Beata and Paul are from New York State (by way of Poland and Canada, respectively), and contacted me through a mutual acquaintance down here in Nassau.

While I thoroughly enjoy all the weddings I shoot, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so much in love as Beata and Paul. When Beata walked down the aisle with her father, Paul’s face was alive. It was beautiful.

The guestbook.

Seating cards.

Beata before the wedding.

The… ahem… quite substantial kiss.

Beata signing the marriage certificate.

Paul doing the same.

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I have a backlog of posts I need to put up. I have three weddings to talk about (including this one), a small photoshoot for a local jewelry distributor, a family portrait session I’m doing on the beach tonight, AND two upcoming corporate shoots that I’m sure will be already finished and processed by the time I’ve dealt with my blog backlog. Sigh. ‘Tis a busy life!

Anishka and Peter were married in a beautiful, intimate, evening ceremony at the end of May at A Stone’s Throw Away, a beautiful cliff-top bed & breakfast on the Western end of Nassau.

Anishka getting ready with the help of her good friend, Bianca.

The Bride’s stunning vintage wedding dress.

I loved these fans for the guests. It was such a neat idea to not only provide fans for a outdoor Caribbean wedding (you’d be surprised how many people don’t) but to thank their guests for sharing in their special day at the same time!

Anishka and her father walk down the aisle.

Their first kiss as husband and wife.

I had a great time, and I was so honoured to be a part of their special day.

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This beach shoot was the most recent. I’m a member of Shoot The Islands, a local photography community. In addition to regular “assignments” we also occasionally get together to shoot. The first get-together, which I had to miss due to work, was a photowalk downtown. I was determined to make it to the next one, which was a photoshoot on the beach.

I also had a small portrait session with my friend Kahlil back in February. Kahlil was running for President of our high school alumni association, and eventually won (helped in no small part, I’m sure, by his ‘official’ photograph)

Finally, I also recently shot my first pregnancy portrait session with my friend Sheyna, who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl about two months after our shoot.

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Sailors from the USA, Sweden, Italy, Canada, Argentina, and a host of other countries showed up in Nassau in mid-April for the 2010 Star Western Hemisphere sailing championship, and I was on a rocky boat in the midst of it all!

The Bahamas Weekly asked me to shoot the sailing for their website. I loaded up my gear, brought plenty of sunscreen, water and Gravol, and hit the open ocean.

Shooting the sailing was very challenging. I was using my 70-200mm lens (usually at the long end, attaining a 35mm equivalent of 300mm), but with the rocking of the boat I achieved as many out-of-focus shots of waves or the tops of sails, than I did of the sailors themselves! Thankfully I was able to shoot at a very high shutter speed (1/2000 at least) so the movement of the speedboat I was on was minimized.

All in all, a really fun assignment.

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I must first apologize for my lack of updates. I see that it’s been nearly 4 months since I last did a post, and that’s terrible. A lot has happened since January, and a lot is coming up, so I’ll make an effort to clear out my backlog and update events in a more timely manner!

Daniela and Richard were married in a beautiful ceremony at the Lyford Cay Club in western New Providence. The weather was cool and breezy, but bright, which made for a lovely garden wedding.

The inevitable rains made an expected appearance, but only after everyone was safely inside the club for the reception.


The bride getting ready.

My favourite shot of Daniela and Richard, taken in the main room of the club just before the ceremony.

The first walk as a married couple.

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I had the opportunity this weekend to shoot the 2010 Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational golf tournament at the One&Only Ocean Club Estates golf course on Paradise Island for The Bahamas Weekly.

The event was much more fun than last year (mainly because I had an all-access press pass, rather than sneaking my camera into the event and shooting from the sidelines), and being there for the full two days of the main tournament allowed me to get some good shots of the various celebrities and to even, dare I say, understand golf a little bit more.

Canadian hockey star Wayne Gretzky

Actor Chris Tucker

Musician Adrian Young, the drummer from No Doubt

Actor Grant Show

Michael Jordan

Actor Billy Crudup

Actor Don Cheadle

Michael Jordan

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I had the honour of shooting my very first wedding back in mid-December. The couple, who I was referred to through a colleague, were having a fairly small, fairly low key wedding at a friend’s lakeside property.

It was my very first wedding, so I was glad that it was a low-key event, not an enormous, 500-guest high end affair. I think the stress of something like that would have killed me!

All in all, I was happy with the shots, and the bride and groom were happy, which is the main thing.

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I recently had the opportunity to shoot the 2009 Mark Knowles Celebrity Invitational for The Bahamas Weekly. Featuring such players as former world #1 doubles player Mark Knowles, his mixed-doubles partner Anna-Lena Groenefeld, who helped lead the pair to victory at Wimbledon this year, Benjamin Becker, Martin Damm, Robert Kendrick, Don Johnson, Olga Savchuk and Jared Palmer, the event was a rousing success, with a good time had by all.

Benjamin Becker

Proceeds of the event will go to help Bahamian children’s charities such as The Cancer Society, the Sassoon (Bahamas) Foundation for Pediatric Heart Care, The Special Olympics, The Association for the Physically Disabled, The Chance Foundation and the Mark Knowles Tennis Scholarship Fund.

Anna-Lena Groenefeld

Robert Kendrick

Don Johnson

Mark Knowles

Robert Kendrick

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I am a firm, firm believer that the photographer has much, much more to do with the quality of photographs (from an aesthetic point of view, if not a technical one) than the gear which they use.

A crap photographer will take equally bad pictures with a point and shoot or with a top-of-the-line Nikon D3x (or the upcoming Canon 1Ds Mk. IV). Likewise, a good photographer will be able to take beautiful photos with an iPhone (if there’s any doubt, check out Chase Jarvis’ recent work).

The camera doesn’t matter. Let me say that again. The camera. Doesn’t. Matter.

At least that’s the conventional wisdom.

But, sometimes the camera does matter.

Does it matter for fine art? Of course not.

Does it matter for family snapshots, informal portraits, or the way you document your life? No, of course not.

Does it matter for professional wedding photography, or professional concert photography (among others)? Yes. Yes, it most certainly does.

While wedding and concert photography are very different styles of photography, one thing is the same – the need for good quality images taken, often, in low light. For this you need fast glass and a body with good high-ISO capabilities.

Out of these two, the glass is definitely more important. No professional wedding photographer (and note I say “professional”, not your friend with a cheap point and shoot), at least in my limited experience, will deliberately shoot a wedding without at least an f2.8 zoom or f1.4 / f1.8 / f2 prime lenses (which have the advantage of being cheaper, smaller and often sharper, but lack, obviously, the ability to zoom).

Every photographer WANTS to upgrade. We all want the latest camera, or the high-end glass, or the flashes, or the studio lights. Hell, there’s no END to the gear lust. Even if we all had full frame systems, we’d be lusting after Hasselblad studio gear, Leica field gear, and everything in between. We also all need justification for our purposes, whether from our business partners, our wives, or even ourselves.

So, seeing as I’m trying very hard to break into wedding photography, I had to justify my own recent purchase.

First, a bit of background.

When I started out in photography I used an old, small point and shoot camera. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I tried. I learnt enough to want to upgrade to something more advanced where I would have some control over shutter speed, focus, etc.

I bought a ‘bridge camera’ by Sony – essentially a point and shoot in an SLR form factor with some additional controls. That camera served me surprisingly well. I traveled throughout Canada and the Caribbean with it, and it helped me make one of my all-time favourite photographs.

When I graduated from university I got my first dSLR, the Nikon D40x. It was the high-res version of Nikon’s low-end dSLR and, while it lacked a number of features like wireless flash control, no support for a vertical grip or legacy lenses, it did everything I needed it to do at the time. And I loved it. It’s been knocked, bumped and even dropped, with no problem. It’s traveled with me throughout nine countries and has changed the way I see the world.

But now I need something new. I’ve finally reached the point where I’m ready to upgrade. Not because I want to, or because there’s something better on the market, but because I’ve done all I can do with that technology.

I need a higher-res body. I need support for older lenses. I need a vertical grip. I need better high ISO performance. I need a second body.

So, I ordered myself a Nikon D90. And a vertical grip. And a Sigma 24-70 f2.8. And a Nikkor 50mm f1.8. And various extra batteries and memory cards.

So, in terms of equipment, I think I’m prepared. Now I just have to use the new equipment to produce some excellent results, which will hopefully validate the (exorbitant) money I spent. Slightly stressful? Sure.

When I receive my exciting new goodies next week I’ll be sure to post some reviews (not that any reviews I write will influence anybody in any meaningful way, but hey, it makes me feel better!).

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