Main bit of advice would be enjoy it and get some amazing images!
You are using the skills as a photographer you have gained through hard work and talent that a couple have decided they like you so much they are willing to spend a lot of money flying you out to a paradise to photograph their wedding.
Doing this can make for some serious stomach turning nerves though!
A good tip would be take as much back up as pos, I always contact the airline too for any info they can give me (weight restictions and the like).
I've been to the DR twice, but not for photography.
Whatever you do, don't eat any slushies. Ice is made with water.
Definitely visit the South Carribean beach. Clarity of the water is amazing- at least it was when I was there, and there are these huge sand bars so you can walk out 100 ft in the water and still be only 3ft deep. Unfortunately, they don't serve drinks at the sand bars-just sand.
Make sure to take a Motoconcho ride... for those of you that haven't been there, that means a little DR guy on a small motorcycle who rents out his taxi services. You'll often see entire families: mom, dad, kids, PLUS driver on one of those things.
It's quite possibly THE way to get around the DR.
Oh, and avoid crab meat dishes if you are off a resort... they mix the shell in with the meat and you have to pick out a lot of crap before taking a bite.
I was there a couple of years ago. There is really no "safe" part in the DR unless you're in the really rich, touristy area of Santo Domingo. Otherwise....be very, very careful of your equipment. Don't have it out unless you really are using it. I would not bring all my lenses, just the essentials and the backups. Leave the fisheye at home. Some hotels have a strongbox in the closet that you can fit your most valuable lenses....but they are the size of shoeboxes. Some of the rooms I've stayed in have broken strongboxes...that's not a good sign.
Electricity is a big problem on the island. Blackouts happen everyday depending on where you are...even in the capital. I would reserve plenty of time to charge your batteries. Some all-inclusive resorts that cater to Americans and Europeans have their own power generators and run them a lot. I stayed at one of those places and I was still w/o power sometimes.
All the "Cuban" cigars are just tourist ripoffs, don't believe the salespitch. They just replace the bands on the cigar. The boxes can be authentic but it's easy to get them. Buy a couple if you want to try them but I would not buy the box unless you were able to tell the difference between the Cubans and the DR stuff. Now, the DR stuff is just as good, and in many cases better than the Cuban stuff. The Cubans have been overproducing cigars to get hard currency and their quality really has suffered. The Dominican and Hondurian wrappers are some of the best in the world. Buy the groomsmen a couple to celebrate if they are into that stuff.
Lots of girls will approach you if they see you are American. They don't care if you have a wedding band or not, they are that brazen. Do not touch them with a 10 foot pole. After they give you a deadly, communicable disease, they will steal your wallet. Diseases are out of control in the DR....absolutely out of control. One came up to me in the middle of the street, in the middle of the afternoon and just grabbed my family jewels...absolutely no shame. There are some "pros" that work the resorts. They trick you into thinking they are just a local girl and find you attractive, same dangers as a streetwalker. The difference is that they have "muscle" outside the door to control you in the resort hotel room until their escape.
Consider yourself forewarned. Now have a good time.
Tony, are you in Buffalo? My friend Christine grew up there (and her husband). Wave to us in NC when you fly past. Congrats on the destination wedding. Is this your first, or just the first in DR?
Tony Hoffer wrote:
3 days in Canada with some family for Thanksgiving... driving there though.
Any destination advice anyone?
Burn yourself a CD/DVD of all the RAW images and mail it back to yourself. It is a great back up in case anything crazy happens at the border or customs.
Doing destinations, I bring as little as possible, so that I am most mobile during transportation. Last destination, I brought a backpack with clothes for the weekend, and my Pelican for the equipment. The Pelican was never handled by anyone except me. Even in the high end resorts. Be wary of changing transportation (from plane to taxi, or taxi to another transport). As much as possible, you bring your stuff in the vehicle. Its very easy to hand off to the porter so that they can put it in the car. Be careful and mindful. Hate to see you in the vehicle and all the while your equipment was handed off to someone else.
If you plan on checking in baggage, I would wear clothes that you can wear for the wedding, with another set in the luggage. In case the luggage gets lost/delayed, you just need to clean what you wore. Another reason for just bringing a backpack that holds everything for the weekend. The resort should have a dry cleaning service if you need to recycle some of the clothes.
Might be a bit late to negotiate, but I always get there the day before, and leave the day after. Any days extra gets an extra charge. I get my flights direct.
My last return to Philly (direct) was canceled. Beautiful USAir rebooked the whole flight the next day, and was not direct. Added a whole 24 hours to travel time, where the layovers for some lasted upto 8 hours. Putting us up at the Ritz Carlton, paying for full high end dinner and breakfast was not enough to appease a plane full of Philadelphians.
If you were to bring medicine, keep it in the containers, especially prescriptions. Some airports have no reservation on tossing anything that they can question.
Matt, I have MobileMe, so I'll be uploading to the laptop and to the home desktop simultaneously. Backup won't be an issue
njjuliano,
Thanks for the tips. I'll be carrying on all cameras and lenses. They're sending us down for 5 days, so we're all good with that too. Lastly, I'm from Philly, and if there's one thing most of us know... it's that we don't take US Air.... ever
Cathy,
I'm not in Buffalo, but we'll be there for a couple days (Fort Erie actually).
Tony Hoffer wrote:
njjuliano,
Thanks for the tips. I'll be carrying on all cameras and lenses. They're sending us down for 5 days, so we're all good with that too. Lastly, I'm from Philly, and if there's one thing most of us know... it's that we don't take US Air.... ever
I do it with myself or with an assistant (not wife) and so the least amount of days away, the better. Can imagine if we were still dinks, worked together, I'd welcome a long time away.
I thought the 3 hour trip was going to be bearable with USAir... nope.... I definitely have taken them off completely. I was surprised of the rudeness of the flight attendants.
You from Philly, I think I knew that. Pretty sure you posted a wedding once where I knew the couple's minister personally. So you can imagine the close calls of anger fights brewing from the disappointed travelers.
