3 yr old Portrait

I just shot the most cooperative 3 year old I've ever run across. EJ did what he was told, where he was told to do it and cheerfully performed for Grandpa and Grandma, who knew just how to elicit his best smiles! We were literally finished in 10 minutes. Merry Christmas!

Family Portraits on Seven Mile Beach

I can't be certain, but I suspect that a family member was grossly disrespecting the photographer behind his back at this moment!

It was a busy and gratifying night for me as I rushed from sunset family portraits on the beach to the Crighton's yard for Santa. I love my job!

Santa at the Crighton's yard

Once again Santa made a stop at the Crighton's Christmas yard for the delight of hundreds of children last night. There was so much energy in the crowd that the power line blew off the pole on the street, leaving half the yard in the dark for several hours. That didn't stop everyone from having a wonderful visit with Santa though and a good time was had by all. The Red Bay Church carolers also stopped out front to sing a few songs on their annual island tour aboard a converted flat bed trailer.

FBC Christmas Cantata 2009

The First Baptist Church choir lifted hearts and voices to God beautifully on Friday and again on Sunday, Dec.11th and 13th, 2009. It was, once again a glorious night of worship as we celebrated and revered the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who died for our sins so that we might repent and gain eternal life with God. Thank you Jesus!

copy and paste this link to download a high res show with music:

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/793822234/355417ca61fed0e1ded819106d9425d6

-Or-
Double-click the pictures below , then choose the full screen option (without music)

FBC Christmas Cantata 2009

The First Baptist Church choir lifted hearts and voices to God beautifully on Friday and again on Sunday, Dec.11th and 13th, 2009. It was, once again a glorious night of worship as we celebrated and revered the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who died for our sins so that we might repent and gain eternal life with God. Thank you Jesus!

A young Hawksbill Sea Turtle came in for a close look, 100' down at a site called Sentinel Rock, Grand Cayman today. This guy seemed absolutely oblivious to the bubbling aliens in his way and swam right over me.

Orange Canyon, Grand Cayman

The dive week continues with a great macro dive on Orange Canyon and on the Wreck of the Doc Polson in Grand Cayman. A Fairy Basslet yawned at the right time for me at Orange Canyon and a Coney (small grouper species) posed stoically on the pilot house of the Doc Polson, while a big green moray took a walk about and a rarely seen school of Blue Parrotfish browsed through.

Milk Conch, Jawfish and Coral bleaching

I'm doing a bit of diving this week. Here are a few selects from today's dive at Royal Palms ledge off Seven Mile Beach. I think there is good hope for the bleached corals as the water has noticeably cooled and I still see live tissue on most of the corals I saw today. I suspect the extensive bleaching that occurred this summer may well have been the worst to date in Cayman since I arrived in 1983. This white anemone is normally solid yellowish green, but has bleached too. Several other cnidarians have bleached as well as the hard corals.

The Milk Conch and Yellow Headed Jawfish were more common sightings, yet always wonderful creatures.

Enjoy!

Pirate's Week Fireworks 2009

Tonight's opening fireworks show for Grand Cayman's Pirate's Week 2009 was yet another spectacular pyrotechnic display on a cool, breezy night in George Town Harbor. Wow!

Click to see big!

Aerial Photo 10,000 feet Grand Cayman

Wow, I finally got up to 10,000' in the helicopter a few days ago for this spectacular view of Northwest Point, Grand Cayman. With the doors off, I am standing with one foot on the skid and exposed to the violent downwash of the rotors... it was like being flash-frozen. It was a surprise aspect of the experience, to become numb cold in the tropics. The pilot is demonstrating what he could do if I were to fall out.

Destination Wedding at Reef Resort

I had another beautiful, intimate wedding at the Reef Resort, East End, Grand Cayman tonight. This was for Ryan and Rachel Stein. Congratulations and thank you for having me with you!

Click to see big.

Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park

My sister Stacy and her blond friend Lori took a day off from diving today to visit Grand Cayman's wonderful and lush, Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park. The Cayman style "Rankine Cottage" is a great place to make a fun portrait. The park is in full bloom right now and a must see for any visitors. Click to see big.

This one is for Nat, my latest blog follower and favorite scuba instructor. Nat is a superb technical diver and taught me the Evolution rebreather closed circuit system. You can feel safe learning any kind of diving with Nat from basic scuba to mixed gas. You'll find him at Dive Tech.

Yes, this is a Frogfish and not a sponge. Shot at 90 feet, Big Tunnels circa 1990 on Velvia film. It was really this red! Click to see big!

Wedding at Grand Old House: Jennifer and Matt

Jennifer and Matt had a lovely, intimate destination wedding at Grand Old House, Grand Cayman on the 4th of July! Here are just a few frames to tease you with. Enjoy!

Seven Mile Beach Family Portraits

I had an amazing shoot with this family at one of my favorite (secret) locations on Seven Mile Beach. It is the only spot where trees come so close to the water on Seven Mile Beach, making it ideal for backgrounds. There are some chickens now as well who act more like hams than chickens!

Family Portraits on Seven Mile Beach

I just had a wonderful location portrait shoot with a family of four on Seven Mile Beach. The 3 year old girl was the normal tough one if we tried for a pose, but created delightful surprises that could never be choreographed. The second image is a splice of two frames, using layers and masks in Photoshop to blend two faces from one frame into another... magic!

Mangos with Willie Ebanks

I don't know about you, but I live for summer and delicious fruits (candy from God).

I was in the candy store today on Willie Ebanks' farm in Hutland. This is Willie with one of his precious grand daughters, Julie picking Valencia Pride mangoes.

I'm in heaven until the mangoes run out in September/October.

Peter and Norma Davey Wedding

My Good friends, Peter and Norma Davey were married in the intimate setting of Heart of Cayman's wedding gazebo in West Bay as the last light of day was fading. Only My Nikon D3 could have done as well with this very, very dim light. We moved on to a lovely dinner at Eduoardo's Restaurant with just a few of their close friends. Sweet!

Jennifer and Marc's wedding

And yet another perfect intimate destination wedding was put on by The Reef Resort, East End, Grand Cayman! This one was for Jennifer and Marc. What they did different that was very cool is that the 20 or so friends and family went elsewhere for dinner while Jenn and Marc got on with the romance! What a great idea! They were already spending lots of time with everybody else on this wedding/honeymoon, so why not enjoy each other in the torch light and get to it?!! This could set a new trend!

Ed and Mel's Wedding

Kelly and Dave's Wedding

It was yet another gorgeous Grand Cayman wedding, this one at a beautiful private house on the south coast.

Enjoy!

Touch of Thai Spa opening

Suladda May has a new canvas on which to apply her art, it's the Touch of Thai Spa in the new building across from Edouardo's Restaurant, Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman. I think it will be popular. View this little slide show...

"Growing on Our Traditions"

We enjoyed a beautiful day today at Boatswain's Beach, Grand Cayman as locals put on a nice demonstration of past cultural traditions of the Cayman Islands. There was rope making, plaiting, caboose cooking, a sugar cane mill, marbles and even soldier crab races! You really missed something sweet if you missed this show, put on by an incorporated not-for-profit group, The "Cayman Islands Traditional Art Council" (CITAC).

Their next event will be held at Boatswain's Beach on July 18th. You can contact Adonza Harrison if you have any questions and would like to stay informed.

Cayman Islands Photographer- www.CourtneyPlatt.com: Destination wedding Grand Cayman

Cayman Islands Photographer- www.CourtneyPlatt.com: Destination wedding Grand Cayman

Destination wedding Grand Cayman

Locals Jay and Cat chose to have their destination wedding right in their own back yard, at The Reef Resort, in the remote East End of Grand Cayman.

I truly love covering small weddings like this one, in which everyone there gets a chance to actively participate in the beauty of the moment in some memorable way. I shot over 850 frames in the 4 hours allotted. That's the equivalent of 23.5 rolls of 36 exposure film! 24 rolls of film would have cost the clients $864. When I was shooting film, budgetary constraints limited how often I'd snap the shutter. As a result, it was very rare to ever shoot more than 14 rolls of film even on a humongous, 300+ guests, 12 hour wedding shoot. 14 rolls is 504 pictures, which is a lot when you consider that you are looking for the best 80 to 100 for an album! I shoot three times that number in the same time now. Yet, I get far more than three times the number of "winners" as a result of experience and the many new tricks that come with digital capture. It all means that every frame in the final, edited album will be wonderful. There are even far more important advantages of shooting digital vs film than frame counts at weddings as well as in all manner of a working photographer's situations. Some are real dreams come true for the experienced shooter. I'll try to point them out in future blog editions. Enjoy!

I've made the classic mistake of telling my sweet, innocent, 2 1/2 year old house cat, Pixel that he is the King of Beasts. That's just supposed to be a euphemistic term of affection, but he has obviously taken it seriously. The Doberman Pinscher that he chased today is a "stranger" being walked by a neighborhood girl. Pixel was merely extremely lucky that this particular Doberman shares a house with a cat. Now, how am I ever going to teach this overconfident King of Beasts to respect dogs?!! Click to see dirt flying behind the dog! This was a full-tilt run for life that would have looked good on the Serengeti! I fear this amazing cat may not live long, but I'm loving the way he lives!

Pixel the cat has the helpless Doberman cornered now! This has to be titled "Defiance"!

... OK then, possibly, "Overconfidence".

Pixel just wants to make friends. Lucky for him, that's all this leash-less dog wants too. These two only just met, so I'd say Pixel has mighty big ones for a cat who's been neutered!

Had I not shot these images I'd be inclined to suspect Photoshop, but these are straight up! Click image to see big.

Baptisms at Smith Cove

Another big event today was the baptisms at Smith Cove for First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman's Neil Brown and Alma Connor. This joyful celebration follows directly in the wake of the passing of our dear sister in Christ, Debbi Kelly yesterday... both being occasion to thank God for His Grace. Our prayers go out to Deb's husband and family still in the States. You'd have to have better control of yourself than me to have gotten through today's sermon with dry eyes! It was a wonderful day filled with thanks for His mercy and love.

Agouti

Staying up too late once again to process a few selects from this juvenile Grand Cayman Agouti portrait shoot arranged with its caretaker and surrogate mother, Denise Bodden. This may be my favorite frame shot right in the corner of my tiled living room, where I created a natural looking setting from materials found just outside. This little guy seems quite happy to be mothered by Denise! Agouti's, AKA Cayman Rabbit, are extremely shy in nature as they are still sometimes hunted as food.

Click to see large as always.

Another fabulous Reef Resort Wedding

When you live in Paradise... local residents, Kat and Jay, took their "destination wedding" at home in Grand Cayman at the fabulous The Reef Resort, East End. They all had so much fun that I shot nearly 1,000 pictures! Can you say "photogenic"?






Linda Locke: Coordinator

Mike Flowers: Food and Beverage team manager

Andrew Bacon: DJ and MC/Humor

Courtney Platt: Photographer

Performance Freedive Team/clinic

Kirk Krack and Mandy Cruickshank are in Grand Cayman again for their annual shot at new records and freediving clinic. It is always awesome to watch the world record holders in this insanely gutsy, physically and mentally challenging sport stretch the envelope yet again. The depths and times they are achieving these days boggles the mind, but these are the best of the best.

Today was a gloriously glassy day out on the water. Because they dive deeper than the deepest coral reefs grow, the guide line apparatus drifts in open pelagic waters about 6 miles offshore in water over 6,000 feet deep. Hmmm, no sharks today... that's odd.

This was just a little play, blowing air rings at the end of the day. Kirk blew a ring through another ring while Carol actually swam through one of her rings as it rose.

Pixel the cat seaside

I live near the water on North Sound and have been taking my cat, Pixel out for walks lately. He's very smart, quick to learn and willing to follow me... very dog-like when we go outside. Otherwise, he is a house cat, but he can do "stand", "sit" and "roll-over", following me from room to room like a puppycat. My sweeeeeeet.

North Side Wedding May 9th, 2009

An intimate little wedding on the North Coast of Grand Cayman, this rental home venue is so photogenic that I literally never used flash even once, even after sunset! Of course, the Nikon D3 is the only way I could have done it, with it's ultra low noise, high ISO capability. Everything after sundown is ISO 3200... awesome!