Fall engagement portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about engagement pictures. When I’m doing engagement pictures for an upcoming wedding, I try to keep them in my slower times of the year if possible. When it cools down a bit is usually a great time anyway, the color in the ocean and sky seems better once things cool off. This is a fun couple whose wedding is coming up in April at the Grande Dunes. I like it so much better when I already know a couple well at the wedding, and they already have a good idea of what they …

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Fun sunset pictures with the bride and groom at Holden Beach, NC

This is the first time I’ve been up to Holden Beach in NC for a wedding. This wedding was for a couple that was bringing together their two families with adult children. Everyone just seemed really happy and got along great. That always makes things easier for me. The wedding was held at a really pretty private home on the ocean. It was quite a long walk from the beach house down to the actual ocean. The area behind the house was huge and just full of dunes and sea oats, as well as a small lake surrounded by tall …

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Highlights from the last few weeks and the importance of a good DJ

I haven’t made a wedding-specific blog post recently, and I’ve wanted to put up something new. I always get so busy in the summer. So I just decided to quickly pull out of my collection a few shots I liked from the last few weeks of August. These come from family beach pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park, the mother of a bride I had last year getting married at the Grande Dunes Member’s Club, a wedding for a military groom at Brunswick Plantation in NC, and a wedding reception in Florence, SC. There is a lot in this one …

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Nice evening for engagement portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park

I’ve been doing a lot of family pictures recently. It was nice to have some engagement portraits instead. This was a fun couple that seemed to be having a good time.  From what I remember, it was a really windy evening, but this couple made it pretty easy.  I only had to worry about the hair in one direction :)  It’s been windy almost every evening recently, but it’s not a big deal as long as you turn people into the wind, so the hair is blowing back.  The only time it really gets bad is if the wind is …

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

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 bridal portraits at Brookgreen Gardens, Holiday Cottage

It was nice going to the Holiday Cottage in Brookgreen Gardens without actually being there for the wedding ceremony.  I always get some nice shots of the bride at the cottage area, but it’s nice to have a whole hour just to concentrate on the one thing without being rushed.  This gives me enough time to be able to switch lenses and set things up a bit more, for example using my 50mm f1.4 almost wide open.  The bride featured here is actually having her wedding in Brookgreen so we were allowed to do pictures in the area without any …

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