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2012-01-30T13:11:00.001-05:00

Valentine's Day Boudoir Contest!

2011-12-27T21:53:00.004-05:00

Attention Ladies: Show us your sexy!

It's not too early to start thinking about the perfect gift for your man this Valentine's Day, so enter to win a completely FREE Boudoir Portrait session by Emily of Kismet Photography.

The Rules:

1. You must become a Fan of Kismet Photography on Facebook.
2. Send an email to Emily at info@kismetphotography.us with your name, email address and phone number and a paragraph or two explaining why you deserve to win.
3. Deadline for submission is Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at midnight so don't delay! The winner will be contacted on Thursday, January 5th.
4. The contest is open to anyone who would like to enter, whether you have a special someone as your Valentine this year, or if you just want to feel sexy for yourself.

One Lucky Lady Will Receive:

-A 30 minute studio Boudoir Portrait Session with 1 outfit
-A classy, black folio including two professionally retouched 5x7 photographs

Emily
Kismet Photography

Kismet's Favorite Things Part 3: End of the Night Portraits

2011-12-23T19:39:00.002-05:00

We wanted to save the best for last, so for our final installment of Kismet's Favorite Things we're featuring our favorite End of the Night Portraits!

With our full day coverage we even include what we call End of the Night Portraits. These take place after the reception when it's just us and the bride and groom and the rush of the wedding day has passed. Assuming the newlyweds still have energy, it's the perfect time to capture intimate portraits at their hotel, with their getaway car or anything else that's meaningful to them. Plus it's a great way to end the couple's wedding album by bringing it back to just the two of them.

Merry Christmas from Kismet Photography!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Kismet's Favorite Things Part 2: Funniest Moments

2011-12-21T19:35:00.004-05:00

Most of the time our goal is to capture everybody at their best, but every now and then a moment comes along where flattery flies out the window for the sake of humor. These are some of those moments.

This cake feeding started out innocent enough...

That is until the cake fell down the bride's dress!

Stay tuned for the final installment of Kismet's Favorite Things coming soon!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Kismet's Favorite Things of 2011!

2011-12-18T13:44:00.006-05:00

In the spirit of the almighty Orpah, we thought we'd share some of our favorite things of the year. And by "things" we mean photographs we've taken. And no, everyone in the audience will not be receiving their very own copy. Sorry. The first installment is Cute Kids and Wedding Details.

She wins the award for cutest pj's at a wedding :)

Kismet's Favorite Wedding Details from 2011

Goodbye old plastic hangers that could never hold the weight of a wedding dress anyway. Hello custom made hangers from Etsy.

*DROOOL!*

We saw a couple versions of the Tree-Guestbook this year, but having guests stamp their fingerprint was definitely original! What a beautiful piece to hang in a couple's new home!

Check back in a few days for Kismet's Favorite Funniest Moments!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Right On Time!

2011-12-05T16:40:00.005-05:00

In the world of pregnancy and due dates it's very rare for a baby to be born on the date a doctor predicts. But Liam is one of those special babies and came into this world exactly on his due date.

You can check out Liam's gorgeous mommy and daddy here first.

Now enjoy some of our favorites from his Newborn Portrait Session:

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

What we're thankful for...

2011-11-21T17:00:00.009-05:00

With Thanksgiving just a few days away it's the perfect time to reflect on the blessings that came into our lives in 2011. We have so many stories to share with you from the events we photographed this year, but first we need to start with our biggest blessing - all 7 pounds 15 ounces of him - our son Eli.

We planned to have Eli at home, but after 21 hours of natural labor at home plus another 9 or so hours at the hospital it became apparent that a C-section was necessary. This image wouldn't have been possible without our birth photographer, Kelli Collins, who let Curtis borrow her gear since no one else was allowed in the operating room besides Curtis and myself. Even though I didn't want Curtis to "work" on the birth day of our child, I cannot thank him enough because he photographed Eli for the first time right as he was being born. And despite having thousands of photographs of our lives together, this is one of the most precious by far.

Eli - 2 days old

Eli at home - 1 week old

One of my favorite portraits of Eli, not only because he's so stinkin' adorable but the memory behind this photograph. While setting up for this shot he peed in the mixing bowl at least 2 times! Don't worry, it's since been washed!

Eli - 4 weeks old and learning to smile

Who wouldn't give candy to this cutie?! No, we didn't take him trick or treating this year but we're definitely looking forward to eating all of his candy earnings next year!

Eli - 8 weeks old

With so much going on, sometimes we forget to appreciate the little things we take for granted. This holiday season, take a moment to stop, think and be grateful for all the blessings, big and small, in your life. It's a wonderful feeling.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

My Baby Shower and Belly Portraits (part 1)

2011-08-31T15:17:00.010-05:00

As a little girl I never dreamed about the day that I would get married, what kind of wedding dress I'd wear or who my Prince Charming would be. I was a "girly-girl" but just not the kind who thought about those things. All I wanted was to be able to grow my hair really long and wear Lee-Press-On-Nails! Neither of which I do now.

The same goes for having babies. Until I caught the baby-bug about 4 years ago I didn't dream about buying baby clothes or start picking out names. Then as soon as we started planning to have a family I immediately began thinking about my baby shower and maternity portraits! I've been excited about these events for many, many months and am so thrilled that quite a few family members, and a lot of good friends, were able to share the excitement with me.

Especially my sister, Liz, who flew in from England and will stay with us until Eli makes his appearance.

Also my Grandma who came down from Michigan.

Here are some of the treats that our incredibly talented friend, and past Kismet bride, Bunny, made for us to enjoy! All of which were fantastic!

Our theme for the baby shower was "nothing disposable". All the decorations were handmade and/or reusable, like this alphabet banner for Eli's room.

And one of my favorite things, the cloth diaper cake that my dad engineered!

A big thanks to everyone who helped make the shower so special and wonderful!

And now for Part 1 of my Belly Portraits - the Water Theme!

I can't tell you how many times people have asked me when I was going to post my Belly Portraits. With only 2 weeks to go until my "guess date" I know I'm cutting it close, but our planned "maternity leave" only recently started and we still haven't taken all the portraits we have planned. Hopefully I'll have the rest up before Eli arrives.

Swimming has provided incredible relief from the largeness and body ache I've been feeling lately and that's one of the many reasons we're planning a water birth.

My sincere appreciation goes out to my amazing husband, and photographer, Curtis. I love my Belly Portraits and can't wait to do the rest!

Emily
Kismet Photography

Waiting Patiently for Liam...

2011-07-22T10:44:00.003-05:00

It seems like in our business things are always connecting in ways we would least expect. That's why we are firm believers in the word Kismet, which means destiny and fate. Things are meant to be and always come full circle.

Back in 2008 while photographing a wedding in Boone, NC we met Amanda, who was a bridesmaid. Little did we know we would cross paths with her again almost 3 years later. Her and her husband moved to Greenville and are now expecting their first child. And what perfect timing to reconnect with a former Boone resident as we will be going to Boone again next weekend for a wedding!

Any day now baby Liam will make his debut!

Emily
Kismet Photography

Welcome to the world baby Declan!

2011-07-13T15:29:00.004-05:00

I started photographing baby Declan when his mom came in for our Growing Belly Series, starting in her 16th week of pregnancy. I love not only being surrounded by other pregnant mommas and photographing their bellies, but watching them grow and change from session to session.

It's so amazing to see what their baby looks like after many months of waiting. Here's Declan at 10 days old.

Emily
Kismet Photography

Maternity Portraits

2011-06-18T12:13:00.003-05:00

Our pregnancy makes it's debut on the blog!

For those of you who don't know yet, we're expecting a baby boy, Eli, who is due in September. Curtis and I could not be more excited about meeting our baby in the near future. Eli will most likely share his birthday month with yours truly along with a handful of other important people in our family. Talk about a lot of cake in one month!

Besides working hard creating beautiful wedding images for our couples we have also been busy turning our once empty storage room into a nursery. After things are a little more complete we will be posting pictures.

And now on to other bellies…

Our first pregnant momma, Pucci, who has already had her precious son, inspired me with her colorful, dramatic belly-dance costumes so we had to incorporate her hobby into the portraits of her baby belly.

At-home maternity portraits were perfect for our second momma, Melissa, who's baby boy will be here later this month.

Can you tell her and her husband are Greenville Drive fans? They also had a Drive onesie and matching bib!

Our Maternity Portrait sessions are tailored to each woman to fit her style and personality as well as where she feels most comfortable. Another option for your Maternity Portraits is an Underwater Portrait Session.

As pool season is beginning, now is the perfect time for an Underwater Session at our pool (or yours). And, for a limited time, our Underwater Maternity Portrait sessions are only $75 (normally $100). You can make this session all about you and your belly or if your partner is willing to take the plunge, they can join in too!

Our summer availabilities are going quickly so call or email us today so we can talk about your Maternity Portraits.

Emily
Kismet Photography

Christine & Stephen's Engagement Portraits

2011-05-02T15:04:00.002-05:00

Boy do we have a lot to blog about! As of March we entered what photographers call the "busy season" so we're slowly catching up on posting some of our favorite portrait sessions and weddings.

Christine and Stephen, who both attended Valparaiso University, are getting married in a couple of months on a 30+ acre property in Boone, NC. Being the outdoorsy people they are we were looking for a park setting with large trees for their Engagement Portraits. (You'll find out soon why the big trees were important). And Paris Mountain State Park fit the bill.

This is a slacklining wire. Slacklining is a balance sport that uses nylon webbing tensioned between two sturdy anchor points, aka the trees.

They both make it look so easy!

We can't wait to see you both in July for the big day!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Carter - 3 weeks old

2011-04-20T12:29:00.005-05:00

Being wedding photographers, primarily, sometimes we don't see our couples again until they start a family. Baby Carter's mommy and daddy are a Kismet couple from 2009 and we got to meet their little bundle of joy when he was about three weeks old.

Looking at his images makes me all ooey-gooey inside thinking about what our baby, gender undetermined for another 5 days, will look like and who he/she will take after. As a child I was bald for quite some time and I hope baby Snyder comes out with gorgeous locks like Carter's!

Here are a few of my favorites from his session. Enjoy!

Our "Baby Bits" Canvas Wraps are custom designed to coordinate with your nursery theme and colors.

Emily
Kismet Photography

Jennifer & Zach's Engagement Portraits

2011-03-24T11:05:00.003-05:00

We knew from the get-go that Jennifer and Zach's wedding was going to be unique and memorable! From the quirky, re-purposed decorations they had in mind, to the character of the Woodburn Historic House, where the ceremony and reception will take place, to the fact that there's a dungeon downstairs and not to mention they are friends with several of our past couples-turned-good-friends, it all adds up to a wedding that we are really looking forward to in May.

As we've said many times, our Engagement Portrait sessions are intended to capture each couple's unique personalities and interests. For these two lovebirds that included some vintage vinyl of completely non-mainstream bands (I mean have you heard of Margot & the Nuclear So and So's?!) and Winslow, their adorable pup. Oh yeah, and beer!

Thanks to Blue Ridge Brewing Co. for letting us use their place.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Let the voting begin! - Kismet Photography 1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest

2011-03-12T09:41:00.003-05:00

We've had an absolute blast photographing all the adorable babies for this portrait contest and now is when your fun begins! The voting is open for Kismet Photography's 1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest! Here are several ways you can cast your vote:

1) Check out all the adorable babies below and cast your vote by clicking the "Like" button below your favorite. Feel free to leave a comment but remember that we are only counting the number of likes.

2) Then head over to our website (handy link: www.kismetphotography.us) and click on the "1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest" banner and follow the super-easy instructions.

3) From our website you can click over to our Kismet Photography Facebook page (or click HERE) and click "Like" at the top of the page. Then navigate to our "Cutest Baby Portrait Contest" photo album and click "Like" on your favorite.

4) All the above voting options require a Facebook account but if you don't have one, don't fret. You can email us at info@kismetphotography.us with your choice in the "Subject" line. Only one vote from each email address will be counted so please don't spam us. :)

It's that simple! The winner of the contest will receive, in addition to bragging rights, a 15" Wall Portrait of the winning photograph as well as a Gift Certificate for One Free Family or Child's Portrait Session (a $300 total value). Remember, the voting ends at Midnight on Saturday, March 19th so tell all your friends and family to get their votes in before then.

And now...prepare for cuteness overload...

Addison

Annabelle aka "Belle"

Carson

Nicholas

Sarah

Sophia

Trinity

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Kismet Photography's 1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest!

2011-02-19T12:58:00.003-05:00

Think you've got the cutest baby around?! Then why not enter your adorable child in our 1st Annual Cutest Baby Portrait Contest. Kismet Photography is hosting a FREE contest and all you have to do to enter is schedule a FREE portrait session for your baby to take place on or before March 12th.

After your baby's session, we'll select the most adorable portrait and feature it on our website, blog and Facebook page so all your friends and family (and anyone else that thinks your baby is cute) can cast their votes by clicking "Like" on your baby's portrait. The baby with the most "Likes" after one week will be declared Kismet Photography's 1st Annual Cutest Baby! In addition to bragging rights, the winner will receive a 15" Wall Portrait of the winning photograph as well as a Gift Certificate for One Free Family or Child's Portrait Session (a $300 total value).

Their is no cost to enter and no obligation. All we require is a model release allowing us to post the portrait(s) online. For this particular contest we are limiting the age to 2 years old. Families with multiple children under 2 years of age are welcome to enter more than one child.

Remember, your FREE portrait session must take place on or before March 12th so don't delay, call (864) 350-2338 and schedule yours today! Or email us at info@kismetphotography.us. Session availability is on a first come, first served basis and may fill up quickly.

Let the Contest of Cuteness begin,

Curtis & Emily Snyder
Kismet Photography

Christy & John's Comic(al) Engagement Portraits

2011-02-11T17:33:00.009-05:00

On May 29th we'll be at the Victoria Valley Vineyards watching two of our good friends say their vows...through the view finders of our cameras that is. We feel honored to be a part of Christy and John's wedding because we have watched their little family grow over the past couple of years and have grown close to them as friends.

As always we try to mix in each of our couples' personalities into their Engagement Session. For John, a die-hard comic book fan, that meant photographing in his version of heaven on earth, his favorite comic book store! A big thanks to Richard, of Richard's Comics and Collectables, for letting us take over his store to create some awesome photographs! Like this one...

Our favorite is "Troll John" in the bottom right! What's yours?

Then it was time for Christy to do something she enjoys, like baking (or perhaps the subsequent spoon-licking!). Note John doing his other favorite activity, playing video games, in the background.

Of course we couldn't leave their adorable little boy Conner out of the mix. After all he is one thing they BOTH love... a lot!

They had the great idea to simulate their bedtime ritual...(get your mind out of the gutter)
Just a little Nintendo DS play to wind down after a hard day.

While it would be entirely cool for a wedding ring, John's Green Lantern ring was just a prop.

Can't wait until the wedding!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Danielle & Sean's Engagement Portraits in Greenville

2011-01-31T16:55:00.004-05:00

When you're around Danielle and Sean you can't help but feel the chemistry they share and witness the adoration Sean has for Danielle. They both have a real zest for life and have tried everything from sky-diving to Iron Man competitions to even swimming with sharks! With all that adventure under their belts their wedding in April should be a walk in the park ;)

We started off their Engagement Portraits at the Rock Quarry Gardens near downtown Greenville.

Since these two triathletes train on Paris Mountain we thought it would be the perfect place to go to next.

Love the evil tongue face he's giving Danielle as he clobbers her with leaves!

Sean spent some time in Korea teaching English to children. While there he learned that they use this hand gesture to say "I Love You".

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Valentine’s Day Baby & Children Portrait Special

2011-01-26T13:25:00.005-05:00

Still looking for a heart-warming gift for your husband or wife this Valentine’s Day? We've got the perfect gift for you! Through February 4th we’re offering a $49 Portrait Special that includes a mini baby or child’s portrait session along with a custom Love Letter Folio. Your folio comes with one portrait of your baby or child(ren) and a personalized love letter from them to mommy or daddy telling them why they mean the world to them.

Imagine your loved one opening their gift and seeing their child's adorable face and sweet smile...

and then reading this...
Talk about tugging on the heart strings!

Sessions are limited and this special offer is only available through February 4th. Just in time for Valentine's Day!

Call or email today for more information or to schedule your child’s session!

info@kismetphotography.us
864-350-2338

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Allison & Jon's Engagement Portraits in Downtown Greenville & Falls Park

2011-01-19T17:01:00.005-05:00

Quick story before we jump into some Engagement Portraits: We've been photographing weddings and engagement portraits in Greenville for about 6 years now but from time to time we still get asked "Have you guys ever photographed around that brick pavilion downtown? You know, the one by the river?" We just have to chuckle to ourselves and say "Yeah, once or twice". ;) The Wyche Pavilion (also referred to as Larkins) is one of the most iconic spots in Greenville, and for good reason! It's got a lot of character and conveys a certain historic charm in the middle of what is becoming a somewhat modern city center. Plus so many of our couples have their weddings or receptions at or near Larkins or, if not, at least want a taste of it for their engagement portraits. Despite having photographed there on many occasions we always strive to make each couple's portraits unique by finding new spots or maybe photographing the usual spots in a new and interesting way.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

Allison and Jon happen to be having their reception at Larkin's Cabaret Room in July. Since they love the look of downtown we all decided to photograph around the Wyche Pavilion and Falls Park for their Engagement Portraits.

Here are some of our favorites from their session:

Nothing like a bottle of wine to get a portrait session off to a great start!

Love how you can see a bit of the Greenville skyline in the glass reflection.

Doesn't Allison look amazing!

And Jon's not so bad himself.

And this is what happens when a simple "lift and kiss" goes horribly wrong and turns into a wedgie. Sorry Allison. This was too funny not to post. Please forgive us!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Trinity - Baby Portraits in the studio

2011-01-11T09:03:00.003-05:00

Before the holidays we had the pleasure of photographing 4 month old baby Trinity and her parents. When it's cold outside we enjoy having the option of photographing inside our studio. Family portraits can also take place at your home or favorite outdoor location!

Her "Tiny Elf" hat was absolutely adorable!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Caroline & Kevin's USC Engagement Portraits

2010-12-20T15:06:00.004-05:00

Now that it's so cold outside we really appreciate the beautiful weather we had this Fall and what it was like to not have to wear gloves and a jacket while we shoot! This was a really fun Engagement session that took place in October down in Columbia.

Caroline and Kevin, who are getting married next November, wanted to incorporate some team spirit into their Engagement Portraits along with one of their other favorite things, cupcakes! What a combo!

After playing a little catch, we sneakily asked Kevin to "tackle" Caroline. And boy were we surprised when she took off down the field and started running for her life!

But Kevin caught up!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

The Growing Belly Series

2010-11-10T17:13:00.004-05:00

The Growing Belly Series is the perfect way to visually show the progression of your pregnancy, month by month. We start the Series at your 16th week and continue through week 36. Whether you want to be semi dressed, draped in fabric or nude is up to you. The Series is catered to your comfort level.

Once your little bundle arrives they start growing so fast, so why not remember every tiny feature with a "Baby Bits" Canvas Wrap. This 3-dimensional piece of art is printed on fine art canvas, professionally wrapped around a solid wood stretcher frame and comes ready to hang.

You can even include your baby's birthday stats on both sides to make a keepsake your family will cherish forever.

Call us today to create one for your family!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Andrea & Corey's Engagement Portraits Downtown Greenville

2010-09-19T14:54:00.006-05:00

Yeah folks, we're still alive! We've had an epically busy summer and this poor blog has suffered the consequences. Well, we finally have a moment to spare to breathe some life back into our little piece of cyberspace.

Here's an oldie but a goodie. Andrea is the daughter of Scott Pilgrim, a local wedding & events DJ with Jumpin Jukebox and of Nobody Entertainment DJ trivia fame, that we've worked with many times over the years and have become good friends. We got to know his family back when we did their awesome Clemson themed Holiday cards a couple years ago. Now Andrea is getting married and we have the extreme pleasure of photographing her and Corey's wedding this coming May!

Here are some from their engagement shoot we did a few months ago.

Corey really knows how to get his lady to smile and laugh. We think that's the mark of a truly great relationship.

Nothing like a little serenade to make a woman swoon (or laugh hysterically in this case).

Talk about a beautiful couple, both inside and out!

And did we mention she just graduated from Clemson, and her whole family bleeds orange?!

We always encourage our couples to incorporate things they love into their engagement portraits. What do Andrea and Corey love (besides each other)?..........BBQ!!! In this case, a little Smoke on the Water deliciousness.

Love how they look like they just got caught! Sorry guys, we couldn't resist. :)

Now that's how you enjoy BBQ!

And that's how you know your soon-to-be-spouse loves you. When they are willing to see past your BBQ sauce-covered face AND help you clean it up!

Can't wait for their wedding!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Underwater Bellies

2010-08-19T16:51:00.006-05:00

What started out as a crazy dream actually became possible, thanks to my wonderful husband Curtis and his DIY talents! About a month ago we were talking about creative endeavors for the future and since I have been photographing a lot of Maternity portraits lately I started thinking about photographing bellies underwater.

Right away I googled "underwater maternity photography" to get some ideas and came across the most awesome blog post. These images make me want to be pregnant in the summer JUST so I can have shots like these!

The first step was figuring out how to get the high quality images we're used to from our D3's while being underwater and without shelling out $3000+ for a waterproof housing unit.

So we did some tests, well a lot actually! First we tried a disposable underwater film camera. This test proved that the poses we had in mind would look cool and that we could hold our breath and shoot at the same time. Great! However the camera sucked big time and we had no control over the developing process, so it obviously wasn't an option. We determined that we definitely wanted to use our gear but had no idea how we were going to submerge a $5000 camera underwater without something going horribly wrong. So Curtis came up with a genius, yet simple, idea:

Yeah, that's glorified Tupperware. Now the question was how to release the shutter without having my hands inside the container. In comes a wireless shutter release remote to the rescue! We originally got the remote so we could take more photos of ourselves without having to run back and forth to the camera.

After many, many tests to make sure it was completely waterproof we took the plunge and tested it out in an actual pool. After getting over the initial submersion-trepidation and getting comfortable shooting while wearing goggles and a nose plug we scheduled some real sessions.

Check out some of my favorite images from the underwater belly portraits:

Thank you to Janet & Dawn for giving their time for this fun, learning experience. I only wish I had more time this summer to shoot more of these. Oh well, there's always next summer!

Emily Snyder
Kismet Photography

Ahhh the Facebook love!

2010-08-02T23:33:00.006-05:00

Unfortunately we have zero time to post some of the awesome new things we've been doing, much less some of the many weddings and engagement shoots that are waaaay past due. But we do have a quick sec and thought we'd share some of the great things folks are saying about the images we are posting on Facebook. By the way, that's where to go to see all the new stuff as it's posted there first. So go ahead, click on over to our Facebook fan page and "Like" us to see the latest and greatest Kismet imagery. Back to the post at hand...Not many people leave comments on this blog (even though hundreds of people are reading it as evidenced by our web stats) but our Facebook fans and friends of fans are quick to show some love. Check out all the raves one of our couples, the undeniably awesome and fashion-forward Shannon and David, got for their engagement sneak peek we posted. (Names have been blurred to protect the innocent)

As if that wasn't enough of an ego boost for us, the lovely Shannon posted this recently to our fan page:

Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and gooey inside? Well it does for us! A special thanks to everyone who has ever and will ever say nice things about us and our work either to our face or on some form of media or whatever. It's that praise and acknowledgment that lets us know we are accomplishing our number one goal: Make people happy through photography.

With love & thanks,

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Dayna & Tim's Engagement Portraits at The Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards

2010-07-09T10:36:00.003-05:00

Here's a fun one. Dayna and Tim found us at one of the past Wedding Festivals and fell in love...with us...and after talking with them for a few minutes, we fell in love with them too! They are such a fun couple but we didn't learn just HOW fun, and funny, until their engagement session. Now that was a hoot! We learned a great deal about Moobs, Moose Knuckle and Gnomes. Quite education really.

Their wedding is at the Cliffs of Glassy and they enjoy wine so we kept the Cliffs theme going and did the shoot at the, also very beautiful, Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards.

Yeah, they're pretty cute together.

Us: Hey Tim, look this way.

Tim:

We love tall fuzzy grass! It just glows when it's back-lit.

Sporting their team pride. And how cool is it that there just happened to be rocking chairs in each of their team colors?!

We really like the sweetness in Tim's expression and Dayna's beautiful smile in this one.

It's just too bad we don't have a video of Tim's hilarious "Raptor" as a photo just doesn't do it justice.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

July Belly & Baby Session Specials! Limited time offer.

2010-07-07T12:25:00.003-05:00

Check out our special for July. If you are a past Kismet bride you get a bonus offer!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Kelly & Geoff's Engagement Portraits

2010-07-03T18:19:00.004-05:00

Come to think of it, we may have another couple in the running for official spokescouple of Kismet Photography. Kristen & Chris got hitched back in 2006 and have since referred her sister Kyla and now their childhood friend Kelly (of the aforementioned Kelly & Geoff) whom just got married this month and has already brought us her sister Kara for next year! Are we blessed with the most referring couples or what?! That is the biggest compliment anyone can give us to say that we did a great job with their wedding or portrait session that they can't help but refer us to their family and friends.

Geoff is a big time Chef up in Chicago and the weekend he was in town for their engagement portraits there just happened to be a carnival in town. They suggested it for part of their shoot because they love going to them.

First they hit the "Fun Slide", which apparently lived up to it's name.

Then the ferris wheel.

Then Kelly gave the wedgie machine, I mean Super Trampoline, a try.

And did a graceful and elegant job I must say.

Next, Geoff tried his hand at a game of skill and dexterity. We love the progression of facial expressions...
1) Rugged determination, 2) "You will not defeat me!" 3) "Holy crap I'm falling!"

And then on to something a little more tame, the Carousel.

After they did the whole carnival thing, we headed back home and Geoff cooked up a lovely little picnic for them.

Absolutely LOVE this! You can see the grape flying at Geoff's gaping maw and then...
...at the last second, almost as if it sensed it's impending doom, the rogue grape rolls right over his head!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Katie & Jason's Engagement Portraits, a.k.a. Badasses with Bows!

2010-07-03T18:05:00.004-05:00

Ok so that might not make much sense in the beginning but about mid-way through this post you'll see what I mean. Katie and Jason are another great couple that found us through Kelli and Matt, now known as the official spokescouple for Kismet Photography (what's that make like 4 now?!).

Who doesn't like ice cream?

Poor guy didn't even know what hit him.

What'd I tell ya?! Jason got Katie into bow hunting and yes they have scored some kills together. So in other words...don't mess with a bride with a bow!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Lisa & Richard's Engagement Portraits Columbia, SC

2010-07-03T17:13:00.005-05:00

What better way to spend one of our only Saturdays off all summer than by blogging our fannies off?! Today we are focused on some of the awesome engagement shoots we had earlier this year and have not found time to blog...until now!

Lisa and Richard took the liberty of scouting out some cool spots around the USC Horseshoe for us. Their one request: downplay the USC thing since Lisa is a Clemson grad and yes they are a house divided, lovingly.

Practicing their dance moves for their first dance.

Lisa and Richard are very proud of the house they have worked on together so we went there for the rest of the shoot. Oh and Lisa has a second, and some might say equal, love for her cat, Molly Brown, so we had to get her in a few shots too.

Yeah we could tell Molly has grown on Richard just a little.

Interesting little factoid, I just realized this is the second time we have shot a 221 street number sign this year. The other was for Club 221 in Greenville for another couple's engagement shoot (coming soon).

Lisa and Richard are wine enthusiasts and their kitchen is what sold them on their house. 2 birds, 1 stone.

Lisa made a cool "memory box" to hold all of their dating memorabilia.

And why not another cute cat shot to end on?

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Kerri & Brian's Wedding, Engagement & Bridal Portraits....FINALLY!

2010-06-18T12:36:00.004-05:00

Yeah so we're a little behind on blogging. It's wedding season, what can we say?! If you really want the latest in Kismet goodness, your best bet is to head on over to the Kismet Photography Facebook Fan page. We post our newest stuff there first and all you have to do is "Like" us and you'll be notified whenever we do. You can also feel free to tell us you "Like" everything we post. It's good for our self esteem. :)

And now for the epic blog post of Kerri & Brian!

We don't typically do morning shoots, partly because fewer people want to get up early if they aren't working and partly because it can be a bit cold, especially in the early spring months. But it actually can be a great time to do it because fewer places are packed with people yet, especially Downtown Greenville. Kerri & Brian's was engagement portraits were done just a couple days before the wedding as that is the earliest Brian (an Air Force pilot stationed in Florida) could be in town before the wedding.

Oh and the light can be really nice too.

Gee do you think they were happy to be getting married in a couple days?!

And now for something completely different...Kerri's amazing bridal portraits shot at and around her family's farm. There are a lot of them but we couldn't resist. The location was very cool, she was just too beautiful and they are just so stinkin' great!

See what we mean!?!

Kerri, mild-mannered office worker by day; by night, a stunning bride with the power to level small buildings and not even get her beautiful white heels dirty.

And did we mention the awesomely unique dress she wore? Loved the flowy-ness (sp?).

To top it all of we had a huge field of amber grass back-lit by the setting sun. Too bad it's just an image and you can't hear the choir of heavenly angels singing in the background. :/

For any photographers out there reading this, these next two are great examples of varying perspectives. She didn't move but we still were able to get two totally different shots.

Loved the hair piece she wore from Etsy. Brides, you should check it out.

The Wedding Day!

The couple's First Look. Always a beautiful moment.

How convenient that they knew someone with a classic corvette that just happened to match the wedding color?! BONUS!

Love the motion and expression in this shot from their First Dance. Sometimes a perfectly sharp image with frozen motion is not the best way to capture a scene. Sometimes you want to show that your subjects are in fact moving.

These two lovebirds couldn't help but smile, laugh and enjoy their wedding day, despite the rain that moved their beautiful country-themed reception under cover.

Kerri's brother-in-law's band, Pipers Down, did a great job.

That a boy Brian. Don't let one morsel of that sinfully delicious chocolate groom's cake go to waste!

Before they jetted off to their exotic honeymoon destination, we got a few of our signature "End of the Night" shots. We like to end a couple's album with something a bit more romantic and moody (or playful and spunky or sensual and sexy if either suits the couple more).

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Christina & Minjae's Wedding At Sugarloaf CC in Atlanta, GA

2010-05-27T10:21:00.009-05:00

We absolutely love it when one great couple introduces us to another great couple (or several!). That was the case with one of our awesome couples from '08, Lindsay & Trey. We had such an awesome time at their wedding and then not long after that we hear from a childhood friend of Lindsay's, Christina, that just loved what we did for her friends and wanted the same for her wedding at the beautiful Sugarloaf Country Club in Atlanta, GA. Christina and Minjae live in New York and are so busy being an investment banker and doctor, respectively, that they could not find time to make it down to our area for an engagement shoot. Though that's not ideal as we really prefer to get to know a couple before the wedding so we're more like friends, we understood the distance and their schedules made it next to impossible. They at least wanted us there for the rehearsal ceremony and dinner so we had a chance to get to know them a little bit. As a bonus, Lindsay (who was a bridesmaid in the wedding) and Trey were so kind as to offer us to stay at their lovely home while we were in Atlanta for the wedding weekend.

What happened over the course of the weekend was nothing short of magical! Okay that may be a little exaggerated but we did have a pretty amazing time. First of all, Sugarloaf was a spectacular venue for the wedding. The homes in this community look like they belong on MTV "Cribs" and the clubhouse itself was enormous! The rainy-looking skies cooled everything off in time for the ceremony and made the light a dream to work with but thankfully the rain never came. Christina and Minjae were so nice and easy to work with (as were their families and friends) that by the end of the wedding, we felt like we had known them for a while. This was our first Korean wedding and there were so many cool things to photograph. For instance, they had a PaeBaek ceremony where the couple changed into traditional Korean wedding outfits (see photos below) and tried to catch dates and chestnuts tossed by their relatives. Apparently the number they catch of each determines how many girls and boys they will have! The reception that followed was an all out dance party with some impromptu karaoke mixed in.

The coup de grace though came at the end of the night when Christina and Minjae wanted to do some of our signature end of the night shots at their hotel. Of course we said yes as that is one of our favorite parts of a wedding day. We were not prepared for just how awesome their hotel, the St. Regis Atlanta, was going to be. This place was a dream and we could have easily photographed there for an entire day! We are so glad that Christina and Minjae had some energy left and loved photos so much that they gave us ample time there. It was definitely worth it as we got some of our best end of the night shots yet!

Enough blabbing. As they say, the proof is in the pudding, so check out our pudding!

Their "First Look"!

We love that more and more of our brides are using decorative flower or feather hair pieces. Nothing against tiaras we just like to see something different from time to time.

Note to future brides of ours: We may ask you to get on the floor, but only if it's worth it. We hope you are okay with this. :)

The wind was blowing Christina's veil so beautifully! (When it wasn't whipping her mom in the face!)

The PaeBaek ceremony outfits and details were so much fun to photograph. Christina's shoes and lil' purse were freakin' adorable and the table detail on the left was gorgeous!

After successfully catching many dates and chestnuts (which means many future children) they did a piggy back ride around the room. What a hoot! Every wedding should have this!!!

Yet another hoot! Christina's dad bustin' a move on the dance floor! He really showed those youngsters what for.

And we can't not show some of the awesome end of the night shots we did at the St. Regis hotel. Here are some spreads from the album we designed for them. You can see the whole shebang in the slideshow at the end. It's pretty freakin' sweet!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Jennifer & Chad's Tigeriffic Clemson Wedding

2010-05-10T16:17:00.007-05:00

These two Clemson alumni, and season ticket holders, tied the knot right in the heart of their homeland, Clemson University, at the Owen Pavilion behind the Madren Center. Though Clemson purple was one of the main colors for the wedding, nothing was over-the-top and everything was very elegant, right down to the Clemson fight song introductions! Seriously though, Jennifer and Chad's wedding was beautiful and the location was special to them because they met when they were students at Clemson. Not to mention that the Madren Center grounds, Owen Pavilion and picturesque Lake Hartwell made for a very nice backdrop.

Love the barefeet and smiles. 'Cuz everyone is happier without heels on.

After their booty-bumpin' introduction to the Clemson fight song, they slowed things down and showed off their dance skills.

A golden sunset over Lake Hartwell.

Jeff Hayes from Party Machine sharing, and causing, some laughs with the couple and the crowd. He and his crew always do a great job entertaining the guests.

Not sure what exactly was going on under there but love the expressions.

Jennifer and Chad pulled out all the stops with their dance moves. It's always nice to see a couple out on the dance floor and not spending the whole reception having to go around talking to people they hardly know. It's your party, enjoy it dang it!

Being Clemson alumni, they were able to get access to Death Valley and it just happened to be right after the Orange and White game so the field was freshly painted.

Apparently, being season ticket holders also has it's privileges! ;)

Check out the album we designed for them for the whole story including more fun on the field!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Katie & Scott's Engagement Portraits in Lyman, SC

2010-04-20T10:04:00.005-05:00

What do you do for fun engagement portraits with a football coach and a former cheerleader? Go to a football field of course! We love it when couples incorporate their hobbies or personalities into the session. It makes it much more fun for them and makes the images more personal. Check out some of our favorites.

Scott's coaching skills have really upped Katie's throwing game. And check out the guns on this girl!

And she's still got a few moves from her cheer-leading days.

What a great looking couple. Katie's eyes are especially striking.

After they tossed around the pigskin and we worked the football field, we headed to Lyman for another kind of field.

Nothing like ending a great shoot with a colorful sunset and some premo smoochin'!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

A place to call home

2010-04-20T09:46:00.003-05:00

So we were in Atlanta this weekend for Christina and Minjae's awesome wedding (which we will be blogging about soon) held at the Sugarloaf Golf & Country Club and we just happened to stumble upon our next house!

Ain't she a beaut?! And this is just the backside that faces the lake! This was just one of the many colossal mansions in the "we've got more money than we know what to do with" area called Sugarloaf. Who needs this much house? Seriously?!

After much deliberation we've decided not to purchase it because we just like the Upstate too much to abandon it for the 6 lane megatropolis of Atlanta. And besides, we'd probably have to shoot 300 weddings and 1,000 portrait sessions a year just to afford the electricity to run the place. Not to mention it would be a full time job just to keep it all clean. No thanks. Live simple so you can enjoy life is our motto.

Enough lolly-gagging. Time to get back to work. Look for more fun e-shoots and wedding posts soon.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Heather & Jason's Engagement Portraits in Downtown Greenville

2010-04-14T11:13:00.005-05:00

This shoot was so much fun not only because Heather and Jason are a hoot but also because it challenged us to think a little differently. The day their shoot was scheduled called for 100% chance of rain so of course we thought we should reschedule. The problem was Jason works for the Army based out of St. Louis and was not going to be back in Greenville until the wedding. Thus, we had to think of ways to get a good variety using mostly indoor spots. We were planning to hit Coffee Underground anyway as that's where Jason proposed, so that was still a go. Thankfully, Downtown Greenville has a lot of great little covered nooks and indoor public places. Even though it rained cats and dogs a few times (especially once we were done), it actually let up enough at one point so we could go outside. The result is a great mix of fun and flirty as well as moody and romantic images that they loved. And the best part is we all had a great time taking them.

**Bonus: We still have several fun and romantic ideas for a shoot in the rain so if any of our couple's don't mind getting a little wet (whether for engagement or a day after-type session) we would love to create something different for you!

These two love to laugh and it is contagious!

Maybe it was the humidity from all the rain but it was sure gettin' steamy in there!

Not sure why Jason was shooting us this evil glare but it is just too hilarious!

Absolutely loved the result of shooting through one of the gold curtains. It gives the image a beautiful softness and diffused glow that suits the romance of the moment. And all without going into Photoshop!

Every shoot should end with the couple enjoying their favorite tasty treat. (In their case a delicious Peanut Butter milkshake) Who's with me?!
Of course when one of them bogarts it and they still love each other, you know they are meant to be.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Kelly & Andy's Engagement Portraits in Downtown Greer

2010-04-06T12:03:00.002-05:00

These two kooky kids had the fun idea of donning formal wear and hitting a playground. And we just love it when couples think outside the box so we said "let's do it"! Of course we also love to give our couples plenty of variety so we hit downtown Greer for some casual fun before getting all dressed up.

Yeah, they're in love.

They also wanted to play around with bubbles...
But if they were to have a bubble battle, we thought it only fair to arm Kelly with the Bubble Blaster 5000 while Andy gets the "Safe for kids under 4" version!

Kelly was literally running circles around Andy's bubble-blowing abilities. To be fair to Andy, it's hard to look manly holding that tiny bottle and wand and trying to blow bubbles. I should know, I had to do it for a shot Emily took later!

Shot 1) Hey guys just give each other a sexy stare...
Done!

Shot 2) Alright now give us a smile or laugh...
Done and Done! (Well Andy is not necessarily smiling but his recount of a favorite photo of Kelly got her laughing at least)

Awesome shot we think. Now if only you could see me standing to the side looking like a giant doofus trying to blow the "perfect" string of bubbles while a bunch of little kids watch...and laugh. Ahh the things we do to get the shot.

Thanks to Kelly for braving the cold slide and practically hanging upside-down for this shot. We think it was worth it and so did they.

A little more playground sexiness. You'd never know there were like a million little kids running around screaming their heads off while we were there.

Of course we couldn't shoot at a playground and not have a little fun on the slides. Kudos to Kelly for sticking the landing even in heels!

Adults should swing more often. Emily and I try to do it at least three times a year.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Sharon & Govie's Engagement Portraits at Clemson University

2010-04-04T11:04:00.002-05:00

Wowweee! We've had so many awesome shoots lately including several engagement, several bridal (which are so rockin' that we hate that we can't show them yet) and even an all-day maternity shoot yesterday. We'll start off with a fun engagement shoot we did for Sharon and Govie at Clemson, their alma-mater and veritable holy land of football.

Grrrrrr Baby! Very Grrrrr! (On a side note, why did the sculptor decide to make the tiger look either malnourished or like a chunk of the skin over its ribs was sliced off?!)

Everybody, meet Tessa & Tanner, Sharon & Govie's furry children!

Tanner: "I'm ready for my close-up!"

(Sorry Govie but we had to share this!)
Govie is a jokester, and a pretty funny one at that, but he had no idea we were still shooting when he joked about showing off his "chest hair". Hilarious!

And here are a couple great series that they chose for their Custom Photo Guestbook. The white space is for friends and family to leave a personal message to the couple on the wedding day. Much better than everyone just signing a blank book. We all know those just get chucked in the closet and forgotten. This way you have a keepsake with lots of your favorite images along with everyone's well wishes.

Happy Easter,

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Jamie & Scott's Wedding at Cliffs of Glassy & Sawmill...FINALLY!!!

2010-03-22T14:38:00.004-05:00

The blog drought is officially over! It's not that we haven't had anything to blog about, we've just been so busy gearing up for another busy wedding season, creating a portrait website and a myriad of other things, that the blog has taken a backseat. That ends today as we roll out a monster blog from a fabulous wedding we shot recently.

This wedding was a long time coming. We met Jamie quite a while back at our first boudoir marathon, which she did for her man, Scott, who was at the time serving in the Army in Iraq. Fast forward to January 2009 and she calls us letting us know that they are planning a November wedding as Scott will be transitioning out by then after being overseas for over 14 months! We finally got to meet Scott at their engagement session and seeing them together was so dang cute you can't help but fall in love with them and their infectious playfulness.

So then come November, the day before their wedding, we were all pumped and excited to spend the next day photographing these two lovebirds tying the knot and then partying down to celebrate. Well, fate intervened, and the shootings that day at Ft. Hood, where Scott just happened to be stationed, caused the Army to recall him back to the base immediately and for an indefinite amount of time. Imagine, the day before your wedding, which you have been waiting for for well over a year and a half, and all of a sudden everything gets called off!

As anyone can imagine, they were devastated and the wedding plans had to be put on hold until the Army gave them some idea of when they could leave the base again. Eventually, the wedding was rescheduled for February 20th and of course we worked with them, as did many of their other vendors, to make it happen.

After all the waiting, months and months apart and the cancellation heartache/headache, February 20th came without incident and it was a gorgeous, sunny day, just perfect for their ceremony at Cliffs of Glassy chapel. They followed it with a reception at the Sawmill on North Main in downtown Greenville. These two are so sweet and loving, they obviously deserve each other and, after all they had been through, they certainly deserved to have a beautiful and fun-filled wedding day. As their photographers that spent the whole day with them, we can attest that they got just that! Check out some of the highlights below followed by the album we designed for them.

First up: Jamie's Bridal Portraits at the Lace House in Columbia, SC

Don't you just love Jamie's genuine smile? We do!

And we couldn't go the whole day without getting a few shots of Jamie & Scott's first furry child: Nani, aka super-cute fluffball.

Dahlia did an amazing job once again on the bouquets...

and decor.

Jamie & Scott's First Look was so sweet, we almost got emotional, especially knowing what all these two had been through to get to this day. Love the tear in Jamie's eye.

All natural light! Love it when it works with you.

We were shooting from another angle before this but a quick walk around the couple showed us a completely different angle and a nice tribute to Scott's time spent in the Army, risking his life in Iraq.

Jamie's dad is such a sweet guy and this is just one of the beautiful and touching moments they shared that day.

Jamie's parents are an inspiration because, even though they are divorced, they get along so well which only made their daughter's wedding day that much more fun and enjoyable for everyone.

Heck even her dad and step-dad get along enough to share a little dance! Gentlemen, we applaud you.

Love this shot of Blake, our good friend from Jumping Jukebox, gettin' down! He and his crew did a great job entertaining the guests and keeping the party going.

The men were really getting into serenading Jamie, including Scott's dad!

When Scott went in for the garter with his teeth, Jamie was a little surprised.

But Scott was undeterred!

Scott's little sister was so pumped to catch the bouquet, I don't think anyone else stood a chance. Nice killer instincts Katie!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Conner turns 1!!! Cakes BEWARE!!!

2010-02-18T17:37:00.002-05:00

Our good friends Christy and John's little man Conner turned 1 year old recently. And to commemorate this epic moment in his life, they brought him by the studio for a fun shoot...that turned into a massacre! A fun and ultimately very funny massacre that is. See for yourself:

We started off with a mirror and a little window light. He wasn't nearly as intrigued with his own reflection as he was with Emily's.

What's a birthday celebration without balloons?!

And lots of them...

raining from the sky!

What can we say, the chemistry between us and our subjects is...electric!

And so it begins...

"Seriously...this is all for me?!"

"ooooooooo the sugar is hitting me!!!!"

"uuuggghhh the sugar is hitting me uuunnhhh."

"I am so gonna get you guys back for this!"

"mmmm CHOCOLATE!!! Where have you been hiding all my life?!"

(Picture an opera singer voice) "I looove CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!"

Happy Birthday Conner! We enjoy watching you grow, just don't do it too fast. :)

Thanks to Christy & John for going along with our idea. It was uber-messy but definitely worth it.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Another wedding mill rips off brides & grooms. Don't let it happen to you!

2010-02-08T08:41:00.003-05:00

We have heard so many stories of chain-like wedding photography mills that offer "cheap" packages and then farm out the actual photography to sometimes less than reputable or inexperienced photographers. Check out this news article in which the photographers were not the problem but the company itself. They just never delivered the photos and haven't been since 2005 but kept booking weddings and taking people's money up until recently. Now they've just closed up shop and anyone that booked their wedding with them is out of luck and probably out of their deposit/full balance (unless they sue for it) not to mention that now they need to scramble to find a photographer.

As wedding photographers ourselves, we hate to hear horror stories about other couple's bad photography experiences for their wedding. It's such a happy and momentous day in a couple's life, we wouldn't wish anything bad on anyone, especially when it comes to the photographs since they are usually the only tangible reminder of the day.

Reading this story got us thinking about how the economy may force more and more people to go bargain-hunting for their wedding photography and how that could result in more tragic stories like the one in the article. If you're considering a photographer or even a wedding mill that subcontracts the actual photographer, like the one in the article, then be sure to look at their experience and track record. Check references, do a google search to see if there are any complaints against the photographer or company (like this one), check the bridal boards like The Knot and ask for other bride's opinions (though take them with a grain of salt from what we hear). A new photographer just starting out may have great talent (we all have to start somewhere right?) but they may be lacking in the experience needed to handle all the possible situations that tend to come up on a wedding day. At the very least, ask to see an album or a set of images from an entire wedding day. Anyone can compile a sample album or website of their very best 20-30 shots but the proof of a wedding photographer's abilities is in how the images look throughout the entire day from any one wedding.

We don't want to read an article about you having to sue your photographer because they over-promised and under-delivered when it may have been avoided by doing a little research. Even if we are not the right photographers for your wedding day, we urge you to do your homework on whoever you are considering because you deserve to have beautiful photographs of this amazing time in your life.

Emily and I have been photographing weddings professionally for 7 years and have been in business as Kismet Photography serving the Upstate for almost 5 years. If you have any questions for us or want to know what other questions you should ask any photographer you are considering for your wedding, just email us: info@kismetphotography.us.

Have a Great Week,

Curtis & Emily Snyder
Kismet Photography

Ch-ch-ch-changes & a little sledding action

2010-01-31T19:27:00.002-05:00

For this being our slower season, we certainly have been crazy busy. Firstly, the Wedding Festival at the Hyatt was a "great success" and we got to talk to so many brides and couples both at the show and since then with lots of new client meetings. We are almost completely booked up for 2010 and only have three spots left so if any brides are interested in having us work our magic for your wedding, you might want to get on the phone and let us know. We will also be at the February 6th Wedding Festival at the Carolina First Center and fully expect to fill our remaining spots shortly after that.

What has really been keeping us busy though is implementing all the juicy nuggets we learned at a national wedding and portrait photography convention we recently attended in Nashville, TN. We left for it right after loading out of the Hyatt and spent a week absorbing business and shooting tips from some of the world's leading photographers. Needless to say our brains were exploding from all the great info. We were quite proud of ourselves though as we found out we were already doing a lot of the things the speakers were doing. Now the fun part is taking the rest of what we learned and making it work for us and our clients. With that said, Kismet Photography will be undergoing some changes both right now and in the near future. Some of the more immediate changes are related to strengthening our brand and our customer experience. We feel we have always done a great job with customer service and creating an enjoyable experience but we are now preparing to blow each and every client away! Heck we are even planning to blow their family and friends away too! We will be sharing some of the changes to come soon so stay tuned to find out more.

With all the brain-frying that has been going on here at Kismet Photography Headquarters, Emily and I have been in desperate need of some R&R. Even our week "vacation" in Nashville was spent almost entirely doing business. And what better way to blow off some steam than frolicking in the snow! Okay, we didn't actually "frolick" but we did brave the ice and snow today to just get out and shoot for fun. Here are some of our favs from that:

And here is my lovely wife Emily sporting the latest in winter shooting fashion complete with "Griswold" hat and Nikon D3 to block the wind on her face.

After we walked around and shot for a while, we decided it was time to christen our sloped back yard that was covered in an ice/snow mix. The only thing was we didn't have a sled :( But instead of letting that ruin the fun, we decided to use a little "redneck enginuitey" (purposely misspelled for comic value) and take a scrap piece of vinyl siding for a joy ride. And it worked beautifully! Check it out:

**DISCAIMER: Kismet Photography is not responsible for anyone attempting to recreate the scene you are about to witness. Any and all stunts resembling this should be done by professionals or at least in the presence of a supervising adult. And by "adult" we mean someone obviously smarter and with more sense than Curtis Snyder. To paraphrase: "Kids DO NOT try this at home!" **

Hey, at least I "stuck" the landing!

All joking aside this actually looks worse than it was. The yard levels out at the bottom and so I was slowing down to about 2mph before I was "gingerly" stopped by the fence. And yes we have matching "Griswold" hats. They were a joke one year for Christmas but we wear them proudly because we love National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and hey they keep your ears pretty toasty!

Well that's enough frivolity for one day. Back to work!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Baird & Zach's Wedding at The Loom in Simpsonville

2010-01-02T13:33:00.006-05:00

Well the holidays are over and a new year has begun. We've been so busy the past month though, we haven't been able to post all the fun stuff we did last year! Like Baird and Zach's wedding for instance. The incredibly cold temperatures on their December 11th wedding didn't stop us from having a great time photographing outside though we had to step inside periodically to let the happy couple warm up and to regain feeling in our shutter fingers. Baird's mom, Paige, is a caterer/florist/decorator-extraordinaire and she did an amazing job with all the flowers and decorating both the church and the reception. The ceremony was held at the practically new Palmetto Hills Presbyterian Church in Simsponville and the reception at the, also somewhat new, Loom at Cotton Mill Place. The Loom is an old mill renovated into a big open space with original hardwoods and huge floor to ceiling windows. It's a great venue if you want an already nice-looking blank canvas that you can really personalize to your wedding colors and style.

Check out some of our favorites from Baird's Bridal Portrait session and the wedding day. At the end you can view the wedding album we custom designed for them.

The couple's First Look:
The one on the right is right before Baird sneaked a peek at Zach. She said she was so anxious she couldn't wait for him to get to her. :)

And the ensuing smiles. It was so funny; Zach was hesitant to touch her like he was afraid he would ruin her dress or something. You can tell by his hands on the left that he was itchin' to hold his beautiful bride.

We think the blue sky mixed with the warm tones from the sun make it look as if it were mid-summer. Of course Baird remembers vividly that it was more like an arctic winter but she was such a trooper and stuck it out for what we think are some beautiful shots.

Like this one...
This was one of their favorites as well and will be the cover of their album.

We couldn't let Baird have all the fun out in the cold, so we brought out her girls and had them squeeze in close for warmth and give us some goofy faces. Little did they know, all we really wanted was to capture the laughter that almost certainly follows. Of course the goofy faces can be fun too.

Love Baird peeking around the corner. Her uncle did a great job of keeping her laughing and not thinking about how nervous she was.

Love how Baird's grandmother looks so proud and happy for her.

This was definitely a neat looking cake ala Kathy & Co. but what really makes this cake shot sing is the beautiful background that Paige created.

Attention brides and reception venues: There is nothing worse than taking a beautiful wedding cake and sticking it right up against a plain, boring wall. Not only does it make it difficult to get a good angle for the cake cutting, but also to get any interesting shots of the cake itself! Please do all photographers a favor and move it away from the wall. This has been a public service announcement from the Coalition for the Ethical Treatment of Wedding Cakes.

See, better placement = neater angles!

And now for something completely different...

To give you a better idea of what an awesome job Baird's mom, Paige, did on decorations, here are a couple detail spreads from the couple's wedding album showcasing her beautiful handiwork.

The Church:

The Reception:

To see it all come together, check out the custom album we designed for them:

Oh Yeah! And Happy New Year everybody!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Baby Natalie & Family Holiday Portraits

2009-12-17T12:38:00.005-05:00

Tis' the season...for some cute Holiday Portraits of little babies! Here is one lil' bundle of cuteness that wasn't afraid to don her Santa hat for us. Check out Baby Natalie and let the awwwwws commence.

Isn't she just adorable with her Santa hat and matching Santa hat booties?!

We also got Mom and Dad in the mix for a few family portraits.

It's not too late for Holiday Portraits of your little ones so call or email us to hear about our special offer.

Happy Holidays!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Jennifer & Chad's Engagement Portraits in Clemson

2009-12-13T14:20:00.004-05:00

One of our last engagement shoots of the year (unless of course any of our couples want to brave the chilly weather and do a Winter Wonderland theme! Any takers?!) was with a really fun couple of Clemson-ites. They met at Clemson, fell in love at Clemson, they drive all the way from Florida where they now live to go to Clemson games and, perhaps most fitting of all, they will be getting married in Clemson. At the lovely Madren Center to be more specific. So we all thought it only appropriate to have their engagement session there as well. Normally we suggest somewhere completely different than wedding location for variety but for these two, that so obviously bleed Orange, we thought why not stick with the theme.

Quite the bling on this bride's ring! After all, why settle for one lonely diamond when you can surround it with 12 of it's closest friends?! :)

For all you other Clemson-ites, let's see if you can spot what's different in this image. 100 cool points to the first person to leave the correct answer in the comments!

Thanks again Jennifer and Chad for making the long trip up from Florida to have fun with us. We can't wait to have even more fun on your wedding day. Less than 4 months to go!!!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Our Cruise Vacation...aka Our Annual Recharge

2009-12-07T17:15:00.004-05:00

We love what we do but even the fun parts can wear down our batteries in a year's time. That's why we need an annual recharge. And what better way to refresh ourselves than taking a two week cruise! It's the perfect vacation for us because we spend our year planning our couples' big events and photo shoots, and on a cruise, you don't have to plan much at all! There's no cooking, no driving, no cleaning (hallelujah!) and yet there is so much to do. Plus you get to see so many amazing places in one trip.

Our cruise started in Baltimore, Maryland and then went to Bermuda, Tortola, St. Maarten, Curacao, Aruba, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and ended in Tampa, FL. It was 2 weeks of blissful relaxation even though we did a lot and tried some new things. We could go on forever about how incredible it was but after being gone for 2 weeks, we have some work to do so we will just share some of the photos we took in our travels.

All of the following shots were taken with our new camera, a Sony Cybershot H20, our very first point and shoot ever...yes that's right...EVER! We thought taking our huge, professional DSLR's along would make it less like a vacation and more like work so we left those at home and opted for a pocket-sized camera that also has HD video capability. There were a few times when we wished we had our higher quality cameras but overall we loved the simplicity of the point and shoot, the fact that it weighs less than a pound (compared to more than the 6 lbs of camera+lens we normally work with) and it's video mode. We are by no means videographers but it was hilarious when we would be taking a video horizontally and all of a sudden go vertical for a better composition! As photographers, we do that all the time and don't even think about it but you just can't do that with video.

We tried not to think about work too much but we thought this place would be perfect for a wedding or even just a photo shoot. It's a really old church in Bermuda that was never finished so it looks like ruins.

Brides, could you imagine walking down the center between columns that are hundreds of years old, feeling the Caribbean breeze in your hair. Freakin' sweet!

We tried to avoid the touristy spots of Bermuda and just ventured off on our own when we didn't have an excursion planned. Sometimes we found little hidden spots that were so much neater or more beautiful and unspoiled, like this little cove called Tobacco Bay (bad name, gorgeous place).

Also Tobacco Bay.

Apparently this is where all the money went instead of finishing the "Unfinished Church" you saw above. Though this cathedral was certainly beautiful and grand, we thought the ruins of the other church were much more unique.

A view of the other British Virgin Islands as seem from Tortola. Missed the UV filters on our SLR lenses to cut down the haze but a beautiful view none-the-less.

For the most part, every island we went to seemed to be so divided between really fancy tourist resorts, beach houses and boutiques and the impoverished native homes and shops. There seemed to be no middle-class, but no matter what, everyone was always friendly and happy. Oh and goats seemed to be the most popular pet!
Here is an example of the disparities in wealth in St. Maarten. On the left is the castle-like mansion built by the owner of the island's only casino. On the right, a tangle of what we presume to be water meters for 10 or so homes. Our tour guide told us that the mansion's stone walls cost more than most "nice" homes on the island.

A divi tree on Aruba's pristine Arashi beach. One of the most beautiful beaches and clearest water we have ever seen. We didn't want to leave.

We did zip-lining again (we had done it in Jamaica on our cruise last year and got hooked. But by far one of the coolest excursions we have ever done was riding a dune buggy through a rain forest in Cozumel to a cenote, a sinkhole used by the Mayans for freshwater, that doubled as a bat cave!
Here is what we looked like after the ride to the cenote. With several mud holes on the path, we learned quickly, even though you are having the time of your life and want to scream your excitement the whole time...close your mouth for the mud holes ;) Yeah we ate mud a couple times but what a fun ride!

Here is the cenote/bat cave. Pictures just do not do it justice as it was actually quite beautiful and serene. We even swam in the chilly water which was surprisingly clear and lovely. It was pretty cool to be chillin' in the water with hundreds of bat's hovering above us and occasionally swooping around. And to answer most people's first thoughts, we were not swimming in tons of bat guano...or at least we didn't see it :)

And here is a good depiction of how muddy and dirty our dune buggy got. If you are ever in Cozumel, Mexico and looking for something to do, we HIGHLY recommend doing the Xrails to the Jade Caverns tour. A truly awesome adventure.

Here is a shot just after sunset from the pier in Cozumel. The moon was full and beautiful. Notice they even had a Christmas tree up already.

Well, we'd love to post more but must get back to work. These Christmas cards won't design themselves. Stay tuned for a couple posts from recent shoots. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is looking forward to a wonderful holiday season.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Kristin & David's Engagement Portraits at Biltmore Estate, NC

2009-11-16T15:49:00.003-05:00

Emily and I are suckers! (Allow me to explain) We agreed last year to not only limit the amount of weddings we shoot a year (so that we can really focus our attention on each couple and provide a quick turnaround) but also to avoid booking anything on our birthdays or anniversary (so we could focus on ourselves for a few days a year). Then along came Kristin and David who are getting married on September 25th, Emily's birthday. What can we say, we loved their personalities, their ideas for their waterfall-themed wedding and we loved the fact that they loved us! So we caved. And after their engagement session, we are so glad we did. These two have so much fun together that you can't help but have fun when you are around them. If they were this excited and happy at the engagement session, we can only imagine how much more they will be on their wedding day. We're afraid someone's head may explode from exuberance. See what we mean in some of our favs below and be sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom.

Since they are having a waterfall-themed wedding, we all thought it apropos to do part of their session at a beautiful waterfall.
We were so glad these adventurous spirits were willing to brave life and limb to get up close to the mighty falls..... OK so it wasn't that dangerous but we appreciated it anyway.

The stone on this building was such a vibrant shade of green, apparently from algae. Kind of a gross thought but very cool looking.

Poor Dave getting denied some smoochin'! Don't worry, he made up for it later.

After the falls, they wanted to go to the Biltmore Estate.

Love the tenderness in this one.

Love the genuine laugh in this one.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, clear Fall day.

Love David's face in the right shot. Once they saw it, we all started calling it the "Arrrr" face.

Sometimes the not-so-obvious places make for great images.

Without clouds in the sky, sunsets tend to be fairly tame with only one or two colors, but if you catch it at just the right moment, those colors seem to explode and fill the sky.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Bunny & Justin's Wedding at Ryan Nicholas Inn in Simpsonville, SC

2009-11-13T17:56:00.011-05:00

We knew from Bunny & Justin's Engagement Portraits that their wedding was going to be unique, which is something we thrive on. And they did not disappoint with a beautiful, elegant and strikingly awesome wedding, despite a little sidestep with their first venue, Spiegel Farms, which was recently shutdown. After that bomb was dropped on them, Kim at Ryan Nicholas Inn came to the rescue. She was very accommodating and worked with them to give them a wonderful wedding. In fact it worked out for the best since it sprinkled most of the day so their plan for an outside ceremony at Spiegel would not have worked well anyway. The formal, elegant feel to the Ryan Nicholas Inn went surprisingly well with the couple's red and black theme including custom Converse sneakers and red mohawks sported by a couple groomsmen. But don't take our word for it, see for yourself in some of our favorites below, right after some from Bunny's rockin' bridal portrait session. Then see how we put it all together in a beautiful custom-designed album by checking out the slideshow at the end.

The Crystal Swan room at the Ryan Nicholas Inn is simply gorgeous and a perfect backdrop for Bunny's gorgeous gown.

This crafty couple designed and assembled their awesome programs themselves. This emblem was inspired by an album cover from one of their favorite bands, The Avett Brothers.

Kristin of Dahlia did another stellar job with the flowers. She always seems to make the bridal bouquet unique and special to the bride as evident here by adding the Hello Kitty pendant for Bunny.

Loved Bunny's reaction to seeing her amazing cake by Couture Cakes.

We could tell why she was floored. This cake was a true piece of art and the little Bunny & Justin figures were too cute.

And what makes the wedding truly special and memorable for the groom...

a Darth Vader groom's cake of course!

We just love it when couples break tradition and be themselves.

In case you haven't noticed, Justin has quite a beard and apparently it is capable of actually holding and storing small objects. So the joke was that that is where the rings could be hidden...
Of course they weren't really in there but it made for a hilarious moment during the ceremony. Mind you in the tumult of emotions, Bunny completely forgot about the gag and was kind of getting freaked out when the Best Man pretended he couldn't find the ring. Hence, the not-so-humored look on her face.

Yeah, they look "Happily Married".

Love the expressions in the next two...

The Ryan Nicholas Inn has soo many beautiful rooms and they had the whole place to themselves for the night so we had to take advantage of at least one of the many bath tubs. This one could be titled "Bubbly Bunny Sips Bubbly and Blows Bubbles". Say that 5 times real fast.

And now for their custom album. Enjoy...

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Monkeyin' around with Fall Family Portraits

2009-11-09T22:58:00.004-05:00

Here's highlights from another fun Family Portrait session, this time with Christy, John and Conner. Be sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom for extra cuteness!

Left: Cute & Cuddly baby. Right: Punk Rock baby.

Little kids just love to grab at anything. This time it was John's nose and hair.

"Child of the Corn"

Left: A "corny" rendition of "American Gothic"

Since it was almost Halloween, we had to get Conner's incredibly cute Monkey costume involved.

Just love how it looks like the monkey is smiling for the camera.

Not sure what Conner was thinking at this exact moment but his expression is priceless!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Baird & Zach's Engagement Portraits on ICE!

2009-11-07T10:49:00.003-05:00

We love making each couple's engagement portraits unique in some way by capturing their personalities or involving their interests. So when Zach mentioned he is a big hockey fan and even plays in a league, we all came up with the idea of going to the local ice rink. And since he plays there all the time, he got us the hookup to get into the Pavilion Ice Rink and we even got to use the goal as a prop.

Did we mention Baird was an accomplished figure skating ballerina? No?! Well that's probably because it's not true but she could have fooled us with this awe-inspiring display of skill and grace. ;) (Just teasing Baird, we know we put you up to it.)

And here is Baird's oh-so-intimidating "Game Face".

After Emily and I's feet were literally frozen from wearing only our street shoes on the ice (only fell on my butt once thank you very much), we headed downtown for some more fun.

Emily's view:

Curtis' view:

And now for something completely different...

BAM! Your mind has just been blown!

Thanks to Baird and Zach for being great sports and having fun with our goofy ideas.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Fall Family Portraits

2009-10-30T09:52:00.004-05:00

Emily and I have really been enjoying all the family portrait sessions we've been doing lately. It is a nice change of pace from weddings and keeps us thinking about new and exciting ways to capture people, their personalities and their relationships. Check out some highlights from a couple recent shoots.

Elizabeth, Jeff & Bolen

Little Bolen was so cute trying to pick up that big pumpkin. Check out the whole sequence of events in the slideshow below.

Wanna know what prompted these priceless expressions? Check out the slideshow below to see.

Kids are lucky because they can do expressions like this and it's hilarious whereas adults looking like this would just look weird.

Luckily we ended the shoot on a happy note. :)

Kris, Steve, Jack & Kyra

Sig, the family pooch, was the model doggie and helped complete the family portrait.

...and was well thanked for his cooperation.

Jack and Kyra were some of the most well-mannered children we have had the pleasure of meeting. Of course we had to bring out a little of their goofy side for some shots too.

Steve's parents happened to be visiting so we included them in a few shots. They were such a happy couple and obviously still very much in love, which is always great to see.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Traci & Lark's Engagement Portraits in Greenville, SC

2009-10-26T13:11:00.005-05:00

We love it when couples come to us with ideas for their engagement portraits for two reasons. For one, it's usually something that is special to them and therefore the images will have more meaning for years to come. And two, it means they are going to be even more excited about the shoot since they had a hand in conceptualizing it.

Lark is a real foodie (of course it doesn't hurt that he works in the restaurant industry) and he personally knows the chef at the Westin Poinsett, where the wedding reception will be. So he thought it would be cool to do a little cooking action right in the hotel kitchen and we agreed! Nothing too elaborate, just something romantic like making chocolate-covered strawberries for his sweetheart, Traci. So after we had some photo fun in downtown Greenville and around Falls Park, we headed for the Poinsett kitchen.

Checkout the slideshow followed by some of the highlights below.

Traci & Lark loved this image because it is "so Lark" and from the short time we have known him, we would have to agree. The caption would read something like "C'mon man, seriously?!".

Love amidst the hustle and bustle of a busy restaurant kitchen. (Actually it wasn't that busy and Chef and an assistant were kind enough to help us fake it) Thanks again Chef! ;)

Now that is one appetizing (and extremely expensive) dessert plate! Kudos to Lark for his expert plating.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Bunny & Justin's Engagement Portraits

2009-10-21T11:36:00.004-05:00

Once in a great while you come across a couple that is so unique, both in personality and style, that it refreshes us as photographers creatively by challenging us to capture their personalities in an equally unique way. Lindsay (aka Bunny) and Justin make up that kind of couple. And we have really enjoyed getting to know them and facing that challenge head on!

They are very much kindred spirits that both appreciate the 50's, a mix of country, folk and alt-rock music, zombie movies and the fine art of professional wrestling. Because of their love for the 50's and uniqueness in general we found a spot for their engagement portraits that suited them perfectly. Its an old gas station (from the 1930's) that has been totally and lovingly renovated into a 50's diner/gas station/nostalgic meeting place for cruise-ins.

Bunny's Converse shoes are just a taste of what they (and their bridal party) wore for their wedding. If you think these are awesome, just wait till we post some of their fashionable footwear shots from the big day!

We thought what would a 50's diner-themed shoot be without a little milk shake sharin'! Luckily we guessed Bunny's favorite ice cream, cookies & cream.

"The Beard" as Justin is lovingly referred to by friends, couldn't help but get a little messy. He should do the next "Got Milk" ad and represent the bearded folk!

Check out Betty Boop checking out the smooch-fest. What a little voyeur! But then again, I guess that would make us voyeur's in a sense. ;)

Bunny makes the most interesting faces sometimes. Apparently this is her "butt squeezin face".

What an awesome jukebox and racing-themed album cover collection.

Bunny & Justin,

Well, we would say that we can't wait for your wedding but it's already happened. Now we just wish we could live the fun all over again! I guess we can settle for the excitement of showing you your album and images soon. ;) Congratulations again guys on an awesome wedding and have a blast in Nashville.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Sarah & John's Wedding at Pretty Place & Larkins

2009-10-21T09:21:00.004-05:00

This wedding was a first for us. We have had the pleasure of photographing at Pretty Place chapel several times and we have always been fortunate enough to have beautiful weather which allowed us to take advantage of the gorgeous view. Sarah and John's wedding broke that streak unfortunately but the on and off rain and lack of any kind of view at all didn't put a damper on this awesome couple's spirits. They were just happy to be sharing their day with family and friends and having a good time. And we were thrilled to be a part of it all.

We stopped by Furman on the way up for some shots with John and his guys. Thankfully the rain held off.

This was the view when we first got to Pretty Place. Not bad. But a few moments later, the rain really picked up and turned it all into a foggy void.

Not that that bothered Sarah and her girls in the least!

Dahlia did an amazing job on the flowers, as always.

The beautiful bride/cellist/rock star. Loved the flower detail in her hair.

These moments touched our hearts because Emily and I had a case of the sniffles and did the same thing during our vows! But it was dang funny for everyone to watch Sarah whip a tissue out of her dress pocket! Yeah that's right, a dress with a pocket! Did we mention it was custom designed for her by a friend of the family?!

The fog really rolled in during their sand/dirt ceremony and made an awesome silhouette. I say sand/dirt because it was actually sand from John's parent's yard in Florida and dirt from Sarah's parent's house in Maryland. What a cool twist on the pre-packaged, colored sand idea. Perfect for these two self-proclaimed "hippies".

The clouds finally parted just a little for their portraits.

Kathy & Co. did the tasty cakes (check out the amazing detail on the iPhone Groom's cake!) and Kim from All in the Details did the favors and decor. Great job once again ladies.

And of course John had to get a photo of his iPhone groom's cake on his iPhone. :)

Sarah's partners in ~~crime~~ music, Darby (on the right, also her partner in O Mello Cello Tree) and Amber performed an original song that Darby wrote for Sarah's Wedding day. All these girls are amazingly talented.

Sarah's mom surprised the happy couple with a rickshaw getaway ride. Thankfully they have covers for those things because it really started to rain when they left. Congratulations again Sarah and John!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Deja Vu! kismetphotography.net hijacked!

2009-10-08T21:29:00.003-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, things look a little different around here. For one, no images on the blog! And two, our website at www.kismetphotography.net is gone! Is this some kind of new subliminal marketing technique you ask? No, but if it works, we're patenting it. No, it is merely the kidnapping and subsequent holding for ransom of our website/email by our web hosting company, GISOL Inc., otherwise known as Global Internet Solutions, aka Our Worst Nightmare.

Because that company is so horrible and was actually demanding we pay a lot of money just to be able to keep our domain name, which we rightfully purchased and own, we decided the best choice was to remove our website from them all together, even though it means transitioning everything...repeat EVERYTHING over to a new web address. Yes, if you can believe it, it's happened again. And again GISOL is to blame! GRRRRR! Our new web address is www.kismetphotography.us. We're so patriotic ;). We are in the process of transitioning now but the website is up and we have email again. Our new email address is info@kismetphotography.us so please be sure to update it and add it to your contacts. If you have emailed us in the last couple of weeks and have not gotten a response, please resend it to the new email address or feel free call us.

If you experience any links taking you to the wrong site or email, we apologize in advance. Please be patient with us as we have very little free time now that we are in our busy Fall season, but eventually we will get all the kinks worked out. As for the images on this blog, it would be an incredibly time-consuming task to change the links to all the images to the new server so they actually appear. For that reason, we would rather devote our limited time to our clients and their images/products so that they receive them in a timely manner. In other words, all previous posts on this blog may be image-less for quite a while or indefinitely. Only time will tell. Better to invest that time in trying to actually keep up with new blog posts instead, right?! But at least our website is now with a company whose mission statement DOES NOT include the words "screw the customer" and "extort money from them". Happy days!

Thanks in advance for your patience and understanding,

Curtis & Emily Snyder
Kismet Photography
http://www.kismetphotography.us
info@kismetphotography.us
(864) 350-2338

Sarah & John's Engagement Portraits at Furman

2009-09-28T14:57:00.008-05:00

Well Sarah & John were happily married this past Saturday so we feel now is the perfect time to post...their Engagement Portraits. Yeah, we're a little behind but bear with us. It has been a crazy few weeks leading up to the Wedding Festival and an even crazier couple of weeks since.

Sarah & John thought it would be cool to go to their Alma Mater for their session and we couldn't agree more. We feel it is always a great idea to do at least part of your engagement portraits at a place that is meaningful or special to you and your fiance. And they wanted to get their children (of the furry variety) involved as well and we were happy to oblige. Check out some of the highlights.

We stumbled upon this awesome staircase and are so glad we did. It's amazing what wonders you can find when you just open doors and walk into a place like you own it! ;)

Like we said, love the staircase and how all the lines lead your eye right to the smooching couple.

This photo has a hidden meaning or two. For one, they used to be roomates in a house on Paris Mountain. And two, the swan that conveniently strolled up beside them is extra cool because John's college nickname is Swan! Freaky coincidence or awesome photographers with swan-mind-control powers? We'll let you decide.

Toby and Wendy were all about performing for the camera.

Here is Wendy performing her "I know you're trying to walk with me but I'm just gonna lay here and roll around a bit" trick. We think she nailed it :) Between that and the Sun peaking through the trees so perfectly, we couldn't have planned the shot any better.

And they were so good for a nice family portrait.

It was at this point we were being serenaded by a Jazz music festival going on at the amphitheater. Did we mention that Sarah is an accomplished cellist that teaches lessons and has her very own awesome band, O Mello Cello Tree, with her friend Darby? Check em out and experience cello music like you never imagined.

The setting sun is some of the softest most beautiful light.

We have a few other sessions that we still need to post and this is the week to do it so keep on the lookout.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Wedding Festival Fall 2009

2009-09-20T10:08:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy weekend starting with the Wedding Festival on Thursday, which was a good bit of work but wonderfully successful for us. We really enjoyed meeting all the new brides at the show and catching up with some of our fellow vendors. Since then we've set up a lot of meetings and our 20 commissions for 2010 are booking up quickly. So, if you liked what you saw at the show and would like to talk with us more about your wedding plans, please call or email us soon to check if we have your date available. To sweeten the deal, we are now extending our special offer to those that may be interested in Kismet Photography but did not have a chance to go to the show. Check it out:

So if you want us to be a part of your big day, call or email to set up a meeting at our gallery before September 25th in order to score a FREE custom Photo Guestbook of your favorite engagement portraits.

We leave you now with a shot of our booth at the show. Cozy idnit?!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Fall Family Portraits

2009-09-09T13:20:00.003-05:00

In celebration of our favorite time of year (Emily's birthday is right around the corner...not to mention pumpkin carving and Halloween), we are offering Free Family Portrait sessions. It's also the perfect time to create a unique family portrait for your holiday cards.

We're looking for families who want to get outdoors and have some photo fun with us at local state parks, pumpkin patches or even a bonfire with some smores!

Free sessions are for a limited time only so call today to reserve your spot!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Jessica & Bobby's Engagement Portraits in Columbia, SC

2009-09-07T13:34:00.005-05:00

It was mere chance that we met Jessica & Bobby. Earlier this year, we donated a portrait session and album to an auction benefiting a local charity. It happens that the winner of our auction item knew Jessica and Bobby, who were recently engaged, and thought it would be perfect for their engagement portraits. How nice is that!

Being graduates of USC, they naturally wanted to have their portraits taken at a couple of their favorite spots around Columbia. We happily obliged as we love shooting in new places and it had been a little while since we photographed there. After meeting Jessica and Bobby (and their furry friends) and seeing how much fun, energetic and in love they are, we couldn't have been happier how things worked out. One could even say it was "kismet" since they subsequently loved their portraits and booked us for their wedding next May. Check out some highlights from the shoot and you'll see why we are very much looking forward to their Columbia wedding.

The famous Gervais St. Bridge where Bobby popped the question to Jessica.

Bobby really knows how to get her smiling and laughing! Of course it doesn't hurt that Jessica is just a naturally happy and energetic person.

Their furry children, Lily and Emory, look more like they are walking Bobby and Jessica. Love the MJ-like lean little Emory is sporting!

Then we went to the Horseshoe on USC campus.

And finally to the State House to wrap up a great evening!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Shannon & Tucker's Wedding at St. Matthews & Thornblade Country Club

2009-08-29T12:30:00.005-05:00

It's almost Wedding Festival time again and we are working on lots of ideas to make our booth extra cool this year, as well as creating a shiny new website. Needless to say we are pretty busy and have let the blog slip a bit but this week we intend to remedy that. Here are a few (okay quite a few) of our favorites from a recent wedding with the very fun and very awesome couple, Shannon & Tucker.

Every bride needs an entourage.

Love this one. Shannon is gorgeous anyway but the light was making her even more glowing.

There she goes glowing again! This time helped by a little backlighting by us.

Shannon and her girl's putting their diva hats on...

...and then going nuts!

While we are on the subject of craziness,
here is an outtake we have appropriately titled "Crazy Eyes"! (inside joke)

Love the emotion from Shannon's mom and dad.

Tucker's dad/best man definitely approved of Tucker's beautiful bride as she walked down the aisle.

Emily's View (left), Curtis' View (right)

Another gorgeous creation by Holly's Cakes complete with flowers by Dahlia.

There was a wonderful range of emotions during the father-daughter dance.

So everyone started dancing, having a good time when out of nowhere...

BAM!

From the looks of it, everyone else was just as shocked as we were.

And then Shannon rocked out on the cow bells along with the band, Threshold. They did a great job keeping the party going.

Then after it was all over, we followed the newlyweds back to the Westin Poinsett for some end of the night romantic portraits.

How hot are these lovebirds?!

We'd say pretty dang HOT!!!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Amy & Jeff's Wedding & Day After Portraits

2009-08-18T13:49:00.003-05:00

Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme? That is the question...or at least it's the one thing we know Amy & Jeff can't agree on. But that's ok. What would marriage be without it's compromises and differences of opinion? So if brands of delectable pastries (we personally would eat either by the dozen and be happy!) is the biggest thing they don't see eye to eye on, then these newlyweds will have a long and happy marriage.

They certainly got off to a great start with a beautiful ceremony at Memorial United Methodist in Greer followed by a karaoke-esque reception at the always wonderful Wyche Pavilion. They then took a two week honeymoon to Australia! (read: we're jealous) If they can survive that long of a plane ride with a screaming baby on board followed by the worst possible jet lag ever (read: not so jealous), all while still loving each other, then they are made for each other.

How appropriate.

Their "First Look":
Amy looks a little nervous but that certainly went away once they locked eyes.

We love our "First Looks"! Grooms are so much more emotional when they're not standing up in front of everyone they know. And we are able to capture it from much better vantage points, as opposed to being restricted to the balcony 200ft away like in so many churches. Not to mention everyone is fresh for pictures and full of excitement...

...like so:

And the groom off to the side always gets the best smile/laugh out of the bride.

Definitely a favorite!

Love the reflection of the church, hate the power lines. But whatcha gonna do?!

Well, we're gonna take the shot because it's cool and then remove the power lines for the couple's album, like so:
Then we send a bill for our digital artwork fee to the electric company ;)

These girls were really bustin' a move! The one on the right looks straight out of a Beyonce video. Can you say "Single Ladies"?

But Jeff's mom was not to be outdone by a couple of tots hopped up on sugar, ohhh no.

And the rock power ballads made for some impromptu karaoke. Can't you just hear "Don't stop belieeeeving, hold on to that feeaeeaaling"!

Before the newlyweds whisked off to the other side of the globe, we had a little more fun at their Day After shoot.

Love the sun on Amy's gorgeous red hair.

What would a shoot with them be without a little of Jeff's signature goofiness?!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Jessica & Brad's Wedding at Christ Church & The Wyche Pavilion

2009-08-06T08:55:00.002-05:00

What do you get when you add a reception full of lawyers, alcohol and a bunch of left-over sparklers? Well apparently a fire that required an extinguisher to put out. We had already left with the couple for some end-of-the-night shots but we heard the tale later. Luckily no one was injured. The rest of the day was catastrophe-free though and everyone had a great time despite the relentless heat.

Please enjoy some of our favorites from Jessica & Brad's beautiful wedding.

What a gorgeous bride Jessica made.

The beautiful Christ Church in all it's splendor! Truly capturing the amazing (and bright) stained glass in such a dark church does pose a photographic problem though. This is actually two shots combined to retain the detail and color in the glass but still have the ceremony scene well exposed. It's just one more extra touch that we feel is an important one and makes us not just photographers but photographic artists.

We loved the expressions as they burst through the church doors. This and several others made a great series in the couple's album.

Love it!

Jessica's uncle was quite the dancer and it sure looked like he had fun. Don't you just love cooky old guys?!

Brad rocking out with the awesome band Hit Mob 7. Definitely a band to scope out if you are looking for crowd-pleasing live music.

What makes this exit even more cool is that Brad and his dad have been restoring this antique Datsun since he was a teenager.

So naturally it had to have it's own photo shoot...

And of course we could not leave their furry friend, Rutledge, out of the fun. After all, they even made a lil' doggie tux for him. What a handsome devil!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Our 5 seconds of fame!

2009-07-25T08:19:00.005-05:00

On Thursday night we were at an Upstate Bridal Association meeting and totally missed watching our epic 5 seconds of television fame! WYFF4 ran a story featuring the wonderful wedding planner, Kim Wehunt, with All in the Details and footage from Amanda and Justin's wedding that we photographed at the Acanthus.

Click here to watch the video. We have a few brief cameo appearances in which you can see us in action. We'll be at the September Wedding Festival in Greenville so if anyone wants our autograph just stop by our booth! LOL.

Happy Saturday!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Bridal shoots galore!

2009-07-22T10:42:00.002-05:00

Since these lovely ladies are now happily married, we can share some of our favs from their rockin' bridal sessions. Enjoy!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Sydney & Sam's Wedding at The Cliffs - Falls South

2009-07-08T09:27:00.004-05:00

In our attempt to keep up with blogging amidst our summer busy season, here are some highlights from Sydney and Sam's wedding at the gorgeous Cliffs at Falls South.

But first, a few from Sydney's amazing bridal session:
Beautiful light and a stunning rock make a dazzling combo!

Miss Thang struttin' her stuff.

We love these not only because they are playful and sexy but also because the trunk has been in Sam's family for a long time.

And now for the wedding day:
One of our favorites from the day. Just love the smiles on Sydney and her mom's face.

Who says you can't get beautiful, flattering portraits in full afternoon sun? We ain't afraid!

In case you couldn't tell, we love big flowing veils.

The Cliffs Organic Farms did an amazing job with ALL the flowers. We stress ALL because there were literally a cubic butt ton! The florists took over a whole house to put them together. Great job ladies.

Now this is what bridesmaids are for. And brides, there is nothing wrong with having a little bubbly (or brewsky) to take the edge off before you walk down the aisle. Just as long as you can still walk straight!

Emily's View:
Sam didn't want to be left out of the field fun.

Curtis' View:

Curtis' View:

Emily's View:

Sam did a great job pumping up the crowd during a particularly rockin' song.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Lauren & Michael's Wedding in Trillium, NC

2009-06-24T20:29:00.003-05:00

This wedding finally gave us an excuse to take the time to drive to beautiful Highlands, NC. We've heard so much about it from clients and friends and now we know what all the fuss is about. The beautiful vistas, neat shops and gorgeous buildings really are worth the insanely windy roads to get there. Lauren and Michael's wedding was nearby in Cashiers, NC at her parent's house in the immaculate development Trillium.

Absolutely love these!

A very sweet moment between Lauren and her mom.

We love this one because you can see one of Lauren's little boys doing his own thing on the far left.

Reverend Jacqui did a great job as always. If you are looking for a non-denominational officiant that can create a custom ceremony for you, give her a call.

The views along the golf course at Trillium are spectacular. And it doesn't hurt that the light was like butter!

There's no greater feeling than when the wind decides to work with you instead of against you.

This cake was a piece of art! Each flower is hand-made from sugar. Crazy!

And then it went flying!

For their wedding night, the newlyweds stayed at the Old Edward's Inn in Highlands and that's where we had their awesome Day After shoot. For anyone unfamiliar with what that is, our Day After shoots are devoted to the couple, usually in their wedding attire (or something similar), and there are no guests, no time limits and ultimate creative freedom! We can go to multiple locations and just have fun. It's the perfect solution to a wedding day that is planned too tightly to allow for much time photographing the couple. And isn't that what a wedding is all about: the couple? We often recommend this to couples that choose not to do a "First Look" since the traditional timeline for a wedding day (ie all photos of couple together are after the ceremony) does not allow much time to get a good variety. Here is just a sampling of the fun we had at Lauren and Michael's Day After shoot.

Lauren & Michael,

Thank you so much for giving us time to create beautiful images for you! Your intimate wedding was exactly what we needed after so many big, elaborate weddings with not enough time. It reminded us so much of our wedding day. We had such a memorable time, especially "getting lost" on the golf cart ride! We felt like we really got to know you well in those near death experiences. LOL!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Alison & Zander's Wedding

2009-06-22T17:40:00.002-05:00

Here's a quick sneak peek at some of the fun we had at Alison & Zander's wedding this weekend at Embassy Suites in Greenville, SC.

These girls were full of laughs. Between the "Raptor" and the "Hippopotamus Walk", we couldn't help but have fun with them.

Alison and Zander wanted to do a "First Look" before the ceremony which we just love! Many of our couples who do a First Look say they're much more relaxed because they get to spend the day together. It also makes for great shots because they're free to hug, kiss and oogle at each other...

...like so.

And then we can really have some quality photo time with the lovebirds!

Their whole bridal party was so nice and great to work with. Thanks again to all of you.

As soon as the pastor told Alison to repeat after me, she gave in to the moment and shed a few tears of joy. It was so touching.

This is where these two really surprised us with their awesome ballroom dancing skills. Later we found out that instead of super-expensive dance lessons they learned by watching YouTube videos. How awesome is that?! What a great tip for all those future couples out there.

And of course they put on a pretty good boogy as well!

We love it when couples are up for more portraits after the reception. There's no guests, no time limits, no worries about getting dirty. The perfect atmosphere to let our creative juices flow!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Sydney & Sam's Rehearsal Dinner at Lake Keowee

2009-06-13T13:19:00.004-05:00

Can we just say how much we love photographing rehearsal dinners?! Quite often they are more emotional than the actual wedding day. Between the gifts, toasts and the more intimate family and friends involved we see everything from gut-busting laughs to misty-eyed hugs. Plus they are a great chance for us to get to know the family and bridal party so on the wedding day everyone is used to us and being in front of the camera.

We had just such an occasion recently with Sydney and Sam's rehearsal dinner at Sam's parent's lake house on Lake Keowee. Here's a little sneak peek slideshow to show how much fun everyone had, including us!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Baby Zoee's Mini-shoot

2009-06-05T10:06:00.004-05:00

One of our past couples, and now great friends, Kelli and Matt were recently in town visiting family with their adorable lil' 10 month-old Zoee. You might remember Zoee from her previous appearance on this blog; link. She is growing so fast and has changed so much since we saw her last. We had them over for dinner and then did a little mini-shoot with Zoee. She is so cute we just couldn't resist.

Look at that smile!

Such a happy little baby.

We love this one. With her hand and eyes like that she looks like she's saying "honey, please" (picture a sassy southern accent).

Nothing like a little high-flying with daddy.

And a big congratulations to Kelli and Matt for their second baby on the way! We are so happy for you guys! Maybe this time we'll have a chance to photograph the bun actually in the oven :)

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Whitney's 1 Year Baby Portraits

2009-06-05T09:51:00.004-05:00

This teeny little princess was not having the best day for her 1 Year Baby portraits but we were able to get some adorable shots.

She looks so precious in her pink tutu and matching bow and the fact that she liked to eat the tutu was pretty cute too!

Whitney's brother, Mason, on the other hand was having a particularly good day and decided to show off for the camera when were wrapping up with his lil' sis.
What an animated little guy!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography