Thank you for stopping by my site. I got started in photography in 1984, as a school newspaper and yearbook staff photographer during my junior and senior years of high school at St. John's High School in Darlington, SC. I learned some basics from certain individuals at the school and my passion grew from there. Getting to know some local professional photographers, I learned more aspects and techniques of general photography as well as specialty photography, such as people portraiture, sports and group/wedding photography. I started taking portraits as well as doing a few small weddings, school sporting events and banquets and other functions during my senior year and continued after graduation.
As a freshman in college, I was drawn into nature and landscape photography due to the beautiful location of the college I attended. Nestled in the lower end of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Brevard College was near many very picturesque locations, such as Looking Glass Falls in the Pisgah Nation Forest. I was drawn in and hooked for life. After returning home from college, I continued to do a few portraits, sporting events such as the NASCAR race at the Darlington Raceway and small weddings, but nature and landscape was my true passion. I continued to shoot for a few years then ultimately got out of photography for a while due to the work schedule of my primary job and a few other things.
After sitting dormant and seeing the work of others starting to pop up, I started to feel the draw of photography tugging on me again. Several years later, I returned and I have been shooting again now since 2011. I have focused primarily on nature and landscape photography since returning, but have continued to do an occasional nature based portrait session. Most of my nature portrait sessions have been impromptu shoots by visitors and tourists at the grand strand while I was out doing sunrise shoots in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
I do quite a few beach sunrise shots around the coastal area of South Carolina. My reason for this is simple. I love the beach. I love the tranquilty of sitting watching the sun rise over the majestic waves with their soothing sound as they gently crash upon the sandy shores. This is my way of relaxing and unwinding from all the other troubles and turmoils of every day life. Those of you who have watched a sunrise at the beach know what I am talking about. There is nothing else like it to take your mind off of the rest of the world for a few minutes. During that time, nothing else really matters. It's just you and the calming ocean with that big firey yet peaceful ball of light rising from the horizon, casting it's warm glow to gently light the way for anyone watching. Just describing it makes me want to be there right now. How about you? Hopefully my Sunrise and Sunset gallery can give you that sense of being there.
Watching the night sky is another thing that helps me relax. Just looking up at the stars, wondering if we are really alone in this huge Universe. Yet looking at all the stars thinking how many are there that we can't see. Looking at the Milky Way and realizing that for our Solar System to be as big as it is, imaginine how big the galaxy we are in must be. Not to mention how tremendously huge the Universe must be. Just mind boggling yet thought provoking and beautiful at the same time.
Thanks again for visiting my site and I hope you enjoy viewing my photography as much as I enjoy doing it for you. Please visit my portfolio for examples of my work or contact me to if you have any questions or requests for possible shoots.
Warm regards,
Paul Weatherford