Engagement portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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It’s getting hard to find some pictures to blog about this time of the year, I did have some brave families do pictures even in the cold over the holidays.  I had one family that wanted to do pictures indoors as well as down on the beach in the cold, which turned out nice.  Of course I could tell the guys were not too happy about it. It’s really not that bad though, I try to work quickly and just snap a lot of different shots and things really move along fast.

Now about the pictures in this post, this was a really nice couple I did engagement pictures for over the holidays at the Myrtle Beach State Park. Their wedding is going to be in another area, so sadly I won’t be doing a wedding for this couple. It was quite cold, but at least the weather was clear and there was a nice sunset.  The guy liked goofing around and I got a lot of funny shots, they seemed to stay smiling most of the time which is what is really important.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.

Couple in the Sunset silhouette

Couple in the Sunset silhouette

Couple laying by the dunes

Couple laying by the dunes

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Last wedding of the year–Wachesaw Plantation Club

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It looks like this is going to be my last wedding of 2010, it was at a beautiful spot at the Wachesaw Plantation Club in Murrells Inlet, SC. I can’t believe another year is over already, this past year really flew by. Now I get into my couple of really slow months that I look forward to when things are crazy in the summer, like 3 weddings one hot weekend in June, but then I pretty quickly wish I was busy again.  Well now I can make sure I’ve got everything caught up from the year, I still have a few wedding albums to finish. It’s also a good time to come up with new ideas for my website, as well as try to get in contact with some of the wedding venues and see if they want some pictures.

This is the first time I’ve been to the Wachesaw Plantation Club, I’ve done a number of weddings down in Pawleys Island on the water, which is very similar to this location. So I figured it would be really nice.  This wedding took place so late in the evening we only had about a half hour before sunset after the ceremony to get couple and family pictures done.  I really had to rush, but actually pushing everything near or right after sunset really does make for some pretty pictures. What’s hard about weddings sometimes is you have to work under whatever circumstances you have, you can’t necessarily do the pictures at the perfect time of the evening.  But it actually worked out about perfectly this time.   I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.

Bride putting on lipstick in mirror

Bride putting on lipstick in mirror

Bride backlit by sun on waterway - Wachesaw Plantation

Bride backlit by sun on waterway - Wachesaw Plantation

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Understanding Manual Flash

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There is a great video I found at CameraDojo.com explaining controlling manual flash. You have to understand the basics of shutter speed and aperture for this to mean anything, but it helps to simplify what is a really confusing subject.  When I’m using flash to actually light a scene, and not for fill light, I almost always shoot with the camera on manual and the flash on iTTL. This get’s me pretty close to what I want most of the time, but any time a camera has something on auto it’s going to give variable results. I always get close enough that with a little adjustment in Lightroom it’s perfect, but ideally it’s nice not to have to adjust a picture in post at all. I think I’m going to try setting my flash on manual more of the time and see if I can get my results even more consistent.

Changing Sunset

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As a quick post, if I did this right it should show up on my blog but not on the homepage of my site.  I’m testing that out.  Before I started photography I never paid much attention to how the sunset position changes over the year.  But it really is a big deal on the beach.  I’ve realized this time of year you have to be careful because the normal laying in front of the dunes position might not work correctly.  In the summer the sun goes down behind the dunes, in the winter it starts going down along the south end of the beach, instead of falling behind the dunes.  This can cause problems, at the same time, this can make for some dramatic pictures with the sun going down behind the subjects and long shadows down the beach.   I liked a couple of sunset shots from last week’s wedding as examples of the changing sun that I will post below.

Groomsmen backlit by dramatic sunset - Myrtle Beach

Wedding couple walking in the sunset - Myrtle Beach


Nice smiles at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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My wife and I are both terrible at smiling at the camera, most people really don’t look very natural when they try to smile, so I really feel for clients trying to get their pictures taken. I always try to shoot fast and joke about things to keep it relaxed, the worst type of picture is when someone makes you wait for the shot.  Don’t you hate it when people pull out their point and shoot camera, count to three, then still wait a few second for the shot.  That is a good recipe for getting the worst possible shot.  Still, even with a fast DSLR, most of the time my favorite shots are when the couples are looking at each other or just catching natural smiles when they happen.  This couple though just seemed to have naturally great smiles, that is why I picked to post below a number of pictures where they are looking at the camera.  They were up for anything and seemed to really enjoy the pictures, I’m looking forward to doing their wedding next year.  I hope you enjoy some of the shots below.

Cute couple in the oak trees

Couple laying by the oak trees

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Everyone in the pool

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I had a really fun wedding a couple of weeks ago.  It was for Jason and Aracely from the website blog twobackpackers.com.  You really should check out their adventures backpacking around the world, there are some nice pictures and stories on the blog.  The groom and I got along really well as he is also very interested in photography, so we ended up talking about it a lot.  I was showing him how great the Nikon D700 is in the low light at the reception, if you haven’t used a full frame camera before, ISO6400 is pretty amazing.  This wedding was at a beach house in Myrtle Beach, with a pool in the back. I’ve never been to a wedding before where the groom actually threw the bride in the pool.  I just wish he had warned me he was going to do it, I wasn’t quick enough to get the shot until they were already in the pool.  Later in the evening everyone ended up either jumping in the pool, or getting thrown in, including the DJ.  It was a wedding I won’t forget. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.

Now that's a first kiss

Now that's a first kiss!

Groom holding bride upside down

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Engagement Pictures from the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I haven’t posted anything on the blog in a while, so I just decided to quickly put up a few of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks.  It seems like I’ve had a number of engagement sessions recently, more than usual.  It’s especially nice if I’m also doing the couple’s wedding, it gives them a bit of practice.  It’s always easier when things are rushed and stressful at a wedding if the couple basically knows what getting their pictures taken is going to be like.  From what I’ve noticed it seems like everyone always has a lot better time than they think they will going into the session.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.

Sunset Engagement Portrait

Sitting by the oak trees

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Beach house wedding in North Myrtle Beach

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As I’m writing this post, I’m testing out Microsoft’s new Windows Live writer.  If this works like it appears it will, this is going to be an great tool for making blogging easier on WordPress.  I guess I will see how this post turns out.  I’m glad to get last weekend’s wedding pictures finished, I know the bride was very anxious to see the pictures.  The sun was a little strong during the ceremony, it was a few hours before sunset.  We did some beach portraits which turned out fine, but it’s always more difficult earlier in the day.  Later, after cutting the cake, we decided to go back out and try some more portraits right before sunset.  I sure am glad we did.  There was the most beautiful sunset that evening, with really nice small clouds catching the light of the sunset.  In fact all my recent beach pictures seem to have had perfect sunsets, maybe it’s because the weather is cooling down.  When the weather is cool the sky seems more blue and everything is just crisp and clean looking.  I hope you enjoy a few of the sunset shots below.

Kiss in the sunset, Cherry GroveLooking at ocean, Cherry Grove

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Wedding at Embassy Suites, Kingston Plantation

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I had another wedding at Kingston Plantation up in North Myrtle Beach this past weekend.  Everything went really smoothly. I think it was the largest wedding party I’ve ever had.  I actually just looked at one of the pictures again to count, it looks like 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen.  I had to do one shot during the wedding ceremony where I combined 3 different pictures into a panorama to get the entire wedding party without seeing the backs of the audience.  Photoshop is amazing for stitching panoramas like that.  One of my favorite shots below was the party pretending to play football, they were all big football fans.  I’ve never been really into football myself, but I could get from the reception there was a big rivalry going on between the bride and groom family’s home teams.  Remember, any silly fun ideas you come up with for pictures I will be glad to try.  They can turn out really nice, and if they don’t, it’s no big deal.  I hope you enjoy some shots below.

10 Groomsmen in Black and White

One of these is not like the others, can you spot it?

Groom putting ring on brides finger, Kingston Plantation, North Myrtle Beach

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