Playa Grande Costa Rica Photographer - Family Photos

Playa Grande Costa Rica Photographer – Shawna + Jorge Familia –

Oh, the fire red Malinches! After almost six months of no rain during dry season here in the province of Guanacaste, the Malinche trees go into full and glorious bloom right around the beginning of rainy season. Some years the Malinche blooms before the rain arrives and thus the green foliage on the tree has not started to grow back. However, this year the Malinche bloomed a tad bit late, resulting in a fire red tree with bright green, new foliage. This tree is so stunning to photograph by itself, so when Shawna told me her idea to do family photos under a gorgeous, blooming Malinche in Playa Grande Costa Rica, I was ecstatic. To top it all off, the Malinche tree that Shawna had her eye on was the same one where she said her I-Dos last November. Insert photographer happy dance!

Then Shawna and I waited for just the right day where this Malinche would be in peak, full bloom. We also crossed all of our fingers and toes that an afternoon rain shower would hold off on the day we selected for the family photo session. The days leading up to the planned date down poured. But thankfully, we must have pleased the sun gods enough as the sunshine fought its way through the grey rain clouds and kept the rain at bay. With a dramatic and stormy sky, what resulted last week during this family photo shoot was pure magic. On top of that, throughout the session green parrots were flying in and out of this beautiful Malinche tree!

Family photo with a fire red Malinche tree in full bloom in Playa Grande, Costa Rica. Photographed by Kristen M. Brown, Samba to the Sea Photography.

Beautiful family photo with two green parrots flying out of this blooming Malinche tree!

I first met Shawna almost five years ago while booking my first trip to Costa Rica at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp (WRSC). As the sales manager and awesome head of the reservations team at WRSC, Shawna made booking my trip to Tamarindo, Costa Rica a piece of cake, answering ALL of my questions. A year after my first trip I moved down to Tamarindo and Shawna was one of the first smiling faces I remember seeing welcoming me to town. In fact, I have yet to meet one person who knows Shawna that does not describe her as being utterly awesome! So when I found out she was marrying another awesome person, Jorge, I was over the moon happy for her. Shawna radiates a genuine happiness and it flows into her beautiful family, Jorge, her husband, and her two sons, Lucas and Noah.

Noah is 15 months old and is such a ham. He recently learned to walk, and during the whole session this little cutie was full of curiosity, walking around exploring. Noah loved looking at the camera and then just busting out in a wide-grinned smile. His big brother Lucas was amazing, playing with Noah and making him laugh. Noah loved chasing Lucas around!