happy

First kiss - Grande Dunes Ocean Club - Myrtle Beach

Windy wedding day with a beautiful bride on the Veranda of the Grande Dunes Ocean Club in Myrtle Beach

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I’m in my really slow time of the year now, so I thought I would go back to one of my fall weddings I didn’t have time to post yet on my blog. This wedding was at one of my most frequented locations, the Grande Dunes Ocean Club in Myrtle Beach. This couple was extremely easygoing, happy, and having fun all day. I think it helped that it was a small bridal party which always makes things a little less stressful. I loved the bride’s dress. It had a lot of unique detailing up top, I don’t think I’ve seen …

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Guy getting a really big hug after surprise proposal - Myrtle Beach State Park

Surprise engagement proposal with the whole family at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I’ve been doing a lot of surprise marriage proposals recently. I think it’s because I’ve blogged about it several times, and clients must be seeing my posts. Whatever the reason, I always enjoy doing these, so I hope I keep getting more. I believe this engagement proposal was a real surprise. She was under the impression we were doing portraits of the whole family. I took pictures of the five different couples, including parents and grandparents, up by the oak trees and then by the dunes. When it was the about-to-be-engaged couple’s turn for pictures, he picked up the ring box the family had …

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Couple walking down marsh boardwalk together at sunset

Fun engagement pictures in Garden City on a cold afternoon and Storyboard 3

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I haven’t had a chance to blog about engagement portraits recently. Things are getting slow, so I thought I would post pictures from this recent cold weather engagement session down at the southern tip of Garden City Beach. I’ve done many photo sessions in Garden City, but this one was unusual because they live in a private neighborhood where I usually can’t photograph. The southern end of Garden City is beautiful. It’s a short walk from the beach to the boardwalks that go out and over the marsh. I rarely get to shoot on a marsh walkway because most of these are privately …

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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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Fun large family with colorful outfits doing portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I keep having some great families for pictures recently. It’s so nice when everyone in the family is in a really good mood and ready to have fun with the pictures. The family I’m highlighting was a larger group I took to Myrtle Beach State Park.  When photographing a large group, I usually don’t go to the oak trees but just take them down to a more secluded area of the park on the far side of the pier. This was a cloudy, not very nice-looking evening. When the sky is overcast like this, you get clean, less harsh lighting …

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

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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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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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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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Fall family pictures in North Myrtle Beach and the State Park

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During the summer, when I’m doing lots of family pictures, I don’t have time to blog about them, most of my posts are about weddings and the occasional engagement session. But since it’s my slow time now I thought I would put up a post about a couple of recent family sessions. The first was a family session I did up in the Cherry Grove area of North Myrtle Beach. They had the idea to bring out a bench which made for some cute shots. It wasn’t the greatest weather that day, but the happy family made the pictures work …

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