Bridal portraits at Pawleys Plantation and the Conway River Walk

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I don’t typically do as many bridal portraits as other types of photography.  Many people prefer to do engagement pictures with me and do some bridal style pictures at the wedding.  But it’s always a lot of fun when I get to. This is one of the best kinds of photography you can do, a bride all dressed up for a wedding, without the stress and limited time of the wedding itself.  It’s pretty hard to go wrong as long as you have a pretty location to work with. I thought I would post just a few pictures from recent …

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After reception trash the dress at a wedding in Ocean Isle Beach

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I had a lot of fun after the wedding reception with this couple.  They planned it so they could go to the reception for a couple of hours, then do a trash-the-dress session at sunset before leaving for the evening.  I’ve never had a bride and groom get completely in the ocean like they did.  The only problem we had was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I don’t let anything stop me when I was shooting.  The poor bride in the first picture below had scratches that I had to Photoshop out on her arms because of getting bitten. …

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Wedding ceremony at the Conway River Walk

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I’m going to try something a little different with my blog posts.  Instead of just posting the same pictures I post in my galleries and Facebook, I will post a lot more here, although many of them won’t have any Photoshop work or touchups like pictures in my main gallery. I had a hectic couple of weeks with 5 weddings; the beginning of May seems to be everyone’s favorite time to get married.  I wanted to highlight this wedding at the Conway River Walk because it’s a location I haven’t done a wedding before.  I’ve been to this area several …

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Fun engagement portraits and getting a new lens

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I’ve had a lot of really nice engagement portrait sessions this winter.  The weather has been fantastic, I’ve noticed I had more work this winter than last year, probably because of the nice weather.  I don’t have anything scheduled this weekend, but I have a couple of engagement sessions for the next. I’m getting a new portrait lens, the Sigma 85mm f1.4.  You might wonder why I’m not buying the Nikon version of this lens.  I almost exclusively use Nikon. My go-to lenses, the 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8, are fantastic.  Ryan Brenizer, a photographer I trust, reviewed the Sigma …

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Engagement portraits at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC

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This is my first time visiting the Magnolia Plantation.  It’s a very nice area. It reminds me a lot of Brookgreen Gardens.  Unlike Brookgreen, we were allowed to go wherever we wanted to do the pictures and spend as much time as well.  I had a lot of fun walking around for an hour or so with the couple and finding places to do shots.  The first time to an area takes a bit of experimenting and exploring around. We had some pretty strong early afternoon sunlight which can be difficult at the beach or in an open area, but …

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After wedding pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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Now that things have slowed down some, I’m going to try and go back and blog about some of my previous weddings and events.  This couple was married the day before and just wanted to do some portraits of the two of them.  The Myrtle Beach State Park is a great place for pictures because of the options, like the oak trees, the pier, and the nice dunes, all in the same location.  Also, it’s out of the Myrtle Beach city limits, so you don’t get in trouble for taking pictures there.  The only thing is, you have to be …

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Wedding at Litchfield Plantation with a horse drawn carriage

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This is the first wedding I’ve done at Litchfield Plantation.  It’s a very beautiful area. I always like the Litchfield / Pawleys Island area with all the moss-covered Oak trees.  It’s so pretty if you can get the light coming through the trees just right in the evening.  One of my favorite bridal portraits ever was down in this area.  Just in case you are not familiar, Litchfield is about 20 minutes south of Myrtle Beach, down business 17.  Many of the best spots, with beautiful trees, are away from the beach near the Intracoastal waterway.  I will post some …

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Really cool black and white images

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A lot of people don’t have a clear understanding of how black-and-white images are done with modern digital cameras.  It’s not like with film, where you choose to use either b&w or color film.  Even if your digital camera has a black-and-white setting, it takes a color picture inside the camera and then converts it to black and white.  With the nicer cameras, you take your pictures in a raw color format and then adjust and do what you want with an image later in the software.  There is no such thing as taking a black-and-white image anymore, so in …

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Really cute family and senior pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I just wanted to put up a quick post.  I’ve been loving some of my family pictures recently. Sometimes I will get a really big family with a lot of grumpy two year olds, you know how that can be at times.  But lately, I’ve had some of my favorite family pictures in a long time.  I also want to apologize for the delay in getting some family proofs ready for viewing, I’m really going to be working on getting them all up this next week. This month has just been hectic. I’m deciding to cut back some to make …

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Wedding reception at the Conway River Walk

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I had a fun wedding reception a couple of weeks ago in the Conway River Walk area, specifically at the Peanut Warehouse.  The Conway area is a small historic town about 20 minutes away from Myrtle Beach.  Conway has a really pretty area on the river, with some nearby railroad tracks that are no longer used, which makes for a great photo location.  This couple already had their wedding ceremony in Italy. They were having a second reception for the family and friends that were not able to make the trip.  I wouldn’t normally want just to photograph a reception …

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