I am on holiday visiting family until the new year, but before I left I shot the Christmas lights for the Polynesian Cultural Center.   I was fully impressed, if you are looking to get into the Christmas spirit in Hawaii, I highly recommend going around on the lagoon at the PCC to see the Christmas lights and nativity scenes.  To find out more about checking out the lights click here.

The video is one of my favorite renditions of the nativity.  It was done by the children of St. Paul’s Church in New Zealand.  Merry Christmas!

Fire knife competitions are by far the most challenging thing for me to photograph.  During the competitions I am not allowed to use a flash, and the goal is to freeze the dancer but keep the shutter open long enough to get a full circle of fire.  For example I keep my shutter for 1/10th of second for the very fast start off and 1/8th to 1/6th when they slow down.  I consider how much gas is on the knife or how many knives the dancer is using since 1, 2 or 3 fire knives can quickly change the lighting.  The last variable is time, I only have a few minutes to capture each competitor.  After I fill up a card the images are taken and sent to the Asociated Press.  I don’t even have a chance to look at them, so there is very little room for error.

I staged the first 4 photos below that are going to be used for the 20th annual fire knife competition advertising for next year.  The last 5 are some of my favorites from this most recent competition.

Devin Graham and the Mozo family just came out with the well done trailer for Transcend : the Jon Mozo story.  I didn’t get the chance to meet Jon, except through his family, who have been friends here in Hawaii.  I have a lot of respect and love for Jon though.  He was an incredible ocean and surf photographer and his images inspire me.  Can’t wait for the full movie to come out, enjoy this powerful trailer.  To learn more about the Jon Mozo legacy and order any of his amazing prints, check out www.jonmozo.com

I met Erin and Conor a few months ago when I was playing on the beach with my kids.  I saw them surfing with this old school style and knew I wanted to photograph them.  Here are a few shots from our session.  Thanks Erin and Conor.

As I started to edit these photos of “The LIttle Mermaid”,  My daughter looked over my shoulder and said “Oh daddy! Do you mean there are mermaids in this island? Were they nice? Oh they are so beautiful! I want to be a mermaid”.  I never had the heart to tell her they weren’t real.

Children’s Theatre of Oahu (CTO) approached me about taking some underwater pictures of mermaids to advertise their production of “The Little Mermaid”.  The video I included is a behind the scenes look at our underwater shoot.  The girls did a great job in the water even though it wasn’t the calmest of conditions. The dancer playing Ariel had some serious diving skills, she would go down and then just calmly cruise along the ocean floor. Have to thank the Makeup artists Karlotta Carvalho,and Vasi Wolfgramm for the great job they did. Go support this fun production of CTO’s  “The little Mermaid”.   For more information here is a link to their site. www.ctotheatre.com

I asked Bree to write a little something for this post, and it ended up being a bit of a testimonial.  Bree was a lot of fun to work with, she is able to pull off so many different looks.  We were able to shoot all the different styles below in one morning.

“Working with Mark Lee was not only new to me but a leap of faith. As I was in search for someone to shoot me for my portfolio pictures, there is always that possibility that you will not connect with the photographer or in the worst case, the pictures will not turn out. I have worked with many photographers, and have gotten my fair share of horrible, and good. Mark was by far the best photographer I have worked with yet. Not only did I go into this photo shoot not knowing what to expect, but I barely knew him. He ended being much more creative than I had intended, and turning idea’s I had, into better and more powerful shots. Mark has so many new and original idea’s up his sleeve, I feel like we could of shot all day with all different looks. After receiving my final pictures, I have never been so pleased. This has been my strongest portfolio within the past three years, and my agent couldn’t be happier. Mark Lee is an outstanding photographer that I would recommend to anyone that needs portfolio shots, wedding shots, engagements, high fashion, or commercial. One of my favorite shots was the water, and underwater shots. He knows what he is doing, and will explain exactly what you as a model need to do and position yourself to get the right picture. Not only are his ideas fun and exciting, but he makes you feel comfortable the whole time. There is never a dull moment with Mark. He can do it all, and I promise you, you will be happy with your end results.”

-Bree

I don’t remember where I first saw it, but someone had a slide show made by Pummelvision.  They just take a bunch of your photos and make a fast slide show in a few minutes.  Instead of trying to make a slide show with all the photography from this last year, like the weddings, family, and commercial photos; I decided to just use the local underwater photography.  It was kind of a fun thing to see.

In our home I do most of the cooking.  One cooking blog I love is www.kitchencorners.com.  The author of the blog, Damaris Santos-Palmer, was visiting family in Hawaii over Christmas.  While she was here we set up an underwater shoot.  It was so much fun to arrange and photograph this scene of her cooking underwater.  We rigged this together in under 15 minutes with the help of her husband Christian.  You have to read her blog to get a sense of how much fun she is – you can probably see it in these photos too!  Bon appetit!

As most of you know the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau big wave contest at Waimea Bay  did not go today. There was the size, just not consistent.  Contest or not there was still some amazing surfing.  I had a shoot on the North Shore this morning, thought I would head over after and get a few shots.  As I was standing on the bluff, I couldn’t help think to myself, how could I get on one of those skis to shoot from the water.  That is the angle I would like to be shooting from.  Maybe next year.

A few pictures from the 2011 Moanikeala Hula Festival at the Polynesian Cultural Center here in Laie Hawaii.  One of the Halau came all the way from Japan just to perform at this festival.