Photography and Video in Costa Rica » Tamarindo

Wedding Holly and Erich – Langosta Beach Club – Playa Tamarindo

Toh Gouttenoire — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 22:39:27 +0000

An intimate wedding kind of improvised…

Holly and Erich knew they wanted their destination wedding in Costa Rica, they also knew they wanted to stay in Tamarindo but that was it, no plan for the ceremony, no wedding planner… When they asked me if I knew a beautiful and quiet spot, I thought straight about the Langosta Beach Club… Still on Tamarindo beach but far from the “crowded” part of the beach…

The ceremony was simple and emotional and we add fun with the afterward session… great moments…

Wedding photography in Tamarindo Costa Rica by Toh Gouttenoire

Jaclyn & David Wedding at the Tamarindo Diria – Costa Rica.

Toh Gouttenoire — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 04:29:31 +0000

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A really relax and fun elopement at the Tamarindo Diria with Jaclyn and David, also the first time I was shooting a wedding at 10 AM… Being the rainy season, the newly weds to be were preoccupied by the possibility of the classic afternoon shower of this season… so we end up on the beach at 11 am under the hard light of a super hot sun… but it gave me something different than the usual (but always amazing) sunset… The little wind help us…

Wedding photography Costa Rica Photography by Toh Gouttenoire

New Rooms for the Tamarindo Diria Resort…

Toh Gouttenoire — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 03:48:07 +0000

The Tamarindo Diria just remodel some of their room, so they needed new photographs… and for that they’ve done the right thing: they hired me…

“Trash the dress” photography in Costa Rica…

Toh Gouttenoire — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:40:49 +0000

-The “Trash the dress” style seems to be all fashion these days in wedding photography all over the world, Costa Rica is no exception

Here how wikipedia defines it:

Trash the dress, also known as fearless bridal or rock the frock, is a style of wedding photography that contrasts elegant clothing with an environment in which it is out of place. It is generally shot in the style of fashion and glamour photography.

Usually brides decide to have pictures taken on a beach, but other locations include city streets, rooftops, garbage dumps, fields, and abandoned buildings.

Some sources claim that the trend was originally started in 2001 by Las Vegas wedding photographer John Michael Cooper^[1]. However, the idea of destroying a wedding dress has been used in Hollywood symbolically since at least October 1998 when Meg Cummings of the show Sunset Beach ran into the ocean in her wedding dress after her wedding was badly interrupted. Since then the style has spread around the world and most notably in the UK, with photographers like Steve Gerrard^[2] and Mark Theisinger^[3], amongst others, shoot their unique ideas of Trash the Dress.

A model often wears a ball gown, prom dress or wedding dress, and may effectively ruin the dress in the process by getting it wet, dirty or in extreme circumstances tearing or destroying the garment.

It may be done as an additional shoot after the wedding, almost as a declaration that the wedding is done and the dress will not be used again. It is seen as an alternative to storing the dress away, never to be seen again.

The facts that we have beautiful beaches, dusty roads and dark mangroves helps a lot…

Yes it was also fun to do…

Here is what Alicia, the bride said of it:

Toh! I enjoyed rolling around in the sand and climbing trees. I would love to put on the dress again and go all over the world photo shooting in it. lol….seriously, thank you for understanding my vision and bringing it to life!!!

Please, if you watch it in fullscreen, click HD ON and strech OFF (bottom right).

Wedding Photography video Costa Rica.

Vows Renewal at the Tamarindo Diria Resort – Costa Rica

Toh Gouttenoire — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:56:56 +0000

Charly and Elizabeth renews their vows in the Diria Resort, I had the surprise to see that the vows were on their cellphone… a first time in a shooting for me…

Vows renewal in Tamarindo Diria Playa Tamarindo.

www.weddingincostarica.com

Indian Wedding in Costa Rica: Kunoor and Austin at the Diria Resort (Tamarindo).

Toh Gouttenoire — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:21:30 +0000

Kunoor and Austin wedding in Tamarindo. from Bidrop.com on Vimeo.

Indian wedding at the Tamarindo Diria, Guanacaste Costa Rica

Wedding photography in Tamarindo Costa Rica: www.weddingbybidrop.com

Indigo: “Tu verras”, Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

Toh Gouttenoire — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:54:45 +0000

Indigo, band from Tamarindo Costa Rica, interprets “Tu verras” (Claude Nougaro).
Made in Tamarindo by Bidrop.com Photography and Video in Costa Rica.

Week of Life interview of Toh Gouttenoire (part II).

Toh Gouttenoire — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:15:21 +0000

I have been interviewed by week of life in order to be included in their remote places part of the website.

First part is here.

Here is the second part:

4) One thing is for sure: you have good light at your disposal during work, as the sun is the best source of light for photographers. How does the climate in Costa Rica suit your needs?
For sure the light here can be really good, but I’ll define it more like powerfully—strong and moving really quickly. Basically we have two seasons, rainy (people in tourism call it the “Green season”) and dry, I have to be precise and state that I’m talking about the pacific coast where I’m living and mainly working. The Caribbean has a different climate. So the green season has a lot of clouds, mist, and rain with a violent sun behind, so we have a beautiful diffuse light, slightly colored at the end of the afternoon; or those clouds can give the opposite effect with some really dramatic storm light with a direct sun passing black clouds, giving intense contrast. The summer (dry season) is a constant blue sky with a punishing hard sun half of the day, but beautiful mornings and sunsets. The main inconvenience is that all year long the sun is setting from 5:15 to 6:15, and lowering in the sky really quickly. The perfect Blue hour (perfect for a real estate shot) just stays for 10 to 15 minutes, so you have to be ready. I sometime miss those long European evenings that have twilight for 2 hours.

5) Since the European Union was established, there have been increasingly more debates on politics in Europe. The situation is similar in the United States. What is the situation in a place such as Costa Rica? Is anyone preoccupied with politics at all?
Well, Costa Rica just passed through a presidential election campaign, and they elected their first female president, so there was a lot of talk about national politics, but honestly as a non-voting resident, I just stayed on the surface of the talks; I’m more interested in local activism.

6) Where did you learn about the Week of Life project and what do you think about it?

I learned about it through a post on reddit.com, I browsed the website and quickly found the concept really interesting. Not long after that I registered and made my first week.
It is, as a viewer, a great way to travel through time and space; giving me the possibility to spend one week in the life of a a Tcheque photographer, a Chinese student or a designer in Samoa. From my computer screen in Costa Rica I have all these people sharing their life, their everyday life, in a beautiful way. I love it.

As a photographer or participant to the project, it gave me a subject to concentrate on for a full week, to express one day in 9 images, a morning in 3 photos. that’s an interesting challenge, it is also, as a human being, a good way to reflect on what my life is, what am I doing with it, how am I spending my days… my time… my life.

7) What would you say about awareness in your country – newspapers, magazines and information in general? What do the media focus on?
Costa Rica is a small country, so the local magazines offer a rather small output. One magazine is quite interesting, there is also, in my opinion, one interesting newspaper, doing a good job on national news: la Nacion (www.nacion.com). Sadly a lot of people here are buying cheap (in every way) tabloids full of sensational stories, graphic photographs and almost naked “models”. I get most of my news on the internet.

8 ) What would you say about Costa Rica to attract the attention of people who would like to visit this country and know nothing about it?
The classic thing would be to say that the country constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949, it has had 60 years of uninterrupted democracy. Maybe more important to people wanting to visit the country—Costa Rica is ranked 3rd in the world, and 1st among the Americas, in terms of the 2010 Environmental Performance Index, it plans to be the first carbon neutral country by 2021, and According to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index. It is
is the “greenest” country in the world. That says a lot about it. Another important stat is that while the country has only about 0.25% of the world’s landmass, it contains 5% of the world’s biodiversity. Around 25% of the country’s land area is in protected national parks and protected areas, the largest percentage of protected areas in the world. Everything is not perfect here of course, but it is the best I have found around the world.

The whole interview is here.

Lisa & Jon – Hotel Capitan Suizo, Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica Wedding photography.

Toh Gouttenoire — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:58:20 +0000

Wedding and elopment photography in Costa Rica: www.weddingbybidrop.com

“Paradise Lost: No Condos for Oasis Investors”

Toh Gouttenoire — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:27:18 +0000

Photos from Toh Gouttenoire Illustrate the Tico Times article “Paradise Lost: No Condos for Oasis Investors” (by Adam Williams) about the Tamarindo development.

Short Shrift : Hired to guard the construction site at Tamarindo Oasis, José Alberto Vargas, 59, from San José, claims he has not been paid for his past year on the stalled project, only given some food.

Shells with a View: Tamarindo Oasis Condominiums, sold on promises of paradise, await resolution of a financial conflict in a case that is winding its way through Costa Rican courts.

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