Ryan Smith – Myrtle Beach Photography Blog

I like going back to a location multiple times, it’s just so much more relaxed going to an area I already know.  This was my second wedding in the actual Ocean Club, that is at the very north end of Myrtle Beach. I’ve had a number of weddings in the Grande Dunes that had their ceremony on the beach behind the club as well.  I don’t know how the pricing compares, but overall the Grande Dunes really is about the nicest place for a wedding and reception I’ve seen.  This week everything went super smoothly.  The videographers, AAA Photography, were great and the ceremony went off without any problems at all.  The only thing about the veranda (I guess is what you call it), is for the amount of people they had at this ceremony it got to be a little tight. The videographers were really squeezed in and it was a little hard to get some angles and shots I like when I have a whole beach to move around on.  Also, the groom was so much taller than the bride, it actually made some of my shots I normally do difficult. They were a great couple, and I thought almost all the pictures tuned out fantastic. My wife seem to think the groom was a little too good looking, I might have to hide the rest of the pictures :)  I hope you enjoy some samples below.

The girls are going crazy in one room, and we see the guys busy getting ready here.

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I was worried because this ceremony started about 20 minutes before sunset at last weekend’s wedding at the Bay Watch Resort in North Myrtle Beach.  I’ve never tried to do family and couple portraits after dark.  Thanks to the fact that the hotel has some lights out back and my Nikon D700 has amazing low light capabilities, I thought I got some really unique and interesting shots.  It was fun try to push myself doing something different. I don’t want to go into it too much, let’s just say I will never work with Seaside Wedding Chapel again.  They brought their own “photographer” and “videographer”, I’m putting them in quotes.  The videographer, a guy with a camcorder in a bright orange shirt, stood near the front in the middle of the isle.  I tried to get him to move but he wouldn’t.  The officiant, I guess is used to just working with his guys, actually interrupted the ceremony to say I was getting in the way of his videographer.  I also had to try to work with their “photographer”, which the bride asked them not to bring.  Anyway, I’ll just say I can’t go through that again, please brides be careful about hiring all in one packages.  I’m glad everything worked out though overall with the pictures.  I hope you enjoy a few of the pictures below.

Things started out so nice, if I new the stress to come I might have run.

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I’ve been extremely busy the past few weeks, I haven’t had time to put up a blog post with recent pictures. Remember if you click “most recent images” on my home page you will find some of my recent uploads that don’t always make it to the blog.  Today I was working on some family/engagement pictures and I really loved the sunset and wanted to highlight some of them.  This may look like a wedding, but it was really just a family photoshoot of a recently married couple and their family. We were able to do some with the bride in her dress, and because the wedding was over she didn’t mind getting it dirty. One thing that made these pictures really nice is the fact that it was almost sunset, at a normal wedding I might be trying to do pictures 2 hours or more before sunset because of the ceremony time, which isn’t really ideal.  I hope you enjoy these.

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This past weekend I had a reception a bit different than I’ve ever done before.  It was held at the Ripley’s Aquarium at Broadway at the Beach.  The actual wedding ceremony was at Springmaid Beach Resort.  Ripley’s was a little disappointing, I was expecting to have the aquarium pools as the background to the reception, however you could walk in among the crowds of people in the main aquarium area and take pictures.   It really challenged my skills with the camera trying to get good pictures in the dark with a fish tank behind the couple, I think the silhouette below was one of the best.  I actually tripped on some steps and hurt my knee a bit, of course I had to act like I didn’t.  I saved the camera which is what is important.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

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