Bryan Morris - Aruba’s Premier Wedding Photographer

I have quite a few great images of Naeem’s class. I’ve repositioned myself and eliminated the battle with the other parents around with cameras to get a shot.

The show was a reenactment on a remix of 4 local kids songs.

A portrait of the fire fighter Naeem.

This little guy is such a showman. He was the MC of the entire show for his class, thus Naeem’s class.  Way before the event while all was getting on stage he got up probably first and started to pace the stage like the MC that he is. Here are a few shots of him. 

These are the ants just getting on stage.

Here is an ants on the attack with a candy.

This is another happy ant. I shake his hand everyday as I get to the school to pick up Naeem. Every fiber of his being exudes adventure in a big way. The teacher certainly earned her wages with him. Cute kid nevertheless.

This is one of the cars making an entry to the city.

Here is the sailor asking the girl in the city to marry him.

The cars moving through the city streets.

The construction team coming on site to build a house.

Construction crew at work.

This is the little fires that came to destroy the house because the MC was playing with matches.

Mikaila having fun on stage.

This little fire really put her heart in her performance, I really enjoyed her.

Firefighters approaching the scene in their firetruck of course.

Firefighters doing what they do best…….Fight fire!

Fires coming under submission to the fire fighters.

After they’ve extinguished the fire they’ve decided that things got hot so they were cooling off the crowd.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

Arco Iris Kleuter School celebrated 55 years of existence this year. They’ve organized a show to simultaneously celebrate the school’s existence and raise funds to complete the restoration of the playground. They’ve used recycling as a theme of the show. Props were constructed from recycled material.

Shannon Bueno opened the show singing Aruba’s anthem.

This is Ishaq on his way to the stage, notice his vest mad of pop/ beer covers

Kiki ripping up the stage.

OK here, Ishaq disengaged from the show and enjoying the take off of the helium filled balloons they let go.

This is Chloe, another of Ishaq’s classmates.

Ishaq, as soon as he came off the stage.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

This is my contribution for this week, enjoy!

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

I wish you a blessed  Sunday!

As promised here’s another view through my eyes. This is another view of the lighthouse.

Enjoy,

Bryan Morris

I’m often asked by brides if I could convert a few images in B&W and I always respond positively. There are however so many looks to B& W.

Last week shooting a few portraits of my wife in some crazy lighting I’ve decided that these would be great to transform to B&W to portray a few of the different ways I could go.

After dinner we walked out on the hotel strip. With camera still in hand I decided to shoot a couple portraits of Shayenne. The light was even crazier than in the restaurant. I’ve then decided that these would be great to transform to B&W to portray a few different possibilities with B&W.

I just like to push myself to be creative and come up with something cool. This is the way you learn. You have to practice in real life scenarios so when you get yourself in a situation like this you would know how to handle it. As a photographer you should be able to do the job under any circumstance, providing you have the right tools.

I just love shooting with available light, I use flash whenever it’s a real must or I want a different look.

Here are a couple of shots that were created under crazy light and transformed to B&W, different shades of black & white. Enjoy.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

This is a new section/challenge that I’ve embarked upon. “Aruba through my eyes”

I’m twisting my own arm behind my back in order to get out and shoot for myself, well now not so true anymore as I’ll be doing it to display for you and have fun while doing it.

For those of you that know Aruba have seen images of the many landmarks but I’ll be displaying the landmarks but from a different perspective. I’ll start out with one from the lighthouse as I have quite a few different perspectives of this landmark

Every Sunday, look out for “Aruba, through my eyes”

Enjoy,

Bryan Morris

Hot, Hot, Hot!

You better believe it. We’re getting closer and it’s getting hotter.

Stay tuned.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

I’m constantly on the go and I barely get time to play around.

While editing a wedding today I’ve found this image of Ishaq between the wedding images. This was taken at home the morning after the wedding.

Coming down to the end of the edit I’ve decided to take this image and play a little. This is what I’ve came up with.

You might be sitting there behind your display saying “OMG, he’s mean” He’s not mean, he’s having fun.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

In my five years shooting weddings full time. I’ve learn that the way packages are setup by the various wedding planners is that they offer photography at one location with always the option to upgrade which however is very seldom enforced.

A bride having a visual of a beach ceremony in her mind almost always choose for photography at the beach. This is not their fault, they should be educated by their wedding planners on the beauty of our City Hall downtown.

Brides approach a civil ceremony on Aruba with a preconceived notion that the ceremony is the same as in their hometown. Just get into a pale office, sign these papers and we’re out of here.

Permit me an attempt to describe to you how this visual is as far from the truth as the east is from the west.

I’ll be displaying a few images of the building and then a few portraits shot in and around the building.

This is the front section of the house this is currently being used as the exit after the ceremony

This is a close up on the exit of the City Hall (Entrance of the house)

This is a side view of the house.

This is the current entrance of City Hall.

This is the view of inside, standing in the door.

This is the inside from behind the seat of the registrar.

These are images during the ceremony. Notice carefully that the images are a bit warm that’s because of the incandescent lights in the hall. It can be cooled down digitally but I like the warm feel the lights give the images, therefore I don’t do much alterations.

Images taken in the garden of City Hall.

This is the rear section of City Hall.

This wall is off to the left of this section in the image above this.

The many possibilities with these red colored walls.

This wall is literally 20 feet across the street from the rear section of City Hall.

OMG! That was my expression at the beginning of the wedding season when I saw this wall. This was once a screaming green backdrop and they’ve now decided to paint it this color. Bummer!

This is not even 2 minutes walk across the street from the orange wall. The possibilities here at the Willem III Tower are endless. You can shoot in and around of the building if your photographer would ask politely.

These were all taken at the Willem III Tower either inside or outside of this building.

Now you should have an idea of the many photographic opportunities in and around City Hall in downtown Oranjestad.

In conclusion of this three part series of “To marry or not to marry at City Hall”, I would say To marry, but not only to marry but have a reputable photographer to cover this event.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

I’ve had an interview with Mr Cayetano “Betto” Christiaans at the City Hall downtown Oranjestad, Aruba. I’ve had a great time getting information from Mr Christiaans, this is the first of a three part series.

Enjoy,

Bryan Morris

Bryan: How long ago was the building restored?

Mr. Christiaans: October 1997

Bryan: The area that weddings are conducted now, what part of the house was this?

Mr.Christiaans: This was the living area

Bryan: When did Aruba open up for destination weddings?

Mr. Christiaans: January 1, 2002

Bryan: How many weddings are done per year?

Mr. Christiaans: Anywhere between 800 and 900

Bryan: That’s all?

Mr. Christiaans: Yes, in 2002 was the only year the wedding count went over the thousand mark.

Bryan: What percentage are destination weddings?

Mr. Christiaans: About 40% are destination weddings

Bryan: Explain the procedure of getting married from the beginning to end.

Mr. Christiaans: Contact me (Betto Christiaans) and register 20 days prior to wedding date, fax all documents, if they’re OK, you can either ship the originals or bring them as you come to the island.

Bryan: What is your preffered manner of shipping the documents?

Mr. Christiaans: FEDEX

Bryan: What’s the ship to address for the documents?

Mr. Christiaans: Att. Betto Christiaans, Schoolstraat 2, Oranjestad, Aruba

Bryan: Do you offer the services of providing witnesses and what’s the cost?

Mr. Christiaans: Mondays to Fridays we can provide you with witnesses between the hours of 10 AM to 12 Noon and 1 PM and 3:30 PM. This service is free. Gratuity is appreciated.

Bryan: Is there a preferred time of day or day of the week to have a wedding?

Mr. Christiaans: No we are open from Monday to Friday office hours so anytime then it’s OK, we also open on Saturdays upon request but that has an additional cost.

Bryan: What’s the cost of a civil wedding?

Mr. Christiaans: $150 including ceremony, wedding book, certificate of translation, verification apostille. This is the price for during the week and in the weekend it’s $275.

Bryan: Seeing that most wedding planners just offer one hour of photography, the couple rather use that one hour for the beach, having in mind that the civil ceremony is similar to back home in the US, Canada or the UK in a white office, just sign papers and that’s it. What would you say to anyone considering photography only on the beach?

Mr. Christiaans: It’s a beautiful building with a lot of history, very colorful in a tropical setting. So, great for pictures.

Bryan: Getting this information of a civil ceremony out, what would you like to stress to the potential or future brides having a civil wedding on the island?

Betto: It’s an honor to marry you here in our beautiful City Hall. The process if very easy, Just get me all the necessary paperwork and I’ll be happy to process it for you and ultimately marry you.

Bryan: Do you have a website or an email address?

Mr. Christiaans: I do have an email address, cayetano.christiaans@aruba.gov.aw

Bryan: Mr Christiaans, it was a pleasure to spend some time with you and discuss a little about what you do. Thank you very much for all your help.

Mr. Christiaans: Bryan, the pleasure was mine; thanks for assisting in every which way you can in getting the word out there.

I also walked away with a list with the requirements needed to get married here on the island.

1. Birth certificate of the couple (With names of the parents) and furnished with an apostil given by the secretary of state where the birth took place.

2. A declaration of unmarried (A search given by the department of health)

3. If you were married before, a divorce certificate or death certificate of your previous spouses with an apostil also.

4. Copy of your passports

5. Letter of intent to marry

6. Copy of passport of two witnesses

7. All these documents should be faxed into Mr. Christiaans with your registration latest 20 days prior to your intended date to marry.