I have shaped about 20 surfboards over the years but this is my first alaia. As I was working on it I tried to involve my two kids as much as possible. They both did a lot of sanding and we even went to the Bishop Museum to research the design. I took the board to surf club today, this clip is of two of the boys from Halau Nalu riding it, I think they did an amazing job for their first time.
Alia Surf Board Hawaii from Mark Lee on Vimeo.
So most of you that check my blog regularly know that I am much better at photography than writing. So I decided to ask Katie Speed one of the girls below to be a guest blogger and talk about our shoot at Melaekahana Beach Park. Make sure to check out her etsy site, she is an amazing artist and full of style. Enjoy.
First a bit about myself, my name is Katie Speed, I was born and raised in Las Vegas but now live in Hawaii. I have my own little family consisting a husband and a baby girl. I graduated from BYU with a BFA in fine arts where i did lots of oil painting.
I’m the one in the pictures with the brown top with flowers by the neck. I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my Etsy shop lately. It’s called Pretty Swell (http://www.etsy.com/shop/PrettySwell) where i sell fabric flower garlands and other fabric flower items.
A few years ago the 5 girls in these pictures all met in Hawaii and became friends quickly. True friendships are a rare thing… how about 5 TRUE friendships at once! We do lots of things together and one of them is surfing. Life got going and before we new it we were all pregnant and one of our dear friends was moving away. We all regreted not taking the time to get some pictures of us all surfing together. Earlier this week, as a birthday present, our dear friend Shira returned to Hawaii to visit us! Having always wanted pictures of us surfing together we decided to book a water session with Mark to try and capture what it’s like to surf with 5 of your closest friends (a really good time!) The shoot was a good time we set up some of the shots but mostly we were just goofing off and having a great surf session. It was a great way to sort of document this time of our lives and our strong friendships.
Malaekahana Beach Park Hawaii Surf Photography from Mark Lee on Vimeo.
This last weekend I took the family to the Rell Sunn Menehune contest at Makaha on the west side of Oahu. We had an incredible time and saw some amazing surfers. The contest was for kids from 4 to 12, it was crazy to see these kids charge waves that were at lest twice their height. I really love being a surf/ water photographer, during the contest I was able to be in the water with the kids and shoot them up close, I also got a few shots from the beach with my telephoto lens. A big congratulations to Jordan, she got 5th place in her age division, that is a huge accomplishment for how big the waves were that she had to surf. She is in the seventh picture down.
Here are a few shots form my last job on the North Shore. I love shooting at V-Land especially at sun rise. The clouds make an amazing back drop.
I am loving the new Canon 5D Mark II camera. When I combine it with Canon’s L lenses, I really love the results. I didn’t realize how much I would use the HD video, but it has been fun to incorporate the video into the last two weddings I shot. I will be posting those soon. Here is a test video and a few shots from pipe, located on the north shore of Oahu.
Aloha, I'm Mark Holladay Lee. I'm a husband, father, surfer and photographer. I didn't realize how much I would love being a professional photographer until I became a father while living in New York City. All the creative energy in that city combined with all the emotions of becoming a dad, lit up my passion with the camera. I was able to learn from some great photographers while living in the city, but my earliest learning with the art, goes back to childhood when I watched my mother work as a photographer. I remember how she crafted a darkroom in whatever house we lived in and decorated our home with pictures from our family travels. She gave me my first camera and first studio lights.
Fast forward several years and here I am living in Hawaii with my family, enjoying every minute of combining my love of people with my love of creating art. I not only photograph people with studio lights, but I photograph in the ocean, from a helicopter, at the beach, in the mountains, and other incredible locations throughout Hawaii. I may sometimes act as a fly on the wall, documenting a moment as it naturally unfolds. Other times I may be actively posing a large group of people in a formal setting. Many times I am capturing life with my family, freezing memories that bring us so much joy to look back on. I would be honored to capture your memories with artistic images that I guarantee you will be thrilled with. I look forward to meeting you!
