Family portraits at Huntington Beach State Park for my previous wedding clients

I’ve had a really busy summer this year with family beach photography. It’s good to be busy, but I won’t mind when things slow down a little and the kids start returning to school. I don’t get to post family pictures to my blog very often. However, if you follow me on Instagram, I’ve been trying to post 10 quick pictures from many of my recent family sessions. So if you like to keep up with my work, please follow me there!

I wanted to post this recent session because they were also my previous wedding clients. In fact, you can check out their wedding at the Grand Dunes Members Club from a couple of years ago here. You might notice the picture of the family walking together is almost the same as one of the pictures below. They loved that one and wanted to recreate it. They are a great family and very easy to work with. All the kids were in a happy mood and had fun posing for me for the pictures. I also made mom and dad do some more romantic pictures of just the two of them, as we did at their wedding.

My routine for family pictures at Huntington Beach State Park and Atalaya Castle

This post will also give you a good idea of my usual routine now for family pictures at the Huntington Beach State Park. I typically start on the old pathway in front of the Atalaya Castle. This path used to lead to Brookgreen Gardens many years ago. Then I like to take some pictures in front of the castle itself. The palm trees and walls are very pretty in the background. Next, I go to the ivy-covered brick wall of the castle. This is a great place for individual portraits of all the kids in the group. The nearby trees are also nice for some fun group pictures. Finally, I like to do some pictures on the back patio of Atalaya and a few more with the sun setting in the background. I will do more or less of these pictures around the castle depending on the group size and how much time we have. The beach pictures are the most important, so I don’t like to spend too much time before we go to the ocean.

After the Atalaya pictures, I love the foliage-covered walkway going down to the beach behind the castle. I’ve been setting up one of my Godox AD200 flashes with a bare bulb behind the group. This lights up the darkness of the shaded trees behind the group. Because it’s a bare bulb flash, it spreads all around to the top, bottom, and sides instead of the light just going forward. This gives a cool ring of light behind the group that I think looks really nice.

After that, it’s all the typical beach pictures. For example, the family sitting by the dunes, portraits in front of the sea oats, and fun pictures down by the ocean. If you don’t mind getting wet, we can even get some pictures lying in the edge of the water or the kids running through the water together. There is even some old driftwood on the beach, which is great for a picture of everyone sitting together. The Huntington Beach State Park is such a pretty area with so many picture options. I always recommend it now unless it is too far of a drive for clients.

I hope you enjoy the pictures below. Please let me know if you would like to set up your own family portrait session at the Huntington Beach State Park or anywhere else in Myrtle Beach!