Tag Archives: oak trees

After wedding pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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Now that things have slowed down some I’m going to try and go back and blog about some of my previous weddings and events.  This couple was married the day before, and just wanted to do some portraits of the two of them.  The Myrtle Beach State Park is really a great place for pictures because of the options like the oak trees, the pier and the really nice dunes, all in the same location.  Also, it’s out of the Myrtle Beach city limits, so you don’t get in trouble for doing picture there.  The only thing is, you have to be really careful about getting on the dunes.  I still see other photographers getting in trouble with the park rangers sometimes.  I saw this one photographer recently not only up on top of the dunes and getting talked to by a park ranger, but also waist deep in the swash trying to photograph a model, which is highly contaminated with bacteria.

Back to this couple, the evening turned out to be great with some really nice colors in the sky.  I was even able to catch some of the seagulls flying by in a few shots, which is really cool of you happen to get it.  This is a good example of how you can get some really nice pictures no matter how big your wedding is, I just did this like I would do any set of family or engagement pictures and got a lot of nice shots.  I hope you enjoy some of them below.

Couple sitting on oak tree root

Couple sitting on oak tree root

Bride leaning against oak tree - Myrtle Beach State Park

Bride leaning against oak tree - Myrtle Beach State Park

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Beautiful wedding at Litchfield Plantation with a horse drawn carriage

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This is the first wedding I’ve done at Litchfield Plantation.  It’s a very beautiful area, I always like the Litchfield / Pawleys Island area with all the moss covered Oak trees.  It’s so pretty if you can get the light coming through the trees just right in the evening.  One of my favorite bridal portraits ever was down in this area.  Just in case you are not familiar, Litchfield is about 20 minutes south of Myrtle Beach down business 17.  A lot of the best spots, with the beautiful trees, are away from the beach near the intracoastal waterway.  I’m going to post some extra pictures below of the carriage ride and some shots of the location that you won’t see in my galleries or on Facebook.  I hope you enjoy them.

Update:
It sounds like this will be my first and last wedding at this location.  I had a client telling me they are turning this into a housing development or something and no longer booking events.  I guess they had financial problems.  Oh well, it was a pretty spot.

 

Oak trees at entrance to Litchfield Plantation

Oak trees at entrance to Litchfield Plantation

House at Litchfield Plantation

House at Litchfield Plantation

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

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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

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Cute engagement portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park

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I haven’t posted anything to the blog in a while so I decided I better make a post so everyone doesn’t think I’ve stopped working.  Actually, I’ve been extremely busy and it has made it hard to take the time to do this, and of course I’ve been playing with my new iPad 2 a bit as well :)   Being a photographer is a good excuse to tell your wife you need an iPad.  I’ve got some really great bridal portraits I’m going to be posting soon, I just have to wait a few weeks until after the wedding to make sure the groom doesn’t see what the dress looks like.

I thought I would put up some pictures from a recent pre-engagement session as the Myrtle Beach State Park.  This is a young couple that is not actually engaged yet but wanted to do some pictures.  They started out a bit shy and uncomfortable, the guy in the pictures was actually hearing impaired, but could read lips.  I find it amazing that someone can do that, I just had to be careful to speak towards him.  I try to be really easy going and make the pictures as fun as possible, I know it’s not easy trying to be romantic with someone pointing a camera at you.  I thought the pictures ended up being really cute and fun, I hope you enjoy some of them below.  And remember, many clients are nervous about getting pictures done, but it’s really not that bad.  It can actually end up being pretty fun, I hear that from a lot of clients after their appointment.

Pre engagement pictures with a young couple - Myrtle Beach State Park

Pre engagement pictures with a young couple - Myrtle Beach State Park

Sunset light coming through the trees - Myrtle Beach State Park

Sunset light coming through the trees - Myrtle Beach State Park

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Overcast sky, soft light engagement pictures

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I had another nice engagement session at the Myrtle Beach State Park for a young couple that are not getting married for a couple of years yet.  They are getting married back home so I won’t be doing their wedding.  It was a cloudy day with just a little bit of color from the sunset showing through the clouds. Actually, when the sky is cloudy, it can be one of the best times to get shots that look more like in a studio.  In a photo studio they use these big boxes over their flashes or lights called a soft box.  Basically it’s like putting a sheet in front of a light, it makes it soft and kind of disperses the light around.  That is similar to what an overcast sky does, instead of strong direct light you get a more soft and dispersed light without as harsh of shadows.

However, an overcast day can make for a pretty boring flat look to the images with eyes that are kind of dark and lifeless.  Everything is kind of a trade off trying to work outdoors, you do the best you can with what you have to work with.  One thing that helps, you will notice there is a little sparkle in the clients eyes.  This is because I’m using a some fill flash.  Flash is very important even when shooting in plenty of light outdoors. In the future I’m actually going to experiment with more off camera wireless flashes to see if I can get a more unique look to the images.

I was really happy with the way the shots turned about, I ended up with about 150 shots that I liked, so that was a really good session.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.  If you like this post, please try out my few Facebook comment system at the bottom of the post after the pictures.

Couple laying by the oak trees - Myrtle Beach State Park

Couple laying by the oak trees - Myrtle Beach State Park

Couple having fun on the oak trees - Myrtle Beach State Park

Couple having fun on the oak trees - Myrtle Beach State Park

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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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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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Third year with family – Myrtle Beach State Park

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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.

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Engagement pictures of the Myrtle Beach state park.

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It’s been a while since I’ve done just engagement pictures without having a wedding involved. I had two couples this past week, both of them were great to work with.  I’ll post a few pictures from their sessions below, I think that I’m actually getting very good at getting couples to relax and have fun with the pictures.  I hope you enjoy them.

Kissing by the pier

Laying in the sand in front of the pier

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