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I hit my first milestone by John Sabatier

Good morning/day/evening y’all. It’s been a great week here in Charleston. I’d like to thank all of you in helping me reach the first of many milestones. I’ve reached over a 1000 pageviews on my website. Now to some that’s not a major thing, but for someone who’s been doing this full time for only 3 months it is. And THANK YOU!!! 

This week I headed out to Folly Beach, one of Charleston’s many beaches, to capture a sunrise. Well the colors just weren’t there so I worked on my minimalist photography. That’s were ther is just one subject. I also worked on my long exposure photography as well. I then photographed one of Chalreston’s oldest icons, The Angel Oak Tree. This tree is stated to be around 1500 years old and can you imagine the stories it would tell?  

Well this week we celebrate Amaerica’s birthday, July 4th. So I’ve got a few tips for y’all who are going to shoot the fireworks.  

1) Get a sturdy tripod. You’ll need it because of the long exposure times.  

2) Get a cable release, it makes photographing the fireworks much easier as you don’t need to touch the camera causing blurring images.  

3) Set your camera to Bulb Mode (B) Choose an f-stop around f 9 through f 11.

4) For focus, I’d wait for the first fireworks to go off, let the camera autofocus system lock on then set it to manual focus.  

5) As the fireworks take off, press and hold the cable release and don’t let go until after the explosion dissipates. That way you capture the trail and the explosion all in one shot.  

6) HAVE FUN!!! It’s the 4th of July so sit back and enjoy the show. As photographers we get so caught up on getting the shots that we lose focus on enjoying the moment with friends and family.  

So those are a few tips I have, for y’all who will just shot with your mobile phones, you can hold your phones up and try to anticipate when the explosion occurs as the tail takes off. I have taken a few good shots with my phone. 

Well folks I hope y’all have a great short week, I’ll be off to Greenville this weekend, I’m going there to support a local and fellow photographer who’s doing his first exhibit at a gallery and to explore the Up Country.  

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Taken at The Washout on Folly Beach  

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This will be short, I promise!!! by John Sabatier

Good evening from beautiful, hot and, humid Charleston. It feels just like Miami. Well, since last week’s blog was a bit on the long side, I’ll keep this one short and sweet. Last Friday, I launch a new series on my website where you can purchase some of my images in different sizes. I will print, mat and ship them straight to you and all you have to do is put them in your favorite frame and hang them up. Simple. Click on the link: https://www.sabatierphotography.com/shopping/

Saturday, Malena and I sat around and watched some World Cup action, funny how we’re not really fútbol fans only when the World Cup is on. Oh, and by the way, Charleston has it’s own soccer club, check them out. https://www.chsbatterysc.com/ 

This morning I made the commitment to head out and shoot some sunrise photos, it’s been a long time. I was happy just to get out there and shoot, The sun wasn’t cooperating with me so I took some intimate, or minimalist photos. When you go out and shoot, don’t just shoot the grand vistas, but look around and get some isolated subjects. 

Well, that’s it from me. Told y’all it was going to be a short one.  I hope y’all have a great week!! 

Taken at The Washout here on Foley Beach 

Taken at The Washout here on Foley Beach 

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The use of leading lines drawing your eyes through the image. 

This week in my Charleston Chronicles by John Sabatier

Well another week has come and gone. We are closing on April and coming up on May. At this rate the holidays will be here in no time. I had a very productive week, met with my SCORE mentor, this is a free  service that South Carolina offers small business owners in order to help them be successful. Took in a great amount of business information from him. Did a bit of exploring and photographing in downtown. Thinking of a few personal projects while walking around, more to come on that later on. I had my first business meeting on Thursday and it went well, let’s see if I can start drumming up some business. 

Over the weekend I took a matting and mounting class where I got to mat my own photograph. This will help me with several things; 1) it’ll help me distinguish myself from the rest of the local artist who just use plain white mats and 2) help reduce the cost in having someone else do it. I’m only going to do my own matting for the smaller prints, all my other pieces will be done by professionals.   

Sunday was a great day. Malena and I took part in the annual “Blessing of the Fleet”  where the local fishermen parade down the Cooper River and are blessed by the local clergy in hopes of a good and safe fishing season. After the Blessing we headed over to Water’s Edge, a local eatery on the banks of Shem Creek where you can see the fleet of shrimp boats. If you ever find yourself in Charleston, come check out Shem Creek. Let’s make this week and every week a great one! 

Another beautiful Charleston sunset. That is St. Phillip’s in the background. (Image shot for my IPhone) 

Another beautiful Charleston sunset. That is St. Phillip’s in the background. (Image shot for my IPhone) 

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Ben Osborn of Eastbound and Down Framing who taught a workshop on how to matte and mount your images. I learned quite a bit from Ben who’s a transplant from Austin, Tx. And yes, we both agree that Lewis BBQ is the closest thing to Texas BBQ in Charleston. 

A collage of images from The Blessing of the Fleet event in Mt. Pleasant. 

A collage of images from The Blessing of the Fleet event in Mt. Pleasant.