Tag Archives: myrtle beach

Couple touching noses with the background of the Myrtle Beach State Park

Engagement pictures for a couple and their dog on a cloudy day at the Myrtle Beach State Park


May 20th, 2013

I had another really nice couple for engagement portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park this past week. I’ve got their wedding coming up later this year. This couple brought along their baby for the moment, their little dog. I can’t remember what it was exactly, I know it was a poodle mix of some kind. I have two poodles myself, they are very sweet dogs as long as they are used to being around people. My dogs both love when clients are coming by to discuss a wedding, I tell them people are coming and they will wait by the window.

You have to be a little careful when a couple is mixed race like this one and have extremely different skin tones.  His skin was very dark, and she was completely the opposite with very fair light skin. If you were to have a camera on spot metering and only metered for his face, hers would be overexposed.  Or the opposite if you metered the camera on her face.  Of course this isn’t really much of an issue anymore, modern cameras have so much dynamic range you really can’t mess up. A little shadows or highlights slider adjustments in Lightroom will balance out the dark and light skin a bit.  Really a camera like the D800 is pretty much idiot proof even on full auto.  The camera amazes me with it’s auto exposure and flash TTL.

Even as good as modern cameras are, I usually shoot on manual and just check every few shots on the screen, you really can’t go wrong doing it this way.  Especially bright backlit sunlight is always going to trick up a camera on auto exposure, and you get a lot more consistency on manual which helps for a quicker workflow later when doing adjustments. This was a very cloudy overcast day which made things easier.  There is no harsh sunlight or shadows to deal with, of course you also don’t get the nice look of the sunset, but it can be good in it’s own way.  I hope you enjoy the pictures below, please comment if you do.

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Fun large family with colorful outfits doing portraits at the Myrtle Beach State Park


April 16th, 2013

I keep having some really great families for pictures recently. It’s so nice when everyone in the family is in a really good mood and ready to have fun with the pictures. The family I’m highlighting here was a larger size group I took to the Myrtle Beach State Park.  When I’m photographing a large group I usually don’t go to the oak trees, but just take them down to a more secluded area of the park on the far side of the pier.

This was a really cloudy, not very nice looking evening. When the sky is overcast like this you do get a really clean, less harsh lighting on the pictures. You will notice there are no harsh shadows and issues you might get with a clear sky.  Of course, that is why I like to go near sunset, so I can get better control over the shadows when the sky is clear.  Sometimes I have clients worry their pictures aren’t going to look good if the sky is overcast. But that isn’t true at all, you just get a different look.  I would say it’s more like what you get in a studio with softboxes and more controlled lighting. I hope you enjoy the pictures, please comment below if you do!

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Another fun couple doing engagement pictures at the Myrtle Beach State Park


April 11th, 2013

I met this couple for the first time on Friday to discuss photographing their upcoming wedding. While they were in the area we decided to do some last minute engagement pictures on Monday at the state park in Myrtle Beach. I’ve said it a lot of times before, but doing engagement pictures is really the best way to get to know a couple, and for them to get to know you as the photographer. If they like what you do during the engagement portraits, they are going to like you at the wedding as well. Pictures of the couple after the wedding is pretty much the same thing, just a little more rushed and with a little more stress.

We are finally getting some good weather, it was a beautiful evening with a great sunset. I notice it seems to be a really popular thing to get some flare from the setting sun in the lens.  You certainly wouldn’t want it in every picture because it washes it out, but it can be a cool look.  The really expensive Nikon lenses have a special Nano Crystal coating on them to reduce flare because it’s not normally something you would want. If you get the sun over to the side but in the frame enough where it’s hitting the lens you will definitely still get it.

One other thing I thought of.  Because of constantly looking into the sun I know I need to always wear sunglasses. However my current ones completely make the screen on the back of my camera not visible. I realized you have to get sunglasses that are not polarized. I ordered some nice Ray-Bans that should be really good without being polarized. I’m hoping that will make it so I don’t have to keep taking them off to see my screen.  I hope you enjoy the pictures below, please comment if you do.

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Family portraits – three boys and a little sister at the Myrtle Beach State Park


April 5th, 2013

I realized I needed to blog about some family pictures, I really don’t do it often enough. I’ve had a number of really cute families recently, and before things start getting really busy I wanted to highlight a recent one. This was a family with three sons and a little girl that I took pictures of on a cold afternoon at the Myrtle Beach State Park.  Whenever I hear it’s going to be a bunch of boys I worry a bit, sometimes guys can be hard to work with. But if everyone stays in a good mood, and tries to have fun and make the best of it, the pictures always turn out nice. I thought this was a really cute and happy family, I hope you enjoy the pictures below.