romantic

Couple smiling at each other in front of the pier

Secret pictures of marriage proposal and engagement portraits after

by

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 …

View post

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

by

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 …

View post

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

by

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 …

View post

Sunset engagement pictures at the historic waterfront in Georgetown, SC

by

This was the first time I’ve done any engagement portraits at the historic waterfront area of Georgetown. I think it’s just the distance and the fact that most people are more interested in the beach that I haven’t made it over that way. I do so much at the beach. I always like it when I get to do something different. The historic Georgetown waterfront area will give you a similar look to doing engagement pictures at the Conway River Walk. You still have a lot of trees, historic-looking shops, and a boardwalk on the water. The main thing you …

View post

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

by

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 …

View post

Nice evening for engagement portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park

by

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 …

View post

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

by

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. …

View post

Fun engagement portraits and getting a new lens

by

I’ve had a lot of really nice engagement portrait sessions this winter.  The weather has been fantastic, I’ve noticed I had more work this winter than last year, probably because of the nice weather.  I don’t have anything scheduled this weekend, but I have a couple of engagement sessions for the next. I’m getting a new portrait lens, the Sigma 85mm f1.4.  You might wonder why I’m not buying the Nikon version of this lens.  I almost exclusively use Nikon. My go-to lenses, the 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8, are fantastic.  Ryan Brenizer, a photographer I trust, reviewed the Sigma …

View post

Engagement portraits at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, SC

by

This is my first time visiting the Magnolia Plantation.  It’s a very nice area. It reminds me a lot of Brookgreen Gardens.  Unlike Brookgreen, we were allowed to go wherever we wanted to do the pictures and spend as much time as well.  I had a lot of fun walking around for an hour or so with the couple and finding places to do shots.  The first time to an area takes a bit of experimenting and exploring around. We had some pretty strong early afternoon sunlight which can be difficult at the beach or in an open area, but …

View post