Oh, is it already Monday?! Where on Earth did the days go? It feels like it was just yesterday that it was the 4th of July and Phillip and I were watching our city’s fireworks display in “our spot” where we watched them for the first time only a short three years ago…it was also our 3rd date…AND where I met his parents at! Little did I know, I’d be sitting there with them again that next year as their daughter-in-law!

Anyway! Yesterday, we returned home from our annual beach vacation and man…was it quite relaxing! We left on Tuesday around lunchtime (after we dropped Burt the Kitty off at his “Grandparents” house to stay!)

Going to the beach is one of our favorite things, and I’m not lying when I say this…but I think we could definitely live there year round! We love it down there! We spent our vacation days heading out to the beach in the early morning, having a lunch out on the sand, heading in towards the late afternoon, and spending our nights either out on the end of the pier listening to live music, playing a round of putt-putt (where I won…again!), or grabbing an ice cream cone for dessert!

We were joined by the rest of my family on Friday evening and we went out for a big family dinner out in Murrell’s Inlet on Saturday.  We had such a fun time, and believe me…it was hard to say goodbye, head north and come home.  We’ll be back in two weeks to spend the weekend though, so that makes saying goodbye just a tad bit easier!

(Thanks to my sister for one of my favorite shots of us!) 

On Saturday evening, we all went out on the beach to take a couple sweet family photos. Here’s a couple tips for taking photos on the beach!

+Find shade! Shade is your best friend when it comes to beach photography! We chose to have some of the pier in the background, so it made some perfect shade for us to stand under!

+If you can, wait until early evening to go out! We went to the beach by 5:15pm, so shade was a MUST for us, especially since we wanted the water in the background.  If you’d like for the water to be in the background, and there’s no shade to be found, wait until the sun is setting and it’s low in the sky…about an hour before sunset.  To avoid anyone squinting in the images, find a tall building or condo to pose near, so the sun is behind the big building.  The guys!

+Time it perfectly! Get down towards the water, so that people won’t be “photobombing” your images.  Plan to wait too, especially if there’s beach goers who aren’t aware of your pictures taking place.  Also, be on the look out for swimmers in the water! You don’t want to have to edit out little heads sticking out of the water! The later you head out, the better! The gals!

+Make new friends! Don’t be afraid to ask a beachgoer to take your family picture! However, make sure you take a couple test shots before you ask…especially with a DSLR camera.  Make sure you get the right shot first before you ask, and when you do, tell the person exactly where to stand (for correct focusing) and if they don’t mind taking 5 or 6 shots…just incase.  Also ask them to take a horizontal as well as a vertical shot, that way you can have both for framing purposes.  

(We asked an older guy who was standing underneath the pier to take our photo! It was funny because I told him what to do and also told him it was on auto-focus, yet he still managed to use the focus ring on the lens to focus.  This was the ONLY image that was in focus out of the 6 he took! At least we all had our eyes open! 😉 ) 

As far as this week goes, I’m going to be taking it easy and getting my list of chores done around the house before wedding season picks back up in full swing in mid August.  I’ve got almost every weekend from August 13th until November busy with weddings or shooting….so I’m going to enjoy these last weeks of some much needed time off! As for emails, I’ll be checking in everyday, but my “Vacation Message” (something I love so dearly!) will be up until I return full-time to the office on Monday, July 18th.