Engagement portrait with poodle sitting on the train tracks - Conway River Walk

Two engagement photography sessions at the Conway Riverwalk, one with a Poodle

I like to do engagement sessions for my upcoming weddings during this slower time of the year. I recently had two sets of wedding clients that wanted to do engagement pictures at the Conway River Walk, so I combined photos from both their sessions into one post. I’m a little partial to the first set below because they had a poodle that looks almost like my dog Penny. Their poodle was a little nervous, especially up on the railroad track, just like my dog would be with the tail tucked down tight. The very last picture in the first set below …

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Leaning fiance back for a kiss at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach

Surprise engagement proposal at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach

This was another surprise engagement proposal I was asked to photograph, this time at the Ripley’s Aquarium in Broadway at the Beach. I was contacted by the young guy to hopefully get some surprise pictures of the proposal to his girlfriend. It’s usually hard for the girl not to know something is up by the time I spot them.  I’ve done a number of these types of surprise proposals recently, they are always really fun to shoot, and so far, the girl has always said yes!  So maybe it’s a good idea to have me there :). I’ve been to …

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Putting on the engagement ring in front of the pier

Engagement pictures with an emotional marriage proposal on the beach

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

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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High contrast black and white under the pier

Secret pictures of an engagement proposal again!

I recently had another chance to do pictures of a wedding proposal along with engagement pictures after. This client saw my last blog post and wanted to do something similar, so I guess people do sometimes read my blog. Something cool about being a photographer is you can count all your camera gadgets as a business expense, which, if you are like me, is where a lot of money goes anyway. I mentioned before that I recently got a small Olympus OM-D mirrorless micro four-thirds camera, mainly to take hiking and for fun, but I’ve been able to incorporate it …

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Couple smiling at each other in front of the pier

Secret pictures of marriage proposal and engagement portraits after

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

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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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

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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Another fun couple doing engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

I met this couple for the first time on Friday to discuss photographing their upcoming wedding. While they were in the area, we decided to do some last-minute engagement pictures on Monday at the state park in Myrtle Beach. I’ve said it a lot of times before, but doing engagement pictures is the best way to get to know a couple and for them to get to know you as the photographer. If they like what you do during the engagement portraits, they will also like you at the wedding. Pictures of the couple after the wedding are pretty much …

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

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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