Robin and Brian Wrapped in Blue - Destination Anguilla

Well we're back in Trinidad and even though I had internet access in Anguilla...who has time for a blog post when you're in Anguilla?

Where do I start? Should I start at the most appealing beaches ever (Sorry Tobago but I still wouldn't give you up for the world) or with the uber kewl couple themselves, Robin and Brian or with the HE-MAN! (and the masters of the universe!) and My Little Pony on the Cake?

Maybe I should just do it in point form because its way too much to type.

Ok here goes.

• Left Trinidad
• Stopped in every Caribbean island possible to get to Anguilla (The lady at the airport tried to convince us to stay in St Kitts)
• Met Shurwayne Winchester
• Landed in Anguilla and Got to Lloyd's
• Got a car
• Ate
• Met Robin and Brian (Brian thought that my HADOKEN! Street Fighter 2 message tone rocked - right back at ya Brian and I'll email it for you and Jason)
• Visited a couple of beaches and took pics - no swimming yet
• Mini Couple shoot and Wedding rehersal (Met the family - Aunt MiMi is quite interesting)
• Finish Couple shoot (Great fun and met a friendly, water going, goat chasing dog. Robin would have taken him home if she could)
• Wedding (Fun getting ready, teary eyed ceremony and more teary eyed reception - I mean if you saw the slide show Robin's dad put together you would have popped a tear or two yourself not to mention the speeches)
• Dance (OK GO's here it goes again was my favorite)
• Eat Cake
• More Dancing
• A full day of Editing
• Meeting the newly hitched couple in the middle of the night to deliver the photos before they left for their honeymoon which brings me to the question: When you get married in Anguilla...where to you Honeymoon. The answer: Somewhere else!
• Drove around the entire island in an hour or so...
• Almost missed our flight
• Blog all about it

In the end a good time was had by all and I have the pics to prove it!

OH BTW there are no wedding pics here as you will notice, will get those up in another post.

Veteran Calypsonian, Winston Bailey, better know as "The Mighty Shadow" in Piarco airport...actually we saw lots of other artistes as well...They apparently were on their way to the St Kitts Music..um...Festival I think its called, but don't quote me on that

Brens and Shurwayne Winchester - Soca Artiste extraordinare. We actually were on all the same flights with him till St Kitts and just to note he really carried himself differently to some of the other artistes a real T&T ambassador

Brens and I on the "maxi" plane looking through the window

What she was looking at...nice

Lloyd's Guest House - excellent breakfast and nice people - they are possibly the oldest establishment of this kind on the island, celebrating 50 years in the business next year

Brens and I at breakfast

A peep at Cap Juluca

Robin, Brian, Brens and I checking out the reception area

The kewl couple themselves, looking forward to the big day

Checking out possible wedding photo locations...but look at the water

Brens and I on some random beach...probably Shoal Bay West..I think

Another beach

Lunch at E's Oven, nice girl that served us, curried goat and other stuff, we struggeled for two days straight to get lunch, because after 12:30...lunch in Anguilla (At least all the good stuff) is basically done. We loved the kewl little pots they served the goat in.

Me...doing something or the other, I only noticed the bottle when I looked at the pic afterward, what if I had slipped on it???

Inexplicable froth from what I think is some pond or sumptim, its was just frothy all the time.

An accident in Anguilla...amazing.

Heart pose (my idea :-)

Having fun

Day we left Lloyds, the lady in the pic is Merlin one of two of the ladies that took care of us while we were there

Carnival 08' - Sigh...Highs and lows

Ayinde Just sent this one over so I thought I'd just include it in this post. Boy do I look unkempt, but that's Photography for you. That's the D80 with the 1.8 85mm in my hand, one of the rare times I mounted that lens for the day. I used the D80 for the most part, the D200 was just heavier and in that sun an ounce of weight can make a big difference.

Well I may have told some people that I'm not really involved in Carnival and that's quite true, but I still ventured to take some pics this Carnival Monday and Tuesday...only reason being that i didn't want to dissapoint Abigail (my apprentice) after saying that I was going and that she could come along. Plus my good Paparazzi friend Ayinde was in on the action as well.

Jouvert was good as usual mud, body paint, steel pan, the whole shabang and a wealth of creative photographic opportunities.

Tuesday however... was Tuesday.

Most Carnival bands can be summed up into an experience I had on Tuesday while doing some light photography in Port of Spain.

Ayinde, Abby and myself were looking for some friends of Ayinde's and while walking through the band that we knew they were in, we could not find them so we kept on walking through all the sections of the band.
I somehow ended up leading the march (even though I had no idea who we were looking for) and at some point I heard Ayinde calling out to me so I turned around. He then pointed to the security in the band...and i noticed that their t-shirt colour had changed...so I was like "is this some type of exclusive section or something?" Then Ayinde signalled and pointed to the print on the security's t-shirt...it was not that the band security t-shirt colour had changed but this was a completely different band!
It all just looked the same, the costumes were all just bikini's with a splash of colour and you couldn't tell where one band ended and another began.

There was no creative signature that made the costumes distinct. As usual.

There was however one band that DID stand out and it stood out so greatly I wondered whether there should just be two bands this Carnival...one massively big bikini band, with a splash of colour, called the "Splash of Colour Bikini Band" which would mostly be all the bands combined competing against Brian Mac Falane's 2008 presentation "EARTH" for band of the year.

I was captivated buy the elaborate detail and care put into creating the Brian Mac Farlane costumes. They were in a word "outstanding".

So thumbs up to Brian Mac Farlane and his creative team for bringing some sanity to an otherwise parade of half naked people.

I can't decide which photos I want to put up what so in the mean time, I'll just put up my favorite pics from Jouvert and Carnival Tuesday and a couple of the crew.

My Favorite 08 Jouvert Photo.

I'm sure people will ask why this is my favorite pic...no mud, no steel pan but this photo has character and some thing I just...well I dunno, the more I look at it the more I love it...the grey stubble on his face, the squinting eyes, the fact that he is chipping like this unwaveringly...just a nice pic.

A nail-biting-ly close second

I like this photo because you can see the detail of the bottle cap on the top of his head, the photo is cut in two and he's right in front of one half almost like if he is just about to cross the border , I love all the feet framing the top of the photo and the only pair of feet at the at the bottom, oddly but wondrously so is facing in the opposite direction almost like a perimeter is being formed around him while he's doing his Jouvert ritual. I also love the colour and texture of the mud on his skin.


My Favorite 08 Carnival Photo (arguably)

I love the perspective on this and the fact that he's just about to move out of the frame. It gives him a feel like a tall tree and the sky is lovely and of course this is Brian Mac Farlane's band.

A fighting second

I love this because It does not necessarily have anything to do with Carnival, the only thing that is connecting this photo to Carnival is the reflection of the masquerader in her sunglasses.

As things become clearer I'll post more.

Ayinde and Abigail...keeping a sharp eye out for photo ops.

My, what big knees you have Grandma...this is me checking my mail @ Ayinde's, Abby took this photo.