At a recent wedding on the Greek island of Santorini, Ben Chrisman spent four days photographing New York couple Manny and Caroline as they swam, sunbathed and danced to traditional Greek music. “I was in the middle of everything; they never treated me as a photographer, just as a friend,” Chrisman says. “It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding.”

Destination weddings like Manny and Caroline’s are a growing trend. According to figures published by the Travel Institute, which certifies travel agents and compiles statistics on the travel industry, 18,000 American couples now get married overseas every year. Though some of those couples might hire a local photographer to capture their event, others will pay extra to have a photographer like Chrisman fly in for the big day.

This means plenty of opportunities for photographers wanting to photograph weddings overseas. But what’s involved in becoming a destination-wedding photographer? Do you need a particular personality type to handle the jet-setting lifestyle? Just how does one break in to this niche market?

For New York-based photographer Heather Waraksa, photographing destination weddings was a natural outgrowth of the domestic wedding photography business she launched four years ago. In 2006, when friends asked Waraksa to shoot their wedding on the Caribbean islands of Turks & Caicos, she jumped at the chance. “It was a fantastic wedding, probably my favorite that I’ve shot,” she says. Back home, she set about breaking into the destination wedding market. “Once I’d shot the wedding from Turks & Caicos, I revamped my Web site and used that wedding as my featured wedding. It’s the first thing you see on the site. I immediately got a lot of inquiries from people who saw the work and wanted something similar.”

“Once you show you’re willing to travel, people trust you,” says the San Francisco-based Chrisman, whose destination wedding business took off after he posted his first overseas wedding—a small party in Mexico—on his Web site. However, Chrisman says, he finds most clients are not too concerned about his prior experience, rather they’re reacting emotionally to his images. “I think most people hire me for their wedding, whether it’s in the U.S. or overseas, because they see something in my photos that they connect with,” he says.

Jonathan Canlas, a wedding photographer based in Lehi, Utah, had been traveling across the U.S. to shoot weddings since 1999, but hadn’t shot an overseas wedding until last year. A lucky break landed him an editorial feature in the influential wedding magazine The Knot. After seeing Canlas’s listing in the Utah section of the Web site, Knot editor Rebecca Crumley contacted him and invited him to submit a wedding shoot to the site. Crumley liked the images so much that she published them in the national print edition of the magazine, where a bride-to-be saw them and hired him for her wedding in the Dominican Republic.

The fact that destination weddings are smaller and more relaxed than the average domestic wedding can also make for a more flexible and creative shoot. “You spend more than a single day with the couple and it opens things up—there’s more of a story and a dialogue between you and them,” says Waraksa. Canlas agrees, saying, “When there aren’t hundreds of guests, it’s easier to concentrate on the couple and just document them hanging out.”

Conversely, though, a destination wedding can generate more stress and performance anxiety for a photographer than the average wedding. There’s the knowledge, for example, that the bride and groom are paying for your flight and accommodation in addition to the normal photography charges. Waraksa, who recently made her first trip to Europe for a wedding, sensed extra pressure at her destination. “It seems that the further you have to go, the more the couple is expecting,” she says.

There’s also the stress and inconvenience of international travel, with its flight delays, baggage restrictions and erratic weather. Earlier this year, Chrisman missed his scheduled flight to a destination wedding in Bermuda, due to long lines at the airport. “I ran across the airport with all my gear, only to see the plane backing away as I got to the gate,” he says. Having booked a flight two days before the wedding, he still arrived in good time, but missing a flight “can be pretty miserable,” he says.

So can lost luggage. Canlas, recently found himself in Paris the day before a wedding with no suitcase. “My first 20 hours, I was wandering around in a Hawaiian print shirt, looking like a typical American tourist,” he says, adding, “Next time, in addition to the carry-on with my gear, I’ll be bringing a small backpack with some clothes and toiletries.”

Time spent traveling also means time lost from other jobs and most destination wedding photographers adjust their charges accordingly. “If I have a wedding in California, I can be back home the day after, but for international travel you usually lose a few days,” says Canlas, whose destination wedding packages range from $4,200 to $13,000, not including travel. “I should probably be charging double for a destination wedding; I know some people do that,” says Waraksa, whose packages start at $5,500. Having broken into the market recently, she says, she’s opted to keep her prices flexible.

Travel can also increase the risk of loss or damage to equipment: because of this, the three photographers say they never take more gear than they can hold in a carry-on. That means paring gear down to the bare essentials (see sidebar below). “For a local wedding I’ll bring more lighting, especially in the fall and winter, when you’re dealing with less natural light,” says Waraksa, who also admits to being a little more paranoid when shooting destination weddings. “So much more could go wrong. I’m extremely careful to make sure the images are downloaded and saved in at least two places, an external hard drive and a laptop.”

And yet, all of these inconveniences can melt away when you get those transcendent images—like Waraksa’s beautifully intimate portrait of couple Lori and Chris in bed on the morning of their wedding, or Chrisman’s image of his Santorini couple canoodling outside an old doorway as a young boy jumps up and down in front of them, adding a splash of local color. Canlas picks out an image he shot of a couple on a dark beach in the Dominican Republic, where he pushed his 3200 ISO Kodak TMZ film to 6400 ISO. “It’s intimate and dreamy-looking, and it romanticizes the whole idea of destination weddings,” he says.

Shooting destination weddings seems to pay off on the home front—our photographers say that having destination weddings in their portfolio has increased their local business. “It gives me an edge over other local photographers because it shows that my clients are willing to fly me to any location,” says Canlas. Waraksa adds that “many brides would love to get married somewhere exotic, but often it’s just not possible.” However, knowing they can have her services at the wedding is the next best thing.

Shooting at exotic locations can boost a photographer’s business in other ways. Recently, a Marriott resort on the island of Curacao licensed 12 images by Canlas after seeing his online gallery of a wedding he’d shot there. “I tend to overshoot destination weddings, because I’ve flown in early and also because I like to present the couple with a portfolio of fine art images of the location,” says Canlas. “In the situation with the Marriott, that paid off.”

So do the rewards outweigh the sacrifices? Usually, say our photographers, but ultimately, the thing to consider is whether it’s a lifestyle you want. “I live in a great city that I’m hardly ever in,” says Chrisman, with a touch of wistfulness in his voice. But he adds, “I’m not married and I don’t have a family, if I did, it would be much more of a drain on me.”

“It can be tough on a relationship—it’s definitely a balancing act,” says Waraksa, whose husband, an art director, also travels frequently. For Canlas, who has four children, the constant absences from home can be challenging. “I love weddings and I love traveling and it works out that I get to do what I love—but it’s tiring,” he says.

Still, none of them are complaining. “I’ve always loved traveling, and I can’t get enough of it,” says Chrisman. “When it comes to weddings, a lot of my inspiration comes from the spontaneous aspects; being in a new place every weekend definitely feeds that creativity.”

“I’ve been to some wonderful places, and I’d love to get even more exotic,” says Waraksa. “It just seems that at a destination wedding, my senses are more open, and I feel more curious and inspired.” She pauses for a moment, and laughs. “Does anyone want to get married in Iceland or Alaska?”

WHAT TO PACK FOR A DESTINATION WEDDING

Downsize, downsize, downsize: That’s the motto of our globetrotting destination wedding photographers. So what’s in their bags? Film shooter Jonathan Canlas has a lot of praise for his Tamrac Cyberpro Express bag, which is big enough to carry his cameras (two Nikon F5s, plus a Yashica twin lens reflex and a Holga) and up to 200 rolls of film. He also packs two flash units, a couple of pocket wizards, a screwdriver, his liability insurance, a schedule and contact information for the bride and groom. Oh, and one other thing. “I always have some Orbit gum in there,” he says. “It helps with the stress.” Ben Chrisman, who shoots digitally, uses Think Tank’s Airport Security Bag, which comfortably fits his three Canon 5D cameras, laptop, hard drives and three fixed lenses—a 35mm, a 50mm and and 85mm. He also takes equipment to clean his sensors. Chrisman has basic liability insurance that he got through Professional Photographers of America (PPA), but doesn’t stress out about possible damage. “I don’t travel with a lot of gear, and if something happened to it, it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” he says. Heater Waraksa, also a digital shooter, takes her Nikon D80 and Canon 5D cameras in a Lowepro bag along with a couple of flashes, batteries and hard drives. She always carries outlet adaptors, to be sure she can recharge her equipment, and likes to throw in a bottle of aspirin, just in case. Another constant in her travel bag is a sewing kit. “I’ve had to sew grooms’ buttons on, or sew brides into their dresses,” she says. “You never know when a needle and thread might be needed.”