As part of my coverage for the Citadel's Alumni book, I shot the events of Recognition Day.

Recognition Day signifies the end of the freshman journey as knobs. The regimented knob lifestyle -- short haircuts, frequent bracing, walking fast paced in single file -- will cease on Recognition Day. It is the culmination of the rigid discipline endured throughout knob year and the beginning of a new chapter in The Citadel’s leadership development process.

The Citadel has a tough and challenging Fourth Class System. Its purpose is to lay the foundation for the development of character and  discipline central to the college’s mission. The Fourth Class System represents an abrupt change from the life normally experienced at home and encompasses the cadet’s first year of college.

After the Knobs get smoked for a couple hours of PT on the parade field, they moved into their battalion quads for a bit more but final harassing from the upperclassmen until 12:30 which is when the announcement come over the PA system that they are no longer Knobs. At that point all the upperclassmen congratulate them. Many collapse into exhausted sobs of relief. The bagpipers play "there's no place like home" for all to hear.

Later, they all walk from The Citadel to Marion Square in Downtown Charleston, the site of the original Citadel to restate their vows.

{SEE THE PHOTOS HERE}

We met up with our couple from Virginia on their wedding day at their beach house in Edisto, SC. Jill is a dance teacher and Rich is a former Marine Infantryman. Jill has a thing for trees so what better place for her wedding than the oldest tree around. The were wed under the sprawling limbs of the 1500 year old Angel Oak on John's Island. The weather that day was absolutely perfect. Maybe because it was a Monday and the evil wedding weather gremlins were off until Friday.

They had only close family and friends in attendance. They got ready at the beach house in Edisto. We all travelled to John's Island for the ceremony and then back to the beach house in Edisto for the reception.

Another fantastic family to work with. During the reception, I snuck Jill and Rich off to the beach for some sunset photos. I will usually have the couple to myself for this, but the party was small enough that they all just came along.

Wedding coordination was handled by Emmy at Peacock Events of Charleston. We've worked all our April weddings with Emmy and it's like working with an old friend. We work as a great team together and share a lot of laughs during our events together. A lowcountry feast was catered by Dixieland Catering of Charleston.

The day went just perfect and was the best Monday at work we ever had. A wonderful couple, warm family and great photos from the day.

{SEE THE PHOTOS HERE}

Keri and Dave's wedding was magical. They had their ceremony at the Avenue of Oaks at Charlestowne Landing in Charleston and the reception and prep was at the historic Legare-Waring House at the same location. It was a sort of reunion this day of a lot of folks we work with. First, our December bride, Jessie was kind enough to sit with Katherine so we could work the wedding. Our March bride, Raven, came up from Savannah to shoot the wedding with me. She is an aspiring wedding photographer and I will always help photographers get their start. I advise her on equipment and during the shoot, giver her tips on what works for me and stuff to look out for to avoid problems I had when I started out. I never had a mentor and had to make all my own mistakes. Raven came up with her husband Kelvin who just happened to dress to match the wedding colors perfectly. He looked so sharp, we called him not our assistant but Executive Assistant.

So me, Raven and Kelvin met Keri at Allure Salon on King Street to shoot her prep. After, we all headed to Charlestowne Landing and met up with Tara. When we got there, I ran into Joy who is my art director when I shoot for the Charleston Visitors bureau. The Legare-Waring House belongs to the Visitors Bureau and Joy was there as a rep. Joy showed me around the gorgeous house and helped me scout out locations to shoot the wedding party on the grounds. Then I bumped into the wedding planner extraordinaire, Emmy of Peacock Events. I stayed clear of her for the first bit of the day as she was running around on fire getting things ready. She was orchestrating the activity of the event rental company, Snyders, the caterers from Hamby's, The florists from OK Florist in Summerville (Voted the best in the state according to The Knot), the cake designers and the live band who'd be playing for the reception, the Swinging Richards while making sure the bride and groom were comfortable and families were taken care of. So I got to work with a bunch of old friends, all related to the wedding industry! A storm was approaching our area but the wedding went as planned in the outdoor location in the middle of the Avenue of Oaks. Large white tents were set up in front of the beautiful house and the party was pretty spirited. The band was great and everyone in attendance who travelled from Ohio had a great time. Keri and Dave will be leaving early in the week for their honeymoon in Italy.

{SEE THE PHOTOS HERE}

Keri and Dave were in town early from their hometown in Ohio so we could shoot their engagement session. Actually since they will be getting married two days after this session, I call them the LDS shoot. LDS short for "Last Day Single".

We met Keri and Dave in the lobby of their hotel downtown and I suggested we walk across the street to the College of Charleston to start and make a loop back to their hotel via King Street. She told me that she didn't want her photos to look like an Olan Mills portrait session with the cheesy poses, etc. I told them not to worry. The shoot went great! I seem to always find a scooter in town somewhere during my engagement shoots and I set them up on one. The store owner the scooter was parked in front of said he'd keep a watch out for the owners while I took their pictures on the scooter. He said he remembered what they looked like. We were on and off in under a minute. We popped into a store that had a row of mannequins in the window. A couple of the male mannequins looked like Dave so I set them up in the window amongst the mannequins and just told them to pose like them. I wanted them to get in the center of the group of mannequins but there was no way for them to get back there without us getting thrown out. A little different than what I usually do but it was fun. We shot their wedding a couple days later.

{SEE THE PHOTOS HERE}

We shot our May bride Katie for her bridal portraits recently. Katie and a couple of her bridesmaids made their way down from Greenwood, SC for the session. She was also having her bachelorette party on Sullivan's Island that weekend. She was on a compressed time schedule so I suggested shooting the session here on James Island. I scouted a beautiful church just down the road and since she was going to get ready at our house, it worked out just perfect. I knew getting in and around downtown Charleston was going to be a bear with the tourist season in full swing and it being a Friday afternoon, it may have taken a long time to get the session done and get her on her way.

The images came out beautifully and I'd love to share them here but you know the deal with bridal portraits- I cant release them until after the wedding so a curious groom wont stumble upon them and ruin the big "reveal" at the altar.

I can sneak this one image out though. She's in a lot of shadow, but it shows the great location where we worked that afternoon.