Matt Adcock

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt Adcock A few more shots... Scene setter with palm and lounge, at dusk! Dusk light RULES here. The dance floor was a cool idea. Props are SO Much fun, wish we could see them at all weddings! I wanted to link this post with a more recent planning thread I created. Since I used Tracey + Brent's images in my newest thread, I thought I'd provide a link back to her review thread so folks could learn more about the Royal and her experience here. PLEASE ROYAL BRIDES, read this thread about weddings in the Gazebo. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ography-58731/

Quote: Originally Posted by WingsofInnocence Hey Matt, Just wondering where I can find a price list from del Sol? I emailed and got a response with a questionaire, but could not send it.. and still wondering about prices? Could you let me know what I should do? Thanks! sorry for finding this so late.... just email our studio manager Melissa at info @ delsolphotography .com and she will give you all the necessary info. sometimes, computers at work will not enable you to enter forms, etc. We ask these questionnaires to really get an idea of the expectations on the wedding day, etc. hopefully, that helps.

Quote: Originally Posted by skadow More Del Sol Proofs Pics YAY!.. I have them booked for next year. I cant wait. I check there site like 5 times a week for new pictures. Its the highlight of my day when they post them. I love there work. Congrats on your wedding..and Congrats on everything going great! Thanks for sharing HA too funny Sara! thanks for being a true follower We love posting new stuff and I'm trying to find the time to participate more here. Saludos! mateo

best time of year, by far is going to be November - Mid March. Thats a HUGE time window.... BUT, the weather is so nice here and in the first months of Nov, I believe rates are cheaper. I'd try to avoid spring break months, March - Mid April. good luck matt

We are excited to shoot a celebrity underwater session...... excited Images coming soon

Awesome Review I just read through this entire thread and didnt see the link to your photos Sabrina+Aaron - Photos by Sol Tamargo Awesome shots, just WOW! Saludos, matt

Was recently on the campus of Ana y Jose. This place is always lovely for us. I had the pleasure of photographing a multi cultural wedding where the bride was Indian, the groom was a Catholic Chilean, the preacher was African.... Total FUN mix of cultures. Especially the mariachi's and the dancing from these guys. If you are thinking about this place, we highly recommend it as a beach club and LOVE the atmosphere of the surrounding tiny boutique properties within the vicinity of Ana y Jose. Check out Sangeeta + Cristian - Photos by Matt Adcock Cheers! matt

HOLA Stephanie Well, I just found this thread... I'm humbled that you would even write a review before even seeing your photographs WOWSER. Well, needless to say that we LOVED your wedding. Were so excited to get RAVE reviews from your mother and aunt, and then of course, a super sweet email from you. Thank you for trusting the vision of del sol. This wedding slideshow is AWESOME. Stephanie + Ryan - Photos by Sol Tamargo - Grand Sunset Princess AND, your awesome TTD photos. Stephanie + Ryan TTD - Photos by Sol Tamargo Oh, we also posted a bit on our blog including the awesome testimonials. TTD on the blog too CHEERS to you! mateo

Quote: Originally Posted by Sita&Nate .... 05.05.10 Christine + Anthony | Wedding at La Zebra, Tulum | Photos by Sol Tamargo I am in love with Del Sol blush blush, thank u amiga for the kind words!

Quote: Originally Posted by PaperBagPrincess Jescman - As soon as the transfer goes through with Kool I will be booking Del Sol. Not only do they take great pictures, but have been a big help all around! I'll keep Yazmin in mind. You like her so far? Has she done a lot of weddings at Kool? yeay Yazmin was the coordinator for MY wedding She knows whats up, regardless of the location. Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan PaperBagPrincess - Ya Del Sol is amazing (Matt and Sol I could rave on about your guys forever and ever!) you are so lucky to be hiring them as your photogs Yes Yazmin has been wonderful to work with. She also can order all the candles for you and anything else you need. Let me know if you need any help with vendor recommendations. Oh and ya I looked over those slide shows again and again and again lol thanks amiga! and why aren't we shooting ur wedding

Quote: Originally Posted by PaperBagPrincess Jesmcan - not sure if you have sen these? But Del Sol Photograpghy sent them to me, slide shows from receptions at Kool. Nothing like looking at them again and again, specially when you have a bad day at work Thank you again to Del Sol! 02.27.09 Nam and Kate | Wedding at Kool Playa del Carmen Mexico | Photographer Sol Tamargo and Vincent Karen+Chris 04.19.09 Lindsay and Tim | Playacar and Kool Wedding | Photos by Vincent Enjoy! glad to help you place this spot in your mind with a few photos thanks for the mention and nice words ya'll.... Jess

Quote: Originally Posted by Bermuda Bride to Be Hey there... my brother is planning on getting married in Mexico October 2010. The resort says that he can only use the on site photographer but there are lots of ladies that used Del Sol and they have amazing pictures. How does that work? What do you tell the hotel? Do they ask questions? Do you use the hotel photographer too? Does anyone have pricing or how it compares to the hotel? Any advice is greatly appreciated! We have shot in a few resorts where no outside vendors are allowed. Its really a circus here and yes, there are loop holes to jump through to get anything done in Mexico... Some of these resorts here, we have just stopped working at because they really stink Not naming any names!!! send Melissa, our studio manager a shout OUT for info. info @ delsolphotography .com good luck with your planning and thanks for thinking about del Sol mateo PS... one of our most recent shoots at the royal, from Sr Vincent: Kelli + Ben-Royal PDC PS. the Royal now charges $350 USD. Just a year or so ago, it was about $125. ouchy.

Quote: Originally Posted by rosieposie Thanks! The other time available is 6pm - but still $400....Hmmm....10am.... yes, I can't believe they're they're actually charging a premium on this decisions decisions..... Thanks everyone! I hope you ended up choosing 6pm. By the way, I posted a good tidbit of info about your hotel Gazebo location here...fyi: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ography-58731/

Quote: Originally Posted by Jeff Babineau Hey I forgot to say ... Nothing a real pro photographer (who sweats allot) can't handle. Jeff HA.... Jeff is correct... We have shot in the same circumstances in the past and ROCKED the folio....so don't sweat this... thanks for the nice comments Sr Jeff!

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt Adcock Love father of the groom wiping a tear in the background...priceless! mateo CORRECTION... thats the FATHER of the BRIDE back there, wiping tears, getting a hug from Julie's mom.... Quote: Originally Posted by zelda062 Thanks for the great info!! I am planning on getting married the end of next April. I am thinking about the beach location over the gazebo though. I really want some pictures with the bright turquoise water in the background. What would you recommend? Also, from a photographers point of view, does a white or ivory wedding dress photograph better in the sunlight? Thanks, Wendy umm beach suggestions....wow, thats another 2 to 3 hour sit down for me to organize thoughts.... let me think on this, cool?

Quote: Originally Posted by Lisa DSO Matt, it was me who messaged you about this. HOLY MOLY you went above and beyond- thanks a bunch!!! Hey Lisa... I tend to get pretty passionate about stuff and shooting in the Royal Gazebo has been a Royal PIA jk.... there are circumstances that can block our creative path a little. happy to "shed light" on this subject. One of the things we concentrate on is helping our clients fine tune or align expectations. Planning virtually is very tough, therefor its our duty to provide as much info as possible in order to keep everything on the right track. In Mexico, its so easy to go uninformed about everything. Most hotels aren't going to provide this kind of info, so we are happy to! Quote: Originally Posted by RunningBride24 Hey girls- So I waited too long and the photographer I wanted is booked. I'm not looking to spend THAT much money, so Del Sol (who I adore) is out. Nikki Thanks for those nice words We are working with a few photographers right now, very very experienced careers shooting weddings, I just don't have a full folio. We are targeting a lower price point for gals like U Purrrhaps we can werk out sumetin What is your budget? You should email us for more info info@delsolphotography. com saludos chicas! mateo

Quote: Originally Posted by LynnieS Thank you so much Matt for all this information, this is so helpful. Now, my ceremony is at 2pm when the sun is its hottest and brightest and we have 50 guests. . .would you still recommend everyone standing outside the gazebo? I do REALLY like how Julie and Greg set up their wedding ceremony with all guests on the outside Your pics are beautiful!! thanks again! DE NADA! Yeah, the earlier on the afternoon, the greater the "Light vs Dark" concept I was talking about. SUPER bright outside, SUPER DARRRRRK inside. So telling the story with light using whats happening inside and whats happening outside is tough to do in the same frame.... Its all about in vs out. shooting against a backlit background is tough too. Basically, one of the hardest circumstances we can come up against as photographers! good luck with your planning Mateo

Quote: Originally Posted by Matt Adcock I plan on writing a post about this subject.... LOTS of detail and photo examples. I'm also going to make it a new post, so it doesnt get lost in the 3 zillion other posts in this thread.... I am just swamped and need some time to organize my thoughts, etc prior to posting. Without a doubt, RUN, JUMP, go there as fast as you can.... have the ceremony at the front edge or outside the gazebo. when its inside, we feel like this: OK, here you Royal Guys and Gals go.. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...1/#post1283531 Took me about 2+ hrs to write Should be a HUGE help planning wise! saludos, mateo

Ok, one last point to consider. Bride and groom inside gazebo, usually in the middle, and all the guests outside. I'd probably caution against this because the further towards the middle of the gazebo you go, and especially if you include your bridal party inside, then you run into lots of problems. 1. Its nice to be a guest and actually see / hear what is happening...Its very likely that your guests can be 15 to 20 feet away from the action... Also, closer the stand to the edge, the more balanced the light on them will be compared to that of the quality of light on the guests. In this photo, you can clearly see guests in the background, participants in the event. This shot also came from Julie + Greg. Love father of the groom wiping a tear in the background...priceless! I could probably go on and on and on, with lots more photo examples but I think you get the point. Moral of the story. Gazebo is great... its private and its accommodating. We recommend that you stand outside and have your guests setup just in front. LOTS of free space to move around outside. Lighting is super even. Bride and groom are elevated and CLEARLY visible to all guests in attendance. Those are pretty important things to consider, eh? Good luck you Royal Brides! mateo

Ceremony location at the Royal, PDC. Gazebo... the big question.... Do we have the wedding inside or outside of the Gazebo, or at the edge? What about it being dark? My thoughts on gazebo's go pretty much hand in hand for all gazebos. I thought I'd clear a few things up... or to throw a PUN in there... shed some LIGHT on the situation. The biggest problem we have at the Royal's Gazebo location is that more often than not, brides are planning their ceremony spots INSIDE the Gazebo. While this sounds like a super nice idea on paper and in your mind, lighting wise, its real tough on us photographers. A few things...and let this serve as my disclaimer... (we don't claim to be the overall authority either, just an opinion and you know what they say about those Consider these basic principals when trying to visualize how light actually works and then try to apply them. I don't expect you to completely understand all of this, so if you want to play it safe, just trust me 1. Light vs Dark. Its obvious...where there is light, you can see better. Where there is dark, you can't see detail as much... Seems pretty simple eh? Well, consider that the human eye can see about 15 levels of detail in a subject falling under any given light circumstances from the brightest bright to the darkest dark. 15 levels of detail. This can also be considered a latitude of detail from brightest to dark. Well, the camera only sees 5 levels of detail under the same lighting conditions. Sounds confusing...well, not really. Just know the human eye is VERY sensitive to light and the camera is NOT. 2. Apply light vs dark principal to under the gazebo vs not under it. Its that simple, just stand at the edge and by principal alone, there will be more light falling on you vs what would be inside. This is major for our cameras. 3. Gazebo by the ocean. This needs to be a reality check here because we seem to be realizing a lot of misconceptions, specifically at the RPDC. Just because you are choosing a location that is near the ocean, or "oceanside" as the Royal's Marketing may suggest, its very less likely that your photos will actually have anything in them suggesting you were oceanside... i'm going to provide photo examples below to explain my point.... There are lots of positive points about the Gazebo location... 1..that its private is a BIG bonus. PDC has a LOT of tourists on the beach, just about every day. This can't be avoided with lots of by-standards hanging around in clothing that may make you blush The Gazebo eliminates that. In closing on my initial thoughts about the Gazebo, I'd like everybody to know that the privacy element to the Gazebo is one of our favorite elements about weddings here... There are lots of possibilities in and around the garden area for great shots too, so we highly recommend this spot. Just use discretion when planning here. Ok, i'm going to provide a few photo examples just to shore up my thoughts on the Gazebo and lighting around. Most of my examples relate to weddings that are shot in the afternoon 3pm before daylight savings or 5pm or so after daylight savings. When you plan your wedding next to the far back side, meaning your bridal party stands inside (usually all the guests are in there too) this is when the photographic problems start to begin for us. In this wedding, bride and groom are at the very back edge with such a beautiful ocean background... but, without some sort of artificial lighting (big studio strobe flashes) they are standing in darkness. Make sense? The ocean is about 100-150 feet away, and in TOTAL brightness. Remember my example above, bright vs dark. The light at the ocean is more than 15 times brighter than the light under the gazebo. Remember, the human eye sees 15 levels of detail, but the camera only sees 5. So, in this first example. Shot October 29 at 5:15pm, right around sunset We used the silhouette technique here, and notice that the sky and ocean are dramatically dark... this is a photo technique where we underexpose the background to draw emphasis. But, you get the idea bright vs dark. Ok, here is the same bride (Tracy + Brent) at the moment mentioned above, shot from a different photographer. Here is the natural light photo, exposed to see detail on their skin. They are backlit here, light from the ocean side is lighting them). Keep in mind, we shoot mostly available light for every single ceremony we have ever photographed at, this is a style choice and Id say that most of our pro photog buddies do the same. Direct flash during a ceremony is kinda ugly. Now, my above photo example you can now notice, all background of that pretty ocean is GONE, all white. Thus, the backlight. Now, a flash may be a problem solver, but it would be a little intrusive for us to use during a ceremony, which is another reason we use natural light. Here is the SAME couple, just a few seconds before the first kiss, here we have exposed for the background (WAY darker, which puts the people totally under silhouette. My intention by posting these images and giving my short descriptions is to help you visualize what we are thinking and seeing as we shoot. Ok, here is a different couple, we used natural light to illuminate the subjects, background is GONE... Now, unless your photographer uses very powerful flash during the ceremony (almost studio quality lighting), your photos with available light will look like this. I don't think this is bad at all, just a style choice. You can see that this couple is inches away from the back side, the fence on the edge of the gazebo as well. You can check out Veronica + Paul's slideshow..their wedding was awesome, just in a tough place for us to snap photos. Logistically, being on that back edge brings 1 more challenge. As storytellers, we are stoked to get those moments where bride sees groom walking down the isle and groom sees her, or a handshake to dad giving his daughter away...a moment that we feel deserves to be shot from both sides. IF you want to stand a few inches away from the beach side edge of the gazebo, forget about seeing these kind of photos... In this wedding, the bride stood at the edge of the gazebo, giving our photographers the chance to shoot from two perspectives.. These two are all about daddy...he gets the look from his daughter Daddy gets that handshake of respect from the groom... Keep in mind, if you stand against the back edge, this kind of photojournalism is nearly impossible. I'd change the entire setup for this reason alone, if it were my wedding to plan. Ok, so now I think we are getting somewhere in terms of planning ideas and what Light VS dark is really all about. Now, lets throw in 1 more twist. Keep in mind, that most afternoon weddings take place when the sun is at such a low angle in the sky, that the actual building of the Royal casts a shadow on the entire location at the gazebo. This makes the light nice and even, meaning LOW CONTRAST, which essentially is an easier condition to make photographs in. BUT, a few things to consider... The light outside is on the ocean side is going to be WAY stronger, thus if we expose our images to light the wedding area (in shade) then the background is going to appear over exposed. Here is an example: Image shot on March 29, 4:12 pm. This is a beautiful photo for our clients to remember exactly what happened and what the setup looked like on the wedding day, it shows a scene setter and displays all the guests in attendance. With the way the camera works we have a tough time shooting the sky and ocean unless we underexpose (make the people in the foreground in shade, darker) and then you wouldnt be able to see any guests, bride and groom would be in Silhouette. Make sense? We always shoot the wedding in hopes to portray what we felt the guests saw and what the bride and groom remember. Standing inside in the middle of darkness, the waves and ocean and sunshine aren't actually a big memory here. The photo session on the beach is what the sunset and 'beach photo session" is all about, after the wedding! That above photo comes from Julie + Greg's wedding at the Royal March 29. I had the conversation with her about this ALL THIS INFO in this post... we feel she planned the perfect potential ceremony setup at the RPDC. Also, during Spring break, no by-standards in bikini's... Julie's setup slightly elevates B&G and gives some interesting angles for photography, vs being standing on the grown outside. NOW, here is another photo taken from the same exact wedding, just keep in mind that in the background, the sunlight exposure on the beach is 10-15 times brighter (in full sun) than the people watching the gazebo and also the bride and groom watching them... Make sense? In this frame, Julie and Greg are shown in the right side of the frame, and we back focused on the beach to show the 3 zillion people WAY away, not invited...only shown here in this post for a perspective. March 29, image shot at 4:15. Are you rolling along with my examples? I'm going to post a little bit more in another post because my image limit is 10

Quote: Originally Posted by jesmcan Hi Lisa, I think its just because its so shadowy in the gazebo so the pictures come out looking dark. I plan on writing a post about this subject.... LOTS of detail and photo examples. I'm also going to make it a new post, so it doesnt get lost in the 3 zillion other posts in this thread.... I am just swamped and need some time to organize my thoughts, etc prior to posting. Without a doubt, RUN, JUMP, go there as fast as you can.... have the ceremony at the front edge or outside the gazebo. when its inside, we feel like this:

Quote: Originally Posted by labloom Hi, were have our wedding June 18 and are going down next week to finalize the details. We are meeting with Gabi with Planner1Events for decor and flowers. We are planning the wedding in a palapas, cocktails on the pier and reception in the Sushi Terrance.. so far I can give you some better details after next week. The only other thing we have done so far is book the Spanish Guitarist, Javier Rojas and finally Del Sol as the photography (finally!). Lori, thanks for trusting the vision of del Sol!!! We love shooting at Ceiba

Quote: Originally Posted by SouthernSweetie Matt, I booked my wedding for 6pm thinking that it would be a cooler time of day, but now I'm worried that it will be too close to sunset for good pro pictures after a 30-35 minute ceremony. What is your professional opinion? 6pm is fine, run with it!

Quote: Originally Posted by rosieposie My FI didn't want us to spend the extra $400 charge for a later time - "sunset time" so the hotel said 2pm is the only other time available besides 10am. ceremony is on the beach so I'm concerned we all would be baking in the sun. i really don't want to be a pain and try to justify the extra spending because we could use it towards favours, invites or something.... he's been so good with everything so far, and this is 1 of the few things he's asked, that we save this extra bit of money..... should be okay, right ....what will guests do between ceremony and reception, after photos.....? WOW, people in Mexico amaze me.... Interesting that they are now capitalizing on the "preferred" ceremony start time. Without a doubt, its hot. Our seasonal guide will help a little. We would suggest to change the time to later in the day. Mid day weddings will result in people squinting and the lighting is a tad harsher. If possible, go for the later time, it will be a better plan good luck, mateo

Quote: Originally Posted by krizstyling OKay, your pictures are AMAZING. Some of the best I've seen. gracias Rockin HOT Siggy pic Nat!