My brother's family paid for a "professional photography" session at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya...we had no idea who we'd get or how it'd go, no idea what it was gonna be like. I'd had one other "photography session" before, at someone's else's request, and it was a dud. Clearly, the photography experience was only as great as the person doing it. In our case, we got a phenomenal guy, Eric, who literally was a dream to work with. There was six of us, and he did many combinations and permutations of twosomes, threesomes, and more. He coaxed and cajoled, charmed the hell out of us, some of us more stiff than others, e.g. my nephew who it takes a minor miracle to get him to smile or God forbid, to laugh for a photo--ended with with gorgeous shots. Impressive. Eric intuitively knew how to engage us, depending on who he was shooting, sensitive enough to know what to ask for and from whom, e.g. he asked my brother to twirl my sister-in-law, taking romantic shots--and it worked beautifully. But he had the common sense to know that he shouldn't ask me and my husband to do this, not given that I was in a wheelchair. Being technically great with stationary objects in photography is completely different from photographing human beings, which requires great sensitivity and intuitiveness, a feel for your people and ability to engage them with banter and a casual being in the present moment. Eric brought this and more, skill and excitement, he never ever phoned it in, never made us feel rushed, never like he was just doing a job and wanted to get it over with it. He took time and care and skill. When it came time to choose our photos the following day, his partner, Luis, took equal time showing us our options, and while not cheap, were worth the artistry. I'll show some of them here: read more