(Night shot at the end of Day 1 of shooting)

What a crazy, fast paced day of shooting it has been! I woke up at 6:15 am after a little less than 6 1/2 hours of sleep from the night before. NOT recommended for future shoots or those contemplating booking a photo shoot. But the night before, Paul was back in full force and it’s kind of hard not to hang out with everyone. 🙂

Once up, I quickly showered, and I mean quickly, as it was FREEZING! I must say, trying to shave your legs when the water is ice cold is crazy.  Mute point. Lol.

Anyway, shower done. Up next COFFEE! If anyone knows me, they know I can’t function without my morning cup of coffee. I quickly rushed downstairs to the lounge an ordered a coffee. A cappuccino was delivered instead. “Oh well”, I said,  and downed the thing in 5 seconds flat! Then 2 more! Seriously? Yep.

I then texted my trainer, Steven, to see if he could FaceTime with me. I wanted him to see my abs, legs & shoulders. I wanted to know if I’m dry enough and how much carb loading he thinks I need to do. HAHA.  If that can even take place here considering the limited food options.

We coordinated a time to talk as Punta Cana is 2 hours ahead of ABQ.  8:00 am my time is what we settled on. Perfect! I can get all of my packing finished for the day and my hubby and I can FaceTime with our girls in the meantime.

(Me Facetiming with NO MAKEUP ON, LOL)

After packing and Facetiming with our girls, I headed to breakfast to meet Dawn, the other model I was shooting with for the day. Dawn is from Ottowa and is in Punta Cana wit her boyfriend, Dave. She is a SAF athlete and has shot with Paul many times.  We loaded up on some carbs and chatted about our family & our experience so far in Punta Cana.  FYI, Dawn has 5 boys! Crazy and she looks amazing!

After breakfast (and while walking to get my makeup done) I Facetimed with Steven. FYI, you always want to be early for a shoot–never late! Steven & I reviewed my eating “game plan” for the day and while talking to him I got to see my other trainer Alex and one of my good friends, Shanda.  Shanda was recently published in Strong Magazine & also is a Figure Pro, for those of you in the fitness competition arena.  It felt so good to see all of them and it gave me the boost of energy & confidence to get me ready for the day!

Once in the hotel room where makeup and hair was scheduled, Monica got to work. She is the teenie, tiny makeup artist I mentioned in a prior post.  She’s so cute!  Her comment was that Paul would make our hair very messy when not shooting fitness photos so be prepared. If you look at his photography, that is kind of his signature look. Love it!

(Monica finished with eye makeup – up next hair)

We finished up around 10:15 am and headed over to Paul’s room. Once in his room, we signed our consent form and then got to work showing him outfits for him to pick from. As a reminder, I brought outfits I felt comfortable shooting in & felt looked good on me. It’s now up to him to do his magic as I know he’s the expert and can work his magic.

One more note, when shooting off location, the location for photographs become anywhere.  In other words, it can me a hotel lobby, hotel room, outside by the beach, in the village, etc.  It is not an in-studio photo shoot so you need to be flexible with where you shoot and know that some of the best shots come from odd places.  🙂

Dawn shot first, which was fine with me as I wanted to watch and get a feel for his way of doing things. Then it was my turn.  Paul was awesome at making me feel comfortable.  We started outside on the balcony to get the natural light and then shot inside up against a wall. The photos came out amazing.  And I will post some here soon.

We then headed downstairs for lunch.  He wanted to shoot us on the beach but needed to wait for the sun to go down some.  We met up with the “crew” at the snack bar hut by the beach.  We sat and ate lunch (what food I could eat) and just talked and laughed.  It was great to relax a bit with everyone.

Around 3:00 pm we decided to get our fitness shooting over with for Strong Magazine.  Dawn, Sarah, Tanya, Liz, Shannon and myself, along with Paul, Monica and my husband headed to the village.  Paul wanted to shoot us running in the streets of Punta Cana.

I must say it was a bit scary at first.  A group of fit women in the streets of a not so nice area with many natives around was nerve racking.  At one point, one of the girls commented that a guy had a machete.  We quickly got the shots we needed and got out of there!

We then headed back to the resort where Paul shot us running on the beach – which was a blast.  He also got a few “piggy back” photos of us goofing off.  FUN.   Once we finished, Dawn and I got our swimsuits on for night shooting on the beach.

I shot in a metal swimsuit by Sauvage Swimwear.  The swimsuit is soooo cool and well, I’m going to have to figure out a way to make this suit into something I would wear again.  As of now, it’s just a metal top.  You will see what I mean in the photos. Ummm, it’s not something I could wear to the country club pool…that’s for sure!

Shooting on the beach is messy.  You get sand everywhere, the water is COLD and the current can be rough.  All part of getting a good shot though and you just have to suck it up.  No complaining on my part.  I thought it was awesome!

Paul asked if Dawn and I could shoot on Wednesday morning as well.  He wanted to get some more fitness shots and felt we ran out of time today.  I said YES!!  Why wouldn’t I? If the publisher of a magazine and the one and only, PAUL BUCETA, asks if you want to shoot some more, you can’t say no!

It just meant eating clean ONE MORE NIGHT as Wednesday at 1pm John and I have to leave back to the states.  We are going to the Masters golf tournament.

We still ended the night popping open a bottle of champagne and toasting to good times and new friends on the beach. YUM!!