bokeh

I love that bokeh from the sunset through the trees - Mansfield Plantation, Georgetown

Sunset engagement pictures at Mansfield Plantation, Georgetown SC

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My recent couple was looking for a plantation type setting for their engagement pictures with a lot of moss and old oak trees. They got a nice quick response from calling Mansfield Plantation in Georgetown. There was a reasonable $160 charge to do engagement pictures on the plantation grounds so they decided to do the session there. I’ve done many engagement sessions in downtown Georgetown, but I’ve never shot portraits at Mansfield Plantation. I’m always excited to try a new location so I was happy to go, even with the long drive from Myrtle Beach. The location is a bit difficult …

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She said yes - Myrtle Beach State Park

Surprise engagement proposal on a beautiful winter evening in Myrtle Beach

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I always love the Myrtle Beach State Park at sunset in the winter. This time of the year the sky just seems clearer and the water is more blue. I don’t know if it’s perhaps the lower humidity or just the difference in the angle of the sunset. We had one of those perfect winter evenings for a surprise engagement proposal with this young couple. His girlfriend thought we were just doing pictures of the two of them for Valentine’s Day. From what she said later in the evening, she thought it would be a long while until he could …

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Sunset kiss in front of the clubhouse, lots of bokeh - Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club

Golf Club wedding at Pawleys Plantation with a first look and great sunset

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The Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club has been one of my favorite wedding locations for many years now. They have some new event staff at Pawleys Plantation I met for the first time. They were very friendly and everything went smoothly with the ceremony and reception. They also remodeled the ballroom a while back with a more modern look and nicer colors. I worked again with DJ Scott and Company, Benjy Simmons and Elegant Occasions, some of my favorite wedding vendors.  You can check out more on my recommended vendor list. This couple decided to do a first look to get most of the family and …

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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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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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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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Cute couple with big smiles doing engagement pictures at the State Park in Myrtle Beach

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I made a giant storyboard for this couple’s recent engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park. They looked great in so many pictures I just kept making selections. The way I create a blog post, when I’m going through the images in Lightroom, I put a flag on every picture that I think might be good for my blog. The nice thing about Lightroom, there are star ratings, color ratings, and flags. So you can have multiple different ways of marking images for different uses. I use star ratings (use keyboard keys 1-5) to pick the pictures that will …

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Engagement pictures at the Georgetown Harbor Walk and new Retina display support for pictures

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This is my second blog post to fully support the iPad with a Retina display. Sadly, the images for all my older posts are not high enough resolution to support a high dpi display like the Retina iPad without uploading everything again. Most people that use the 3rd or 4th generation iPad probably don’t understand how it supports image viewing on the web. They know that sometimes pictures look fantastic on it.  Very few websites fully support it.  What happens now on my blog is if it detects a retina display, it will serve up a double-resolution image.  For example, …

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Beautiful portrait of bride and groom reflecting in the lake - Magnolia Plantation

First wedding at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC

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This was the first time I’ve been to the Magnolia Plantation area in Charleston for a wedding. I’ve done some engagement pictures here, but never a full wedding. The first time to a new site is always exciting, I do a lot of looking around trying to find some spots with good lighting and background details. We also had a golf cart driver that took us around to some popular spots. The young bride and groom had a beautiful ceremony in the gardens with a unique circular setup of the chairs for the ceremony. After the ceremony we went to …

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First ever wedding on the grassy lawn at the Caravelle Resort

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I was told this was the first wedding on the lawn behind the Caravelle Resort in Myrtle Beach. The reception later in the evening was at the St. John’s Inn across the street. I have done a wedding there before. I thought the lawn was quite a nice area, there was some shade from the large hotel building, and there were plenty of trees around, blocking things you might not want to see.  This was one of the nicer behind-the-resort-type wedding areas I’ve seen. They said if it worked out, they would try more weddings at this location in the …

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