I had a lot of shooting this month (wedding photography, food photography, personal works, etc…) and I’ve processed a good part of it… But didn’t blogged about because I’m changing my hosting service, I’m fed up with Yahoo, their prices are way too expensive, their customer service nonexistent and the interface pretty lame… I’m going with Bluehost which, as for now, has been really supportive in helping migrate my domain name, something note so easy but it’s on his way…
I’m using this hosting change to have some major website redesign, I’ll so update the blog when everything will be done and clean… I’m exciting by all this changes to come…
In front of the computer at the pulperia of Canafistula.
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I’m currently been interviewed by week of life in order to be included in their remote places part of the website.
Here is the first part, I’m waiting for them to send me the other questions.
1) First of all, could you tell us something about yourself and your relationship to Costa Rica? Do you come from Costa Rica or did you move there? Your name suggests that you are not Spanish.
As you correctly guess I’m not a native Costa Rican… Neither from Latin America, I’m born in France. I firstly heard of Costa Rica a little more than 10 years ago, the brother of a friend was leaving on a little beach town in this country, After my cinematographic studies I wanted to travel and I headed there in 2000, I then traveled through Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, And stopped a few months in Guatemala, from there I rushed to chiapas in order to shoot the Marcha Zapatista (leaded by “el Sub” comandante Marcos). I had to get back urgently in France where I stayed a fews months before getting bored of Europe again… I flight back to Guatemala with my current wife and install a restaurant on the south pacific cost, close to El Salvador, after 3 years we bought a van and headed south without any goals… just traveling… After something like 6 months on the road (through the same country) we entered in Costa Rica… Fall in love of the Tamarindo bay and the local and expat community, We’re living there since…
2) Costa Rica is said to be the place with the happiest people in the world. What do you think about this? Do you agree with it?
Well, that’s a difficult thing to measure… But I will say that’s people looks happier of what I know of Europe and the States and as for me just saying that’s this is the country I choose to leave in, build my house and mainly to have my daughter born in (she ha now both nationalities…) is saying everything…
3) You state that you‘re a photographer. Is it difficult to earn a living as a photographer in such country?
I’m not sure it is easy in any country of the world to earn a living as a photographer… and I have no point to compare the difficulties, but what I can say for is that the recent crisis made the things more difficult, I was shooting a lot of architecture and Real Estate photography, that part of my revenue went very low in 2009… I had to re market my services and the property management took a big part of that loss, contracting me for house shooting. The wedding photography also suffered from that crisis because most of customers are from the US and Canada coming down to Costa Rica for a tropical wedding. The press (magazine and newspaper) had tough times too with loss of advertisement, I saw a few publication that totally disappeared last year…
Anyway this year looks better… So I can earn a living from my photography adding it videography, but as everywhere I guess it’s stressful and you never know if you’ll have a contract in the next months… But I won’t complain, it’s one of the best job in the world, honestly…
An excellent family atmosphere in this Italiano Canadian wedding. The ceremony and reception was at the Pacifico Beach club in playa del coco, Guanacaste. Bidrop.com has also made the wedding video.
This was a shooting I made for Sol Realty, a Tamarindo based Real estate company.
The major challenge was to find the angle for the whole house shot, and the famous “twilight shot” also known as “The money shot”. This kind of cliff house is the perfect candidate for an helicopter shot, times being difficult ,even if we have available a pretty inexpensive gyrocopter in Tamarindo perfect for aerial photography (adrenaline rush included….). I found access to a tower, the only spot that could give me the whole house and also the ocean, I shot it from the staircase in a realy uncomfortable position holding the tripod as still as possible over the window… There is always an angle, find it…
This is a craiglist post from there, but probably wrote by one wedding photographer from digitalweddingforum.
I post it full here because as it is a craiglist it might disappear soon.
Hi there! My name is Lindsay and I’ve just got a brand new camera for Christmas but haven’t even taken it out of the box. I really want to get into the wedding photography business because I see so many people in Utah are getting married and it looks like easy money. I can’t guarantee that even one photo will turn out looking good but I sure will try. Some pictures will be used for my portfolio and my future website. I start booking appointments this week! I am now booking for Spring and Summer of 2010.
I specialize in all types of Lifestyle photography including:
Weddings – You’ll have to pay $15 for gas money outside of Salt Lake City
Bridals
Engagements
Families
Children
Portraiture
Fashion
My style is classy, elegant and artistic. I would be honored to be part of your special occasion or photography needs considering I have no professional experience. I would love to capture those beautiful moments for you and your family.
I have so much passion for being a pro wedding photographer! All my friends and family tell me I take great pictures at all our outings and picnics. I’m putting together a web site of all the flower pictures and sunsets I’ve taken so you can see how good I am. I even have a few pics of my pet dog which turned out really great!
But I don’t have a business license, liability insurance, flashes, extra batteries, or even more than a kit lens that came in the box. If something goes wrong, you’re out of luck. To keep things cheap for you, I won’t even back up any of your images. Less cost for me means less cost for you. Just passing the savings on. I expect to be paid in cash or personal check because I don’t plan on claiming this income on my taxes.
I know many fun and beautiful locations. I really care about making brides look beautiful! I add glow and selective color to all of my images, giving them the best look possible. No need to hassle with computer programs.
Bridals and Engagements are only $100. Please trust me to do your wedding. I’ll do it cheap just to build up my portfolio. I will only charge you $250 for your entire wedding day. This is a deal. My camera cost me $700 brand new. All sessions include a Hi Resolution CD with FULL copy right release included, which means you get to print your pictures at Wal-Mart! Here’s the BEST Part! I offer 100% guarantee on ALL my sessions! Don’t pay a cent until you are 100% happy with your pictures!
I own a camera therefore I can take photos like the pros, who charge alot more. Most brides in Utah spend $2,500 on professional wedding photography. Since I have no experience I’ll only be charging $250 (90% off regular wedding photography prices) to shoot full day wedding coverage.
Think about it: Pros charge alot of money because they have alot of expenses. I don’t.
Pros have:
-a business license
- multiple cameras
-thousands of dollars in lenses and flashes
-hard drives to back up the images
-insurance
-experience
-people skills
-color calibrated monitors
-professional print labs
-professional albums
I have none of this stuff so we’ll keep it cheap, just for you!
E-mail me if you want to set an appointment or if you have any questions, I will gladly respond.
This post has been creating a lot of comment on different forum all over the wedding photography little world…
An old fight between the amateurs and wanna be pros against the established studios or independent, well trained, well equipped pros. I consider myself of the last category.
Legitimate photographers/companys have spent a lot of time/money/effort on getting where they need to be as a legitimate business. The easy sell is just to explain truthfully to the bride and groom what the difference is between a photographer by trade, and a weekend warrior mentality. There will always be the risk takers who will save a buck by going with the weekend warriors. So what. The same holds true for absolutely any service based business. Ever had your friends come help you paint your house? What about a cousin who is good at fixing cars? These are areas where expertise and experience may get you better service, but sometimes you would just rather save the money. Everyone put’s a different value on how important one thing is vs another. Part of your job as a photographer is to up-sell the value of what you have to offer.
Here is a video slideshow made for Reem and Scott. They got married at the Sugar beach Hotel, in guanacaste, Costa Rica. Bidrop.com has been really happy to do the wedding photography and videography of this intense moment. We had a crazy stormlike weather, who add a lot the event… an intense ceremony with a mix of culture was really interesting, a great meal and a big party followed…
It’s a new way to present my slideshows, that I had to the more classic (full screen, fade out fade in only transitions) on request to my customer, it has a way more dynamic editing and is really appreciate by the young couples. It’s the one I’ll put online, so the newly wedded can share it easily through youtube or using the higher quality provided by smugmug.
Week of life is an interesting website I discovered 2 months ago on the my preferred news agregator page: reddit.com. Here is how they present their project:
“Week of Life is a unique internet medium for all citizens of the globe. Everyone is invited to take part in the largest documentary project of all time! A photo archive of humanity! Show how you live and see how others live.”
The concept is simple every participant has for one week (7 days starting any days you want) to upload 9 photos per day, resuming or showing the whole day. The result giving a general idea of what your life could look like.
I decided to give it a try, the result is here, I didn’t try to make individual shots great photos but to document a whole day, as lame as some days are… Anyway, the editors liked it and included me in the editor’s choice, with quite a nice presentation:
Costa Rica was recently declared the greenest and the happiest country of the world. When looking at Gouttenoire Toh’s week of life, one no longer wonders why. His sunlight-filled set breathes incredible peace and ease and in our pre-Christmas rush it charges us with new energy. In addition, Gouttenoire Toh is also a great photographer, whose photographs highlight the magical power of Costa Rica.
I really enjoyed this article from “The Wall street journal” where you can see two point of views on the same property, one by Mary Altaffer, the Associated Press photographer documenting as realistically as possible where the Madoff were living and one by Travis Dubreuil working for Sotheby’s International Realty, touching up the shots to show the best as possible the apartment. Check it out.
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