One year anniversary portraits at the Conway Riverwalk

I had a great time this past weekend taking pictures for Ornelie and Matt, my previous wedding clients . I shot both their engagement pictures and their beautiful African themed wedding at the River Ridge Golf Course in Raleigh, NC. Since their engagement pictures were at the beach, Ornelie wanted a different look for their one year anniversary session. I suggested the Conway Riverwalk. I’ve been doing a lot of weddings and engagement pictures in Conway recently and I love taking portraits in this area.

Romantic portraits on the moss covered boardwalk and Waccamaw River docks

I started out with the anniversary portraits at the south end of the Riverwalk near the Conway Marina. The marina end of the Riverwalk has the most dense area of trees, with lots of beautiful moss hanging from the oak tree branches. When the sun is a bit higher in the sky, an hour or so before sunset, even in the winter there is plenty of shade in this area. I always love low angle shots with the boardwalk and tree moss going out of focus in the distance. No one was around, so I pulled one of the park benches into the middle of the boardwalk, for some romantic pictures of the husband and wife sitting together.

It must have been high tide, because the Waccamaw River was much higher than usual. When I took Ornelie and Matt out onto the Waccamaw River docks, we didn’t even have to go down the ramp at all to get at the water’s edge. I always love pictures down on these docks with the sunset reflecting off the river in the background. There are some great views here of the old Conway bridge as well. I even did a few pictures of the couple laying together looking up, similar to what I would do in the beach sand, and they turned out really great.

Next, we took some pictures leaning against the old wood of the wall next to the boardwalk. I got my camera as close as possible to the wood to give an interesting perspective. After this, we walked up to the old train tracks. Something nice about hitting the train tracks closer to the end of the session, there isn’t any harsh sun to deal with. They have a warning sign not to walk past a certain point out on the tracks now. With the sun setting, it’s not really necessary to go past the sign to still get some great pictures on the tracks.

Pictures under the lights on the Gardenwalk

Near the end of the session, I suggested we quickly drive over to the nearby Gardenwalk in downtown Conway. I wasn’t really thinking about the fact that it was winter, and there wouldn’t be anything blooming in the garden. While the garden itself was dead, I used the hanging lights over the garden to make a nice background for the pictures. We got some cute shots with Ornelie’s “We survived our first year of marriage” sign. I hope you enjoy the pictures. If you want some anniversary portraits similar to this husband and wife, please let me know I would be happy to do it.

Gear used for these pictures

For those that are curious, these pictures were all taken with a Nikon D850 and Nikkor 85mm f1.4 lens. All the pictures were shot between f1.8 and f2.0. A Godox AD200 connected to a AD-B2 bare bulb strobe with 1/4 cto gel was used off camera with a V1N on camera for control. I used manual flash control for all pictures. Using a flash like this is how I always have nice lighting on the face and a great catch light in the eyes. All the pictures were adjusted with a combination of Lightroom and Luminar 4.