beach

Bride and father walking towards ceremony on the Ocean Club terrace

Wedding on the Terrace at the Grande Dunes Ocean Club in Myrtle Beach

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The Ocean Club at the Grande Dunes is one of my most frequented wedding locations. I appreciate that they have me on their vendor list because I often have clients contact me after seeing the list. The Grande Dunes preferred vendor list is a pretty good one. They seem to list some of the outstanding photographers and vendors in the area. I heard years ago they made vendors pay to be included on this list, but it hasn’t been that way in a long time. You can never trust a paid vendor list, so I’m glad they don’t do that anymore. I’ve …

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Dipping girl back in front of the ocean

Cold and windy day for engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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There are always a couple of winter months when no one wants portraits done outdoors or on the beach. During those months, I always have some things to do, like wedding album layouts and catching up with clients about orders from the previous year, but it’s nice to be getting busy taking fresh pictures again. I seem to be getting an early start this year with some engagement sessions and even a wedding this coming weekend. I’m highlighting the engagement session this time for a couple with an upcoming wedding I’m photographing this summer. It was a freezing and windy …

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Dancing backlit by lights

Small beach house wedding down in Garden City, SC

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I think a beach house wedding is a great idea if you plan a smaller, more intimate ceremony and if it is the time of the year when the weather is nice. I’ve had a lot of previous clients that will rent a large beach house, have the wedding down on the beach, and then have the reception in the house’s backyard. I’m sure this has to be a lot easier on a budget than many of the popular hotel and club locations.  Sometimes I can even get better pictures of a couple at a smaller, less involved event because …

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Putting on the engagement ring in front of the pier

Engagement pictures with an emotional marriage proposal on the beach

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I had another fun couple that hired me for their engagement pictures and a marriage proposal on the beach. This one was a bit different than my last couple of proposals because his girlfriend knew that he was going to propose. This made it a bit easier for me because I didn’t have to try and be sneaky with my pictures of the proposal.  I also got to set the position of the couple up a little bit so there wouldn’t be people in the background.  We started doing my typical style engagement pictures around the oak trees and sea …

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Couple laying together in the sand - Litchfield Beach

Engagement pictures at the Litchfield Golf and Beach Club

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I had the opportunity to do engagement pictures for this very nice couple staying at the Litchfield Golf and Beach Club. I’ve done weddings in this area before, but I’ve never been there for engagement pictures. I’m glad they suggested doing them there because it is a really pretty area. I knew some of the spots I liked out in front of the club from previous weddings, it’s always great when you can get some nice light coming through the leaves of oak trees. Using a really good lens blurs out the background sunlight in a really pretty way. The …

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Couple smiling at each other in front of the pier

Secret pictures of marriage proposal and engagement portraits after

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I got to do something fun last week, trying to do marriage proposal pictures without being noticed. The man’s family, including his daughter, were hiding by the dunes while we waited for him and his girlfriend to arrive at the beach. There are always a lot of photographers down at the state park, so it was pretty easy to blend in. I don’t think his girlfriend noticed me until after he proposed, so I thought I did a good job. Then they just took engagement pictures on the beach together. It was a lot of fun and easy to get …

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Beautiful engagement portrait girl looking up at guy backlit by sunset - Myrtle Beach State Park

Two couples doing sunset engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I recently had some nice-looking and fun couples for engagement pictures at Myrtle Beach State Park. I’ve wanted to put up a new blog post for a while, but I don’t have time right now to post many pictures. I just made a quick post from two of my sessions below. This time of the year, I like how the sun hits the sea oats in this one place at the State Park. Some spots in the winter look cool but don’t work in the summer because of the sun’s direction and vice versa. I never thought about in the …

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Cutting wedding cake with military saber

Military groom at the Grande Dunes Ocean Club in Myrtle Beach

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I had another lovely wedding at the Grande Dunes Ocean Club in Myrtle Beach. This is one of the locations I seem to photograph weddings at frequently. I think it helps that I’m on the Grande Dunes’ preferred vendor list. The light is always pretty in the room where the bride is getting ready, and the bridal party was a fun group that was up to doing some silly pictures. The only more difficult thing about the wedding was it was pretty early in the day, and the sun was really strong on the terrace.  If possible, I would recommend …

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Couple touching noses with the background of the Myrtle Beach State Park

Engagement pictures for a couple and their dog on a cloudy day at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I had another nice couple for engagement portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park this past week. I’ve got their wedding coming up later this year. This couple brought along their baby for the moment, their little dog. I can’t remember what it was exactly. I know it was a poodle mix of some kind. I have two poodles myself. They are very sweet dogs as long as they are used to being around people. My dogs love it when clients come by to discuss a wedding, I tell them people are coming, and they will wait by the window. You have to …

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Family portraits – three boys and a little sister at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I realized I needed to blog about some family pictures. I don’t do it often enough. I’ve had several cute families recently, and before things start getting busy, I wanted to highlight a recent one. This was a family with three sons and a little girl I took pictures of on a cold afternoon at Myrtle Beach State Park.  Whenever I hear it will be a bunch of boys, I worry a bit. Sometimes, boys can be hard to work with. But if everyone stays in a good mood and tries to have fun and make the best of it, …

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