Providenciales. What a place! I have been to quite a few areas in the Caribbean but Grace Bay is definitely at the top of my list. I recently had the opportunity to travel to the Turks and Caicos to photograph two luxury properties, one a 7 bedroom, beach front home, and the other a 4 bedroom, beach front penthouse condo. I jumped at the opportunity to do this as I knew it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Preparations were calculated as I could not forget one single cable, memory card, filter, etc. With a wedding the night before departure, this proved to be quite a task. After returning home from the wedding, transferring and backing up my footage, it was time to charge the batteries and pack all of my gear in the smallest package possible. We all know the track record of airline baggage, so I was definitely carrying everything I needed to take these photos on the plane. I also had to go thru a lengthly process to get approval from the Turks and Caicos to fly a UAV in their country for commercial purposes. They were so helpful and had my permit to me the week prior to leaving.
I departed for Savannah at 4AM to catch the first flight to Charlotte, transferred planes, and was on my way to the Caribbean. The flight was smooth but as we approached the island, I could see that the weather was going to be a problem. As real estate photographers, this is something that we dread as the weather is the final deciding factor as to whether or not you get your work done. Bad weather, cloudy, hazy, rainy, NO PHOTOS. Well, as I touched down in Grace Bay, I knew it was going to be one of those days. We had a minor tropical storm to the north throwing off some rain bands. Cue the stress!
After landing and grabbing my bag, the real fun began, DRIVING. The Turks and Caicos is one of those countries where you drive on the left. Definitely something that took some time to get used to. The only problem was that there is no practice time. You pick up your keys, sign a document or two, and BOOM, you are on the road. Oh, and there are no traffic lights and very few stop signs. All traffic circles, which is not too bad considering I live in the low country.
After a few miles of reminding myself to drive on the left, we come to the long and winding road up to security gate of the first property. I honestly could not believe my eyes. After entering the gate code, the iron bars opened up to a villa built into the limestone, situated directly on the beach overlooking the Caribbean Sea. For any real estate photographer, a dream property to say the least. Four bedrooms upstairs, two downstairs, and one bonus room below the infinity pool. It also had a private beach, balcony off of each room, kayaks, paddle boards, snorkeling equipment, and more. I could not wait to get started. With the weather not so good, we decided to relax, take in the scenery, and plan the shoot for the next day.
On day 2, e decided to head to the grocery store to grab some provisions. After another awkward and dangerous 7 minute drive, we made it. Now I have been to a few Caribbean countries and did not expect the shopping experience to be as good as it was. This place was like our local Kroger! Anything you need, they have it. The only difference being that the prices were easy double, if not triple.
On the morning of our second day, I woke to grab some sunrise photos, and I wasn’t disappointed. I followed that up with a few drone photographs, which was fun being that it was the first time I ran my equipment in a foreign country. Any drone photographer knows that the GPS can be interesting, especially when traveling. A little rain came in which halted my photo shoot again so we decided to head to the grocery store to grab some provisions. After another awkward and dangerous 7 minute drive, we made it. Now I have been to a few Caribbean countries and did not expect the shopping experience to be as good as it was. This place was like our local Kroger! Anything you need, they have it. The only difference being that the prices were easy double, if not triple.
Day three was the day. Hot and humid with some sunshine and the occasional rain shower. I managed to find 3 or 4 hours of good weather to photograph the home. It was a mad dash to get it all in before the rain clouds returned. The photos turned out beautiful.
On day 4, I traveled about five miles east to the second property. I was met by the staff of the resort and given a quick tour of the penthouse, which was equally as stunning! Four bedrooms with a massive balcony overlooking Grace Bay. Absolutely amazing! I could have sat on the balcony all day. After another 3 hours, I had this property fully photographed.
Most of my nights consisted of transferring the files to my hard drive, backing them up, and processing them to ensure I had what I needed before the journey back home. These files totaled about 3000 images and 280GB worth of data, a monster shoot to say the least.
Now comes the sad part, the time to leave. I decided to get one quick local lunch stop in at Da Conch Shack, before heading back to the airport and leaving this beautiful place. With all of my gear and a duplicated hard drive in every pocket, I was taking my seat on the plane. If there is one place that I have added to my bucket list to visit again, this is it. The people, the sights, the food, the water, the beaches! Endless reasons to go back. It was truly an epic adventure and I am blessed to have had the opportunity to visit this place.
Until we meet again Turks!
