oak trees

Beautiful sunset portrait of bride and groom on the Wacammaw River

Beautiful afternoon wedding at Wachesaw Plantation with a horse drawn carriage

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I always love going to Wachesaw Plantation for a wedding. The oak trees on the Waccamaw River make an excellent backdrop for pictures, especially at sunset. It’s been a long time since I’ve photographed a wedding with a horse and carriage, and it always makes for some great pictures. I guess riding in on a carriage is the type of thing you have to be at a plantation or garden-style location like Wachesaw for it to work. I got the business card of the carriage company, so I’ll add it to my favorite vendors page. Maybe it will give some brides an idea …

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First dance at Wachesaw Plantation

Beautiful Afternoon wedding at Wachesaw Plantation

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It’s been a while since I’ve been to Wachesaw Plantation for a wedding. It’s a beautiful wedding site on the Waccamaw River, especially lovely at sunset as the light filters through the many trees. The bride and groom at this wedding wanted to do a first look so they could get most of the wedding pictures done before the ceremony. That is an excellent way to do things because the couple can start having fun after the ceremony. This also means that most of the pictures would be done earlier in the day when the sunlight is much harsher. Thankfully at Wachesaw, …

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Dipping girl back in front of the ocean

Cold and windy day for engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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There are always a couple of winter months when no one wants portraits done outdoors or on the beach. During those months, I always have some things to do, like wedding album layouts and catching up with clients about orders from the previous year, but it’s nice to be getting busy taking fresh pictures again. I seem to be getting an early start this year with some engagement sessions and even a wedding this coming weekend. I’m highlighting the engagement session this time for a couple with an upcoming wedding I’m photographing this summer. It was a freezing and windy …

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Putting on the engagement ring in front of the pier

Engagement pictures with an emotional marriage proposal on the beach

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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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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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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

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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

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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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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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