Hawaii photographer
So I have decided to post a pic of the day. This was taken in Punalu’u on my way home from a job in town. Traffic was stopped on Kamaehamea hwy , and we were the 3rd car from the fire, I thought I was going to have to drive around the island to get home like so many times before.
Ok this is just a little teaser from the senior portrait session I had with Isabelle also know as Izzy.
I forgot to post this yesterday, a friend of mine shot this with his i-phone as he was watching the new. You know you live in Hawaii when…
Our crazy night started soon after we went to bed on Friday night. Our dog, who is always a good sleeper at night just couldn’t sleep. He was restless and antsy all night. At midnight he was running around. We kept telling him to shut it down and go to sleep. The phone rang at 1 am and we were too sleepy to answer it but I have a google voicemail application that puts the voice message into a text message. When I squinted at my blackberry to see the message alert it read “a salami is coming.” I told my wife what it said and we muttered something about nonsensical messages and went back to sleep. A little before 3 am someone pounded on our door. We woke up wondering why this night was so weird and I answered the door to our neighbor who said a tsunami was coming and everyone was evacuating. We immediately started packing up our van with essential items. We had a decent 72 hour kit and we threw more stuff in, including our equipment. I packed up computer hard drive and back up photo files and my wife grabbed her video equipment for work. After we packed and called our families to say hi we woke up the kids and got them ready. We piled into the van with our dog. By 5:15 am we had settled into a spot in our church’s parking lot up on higher ground behind our house. The evacuation alarm sounded for the first time at 6 am, by then the parking lot was about full. After an hour of hanging out up there we decided to go back down to the house since we had time before the wave was coming. We got some breakfast and parked our other car on higher ground before heading back to the parking lot where we hung out until about 1 pm when we saw that we weren’t going to have a tsunami. We were tired and relieved. If anything it was a good test run for being ready to run out the door if we have to. We had very mild discomfort compared to all the people suffering from recent earthquakes.
Photos below are of our dog, who we love, the Saturday sunrise and our parking lot camp. The last picture in the lower right corner is of the people we could see hiking up the mountains behind our house to get a view of everything.
Here is their sweet little baby shoot in Laie. Love this family! I really liked the way black and white photography looks in this series.
It has been a little busy this last year and I have only had time to post about half of my shoots. My next two post are of the underwater maternity and new born shoot with the Speed family on the North Shore. I had a lot of fun photographing Katie in the water, she showed up with this really cool 50’s style swim suit. I love the way the pink pops out in the teal water. Keep a look out Friday I will be posting baby Eliza’s new born pictures.
When I am shooting in the studio I frequently use roles of seamless paper (140″ X 50″) for backdrops. I was on the tail end of a roll with only about 6 feet left, so the kids and I decided to make a boat and play pirate ship. I often make little boats for the kids out of scrap paper laying around, so it was fun to make one that they could play in. We ended up going all the way with hats, capes, eye patches, and swords/ paddles/ telescopes out of the tubing. Check out Ruby’s hat, she insisted in decorating it with hearts.
I photographed Josh & Lynne and the cool thing about it was that their wedding was on Waimea Bay beach. The state doesn’t give out many permits for Waimea beach weddings, but this couple got one. We had a lot of fun shooting at Shark’s Cove and Ke Iki beaches too. They were glowing and having a genuinely good time with each other. How fun to be married with sand and surf at your feet, wind in your hair, sun on your face, and palm trees all around.
I very seldom write about my wife or my family on this blog, but I think I am one of the luckiest guys in the world to be married to such an amazing woman for over 11 years. I would not be the person I am if It wasn’t for Patria. She inspires me to not only be a better person but a better photographer. Thank you for your love and support. Happy Valentines Day, I love you Patria!
This is what’s left of one of Laie’s landmarks. I was on my way home from a photo shoot and decided to jump out and snap a shot as this little inn came down. When I set up my tripod to take some shots, I was surprised when my van was surrounded by 4 cop cars. I asked what was going on and they said they had received a call that a guy was loading a gun in his van across from Laie Inn. Either someone mistook my camera for an assault weapon, or someone didn’t want me taking the photos, or someone was playing a practical joke. I don’t know, but it made for an adventurous photo op.
I’ve known Rob for over 10 years now. We’re basically brothers. I was so excited to hear he was asking the girl of his dreams to marry him. A few hours before the big moment, he called and asked if I could hide out in some trees and capture his proposal on film. He chose a beautiful beach in Laie to ask Kelley to marry him. It was a beautiful day in Hawaii to get engaged.
She Said Yes!!
And the ring fits!
Celebratory Kiss
I’m Caught!
I’m fully caught.
So stoked she said yes. Praise Heaven.
The PR firm that I work with for the Polynesian Cultural Center just sent me this shot of the cover on the North Shore News. I took this a few week back at the Moanikeala Hula festival in memory of Aunty Sally Wood Naluai. This first shot is the original and the second is the cover.
