Caribbean photo studio: what it means in Punta Cana

The first is a booked session: you choose a time and a place, a photographer meets you, and the whole thing exists because you arranged it. That is the closest thing to a studio in the traditional sense, except the studio is a beach at six in the evening.

The second is excursion photography: a photographer is already working the catamaran, the buggy trail or the island you are going to, and photographs the day as it happens. Nothing is arranged by you and nothing is staged — you find out afterwards that the pictures exist.

The third is not photography at all, it is recovery: someone did photograph you, you were given a bracelet or a card or nothing at all, and you went home without the pictures. This is by far the most common of the three, and it is the one people most often give up on.

A proposal, a family shoot, a private excursion built around one idea — tell us what you have in mind on the custom excursions page and the team designs it. It is an enquiry rather than a checkout, because the date, the location and the light all have to be agreed before anything is worth quoting.

This is the only one of the three that needs to be arranged before you travel, and the one where the time of day matters most. On this coast the usable light is early morning and the last hour before sunset; midday is bright and contrasty and flatters almost nobody.

On most of the big Punta Cana excursions a photographer is already working the trip. You do not book them and you do not pay up front — the day gets photographed, you are given a code, and you decide afterwards whether you want the pictures. How it works walks through the whole sequence.

Which excursions, and what each one actually looks like through a camera, is the destinations index — Saona, Bávaro, Cayo Levantado, Hoyo Azul, Los Haitises and the rest.

What the photos cost, once they exist, is on the pricing page. Nothing is charged for taking them.

Start with the code, if you still have it — on a bracelet, a printed QR card, or a link that was sent to you. Typing it on the home page opens the gallery, with no account and no password.

With no code, pick the date you were on an excursion and take a selfie on the find your photos page, and we match you against the people photographed that day.

And if neither works, message us on WhatsApp with the date, the excursion and roughly what time. Our guide to every way of finding your photos covers the rest of the cases.