Wedding Photographer's Blog

As I've mentioned before, our wedding photographer Cristy Cross had some super cool ideas. Her photo booth setup was a BIG hit at the ol' weddin'. It's an awesome way to remember who was there.

Check out her blog posting on our photobooth. You'll probably see someone you know.

It was loads of fun!

Sport Fishing

Mid-way through our stay in Costa Rica, we charted a sport fishing boat that took us way out into the Pacific in search of sailfish, dorado, tuna or perhaps the coveted marlin.


We got to the dock in Quepos at around 7:00am that morning. We had to buy Costa Rican fishing licenses to make it legal (approx. $25/each), then we met up with the boat captain. The Quepos dock was in the process of undergoing a massive renovation and was developing an impressive marina. We hope to go back when it's finished.


Our boat, No Limit, was under the leadership of boat captain Dave Dobbins, who apparently landed in Costa Rica from Virginia somehow. Captain Dave had 11 years of captain experince and a cooler full of sandwiches and drinks ready for us to enjoy out on the high seas, and we were headed out by 7:30am.


This was Dave's first time out on No Limit, but he was confident we would find plenty of fish. The seas off the coast of Quepos are famous for sailfish and dorado, and that's what we were after.


After about an hour or so of boating out into the sea, we put down the lines and left the rest of the day up to chance and Captain Dobbins. After only 15 minutes we had something hooked.


Since this was my first sport fishing outing, Byron let me take the first fish. I could tell it was something much larger than any of the fish I've ever caught out of the West Farm pond.


I fought it for nearly 30 minutes before we could tell it was a sailfish.


It jumped out of the water, fighting the line, but giving me a chance to reel it in closer.


Remember how I mentioned this was Dave Dobbins' first time out on No Limit? Well, I got the sailfish up to the boat, anticipating a nice picture with my prized catch. However, Ole' Dave took a wrong turn with the boat and ran plum over the sailfish, cutting it to shreds in the bright blue water. I got a good idea of how large this fish was when I could see down into it's (now open) body cavity.


This is what a sailfish looks like.


We didn't let that get us down. The adrenaline rush came to a halt when I realized how exhausting it was to reel in a sailfish. The water was beautiful and we had the whole day out on the boat. Nearly two hours went by before we got another bite. This time it was a tuna.


Byron reeled in this tuna, which he said felt like reeling in a rubber tire. It weighed around 25 pounds, with lots of good eating meat on it.


A couple hours later, just before calling it a day and pulling in the lines, we got one last bite. I took the fighting chair one last time and reeled in a dorado. Although the sailfish met a tragic end, the dorado was the highlight of the day.

Weighing at around 30-40 pounds (depending on which day I tell the story), it was quite a fight getting it in the boat. After about 25 minutes, we got it closer and watched it as it fought the line and jumped out of the water.



Watch it here:





The dorado made all the waiting time in the boat well worth it, and we headed back to shore with plenty of fish.


We took our fish (after giving half of it to the captain and his help for their trouble) to a local restaurant called El Gran Escape. We took the 40 pounds of fish meat into the open-air establishment in a plastic sack. They cooked up some amazing dishes for us.

With the tuna, they made sushi...



With the Mahi Mahi (dorado), they made Mahi Mahi fingers...



And then they prepared blackened Mahi Mahi and tuna steaks with the rest of the fish. It was by far more fish than the two of us could eat, but, man, it was so good. It was only about $10 a plate for all of this fish.

Picture Time: Cristy Cross

We hired wedding photographer, Cristy Cross, from Clovis, New Mexico to be, well, our wedding photographer.

I was first introduced to her work through one of Byron's friends who had Cristy photograph her wedding last July here in Lubbock. She has a great blog and is an all-around fun, Christian gal with lots of creativity.

Cristy has posted the digital negatives from our wedding to her Web site. The photographs are categorized into ceremony, reception, bride and groom, etc. Be sure to check out the "Photobooth Gallery" category. Cristy offers this unique option in her photograph packages that allows you to capture the personality of all the guests who attended the wedding. I found this to be the perfect way to remember who all was there without the usual posed photographs. Plus, it was a lot of fun!

I'll also take this opportunity to brag on my Mom's creative ability. Take a look at the "Reception Gallery" and check out the table center pieces. Mom spent months collecting and assembling what turned out to be an immaculate display of color and fun. The center pieces at the reception where her works of art. She's quite talented and I think she could go into business on her own if she could find the time between the hay field and being generally awesome.

To view the galleries, click here, then enter the password: Kennedy2009. This will take you to the gallery where you'll be able to click the tab in the upper right hand corner to see the different categories.

Dove Hunting

I'm taking a break from honeymoon pictures today to post a few photographs from this weekend's dove hunting in Rotan. The birds weren't flying as much this year, but the weather was gorgeous.

Canopy Tour, continued

Here's a better look at what the Costa Rican canopy tour was like. Keep in mind that most of these shots were taken from at least 90 feet or more above the rain forest floor.



I need to give a shout out to the Deal family who gave us the super cool (and tiny!) Flip HD camera that allowed us to capture our trip in a really cool way.

Zip Lining Through the Rain Forest

On the first full day of our time in Costa Rica we decided to jump right in and go on a "canopy tour."

Canopy tours are basically giant zip lining excursions through the dense rain forest. You put on a harness and they attach you to a cable that is strung over 90 feet above the floor of the jungle.










You "zip" from platform to platform, which are wobbly wood slats attached high up in the trees that provide you a base to stand on while you are waiting your turn on the zip line.


There were nine zip lines, two repelling cables and one Tarzan swing. The Tarzan swing really made you feel like you were plummeting to an untimely death.

At any one point there are seven or eight people on one of the platforms together. They connect you to a "safety" cable that is wrapped around the tree in case you lose your balance and tumble off the side of the platform. Oddly enough, after a while you forget you are dangling 90 feet high and trusting your life to a friendly Costa Rican named Paco.



We eventually got brave enough to zip upside down. It's a rather helpless feeling, but it's definitely a rush!


Like most of the tours in Costa Rica, the canopy tour concluded with a lunch. It was mighty tasty.

They also had a photographer ahead of you on the zip lines to snag pictures of your terrified face as you zipped above the jungle.

I'll post some video of the zip lining action as soon as our Internet speed increases above snail speed.