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Bridal Portraits - Atalaya Castle

Beautiful evening for bridal portraits at Atalaya Castle in Murrells Inlet, SC

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I worked with a pretty bride the other evening doing bridal portraits at Atalaya Castle in Huntington State Park. The evening was great except for being a bit cold. Because of the 5:00 pm closing time of the Atalaya Castle, we had to stay outside the castle to catch the sunset. The poor bride almost froze to death by the end of the session, but I think it will be worth it to her when she sees the pictures. She did a pretty good job of not looking cold, at least as long as you don’t zoom in on the …

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Engagement pictures by the oak trees and pier and responsive design website updates

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January and February are always my really slow time of the year. In some ways, it is good because I can do some things I don’t have as much time for the rest of the year. I really make an effort to follow up with previous clients that haven’t placed picture orders yet. I also try to get up with wedding clients that haven’t given me their album selections yet so I can get the layouts and orders done. I also have more time to work on my website. I’m constantly optimizing the code, one big change I made this year …

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Early afternoon wedding at the Pine Lakes Country Club

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This is the first wedding ceremony I’ve done at the Pine Lakes Country Club. It was a small wedding early on a Friday afternoon and it turned out very nice. Not having a big bridal party can actually be a lot less stressful. The wedding ceremony was at a bad time of the day for the sun, but thankfully the back of the club has a nice shaded area for the ceremony.  We went down to the beach briefly for some pictures after the ceremony and then back out for some sunset pictures later in the evening.  I’m really liking …

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Ethiopian wedding at the Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach

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I always like it when I get to do a wedding with a different cultural style. This was my first Ethiopian-style wedding at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club up in Myrtle Beach. This wedding was typical, but they had some exciting customs at the reception.  The dancing was different from what I’m used to. It got all the family involved and made for some good pictures. The only problem we had was that the wedding was running almost an hour late, so by the time I got to take the couple’s pictures, we had very little time left.  I …

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Wedding and reception on Bald Head Island, NC

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This was an exciting wedding for me, this was my first time to Bald Head Island, NC and it is a very beautiful area. If you are unfamiliar, the island is an almost 2-hour trip north of Myrtle Beach. To get onto the island you have to park and leave your car and take about a half-hour ferry ride out. There are no cars on the island, just a lot of golf carts, bikes, and shuttles. The actual area of the wedding ceremony was called the old baldy lighthouse.  That is where you see that shot of the bride in …

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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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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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