Southern Caribbean - Travel Photo Journal
A few weeks ago my family and I were able to take a southern Caribbean cruise and the islands that we visited were amazing! I absolutely love being in a new place and experiences a new culture! Every chance I got I would bring my camera along to capture the beautiful islands, unfortunately I wasn't able to do that with every island simply because I was heading to some beautiful beaches some days! Below are some of my favorite shots from the trip and details of what we did on each island!
1st Stop St Maarten - Walked 15 minutes to beach, stayed at the beach.
2nd Stop St Kitts - Took Chocolate Tour, let me play with chocolate and I'm happy! Unfortunately we had a rainy day in St Kitts so we weren't able to hang out at the beach!
couldn't take my eyes of these beautiful mountains! Every morning I would rush out to the fourth floor deck and look out on the beautiful view of the new island!
3rd Stop Antigua- Beautiful day at the beach, nuf said ( Sorry for the lack of photos, just trust me when I say Antigua is beautiful!)
4th Stop St Lucia - Cosol tours ( We heard raving reviews about this tour company and now I can't recommend them enough!) We drove through the Island and made multiply stops including a banana farm, driving through the jungle, an AMAZING lunch, multiple stops for amazing views, speed boat ride going to the beach in between the Pitons, snorkeling next to the Pitons, Mineral baths, rinsing off in a waterfall.
Our day in St Lucia was started with visiting a banana farm, had no clue there was so much to learn about banana trees! Each tree will only produce one crop of bananas, which takes about a year until they are ready, then the farmer will cut that tree down to make room for a new tree.
The flower will peel back one leaf at at time to reveal more bananas...
Pulling back the layers to show the next bunch of bananas
The amazing traditional food we got to try! Definitely a very happy Brooke! Soursop, passionfruit, sugarcane, coconut cake, chicken... yeah I was happy
We stopped in Soufriere and took a speedboat to Sugar Beach, the speedboat was one of the best parts of the day for me!
I decided to do some snorkeling and fed some fish leftover banana ( who knew fish like bananas) Some of the most beautiful snorkeling was a ways out from this beach, I've never seen such large coral and to be able to swim right along one of the Pitons was such a cool experience. Under the water swimming around with the fish seems so peaceful and I honestly just wanted to stay underwater!
One of the fishing villages we drove through still continues with the old tradition of blowing a conch shell when the fisherman come back with a catch, the people who live there will come down from their homes and buy the fish. How cool is that?
Our next stop was to Sulphur Springs Mineral bath, basically we swam in very hot black water from the valcano and then covered ourselves with detoxifing mud that has been know to cleanse your body ( it was actually pretty amazing for my skin) Not to mention fun to put mud all over your body!
The hot spring can smell just slightly like bad eggs ( I didn't notice that much but then again I was bathing in it) so after rinsing off and stinking up the van we headed to this amazing waterfall to REALLY rinse off! So cold and refreshing!
Barbados - Went out on our own "tour" driving along beautiful sugarcane farms, seeing Barbados' black bellied sheep along the street ( so cute!) Stopping at Sunbury Plantation, stopped along side the road and got a coconut ( serious talent to the guy who cut the coconut open with a machete in three swipes) Final spot was a beautiful beach where we chilled for a few hours.
Our taxi driver explained that back when the plantations were growing the sugarcane they would plant rows of palm trees to be able to find their way back to their plantation through the sugarcane. So each plantation would have their own row of palm trees
Rows and rows of sugarcane
It's way harder than you'd think to drink from the hole in this coconut....
Each island has it's own style and individual beauty, friendly people, beautiful beaches, amazing beach/ocean finds ( like the below photo from Antigua) I hope this post has lit a fire in you to go explore some islands and meet some amazing people and learn about the cultures and traditions!
Kaspar Family
I am so glad to have been able to photograph the Kaspar family during Thanksgiving week and enjoyed meeting their awesome kids! They were troopers in the cold November weather!
Katie - Senior Session
I had such a great time hanging out with Katie and her mom while taking Katie's senior photos! Taking her photos reminded me of when I was finishing up high school and the feelings that go with it, it's such a fresh season! There's so many emotions and excitement at what you're pursuing next and then there's also the fear of wondering what in the world you're going to do next ( except for the lucky few who know exactly what they wanted to be since birth, which wasn't me!) All this made me start to think about the fact that somewhere along the way after we start living in the "real world" we seem to forget to allow ourselves to dream. This was a simple reminder for me to always live with joy and excitement for not only the present but the future, I want to renew that child like wonder, that seems to be so often lost when we start "adulting". So what are the passions and dreams that God has instilled in you that you may be putting on the back burner? Or you might have been discouraged in pursuing? Commit it to Christ and pursue those God given dreams! Live with Joy and excitement for the life God has given you!
Mr. and Mrs. Jones
The love and excitement between Sam and Molly and their families was so evident and so enjoyable to photograph! The reception was at The Dixie Wing Hanger in Peachtree city, it was such a cool venue with the open spaces of the hanger and all the planes, they also seriously raised the getaway stakes by leaving in a plane! Congrats you two!
Best getaway ever!
Owens Family
I'm so excited to share this family session today! I had so much fun spending time with the Owen's family, capturing their family ( and kittens!) Their two boys are so sweet and I absolutely love the bond and friendship between them! There is no way I could post all my favorites from this session, so take a peak below for a few of my favorites. Thanks Kaycee and Kellen for allowing me to photograph your sweet family!
