Riu Palace Bavaro Wedding | Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

And there we were, toes in the sand, waiting for Kristen to walk down the flower petal covered beach to be married to the man she had always envisioned. Or was he? Flash back several years ago, when Kristen created a list for her ideal guy. He had to play the guitar, be manly yet also sing (good luck with that one!), value structure, love God, and have a Spanish influence. Tall order right? Well there is no other explanation other than that she was blessed by God because Travis is all of those things. Well almost... lets just get this straight, I wouldn't consider Travis to be Hispanic in any way, shape, or form. But as Debra pointed out during her maid-of-honor speech that night, he does have a Spanish last name. And that makes him pretty much perfect for Kristen in my book.

And what a place to have a wedding! Set against the white sand beach that runs along the Riu Palace Bavaro resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, you couldn't ask for a better place to hold a destination wedding. Just a few months earlier I spent my honeymoon at the Riu Palace Punta Cana, just a short walk down the beach. And while it was very nice, this was definitely the resort to stay at! Beautiful, luxurious, modern, and clean. Well worth the 1350 mile flight in my book. But above all that, was the the icing on the cake: Getting to spend time with my new family and friends while having the chance to capture such an awesome wedding.

Even outside of the wedding it was a pretty eventful week at the Riu Palace Bavaro resort there in the heart of Punta Cana's beautiful beach. Between drinking way too much fresh mango juice, capturing Kristen's bridal portraits, getting to the semi-final round of the cerveza drinking contest, and making quite the spectacle of my horrible dancing skills on stage, I was primed and ready for Kristen's wedding.

The day was here. Kristen looked absolutely stunning, glowing from head to toe with excitement. And I know for a fact that as she walked down that sandy beach toward her ideal man, Travis couldn't help but smile knowing inside that he was also marrying his ideal woman.






































































































































Thanks so much for having us capturing your wedding! We are so excited to have you as new family members and we wish you all the best on your new journey together!

A special thanks to all the florists, firedancers, bartenders, servers, and chef's at the Riu Palace Bavaro for making this wedding so awesome!

Now with D4 Power!

Have you ever gotten so excited for a package to arrive that you literally waited outside for the brown truck to come down the street? That was me last Tuesday, when my shiny new Nikon D4 was scheduled to arrive. Ok, ok... I also was waiting because I didn't want them to just leave my new $6,000 camera sitting on my front porch (seriously, Nikon you really need to ship things with signature confirmation!!). Either way though, I met the UPS driver outside and bought it inside to safety.



Ever since I started doing photography (hello 2004) I've always been a firm believer that you shouldn't buy new gear until you fully exploit your old stuff, in other words don't upgrade until your old gear is holding you back. Well, its taken me 8 years to get to this point. Sure, I had a Nikon D3 poster on my wall pretty much since that camera came out, so yea, I've always wanted one. But would I have known how to really take advantage of that back then? Heck no! I didn't even really know how to fully use my relatively new Nikon D300 back then!



Ever since my Nikon D300 went off to camera heaven earlier this year, I've had the Nikon D4 in the back of my mind. I only had two problems at the time. 1) I had a wedding to pay for. Meaning I didn't have a spare $6,000 just laying around. 2) Nikon D4's were virtually impossible to get a hold of at that time: like backordered so far the waiting lists were close to 6 months long. So I bought my trusty Nikon D700, which looked and felt pretty much the same as my Nikon D300, but had quite a bit more horsepower behind it in the sensor division. While its served me very well this year, I feel its time to finally take the leap and get the very best camera Nikon makes. The Nikon D4.



So how is it? Pretty freakin awesome so far! I'll be following this post up with a full review, written from a wedding photographer's perspective. Before then, I've gotta learn how to use this beast of a camera, and make some images that can really show off all the great stuff Nikon's packed into this thing. Cannot wait!

Update: I've just finished the full wedding photographer's review of my Nikon D4. Enjoy!

Punta Cana Bridal Portraits | Kristen's Bridals

Alright, I gotta admit, I was a tad bit excited when I heard Kristen was going to have her wedding in Punta Cana. After all just three months earlier it was Debra and I honeymooning just three resorts down the pristine beach that runs along the east shore of Dominican Republic. But now we were back, at an even better resort, stomachs filled to the brim with fresh mangoes and ready to shoot away.

Maybe its because she's a visionary, but Kristen knows how to freakin rock the camera. It's like she knows what looks good before I have to say anything. Or... maybe that was just the mimosa's at breakfast. Either way, we had an absolute blast running around the beach, dodging topless German women, and creating some stunning images.