Portrait Gallery — As Seen on Tour: Trinidad and Tobago

The portraits presented below are all captured while touring Trinidad and Tobago. Two of these portraits were taken in Paramin, Trinidad, on separate visits, and one was taken in Tobago, on my first trip to Twin River Falls.

Paramin, Trinidad | Tour Guide

Carlos is one of the well-known tour guides in the area, and I’ve been on more than one tour with him through the beautiful hills of Paramin. He is very personable and knowledgeable. You can see the love for his community shine through when sharing about Paramin. He even includes Patois phrases in his tour to teach his guests about our heritage and one of our national languages. He kept us on our toes by asking us questions and quizzing us on the patois we were learning throughout the tour.

Twin River Falls, Tobago | Guide

This man works at the guest house in the area and usually guides people to one of the two waterfalls nearby. When we arrived, he was cutting the grass but said he didn’t mind stopping midway to take us to the falls. One waterfall we had navigated to before, but we decided to go to the other one which was a further hike, so we happily accepted his offer for guidance. I remember he was more on the quiet side. He gave us lots of information and was chatting with us, but not in a constant, boisterous way. At the end of the hike, I asked if I could take his portrait and I posed him with the river as his backdrop. He said his birthday was the next day.

Paramin, Trinidad | Cousin M

We were on a tour of Paramin with some of my family members. Everyone was in the country for my grandmother’s 100^th birthday and we were happily getting to show them a part of Trinidad many of them had never been to. One of the stops was this cave and the walk to get there divided the group as only a handful decided to take the narrow cliff lined path to get there. I was happy for those who chose to carry on as I loved the experience the first time I went. The view was beautiful as we walked along the path. Seasonings, mostly chive, were growing on either side and green, rolling hills surrounded us in the distance. We felt a sense of triumph when we entered the cave, and they all said they thought it was well worth it. I captured a portrait of my cousin as she stood in the centre of the cave and looked up.  It’s not often that I get to photograph family, especially in Trinidad, so capturing this felt special.