After the Ceremony

I photographed an Ecuador cloud forest elopement where the ceremony was on a trail in the Mindo reserve at eight in the morning. By ten we were crossing the tarabita over the canyon. By noon the couple was at the river. In the afternoon a specialist birding guide took them through the reserve and they found over sixty species including three endemic to that altitude band. That day is one of the most complete elopement experiences I have documented anywhere. The ceremony was the beginning of the day, not the peak.

Birding in the Cloud Forest

Mindo is consistently ranked as one of the top birding locations in the world and the local guides are among the best I have encountered anywhere. I recommend booking at least one morning with a specialist birding guide during the post-ceremony days. The tanagers, hummingbirds, and cloud forest endemics are extraordinary, and a couple who has never paid attention to birds before will come away with a list they will keep. I have documented birding mornings for couples and the images of the two of them looking through binoculars in the cloud forest, trying to locate a call, are some of the most natural portraits I produce.

Amazon Wildlife Nights

For couples at Amazon basin lodges on the Napo River, the night excursions by boat looking for caiman and nocturnal wildlife are the post-ceremony experience I always recommend. I have been on these excursions a number of times and the Amazon at night, seen from a small boat with a torch and a guide who knows every species by eye-shine, is as extraordinary as anything I have experienced in South America. I photograph the excursion as part of the elopement coverage, and the image of the couple on the bow of the boat with the dark river and the forest closing on both sides is consistently one of the frames they value most from the entire trip.