Really cute family and senior pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

I just wanted to put up a quick post.  I’ve been loving some of my family pictures recently. Sometimes I will get a really big family with a lot of grumpy two year olds, you know how that can be at times.  But lately I’ve had some of my favorite family pictures in a long time.  I also want to apologize for the delay in getting some family proofs ready for viewing, I’m really going to be working on getting them all up this next week.

This month has just been really busy, I’m actually making a decision to cut back some to make sure I can keep up with the clients I already have, if you do write me and I’m booked I can give you some good suggestions of photographers in the area to try.   On a week I have weddings I’m keeping it down to about 3 or 4 family sessions during the week.  I’m not going to become a business where I send out photographers to do the work for me, keeping things small seems to be working well for me.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures, if you do please comment below.

Senior portrait with the sunset reflecting on the water - Myrtle Beach State Park

Senior portrait with the sunset reflecting on the water - Myrtle Beach State Park

Fun adult family pictures in an old tree - Myrtle Beach State Park

Fun adult family pictures in an old tree - Myrtle Beach State Park

There are more pictures from this event - Continue Reading . . .

Random things during the busy summer and the wedding documentary gallery

I’ve been meaning to put up a new blog post for a while.  Myrtle Beach is just in it’s busiest time right now, and I’m always backed up with work, which is a good thing but it makes it hard to do extra things like posting to the blog.  It also doesn’t help I got strep throat and now that I’m off my antibiotic it seems to be coming back, and I almost never get sick. So instead of trying to concentrate on one subject I decided to just put up a few random pictures I’ve really liked over the past month.

One new thing you will notice on the website, I’ve put up a new gallery called wedding documentary.  The idea for this is to put up more candid pictures that I might not put in a gallery otherwise.  I always have lots of pictures I really like, but I just don’t think they are suitable to put in as my main examples of my work.  The idea for this gallery is a place for these more raw, less perfect and touched up images.  I’m going to try to stick to pictures that are truly candid and unexpected, or sometimes perhaps a really silly picture even if the client knows I’m taking it that wouldn’t make it into the gallery otherwise.

I’ve also been experimenting with the new Nik Software Color Efex Pro 3 software.  I used the bleach bypass filter for the first image below, it’s a cool effect.  I’ve just got to get used to working this software into some images in my workflow and figuring out what I like.  Below I’m going to put some examples that are in the new wedding documentary gallery, as well as just a few other random shots I liked.  As always if you enjoy some of these pictures please click the like button below.

Groomsmen waiting on the second floor - Ocean Club - Grande Dunes

Groomsmen waiting on the second floor - Ocean Club - Grande Dunes

Bridal party in the sunset - Ocean Club - Grande Dunes

Bridal party in the sunset - Ocean Club - Grande Dunes

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Highlights from the first half of May

This is such a busy time of the year I can’t really post about each wedding on my blog, I just don’t have time.  But I wanted to highlight a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.  One was a wedding in Andrews, SC of the same bride featured in my previous blog post.  I’ve also included a few family and engagement portraits from the Myrtle Beach State Park.  I discovered a new spot for pictures I really like at the park, at least the way the light is right now.  It’s the drainage ditch for land runoff into the ocean.  You don’t want to get in that water, but it makes a really great background at sunset.

Another thing I’ve done at my last couple of weddings is display pictures from the ceremony on my iPad.  When I get a chance at the reception, I will load in a few pictures from earlier in the day and put them up in a slideshow.  This seems to go over really well, there was almost always a small group around the iPad looking at the pictures.  I’m going to try and start doing this from now on.

Another fun thing I’ve been doing, which I will have more pictures of later on, is working with the latest Pocket Wizard wireless flash triggers.  I’ve been good for a long time at seeing great light and making use of it.  But now I’m trying to get better at making good light myself, even under bad conditions, using multiple flashes.  The http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ website is a great resource for really learning advanced flash techniques if you want to learn more.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.

Groom leaning bride back for a kiss - Kingston Plantation

Groom leaning bride back for a kiss - Kingston Plantation

Kiss on the beach walkway faded color effect - Kingston Plantation

Kiss on the beach walkway faded color effect - Kingston Plantation

 

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What I’m up to around Myrtle Beach this winter

It seems like trying to keep up with this blog, I’m either too busy to have time to post, or I don’t have anything all that interesting to write about. At least the slow winter time doesn’t last too long in Myrtle Beach. Things usually start to really pick up sometime in March. I have had a few families that because of the cold wanted to do some pictures inside, and I think they turned out really nice. I have even had some couples do engagement pictures even though it was cold. I will post some pictures from these photo shoots below.

I’ve also been working with a new slideshow service called Animoto. It allows me to create really interesting slideshows unlike anything I could do with traditional software, and do it easily as well. They also give the rights to use a lot of music, so the slideshow can have music without breaking copyright like you see some websites doing. If you click on most of my photo galleries where it says “music video slideshow” you can see some of these videos. I personally don’t like when photography websites immediately start playing music, so I think this is a good compromise. My galleries can be viewed without music, and if you deliberately click for the video slideshows, you know to expect music as well.

Finally I’ve also been experimenting with doing time lapse photography. The Nikon D700 has a built in Intervalometer (See Wikipedia link for more information) so you can set it up to take pictures every second, or whatever interval you would like. My first try doing this was down at the Myrtle Beach State Park pier at sunset, it turned out acceptable but not great. I made a number of mistakes and I need some moving clouds in the sky to make it more interesting. I’ll post this first try below as well. Thanks for reading, next week I should have a post about some bridal portraits at the Brookgreen Gardens Holiday Cottage that should be really cool.

Example of Animoto photo slideshow.
My first attempt at time lapse photography, sunset from the pier at the Myrtle Beach State Park.

Couple leaning against park store wall

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Third year with family – Myrtle Beach State Park

I just wanted to make a quick blog post about this recent family session. This is my third time working with this family. They were one of the groups I photographed back when I was really just getting started, I’ve learned quite a bit since then, but they always seem happy. It’s nice to see the same faces over and over again. Every year I seem to get the cutest shots with the kids. They both have really big eyes that just seem to reflect the light perfectly. The family wanted something a bit different this year, so I took them around the oak trees in the Myrtle Beach State Park, and that seemed to work out really well. I love some of the shots of the girls looking through the trees. I could have put up a bunch of pictures, but I tried to pick just a few of my favorite below.

There are more pictures from this event - Continue Reading . . .

Busy time of the year

I haven’t posted to the blog in a while, I’ve just been really busy.  I’ve got two weddings this weekend and have been working on albums and things.  I just thought I would quickly put up some of my favorites from the last week or so.  I’ve had some pretty grumpy kids recently but it seems like if I just give them enough time I can always get some good shots.

Little boy chasing seagulls in the MB State Park

Little boy climbing a tree in the State Park

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Cute family pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

I really liked some pictures of a 2 year old boy from the MB State Park.  Like usual at that age it was difficult to get him to cooperate, but I took enough pictures I eventually got some really good ones.  Here are a few below, I hope you like them.

Father and little boy smiling at each other, Myrtle Beach State Park

Parents swinging son in the air at sunset, Myrtle Beach State Park

There are more pictures from this event - Continue Reading . . .

Family pictures in the cold

Little boy holding seaoats

Don’t get discouraged about trying for some pictures if you are in the area right now. This family was from Canada so they were probably more used to the cold, but it was only about 45 degrees out and we were still able to get some really nice shots. One thing nice about this time of the year is you don’t have to worry about any crowds in the background. It looks like a deserted beach because it mostly is this time of the year. I also have the $75 sitting fee special so it’s a good deal if you want to go for it even though it’s a little cold.

Senior Portraits at Huntington State Park

I thought of another picture I should blog. I did senior portraits for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Not that it is much different than other types of photography, but I always worry that I’m going to do a good job with something new. The family seemed to love the pictures, there is a really nice review in my Testimonials. So if anyone is interested in senior portraits I should be able to do a good job for you.

Family shots at Atalaya Castle, Huntington

Usually family pictures are not very exciting, but I thought the Atalaya castle really made for some nice shots. There was another wedding going on inside the castle area, and they would not let us go inside. I’ve never really done any photography at the back of the castle, but it’s really a nice spot. It got us out of the harsh sun, and made for a nice background.

An update on what I mentioned about the Bridal Magazine, don’t ever submit your information to them. This is a warning. I’m still getting constant e-mail from all kinds of locations, and the bad thing unlike Viagra spam, Gmail can’t filter it out. At least the phone calls seems to have stopped.