What a fun shoot!  This was a family of 15, his, hers, theirs, spouses and girlfriends.  This was their last day of vacation here in Hawaii.  With a group this large I decided to take them to a little hidden beach on the North Shore that would give us a lot of different backdrops.  After shooting the family portraits they asked if we could do some underwater pictures.  This was totally not planned, no one even had swimsuits or towels.  Of coarse I said yes, I will take any excuse  to get in the water.  At first a few of the family members were a little hesitant,  but once we started getting in the water it was just all fun.

It definitely is feeling like summer time, and true to form, this last month a lot of my sessions have included water photography.  It was a lot of fun capturing Ashlynne and Ben’s engagement photos before they headed back to the mainland.  We started off the session at the Haleiwa bridge, and then headed to Pipeline on the North Shore where we did the underwater pictures.  Congratulations Ashlynne and Ben.

I photographed Silvia and Matt’s destination wedding last year on the big island of Hawaii, you can see their wedding pictures here. Stunning bride and groom.  I was so excited when they contacted me about doing a trash the dress session in the ocean. Both of them were fantastic in the water, and I love the way Silvia’s wedding dress flowed in the water for these dream like shots.

Natalie and Aaron were a super cute couple to photograph.  They met at BYU-Hawaii, both playing soccer.  At the time of this shoot their engagement was on the downlow, but was made official after Natalie visited Aaron in England were Aaron is from.  I think the yellow fish really wanted to be part of their shoot, it kept coming by and swimming around us, and at one time I think it even stared me down.

As I arrived at this engagement shoot on the North Shore, the rain started and I thought for sure Tanya and Adam would want to reschedule, but they were troopers. I’m glad because it ended up being a fantastic photo shoot.  The video I included is a little behind the scenes look at the underwater part of their session.   Adam has been deployed three times overseas already and I wish them all the best in their upcoming wedding and life together.  Congratulations Tanya and Adam, can’t wait to photograph your wedding.  You guys are a beautiful couple.

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!

Being a wedding photographer here in Hawaii I deal with a lot of different variables, especially when it comes to getting in the water for a trash the dress session.  Being on an island we are often at the mercy of the wind, sun, waves, and all different elements.   Dana and Jake’s “Trash the Dress session” almost didn’t happen.  Jake sliced his foot open before their wedding and almost didn’t make it to the ceremony after spending most of the morning in the ER.  The doctor told Jake to stay out of the water.  A friend let us borrow the big blue boot to keep Jake’s foot dry, as seen below.   Busted up foot or not Dana and Jake did a great job hiking over the coral on the North Shore, and getting in the water. The waves were a little big that day but we were able to find a safe location to get into the water. My two favorite pictures of this shoot are the 4th photo were Dana is running, and the last one.  I think she looks so peaceful as she is gliding through the water.

Katie and Mike flew into Maui after their wedding in Atlanta, Georgia. I met them in Maui for a trash the dress session at Twin Falls.  They were both very adventurous, especially Katie to hike in with her wedding dress. The water fall was flowing pretty good since we had a week of rain prior.  Last time I was here I was working on the Arbonne catalog, and couldn’t help to think what  a cool place it would be to photograph a bride.  So I was very excited when Katie and Mike called me up to photograph their post wedding pictures.  Congratulations guys-  it was a lot of fun spending this time with you!