About this vendor
BOOKING DATES: MARCH-MAY or OCTOBER-DECEMBER
My passion for photography started in my early childhood with a red, white, and blue PEPSI-branded Polaroid camera that my grandmother gave me. By age 17, I was spending countless hours in my high school's darkroom as part of my Studio Arts and Journalism studies, a passion that eventually led me to manage several professional photo finishing labs in Charleston, South Carolina.
Today, with more than 20 years of experience in the photography industry, I specialize in creating unique visual content for commercial brands, food and beverage businesses, hospitality clients, and promotional campaigns. I also enjoy capturing a select number of weddings and corporate events each year.
My work has been featured in publications such as Matador Network, Garden & Gun, The Local Palate, Distiller Magazine, Weddings Unveiled, and others. I received recognition including First and Second Place awards, as well as Honorable Mention, in the Charleston City Paper Photography Contest, along with Martha Stewart Wedding Wire Awards and Best of The Knot Weddings honors.
Beyond photography, I enjoy sharing knowledge through workshops, mentoring, and one-on-one coaching for both photography enthusiasts and working professionals as well as consulting for bar and restaurants to create profitable and unique specialty cocktail menus. In recent years, my focus has been on reviving content for restaurants, bars, hotels, spirits brands, and branded events, helping businesses stay visually connected with their clientele.
Details
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Engagement
- Trash The Dress
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Documentary
- Dramatic
- Lifestyle
- Modern
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
2013 'Best of Weddings'
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
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5
out of 5.030 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 6
Stephen was incredible to work with from start to finish—professional, calming, and so much fun to be around. His personality really shines, and he kept us laughing the entire time...
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On our wedding day, we were dealing with BELOW freezing temperatures and even a literal snowstorm — not only did Stephen show up, he handled it all with such ease and flexibility. The snow photos he captured are absolutely STUNNING!
He was also amazing with my autistic kiddos. He was patient, kind, and truly took the time to connect with them, capturing photos that genuinely reflect their personalities—and that means everything to me.
Stephen didn’t just take pictures—he captured the feeling of the day. We are so grateful for him and continuously relive everything through his photos.
If you’re considering him, book him. You will not regret it!!
Loved him!! Great ideas and took great shots! Willing to work with us on our time frame changes. Super fun guy!
Stephan did an amazing job for me and my wife’s engagement shoot and wedding day! He is the perfect balance of professional and personable. Being one on one taking engagement photo...
s downtown with a stranger can be awkward but Stephan was great about making us feel comfortable, getting great shots, taking our input based on what we wanted, and made us feel very good about having him shooting our wedding as well! The day of he made sure we hit our entire list of requests and then some. We are beyond happy with our pictures of everything and for the price he offers you truly can’t go wrong with picking him!
Stephen is an excellent photographer! He captured every moment of our wedding perfectly. He was also super fun and had very creative photo ideas. We highly recommend him - don't he...
sitate to hire him! Thanks again, Stephen!
Stephen captured our day beautifully. He brought all the greatest moments to life through his photos so that we can remember our day forever. He was so energetic and had the best e...
nergy during the whole day. After getting our photos back, I felt like he somehow managed to be everywhere at once during the hectic day, so not a moment was missed by him. We got our photos back quickly and edited wonderfully (about a month with over 700 photos)! The day of, my husband hit him with a ton of photo requests and he managed to work every single one in. I would definitely recommend Stephen for any wedding.
Stephen was everything we were looking for! The photos came out amazing and he did a great job capturing our special day. He was easy to talk to and we liked that he would suggest ...
places to take photos. We highly recommend hiring him!
Stephen is an absolute delight to work with!!! My brother and sister-in-law used him for their wedding. I knew the minute my fiancé and I got engaged that I wanted to use Stephen a...
s well. We got married this past Saturday and he made taking pictures so relaxed and fun! He has cool, creative ideas and we feel lucky to have had him on our special day! Thank you for all of your hard work!!!
Stephen was fun and easy to work with from the get go. One of our friends recommended him, and we are so happy with the results. The photos were beautiful, and he captured some gre...
at photos of our guests, which was very important to us. Stephen was flexible and worked hard to capture good shots, both posed and candid. Stephen was also highly responsive to emails and was flexible in making time to skype us from New York and meet with us when we visited Charleston.
Stephen was a terrific! He was fun to work with and did a great job capturing the joy of our day. We highly recommend Stephen.
Stephen was fantastic to work with! We planned our wedding from abroad, and he was extremely flexible and supportive throughout the whole process. He was very personable and had gr...
eat energy; on the day he had wonderful ideas for our photos and made us very comfortable. When we first saw the entire collection of pictures from our wedding day, I laughed & cried... it made me want to relive the whole thing over again. Stephen captured our day so amazingly well and we'd highly recommend him to anyone in need of a photographer. Thanks so much Stephen!
We could not have been happier with Stephen and the overall photography at our wedding. We had a small wedding at the end of December and there had been a weather event ( freezin...
g rain and ice ) the night before and morning of. Despite that, Stephen was prompt and everything went off without a hitch. The quality of the photos was impeccable and the light and poses he captured was breathtaking. We got all the poses and groups we had requested and many super fun candids as well. Stephen made wonderful suggestions of photos we probably would not have thought of ourselves. The photo booth was a huge hit with the guests and everyone said the pictures were amazing as was the quality and amount of the props. I recommend the photo booth. Stephen was unobtrusive, polite, respectful and an all around pleasure to have at our wedding and reception.
Loved working with Stephen! He captured our day perfectly! He was so nice and down to Earth. You spend a lot of time with your wedding photographer, and I'm glad it was him that we...
brought along with us. He was chill, calm, and fun! His photos were such high quality.
Stephen did our engagement pictures and we were very happy with the whole process and the way the pictures turned out! He responded to emails quickly, was very friendly and laid ba...
ck, and the pictures are stunning! Several friends have said they look like they should be in a magazine or on the cover of a book because of how well they turned out. We are very happy with everything!
We are over the top pleased with photos and services from Stephen Blackmon for our daughter's wedding in Charleston, SC! Mr. Blackmon was very personable, at ease and excels at bl...
ending into the background so that we hardly knew he was there! He produced both candid and constructed shots with unique artistic flare and expertise. Mr. Blackmon worked with us to meet our budget, adding a second photographer just for the time that we requested. All correspondence was timely and professional with easy access for payments and contracts. We are loving the Internet platform used to view and download the high-resolution photos with great ease in sharing. In short, we highly recommend Stephen Blackmon Photography!
You will not regret hiring Stephen. He did such an amazing job on our photos. We are from out of state and Stephen offered to meet with us a few days before to walk around to find ...
some good spots.
My husband and I are terrible in front of the camera.. we are not naturals and we are pretty stiff sometimes. He did a great job helping us relax and he took the prettiest photos I have ever seen.
I understand that it is hard to go through all reviews of photographers. How do you decide? I am telling you, Stephen is a great investment.
Worth every penny!
Stephen was a dream to work with. I am not usually very photogenic, but all of our photos - from engagement session to rehearsal dinner to wedding - are absolutely stunning. He mad...
e things easy and fun, and what more could we ask for? There's a reason Stephen is one of the best, and we are still so so glad that he was there to share our special day(s) with us. Our friends and family cannot stop talking about our photos!
Stephen and Cody (the second photographer) were absolutely amazing! We booked for eight hours and they were on top of everything. All of our guests, and both of us, were super co...
mfortable with them and they blended right in. The turn around time for us was three weeks to the day and all of them are just perfect. They show our personality and there were so many! We planned our whole wedding from Chicago and Stephen was so easy to work with long distance, both through skype and email. Of all the stressful things that go into planning a long distance wedding, photography was not something we had to worry about.
We also booked the photo booth through Stephen and it was great! The digital copies made it so nice and our family loved that they could get the photos texted to them.
Could not recommend enough!
Short version: Stephen is AMAZING. Hire him. You will not regret it. Our #1 hope for our wedding pictures is that they didn’t feel stiff and truly captured the joy of the day – Ste...
phen pulled that off effortlessly.
Long version: We met Stephen and decided to work with him before we even knew when/where we were getting married. We liked him and his work so much that we actually included his availability as one of our requirements when considering venues. He was more than patient with us as we made the venue decision, and ended up traveling from Charleston to Greenville, SC for our wedding.
On the day of our wedding, Stephen and his second shooter showed up early to check in and take a look around the area. He scouted out some great spots for pictures, particularly our first look. He transitioned from one photo site to another, and from one group of people to another so smoothly. He took charge but wasn’t pushy, and he did a great job of keeping everyone engaged in the process. Multiple people (parents, bridal party, coworkers and friends) have told me that our wedding pictures are the best that they’ve ever seen, that they perfectly captured the mood of the day, and that Stephen himself was a blast to work with.
Stephen went above and beyond in every way. He kept us from falling behind on our timeline, helped rebuild our ceremony arch when it fell over (TWICE!) and did it all with a smile on his face. You could not ask for a better photographer for your wedding, and you definitely won’t find anyone better than Stephen.
Stephen and Cody (the videographer) were excellent.
Stephen really captured the moment with many action shots, and blended them perfectly with posed photos. Stephen, Cody and the...
rest of their crew blended seamlessly into the crowd that you didn't know they were there. The photo booth was a big hit and everyone enjoyed it. We would highly recommend Stephen Blackmon Photo + Cinema!!!
Stephen is amazing to work with and we are so happy he was recommended to us by a friend for our wedding day. He was such a big part of our wedding day and we could not have asked...
for a better person to work with on that day. Our photos are beautiful and he really captured all of the special moments we will cherish for the rest of our lives from that big day.
Stephen did a fantastic job photographing our wedding. He went above and beyond to capture all the beautiful moments of the best day of our lives. Stephen is very easy to work with...
and he is open for suggestions and is very flexible to changes. He made everybody feel comfortable and one didn't even realize that there is a photographer around. The pictures which we got from him are amazing and we couldn't be more happier with the outcome. He knows what he is doing and he is one of the best wedding photographers I have seen so far. Since I'm a photographer myself, I understand the business pretty well and I can tell that Stephen absolutely deserves a 5 star rating.
this man is amazing! he made me look beautiful! he was very professional and always on time. I was picky and let him do what he does best and all of my pictures look wonderful. all...
the guests at the party loved him. I was really worried about my bridal portraits because it was storming all day, but he picked locations that turned out perfect. He made my bridal portrait proofs ready for viewing quickly. he also provided a photo booth at the wedding that was a HUGE hit! this man is a phenomenal photographer and awesome person. best choice in Charleston!
Stephen has an amazing talent and our pictures are wonderful! He provided quality photos that truly captured the essence of our day. He was consistently professional, reliable, and...
personable. We truly enjoyed working with Stephen!!
Stephen Blackmon is a phenomenal photographer!! He recently captured the most amazing day of our lives with absolutely gorgeous pictures!! He has such a creative eye and style that...
adds a special touch to every image. So many of our wedding guests commented on his awesome, down-to-earth personality! He has a way of making everyone feel comfortable and relaxed. That certainly helped with all of the jitters before the wedding. I was having so much fun taking pictures with my bridal party that I didn't even realize that it was almost time to walk down the aisle. He is so fun, easy-going, and fits right in with the party, yet maintains a professional attitude. He was even jumping with us on the dancefloor to capture some of our favorite candid snapshots. We truly appreciated having such a creative and talented photographer who went above and beyond to acheive perfection in our photos. He even helped coordinate the photo/design with a local store for our "Save the Date" card. Our memories will be cherished forever thanks to the talents of Stephen!!!
Stephen is the perfect photographer! We wanted a mixture of the basic wedding photos in the church and some artsy, fun pics at the reception. He did it all! He also did my Bridal...
Portraits and they were exactly what I wanted!
Stephen Blackmon helped to make my wedding memories beautiful! I used him for my engagement shoot, bridal portraits and wedding. Each and every photo he takes turns out gorgeous. H...
is personality is likeable and easy going- he is open to suggestions, but has amazing ideas on his own- and is extremely reliable and flexible. It was raining during our engagement shoot and I had a grumpy fiance and every shot looked like it belonged in a magazine. I was extremely upset about my trial hair and makeup for my bridal portraits, yet the pictures are gorgeous and I left the shoot happy. I cannot even begin to describe the wedding pictures. First, I forgot he was even there because he did such an amazing job of capturing every event with being as discrete as possible. When I opened the pictures, there were events that even I had forgotten about, but he had managed to capture. I am so lucky and happy to have used Stephen, because I now have hundreds of beautiful photographs to remember our amazing day. I would never recommend any other photographer, because they could never stand up to Stephen's work.
Stephen is fantastic and easy to work with! We have had so many compliments on our engagement pictures and I can't wait to see our wedding pictures! I can't say enough good thing...
s about Stephen and his work!
Stephen did an amazing job with our weddding. He took the time to capture all the details of the day, helped us pick good locations in Charleston for our engagement photos and our ...
wedding portraits. He really has an eye for composition! Stephen is fun to be around and easy to work with. I highly recommend booking him for your wedding, engagement pictures, or just family photos!
Honestly, I can't say enough good things about Stephen. He is extremely professional but he also seemed like an old friend. He understood our style and vision precisely. He was ...
very reasonably priced and went the extra mile by showing up as a surprise to the hotel where my bridesmaids and I were getting ready to snap some unforgettable moments. He gave us all the rights to our photos and sent all of them on a disc. He was easy to talk to and really fun to work with from our initial contact. I love this guy!
Stephen was responsive from day one when we contacted him. He made sure he understood all our desires in our wedding day photos. He customizes his packages and meets with you with ...
a smile as you need before your big day. Very fun and comfortable to have around. Could hardly tell he was around at the reception yet he captured the best photo moments!
Contact
Charleston, SC
Stephen Blackmon's photos