i <3 costa rica

Months in Costa Rica: 5

Number of weddings shot: 32

Number of weddings that made me get teary eyed: 1

Number of beaches I’ve visited: 27 (26 in Costa Rica and 1 in Panama)

Number of volcanoes I’ve heard erupt: 1

Number of of monkeys I’ve seen: a million

Number of cats I feel compelled to feed on a daily basis: 4

Number of visitors I’ve had since moving here: 10 (Will, Leigh, Matt, Mom, Dad, Mandy, Josh, Zach, Rachel, and Mike)

Number of times I’ve doubted moving here to do photography: 0

photos of me…

Rarely do I get to see photos of me doing what I love. I wanted to share these:

me holding the reflector for Joe

photographing food at the four seasons resort, papagayo

on the dance floor at four seasons corporate event

working really hard, being forced to eat a raw oyster with an imperial to wash it down on a catamaran for corporate event in papagayo.

have i mentioned lately that i love what i do?

eco beautiful weddings!

Just found out a wedding I shot with Juanca made it into Eco Beautiful Weddings Magazine! This is Corrie + Jake who got married at Bahia del Sol in Potrero (one of the first weddings I shot here with Juan Carlos). Here is the spread with my featured photo:

and here are a couple more pages with photos from the day. The photo on the top left with their feet is mine.

Yay for El Velo! Here’s a link to the magazine itself if you want to check it out: http://www.eco-beautifulweddings.com/spring2010/

rachel + mike’s e-session

joe’s sister, rachel, and her new fiance mike came to visit this past weekend. guess what that means…engagement session on tamarindo beach! don’t get me wrong. i LOVE wedding photography, but sometimes it’s nice to have a more relaxed schedule and time to play. here are the shots we got around town and at the beach.

one thing i love about costa rica – glass bottles. i think it feels like you’re drinking something more important when it’s not in a plastic bottle. plastic bottles do exist, but most restaurants only serve in glass. check out rachel’s ring – they found someone to make it for her on etsy so it’s completely unique.

My favorite El Velo images

So wedding season has been so hectic (and we’ve had so many visitors) that I’ve completely neglected my photo blog. To catch up on all of the things I’ve been doing, I’m just going to post my favorite wedding photos I’ve shot with El Velo so far. Here are the ones from 2009 (the month of December):

nicole + dan

corrie + jake

kasey + mike

sarah + ben

thien + aditya

laura + axel

kristen + clayton

New Country, New Life

I want to start this post by first saying that I’m terribly sorry to those of you who didn’t get posted on my blog before I left. Things were pretty hectic so some people didn’t quite get the full attention they deserved – with that said, I hope everyone DID enjoy their photos. My senior shoot with Morgan and Sydney as well as my family shoot with the Hodsons turned out to be really successful. I will hopefully post both of those on my blog as soon as time allows. I got into San José Tuesday around 1pm and shot my first wedding with El Velo (not by myself, but with JuanCarlos) on Wednesday afternoon in Playa Potrero. With that said, I’ve been photographing a lot since I got here and things are going very well. Here are a few of my images from yesterday:

Joe and I tagged along with JuanCarlos back to Bahia Del Sol – where I shot the wedding on Wednesday. He was photographing their food for their website.

My list of things for Joe to bring back after Christmas. I forgot a lot of things….

And it definitely tasted as good as it looked….

Here’s what Joe was doing while I was shooting:

Until I told him to come taste the food that had been photographed….

And here’s JuanCarlos photographing the food as the executive chef watches. I thought this was a really cool shot.

So stay tuned. There is much more to tell and show that I will post as soon as possible. I’ll probably be posting on here instead of on facebook. Hope you enjoy!

The Wilkerson Family

Meet little Addison! Jud and Heather just had their first baby, and I couldn’t wait to get out there to take some fun fall pictures of the family. She’s BEAUTIFUL! I’m starting to think she looks a little like the Wilkersons but we’ll have to wait and see. Here is a sneak peek of their photo session at their house in Corryton:

Good ole Gunner had to pop in for a picture! After all, he was their first child.

The next one was Heather’s idea, and I think it turned out super cool…

Cara’s Bridal

My friend Cara met me out at Icon Sporthorses (where our friend Ally works) to take a few bridal portraits and take advantage of this gorgeous weather! Cara and David got married in May, but this was a just-for-fun post-wedding session. The lighting could not have been more perfect. With all that said, here are a handful of my favorites:

 

Carrie – Class of 2010

I met Carrie and her mom downtown to take some senior portraits and then we went down to the Greenbelt, which was GORGEOUS because of the leaves. Carrie has amazing green eyes that are so bright – I did not enhance them one bit! I tried to get her to be serious for a couple, but this girl LOVES to smile…and her smile is contagious. Thanks, Carrie, for a fun afternoon! I hope you enjoy! Here are my favorites:

Baby Pete is almost here!

Becky’s doctor let her know Pete probably isn’t waiting til his due date to make his grand entrance, so we took the opportunity to grab some shots of her and Phil. I hadn’t seen Becky pregnant, so I was super excited to see how she looked! I just kept saying, “I can’t believe you’re having a baby!!” Taking photos of old friends is so much fun, especially when the couple is so happy! Becky and Phil, I can’t wait to meet little Pete and I definitely can’t wait to take his portraits! Enjoy:

You might have to look closely on this one, but Becky’s necklace from her mom says ‘Pete’. I loved it!