Sunday morning at El Faro de Cabo Rojo with a great couple, Jennifer & Max and a very sunny day to shoot. Jennifer and Max are professional Volleyball Players playing on the local tournament of women and men respectively. We had a blast doing this engagement session, both are very tall, she is 6 feet 5 inches tall and Max is 6’8″, imagine me a 5’8″ trying to shoot this giants, but we had so much fun doing this. They’re getting married in August in Virginia where they are from.

{Ponce,PR} – January 25, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce Nestor Ruiz Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Photography!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, Nestor Ruiz Photography was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

Nestor Ruiz Photography is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Nestor Ruiz Photography for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that Nestor Ruiz Photography is one of the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for 2012.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at Nestor Ruiz Photography Store Front.

Maria & Josue was our last couple of the 2011. We had a blast on the beautiful city of Guayama PR where this lovely couple decided to celebrate their union, flying from California with family and friends and celebrating the New Year as well.

This is a beautiful image of the wedding of Jamie and Diego, but what captivate me about it is the expression of happinnes and joy that she reflects when putting the ring on her husband Diego. This emotion and happiness make this image our image of the month.

Congratulations to Crystal & David whom I had the honor to be their photographer @ their wedding on Rincon Beach Resort yesterday (December 11, 2011). We had a great time and we were blessed by a light mist of rain as a witness to their love.

Sometimes you capture an image of a place that you love or a beautiful scenery that captivate you at a particular hour of the day or maybe you’re on vacation and want to document your trip. In this place the image above is not mine, is from a friend, but certainly is from a place that I love visiting.  The place is The Lighthouse in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico and the guy who took it is my friend Juan Lizarzaburo. I met Juan at a gathering from a photographers club that we both are members and by coincidence I found him once at a wedding that I was attending as a photographer. We always chat about photography (of course) but I didn’t had the chance to view his work. The day I finally did, I was overwhelmed by the images I saw of places where he found beauty and didn’t hesitate to grab that beauty and make it art.

Here is a little Bio of Juan in his own words: “Hi I’m Juan Lizarzaburo, I was born in Venezuela  and I have been living 5 years on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. I am a student by profession. Photography started in me 3 years ago, I was struggling in  a difficult situation and I had to find a way to express myself, to feel better, that way photography helped me immensely. I am very interested in photography, I learn by reading, talking with other photographers, I like to listen to advice from those who had been years in this field. I try with each of my photographs show the beauty I found in nature and in people. Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I hope my photos will stole breath and bring  smiles to people. Walking along the shores of Puerto Rico I fill my camera’s memory, because there is beauty everywhere.
For this photo I used a technique called High Dynamic Range, which allowed me to capture detail in the shadows and the highlights in a photo, also used a long shutter speed for the movement of the water to became static and sparkling  where they collide with the rocks.“

I asked Juan where to buy a print of his image because I want it hanging in the walls of my office. He told me where to “Juanlizar”, and I did.

Now I have a great piece of art that capture my breath every time I look at it.

Go visit Juan Lizarzaburo page and take a look for yourself of the great artistic talent that he have and buy some art in the name of Juan.

Sometimes you want to capture a couple with a beautiful sunset as a background but have all the elements against you. Not this time, Jamie DeMarco and Diego Hurtado got married on Aguadilla PR, one of the places that you will find the most spectacular sunsets. Adding to this the place they choose was an old lighthouse ruins that dates to the 19 century and was constructed by the spaniards. An earthquake made them ruins and the government decided to construct a new lighthouse not so far from the old one. This is a very romantic place and very special for the newlyweds. Ceremony took place under a beautiful skies and the reception was in the Old Officers Club at the Old Ramey Airforce Base in Aguadilla PR.  We had a great time doing the improvised Trash the Dress session at the beach, where Jamie and Diego expressed their passion and romance in a very romantic way.

I thought that I never was going to shoot film again. The digital age had been a fierce storm of gadgets and camera equipment getting better every  time. Recently I read a newspaper article about the magic of photography, the way the digital revolution had killed some of that magic. “I remember that it was a process in which you visualized the image, make the proper adjustments on camera, take the shot and the wait until the film is developed to see finally if your image is the same as you imagined before, the digital photography kill that magic process of creation”, this is a quote from the newspaper article. I totally agree with that, the easy fast way in which you see the results on the LCD of the camera just kill that creative process.  That moment I knew that I have to get back shooting some film, to find out some of that creativity again, so I went in a search of a camera. I knew that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money in some film equipment, I wanted something simple, easy to work. After a research I found a simple rangefinder, a Canon Canonet QL 17 G III. I bought it on Ebay for the big amount of $75.00. The condition is excellent, almost like new, the light meter works (only on auto aperture mode), the lens is in pristine condition, almost no marks or scratches on the body. Although it is a small camera but  is a metal body and quite heavy for the size.  To shoot in manual mode I’ve been using my Sekonic handheld light meter. My plan is to use it in some wedding events along with my Nikon digital equipment and see the results of it, just like a vintage photography or so.  So far, I’m enjoying every moment with it, trying to focus more on composition and just taking the time in every frame. I’ll post the results.

]]> http://nestorruiz.com/blog/2011/11/08/back-to-film/feed/ 2 http://nestorruiz.com/blog/2011/10/11/web-site-new-look/ http://nestorruiz.com/blog/2011/10/11/web-site-new-look/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:30:28 +0000 Nestor Ruiz http://nestorruiz.com/blog/?p=988 Continue reading 〉〉]]> It had been on my mind for a while, but with all the work to do I postponed the change of a new template and design. Finally it is done. Thanks to the guys of Creative Motion Design and their team of designers and programers. Thanks.

Everyone who visited Puerto Rico or know about Puerto Rico, had seen this enigmatic emblem left here by our Spanish ancestors. We have 3 forts that have this points, El Morro, San Cristobal and other one that the name escape my mind that is located very near the Caribe Hilton in San Juan. There is a legend about this points that dates back to the time of the Spaniards and said that at one point on of the sentinels was taken prisoner by the Devil himself and that he disappear during his shift. But there are rumors that maybe he left the Garita and escaped with his girlfriend and got married on one of the town inside the island. We’ll never know.