CONTEST TIME AGAIN
How is it February 2026 already!?
With all the lovely things going on in the world I seem to have lost track of time (I thought it only flew when you were having fun!?) so I almost felt a bit of panic, a ping in my stomach, when I saw that it was once again time to enter submissions for the annual Grand Strand Magazine photo contest.
I thought back - did I shoot anything magazine-worthy from the area known as the Grand Strand, that I now call home? [lowercase h] I shot a lot of photos last year. From Home [uppercase H] to the top of Monta Rosa in the Swiss Alps, I clicked my shutter button tens of thousands of times.
That’s thousands of pictures I’m proud of, and hundreds that I would submit to magazines in their respective areas.
But after a quick mental indexing of local spots and shots, nothing jumped out to me. I felt sick. How did I let this happen!? I’m supposed to be shooting for the cover!
Later that night, I did a thorough search through a years worth of memory cards:
In June got VIP tickets for the Pavillion at Broadway (shoutout to their social media team!) and shot the whole park from top to bottom, including taking my camera down the slide and on the Ferris Wheel twice. Nothing magazine worthy though, in my opinion.
I made my way through Brookgreen at least four times, taking my pops and aunt there in back-to-back summer weekends. My dad and I even saw a prehistoric looking alligator submerse itself into the pond like a Navy SEAL. We hooted and hollered from behind the fence. No magazine-level photos though.
I shot Springmaid more times than I can count, the best times being with loved ones. My mom and I were out there in October for one of the most jaw-dropping sunsets in recent memory, one that re-invented itself in new shades several times before calling it quits. None stood out to me as something that would translate to the page. You had to be there, as they say.
So, I had my work cut out for me. I had about three weeks to shoot something worthy of being in a grocery store. On a coffee table. In a dentist office. I didn’t know what it would be but I knew it wasn’t whatever I just looked at. I was almost disgusted with myself.
Which is perfect, because if you recall - I play better when I’m mad.
So I got out there, several times in the last month. Middle of the night on the beach. Hours in the snow. Aquarium twice. I was getting after it.
Ladies and Gentleman, my submissions for the 2026 Grand Strand Magazine Contest.
“SOAKING IT IN”
It’s been a while since I had shot on the beach at night, a long time since I shot with a tripod, and even longer since I shot a proper Myrtle Beach skyline photo. I think there’s a new Hilton or two in there (don’t get me started on them) and a few of the hotels have been renovated since I last shot the city’s skyline, but it’s largely unchanged. What has changed is my gear. This is my first time shooting it full-frame and I was definitely pleased with the results.
Truth be told I was out there looking for the Northern Lights, this was the night that we had a slim chance to see them and I thought a shot of them over a pedestrian walkway leading to the beach would make for a good cover. Unfortunately I didn’t see so much as a hint of pink in the sky, but I left the beach - about 1 AM in January - cold and satisfied. [Editor’s note: I’m aware this photo is taken facing south, I had already given up on the Northern Lights at this point.]
”GRAND OPENING”
The title on this one is a double-entendre. Not only was this one of the first pictures I took in 2026 (off to a good start!) but the building in the background of the photo is the brand new addition to Brookgreen Gardens, The Purdy Center. It celebrated it’s Grand Opening a week or two after I took this picture. Intended to be a multi-use guest center/venue/greenhouse, it looked beautiful from the outside, but wasn’t quite ready for us on New Years. Oh well, I guess I will have to go back very soon.
No tripods allowed at Night of a Thousand Candles so I sat my camera down on a ledge for this shot, I chose a spot that had some water splashed onto the edge of the pool, creating that reflection in the bottom left. Funny thing is this is exactly the technique I was using when I first shot the event seven years ago and the kid asked me if my autofocus wasn’t workin. I still laugh about that.
I remember when I lived downtown CR, if you zoomed Google Maps of the neighborhood to a certain distance, it included only one landmark. That landmark? A literal pile of trash. Don’t get me wrong. I love CR with all my heart and soul. But that was a damning fact, and certainly representative of a bigger problem: there was very little to do unless you made it happen (we made it happen).
My neighborhood the last five years or so? Well there’s a building right around the corner that has a 40 foot King Kong climbing it and I’ve never even been inside. There’s waterparks, amusement parks, zip-lines, go-karts, an aquarium, a Top Golf, mini-golf, a lake and a baseball stadium - and that is just on the three block drive to the gas station. No bullshit. There is a million things to do here, so many that I haven’t even made a dent - including this place: The Hollywood Wax Museum.
By all accounts, a tourist trap through and through, but certainly a unique building to have in your neighborhood. It’s the first place that came to mind when I heard that Myrtle Beach was once again expecting snow, and honestly this is about exactly what I had in mind. I am most pleased with how it turned out, but I set the bar high in my mind. The last - and only other - time that I shot this building was a for a year-long vision I had in my head back in 2020. That’s still one of my favorites from Myrtle Beach, ever.
“IN PASSING”
Did I mention it was cool to have an aquarium in your neighborhood!?
This is a spiritual sequel to “Hammertime” one of last year’s entries that featured a new hammerhead shark at Ripley’s. It was the only photo selected last year by the magazine that was taken inside. For some strange reason I take pride in that. Thinking outside the box, I suppose.
I took this one on a recent visit, one with a purpose. I’ve been over there in the new goldfish exhibit trying to a shoot my first puzzle, more on that later.
I love that this could be first or the hundred-millionth time these two rays passed each other like this, either way it’s now captured and frozen in time. Hope this one makes it in.
“BROADWAY SNOW GLOBE”
It’s funny how things work out.
It was January last year and I had just gotten my hands on my new camera. The weather called for a rare heavy snow in Myrtle. I called my shot on Instagram, plotted the photos in my head, bundled up and stepped out. I took my glove off to take my first photo in the parking lot of my building and had a sinking feeling. I realized my new camera, as nice an upgrade as it was, did not have a built-in flash. This meant that I would not be able to use the “Snokeh” technique, and the shots that I would end up taking that night would look a lot different than the ones I had my head just a moment prior.
The “Snokeh” technique (a combination of snow and bokeh) is basically shooting in the snow with a flash on, and adjusting the settings to compensate for the flash. If you focus on the subject rather than the snowflakes, they appear as white balls of various size and density, depending on their distance from the camera. This gives the photos a surreal, dream-like quality, or a snow globe effect, if you will.
Well that was my plan for last year, right until it wasn’t. Which worked out, because last year was essentially a blizzard. Giant, heavy flakes, and it was DUMPING them. This technique wouldn’t have worked as well. Too many white balls, wouldn’t have even been able to see the subjects through all the snow.
Those shots turned out how they did, and it was fate. It lead to hundreds of thousands of likes and views, a TV appearance, a calendar cover and ultimately finally meeting Ed and the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore.
Fast forward to this year, and we were forecasted for another snow. But this time I had company; my girlfriend Kristen (soft launch lmao, if you read this far you deserve to know) who is the proud owner of… wait for it… a camera with a built-in flash!
So we went out for hours, shot the snow, Myrtle and each other. See those pictures here and read about how, despite being one of my biggest and loudest supporters for years and years, was shocked and almost dismayed that I was able to immediately get the results I wanted out of her camera. I got a kick out of that.
TLDR; I got the snow globe shot I originally had in my head last year. It just took an insane series of events to happen.
Wouldn’t have it any other way.
DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY
It’s voting time again! The voting is for the cover (I think?) so it doesn’t determine what actually gets in the magazine. That means I’d like to concentrate the votes to one or two photos, the ones that would make for the best cover.
I think that would be the first two. I think the Wax Museum shot would look good on a cover but it’d essentially be an ad for them, can’t imagine it flies. I think the skyline would pop the most and the Brookgreen shot has the best spot for the magazine title (I’m really taking this shit serious, that’s what we’re doing here!)
SO, PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE
Vote for “SOAKING IT IN” and/or “GRAND OPENING” HERE
You can vote once per email, per day. First round runs through 2/11.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE. GOD BLESS AND STAY SAFE OUT THERE.