Another image from the shoot in Nashville.  This underwater stuff is addicting!

I recently traveled to Nashville to spend some time with my friend and super-talented photographer, Michael Howard.  It was a great few days chock full of photo geek speak and adventures.  The main purpose of the visit was to shoot alongside him at one of his weddings, but we threw in an impromptu Howard family photo shoot, and one of the highlights of the trip: an underwater fashion shoot.  Michael was nice enough to arrange for a shoot during my time there, as I expressed interest after seeing the gorgeous images he’s been making this year after he made the dive (wah wah wah) into underwater work.

It was quite the production, and very challenging to say the least.  It feels like you’re learning how to shoot all over again; fumbling with the over-sized buttons on the underwater housing and struggling to hold your breath long enough to capture just one more frame. It was demanding on the models as well.  They were accomplished swimmers, but it’s a whole new ballgame when swimming draped in that much fabric, and keeping your eyes open in a chlorinated environment.  In the end, everyone grew more and more comfortable with what it takes in order to pull off a dramatic underwater image, and there were some amazing images as a result!

I was there mostly to observe and learn, but I did get some moments with the camera, and it’s images like this that make all the challenges worthwhile:

I have no idea if I’ll want to take a try at underwater imagery myself, but if there are any brides out there looking for something unique and a little over the top, and are as comfortable in the water as they are on land, I couldn’t think of anything better than this!  Thanks again to Michael for being a gracious host and to the super hardworking models, Lisa and Rachel.

I shot what I dubbed an “Engagement Session” for these two lizards that we found shortly after settling in to our room.  The male put on quite a show while he lured his lizard lady love.

This is what he looked like when at rest:

This is when he was showing off for his lady friend.  We were shocked the first time he did this!

Here’s the object of his affection.  She’s pretty cute, I can see why he liked her.   She was definitely playing hard to get though.

This was the closest he ever got while we were there, you can see her in the bottom left corner, out focus.  I wonder how this love story ended?

This was the aforementioned crab that we found hanging out (literally) by the “on” switch on our lamp.  We weren’t sure he was real at first, I had to splash some water on him to see if he’d move.  He was delicious.  (Just kidding!  We didn’t eat him!)

We took a day trip to the Marietas Islands, a small group of islands that used to be a bombing range for the Mexican Air Force (I didn’t know Mexico had an Air Force).  The bombing created really cool caves all over the islands, and they are now used as a bird sanctuary.  It was also a great spot for some snorkeling, with clear water and lots of tropical fish.  We even saw some Dolphins on the trip out there!

I put my camera in great danger by getting to this spot, as it required a climb over rocks and through some areas with some good sized breaking waves, but I managed to get there and back safely.  I just had to get a picture of it!

These are the Blue Footed Booby.  They only live in 2 places in the world, the Marietas Islands, and the Galapagos Islands.  They were very cool, and quite the show offs.

Here’s one next to the more common Yellow Footed Booby.

This spot is an island that has become shaped like a donut due to a large bomb blast at it’s center.  It now has an internal beach, which was one of the most amaing things I’ve ever seen.  We actually had to swim through that cave you see ahead to reach the beach.  I didn’t have an underwater housing, so no pics of the beach!  My new friend Hardy took a picture of Malarie and I inside another cave that we all crawled into led by our guide Chris.  If we’re able to get in touch, I’ll post up that picture too.

That’s all for today! Thanks!

Cliff

Verana is located a 40 minute taxi ride and a 30 minute boat ride away from Puerto Vallarta, just outside the small fishing village of Yelapa. There are no roads through the jungle that lead there so boat is the only way to go. Getting there was an adventure in and of itself, between the slew of people pushing sketchy taxi “deals” at the airport, the Big Gulp size margarita we had while waiting for the boat to arrive, and the wild dog fight that broke out underneath our table spilling said Big Gulp margarita all over the place. Once on the Verana boat it was smooth sailing all the the way so to speak. When you arrive there’s a rather challenging hill to walk up to get to the bungalows, but as SF’ers we took it in stride. The mule that carries your luggage up was a big help too. A nice touch was Paula waiting with a cool towel and a big glass of fresh lemonade at the top of the hill.

Verana itself is a truly idyllic place. There are only about 8 small bungalows around the property, each designed with it’s own distinct look and feel. Most of them are very open with you sleeping just a mosquito net (I was surprised to not see a single mosquito during our time there) away from the jungle and sea views, with no windows or doors to speak of. The outdoor showers were pretty fun too! We did run into some interesting wildlife in our room which is to be expected, including a few scorpions and even a crab at one point (I got a picture of him you’ll see later)! Other than being careful of where you put your feet they didn’t distract much from the amazingly relaxing atmosphere that is Verana.  In fact, it made for fun storytelling time at dinner with the other guests, comparing what we’d found.  I think Hardy won with his story of the Coatamundi “Avacado” that they found eating a banana that they left out at the foot of their bed in the middle of the night.  We actually counted 8 of them playing in the trees next to our room during the day, along with all the awesome tropical birds.  The Chachalaka was a crazy bird we saw (but mostly heard, it sounds like a turkey) while we were there, but I didn’t catch the name of the rest.

I did bring along my camera, although I did travel light (relatively), and made sure I spent plenty of time not in “photographer mode”. I do of course still have a bunch of images to share! I’ll be doing a series of posts over the next few days, and then that will be all for the personal images for a awhile I have a feeling, as I’ll be knee deep in wedding images for some time to come!

OK, so on to the pics!

Here’s the ever helpful mule:

Seriously this looks like a fake background, but I promise it’s real.

This is the Bungalow room, which is the first room we stayed in:

Also the Bungalow:

Our favorite place to hang out at Verana.  Thanks to my beautiful model, Malarie.

This was the Palapa room:

The Tea House:

This was our second favorite hang out spot:

Jungle Room:

We switched to this one at one point, the Mayan:

There were a ton of great details in the rooms, so I put together a couple of collages of some of my favorites:

The views from Verana:

They had a cool lily pond set up:

The food there was awesome.  This picture was from “Taco Tuesday” where they made probably 15 different salsas fresh that day.  Fabien, the chef was amazing, even making some delicious vegan options for Malarie.  We also had a lot of fun hanging out at the bar and restaurant with our fellow guests (we were the only people not on honeymoon btw), and with Manny our talented and comical bartender.

Cool property huh?  If any of my readers are looking for a spot for a small destination wedding, I know a great photographer who knows the place well!   It’s also an ideal spot for a honeymoon.  If you go, tell them I sent you!

That’s it for today!  Stay tuned for some more updates!

Cliff

Cliff

Cliff

I really enjoy this little triptych: