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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…

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Wedding photography in Tamarindo Costa Rica by Toh Gouttenoire

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I just have my last Trash the dress session chosen for the first “Real wedding Wednesday” on the new and promising blog: Estilo Costa Rica. Present with the photographs is an interview of Alicia (The Bride) talking about her experience with destination wedding in Costa Rica.

The best part of the interview is in my opinion there:

Who was your photographer and why did you hire him?

Toh Gouttenoire, wedding by Bidrop

Selecting a photographer via Internet and email was not a simple task. I spent hours searching through on line portfolios. International calling with a language barrier was just as daunting. When I spoke with Toh on the phone I realized he was the one for a few reasons in particular: His personality was energetic and creative. He understood my vision for unique photos. He always answered questions in a timely manner. Put simply, he made long distance planning easy.

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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…

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-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…

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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.

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Ed and Heather surfers from New Jersey had a wonderful sunset for their wedding in Playa Potrero, Guanacaste Costa Rica.

Here is a word from the newly weds…

Toh, Heather and I wanted to thank you so much.The pictures are killer, they turned out amazing. The whole family loves them. We also just received the dvd in the mail today. We are headed on a honeymoon next week we will order some prints and enlargements when we get back.

PURA VIDA

ED and HEATHER

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Casa Puro Dieces – Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica

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I found this link to an article by Josh F. Sanders who is a Real Estate Broker and the Founder of Shiloh Street University in Seattle, WA, an online marketing school designed specifically for Realtors and agents.

Josh says:

“…it all came down to the listing pictures they saw online.  That’s one of the essential real estate marketing tips for listings!  Give buyers a great picture and they’ll jump inside the house that day.  Give them a “do-it-yourself” picture and they’ll move onto the next home.  The listing pictures make the difference, especially when you spend a few bucks on professional real estate photography!

Even when the listing pictures were better than the actual house, guess what?  It still got the buyers inside!  That’s your goal as a listing agent; get as many showings as possible.  Professional real estate photography makes that happen!”

I point articles like this out because they offer good marketing copy for real estate photographers. Josh has some pretty good catch phrases for real estate photographers. Some photographers have links to these kind of articles on their sites.

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Courtney and Edgar, were married in Chicago, like a week ago, in almost total secrecy, the trip to Costa Rica was already planned, they then had the idea to have a photography session on the beach in order to make some cards and announce the good news to the family… They were staying at the Paradisus Conchal, but decided to have the photos shots somewhere else, I proposed them Tamarindo, we met at the beautiful newly open “Langosta beach club” (Tamarindo Preserve) and had a hour session on location and on the beach… the sunset was absolutely amazing that day…

When asked why they chose Costa Rica for their honeymoon, Courtney answered: “CR it’s our initials… so…”

A truly unique couple…

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Here is a word from the bride:

Hello Toh!

I just wanted to thank you for the AMAZING photos that you sent us. We have started to share the first few with our friends and family back here in the US and they are in awe! You captured such stunning moments, and we cannot thank you enough and looking very, very forward to see the rest!

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Wedding at the Langosta Beach Club from Bidrop.com on Vimeo.

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Wedding photography in Costa Rica

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Another one hour session, at sunset, under the rain with luckily a 3 minutes of sun…

It was for their wedding anniversary, the 20th…

In playa Hermosa, next to playa del Coco, in Costa Rica.

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20 thWedding Anniversary, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica. from Bidrop.com on Vimeo.

20 thWedding Anniversary, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.
www.weddingbybidrop.com

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A one hour morning session in Playa Flamingo.

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Engagement Maria Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica. from Bidrop.com on Vimeo.

Engagement Maria Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica.
www.weddingbybidrop.com

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www.bidrop.com

www.weddingbybidrop.com

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

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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.

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The whole interview is here.

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