Naomi Elle

Professional photographer goes on her honeymoon to a tropical paradise  and doesn’t take her good camera? Only a cheap little pocket camera? REALLY?

Yup, that’s me. One decision that I didn’t spent too much time deliberating about… was whether or not to take my “good” camera on our honeymoon. Okay, I might have waffled over it for a few minutes… but several factors settled it quickly. We were headed out to western Mexico. Taking a seriously expensive camera that is also my main tool in capturing people’s once-in-a-lifetime events… to an admittedly semi-dangerous country? Not gonna happen. And even more significant to me, taking a serious distraction (i.e. said expensive camera) onto the most romantic, most important ’1 week that you will never get back’ vacation of my life? Boooooo! A honeymoon is spending uninterrupted time with my new husband… my “honey” (haha! never call my husband “honey,” but it works for the example). ‘Nuff said.

I wanted beautiful memories. Not necessarily blog-worthy photos. But I got both! These photos are overwhelmingly unedited and straight out of camera. Proof that photography is an exercise in opportunity, composition and light-painting.. and the secondary realization that sometimes, a photo is just a snapshot. It’s freezing a memory forever. And understanding that makes me happy.

Honeymoon location: Playas Las Tortugas. This co-op of privately owned villas is located about 70 miles south of Puerta Vallarta. It’s on the west coast, just across the gulf from where I took a tropical vacation in 2010 (read that here). Playas Las Tortugas was gorgeous, isolated, calm and quiet. There were no beach vendors, no live music, no beaches overrun by scantily clad tourists, no loudspeakers, fancy lights or buffets and certainly no crowds!… It was solitary, and we absolutely LOVED it.  :) “Getting there” was a long day. There were flights from Philly to Houston to Puerta Vallarta, then a 70 mile ride over bumpy country roads.  We saw alot of “wildlife,” plus my favorite sight of an old guy riding on a donkey while texting on his cell phone. Oh my..

The location was sooooo worth the long travelling hours. Our own private villa? Three levels? With two terraces, a chef’s equipped kitchen and a private hot tub? This sounds like an advertisement, but I can’t help it. We arrived at the villa and then wandered around for like an hour.. exclaiming over how amazing it was!We opted for daily maid service + cooking service. I took pictures of almost every meal. Just to remember.It was straight-up simple Mexican food. Not too elaborate, but very filling. After arriving at the airport, we were able to stop by a Mexican Super-Walmart and stock up on snack foods. Do you know how hard it is to shop for food when the labels are written in a different language? We resorted to guessing what the pictures were. Even then, it took us about 5 days to figure out that our chocolate ice cream was actually black forest (aka. chocolate CHERRY ice cream! ha! so that’s what the funny flavor was…).

Enchiladas… our first meal was waiting for us at the villa!  First of many sunset walks on the beach. Cliche? Maybe, but no less ridiculously romantic.  Brandon and I decided to do the typical initials in a heart in the sand…. our art skills may need improvement.I liked soaking in the sunshine on our rooftop terrace. However, Brandon had spent the last year working overnight shifts, without much exposure to light or sun or heat. He was a teeny bit sensitive to all of those elements, and I’m not too hard-core about getting a tan (really, I didn’t care much about it all) so we didn’t last too long outside in the HOT HOT noonday sun. AIR CONDITIONING IS MY FRIEND!

Oh, so magical.

 

Getting creative with self-portraits.

 

The whole place was so lovely. Beautiful landscaping. Flowers. A private pool.. We only saw 3 other people using the pool during the whole time. Found a little gazebo for hammock-napping and sunset-watching…

 

So this place was called “Playas Las Tortugas” and yes, that meant there were turtles. It sat right next to a turtle conservation camp, and one evening a conservation camp employee stopped by our villa to let us know that they were releasing the baby turtles into the sea the next day.. YES! Basically, we all line up in a straight line. They give instructions and then hand everybody 3-4 baby turtles. Hold them, talk to them, take photos of them (and yourself holding the turtles—because it’s JUST. THAT. COOL!) and then on the count of uno-dos-tres, release them! Then, turn into baby-turtle cheerleaders while they slooooooowly make their way into the great big ocean.. all while the waves are coming in and sweeping them out to sea. I was convinced my turtles were sleeping. I think one of three made it to the ocean… the others went back to the turtle camp… until another day.

Our villa had a Wii. There was definitely some friendly competition goin on… We are both very good at Wii darts now!!! (or at least, we were pretty good about 5 months ago). Haha!

Our one attempt at true-ocean adventure was sea-kayaking… Not really our forte, I must say! But the breeze was nice… and we saw wildlife!

Got waaaay too close for comfort to this angry-little-man of a crab.

On the last day at the villa, we were so over Mexican food. The refrigerator was still filled with leftovers and supplies, so we improvised. I raided the cupboards and refrigerator — pulling out everything that looked remotely interesting and got cooking. The result? A very-Italian homemade marinara sauce with pasta and shrimp… Yes!

And so, our magical honeymoon came to an end. It was glorious to spend a week in paradise with the man I love most in the world. So freeing to be somewhere that cell phones and computers and deadlines do not touch. That the natural beauty of God’s creation is painted across the skies every morning and every evening.

 

And they lived happily ever after…. 

To see more… watch the slideshow!