Simply said. A kick-ass band.

I bought my girlfriends sister Iron and Wines CD, "The Shepherd's Dog" for Christmas and she was kind enough to burn me a copy before I left Ohio. Well, the entire CD is amazing. It is one of those CD's that was just really well thought out. The first tune to the last note is just smooth as butter. It is one of those CD's that you can listen to again and again and it does not get old. Very rare. Just think about the amount of bands that have albums where the first three tracks are good and the rest is crap. It is almost like they just needed some music to fill up the minutes. This is a sign of a band that does not have the depth needed to continue down a lengthy, healthy, far reaching rock n roll legacy.

I believe that Iron and Wine will do just this and more. This is a tight rock band with all the ingredients to truly span the years with creativity, soul and brand new sounds.
Check them out on Letterman. This might be my favorite song on "The Shepherd's Dog" I love the line about "nothin on the radio" because I bitch about this all the time. Their website is here

Rock Band Photographer

In addition to being a Hilton Head Island Wedding Photographer and Hilton Head Island Portrait Photographer, I am also really into photographing musicians and rock bands. I have done this for a number of years and I love it. I am getting involved in some really cool projects this spring and summer that I am really looking foreword to. Here are some images from The Northeast Kingdom Music Festival in Vermont where I have been the House Photographer for a two years now.

Some great tracks from a great recording label.

My hip and cool nephews Hugh and Duncan sitting next to my Dad on the boat back to Daufuskie Island, SC.

My Mom and Dad live on Daufuskie Island, SC. You have to take a boat to get there. One really cool thing is that if you are a resident you can take a private boat over to Harbour Town. My brother Kev and his wife Erin were visiting and on the way back from dinner over in Harbour Town I shot this image, practically in the dark, of two of my nephews Hugh and Duncan sitting next to my Dad. I just ran across it and thought it was pretty cool.
My hip and cool nephews Hugh and Duncan sitting next to my Dad on the boat back to Daufuskie Island, SC.

To bee or not to bee. I love bees.

"In order to be healthy and active you need to eat healthy foods and in order to get healthy foods you need more than just the produce delivery driver to do his job," I wrote this and wanted it to stand out as a cool header, so I put quotation marks around it so it would seem more official. It's my blog homeslice; I do what I want.

Life is quite hectic and if you are like most people, your hands are full.
In the morning you catch a few headlines of the newspaper, hear some news blurbs on the radio throughout the day, and catch the highlights of the worlds events on the nightly news, but how much of this all really sinks in?

Occasionally you hear something that really, truly speaks to your heart and you plan on looking more into the issue. This recently happened to me when I heard about Colony Collapse Disorder.

Honey bees are mysteriously vanishing across the country, putting $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and vegetables at risk. Do you like carrots? What about cucumbers, broccoli, onions, pumpkins, squash, apples, blueberries, avocados, almonds or cherries? These crops will all be severely affected if honey bees were to disappear. In fact, they would not grow at all. You can forget about flowers.

In 2006, Beekeepers across the globe began to notice that seemingly healthy bees were simply abandoning their hives en masse, never to return. Researchers are calling this strange phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder and the issue does not seem to be getting any better.

Why are the bees leaving? At this point there is no clear evidence or a solution to the problem. What are your thoughts on this growing problem?

Poi Dog Pondering

So, sometimes I wonder how I ended up living in the southeast and then I remind myself of how it is because I was offered an amazing job here that I could not refuse. That was actually sort of a strange delivery on a blog post that has nothing to do with the subject of the blog which is, as far as I am concerned, probably one of the greatest bands to ever live. Then again, perhaps it is right on. You see, Poi Dog Pondering probably never dreamed they would end up in Chicago when they left their native Hawaii years ago, but yet they are now a huge part of the Chicago music scene.
Occasionally, I get into conversations with people about music and of course the old question of who is your favorite band comes up and almost always for me, it is between Phish, the Pixies and Poi Dog Pondering.
Poi Dog Pondering is an amazing band. Every album they have ever put out is different than the last. They are progressive. They are creative and they more than perhaps anything else they possess a passion for what they do that is grounded in soul and raw talent. Check them out at their website and also check out the YouTube Video I have posted here.
Cool. That is it. Check out Poi Dog Pondering. You will be glad you did. If you are looking for a good album to get started with make sure to check out "Wishing Like a Mountain and Dreaming Like the Sea."

Hunting Island State Park, SC

Saturday afternoon Erin and I arrived at Hunting Island State Park to go biking and camping. Our spot was literally right on the ocean. The only sound you could hear was the crashing surf. It was beautiful. The weather was off and on rain and rather cool for the average South Carolina day but it was still amazing. We brought our bikes and off we rode through the woods, down a curvy Low Country Road, out along expansive piers stretching far out into the bays and along the shoreline on the hard packed sand that you only find on the stretches beach along the Continental Shelf of the southeast. We ended our bike trek at the Hunting Island Lighthouse where we took a moment to take in the history.
We then made our way back to the site where we built a warm fire and cooked a large meal of Jumbo Shrimp with Tofu and vegetables. It was delicious. Afterwards, we sat back and sipped hot chocolate by the warm fire listening the sound of the crashing surf.
Some expertly prepared smores, thanks to Erin, were then prepared. With all that chocolate in our system we played a heated game of scrabble whose victor is still in question.
Sleep came soon after. The photo I have included in this post is one of my favorite surfing related images I have. I had my surfboard with me, but the waves in the morning were not that good, so I did not paddle out. Next time...

Remember. If you are looking for a Hilton Head Island Wedding Photographer you should get in touch with me. I have an extensive portfolio of weddings I have photographed on my website. My prices are extremely affordable. I also have a long list of references I can provide you. I will look foreword to hearing from you and I hope to be your Hilton Head Island photographer.

Belle and Sebastian can make a damn fine movie

Here is a cool music video by the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian. They are not only extremely talented musicians but they know how to throw together a nice, interesting film. Their movies are never over the top with lots of special effects but they rather let the characters and scenery do the work. I have a small music video I shot of them at a small theatre in Montreal a couple years ago. It is made up of over 400 still shots. It was a very good show. If you ever get the opportunity to see them you ought to go. The next show I am going to at this point is to go see Wilco in Charleston on February 29th. That should be a sick show!