Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a spectacular end to 2009, and an even better beginning to 2010. I'm looking forward to this year for many reasons. I'm excited to be branching out with my photography with plans for a couple of personal projects in the works. And at least one trip overseas is going to happen in twenty-ten!

Here are more pictures from my friend Lori's session in December!

Fashions from Valerie Joseph. These were taken at the show at the Royal Hawaiian Level 4 nightclub on 12/5/09. I have some images from the Indashio show as well and will add them on to this post when they're finished.

More Vintage Glam

Sharing more images from the vintage glamour swimsuit shoot from a couple of weeks ago. I loved the attention to detail; note the variety of fun props used by the girls, not to mention the incredible hair and make-up done by the talented artists on-site. The photoshoot was coordinated by Karine Matsumoto of Seasons of Life Wedding and Event Planning and showcased vintage and retro-inspired swimwear and clothing from 1979. Stay tuned in January when Model Search TV will air a segment that will include behind the scenes footage and interviews.

Aimee


Kassandra/Sandy


Adria, Aimee


Alicia


Alicia, Sheryl


Alicia, Valerie


Sheryl


Kassandra/Sandy


Sheryl, Kassandra


Kassandra


Valerie






Models (above): Aimee French, Valerie Mason, May Caneso, Sheryl Wolfe, Kassandra Meaders, Alicia Dove, Adria Libby
Make-up: Laura Aguon, Gemina Chong, Valerie Bancroft, Corvette Dela Cruz
Hair: Corvette Dela Cruz, Oona Rodriguez

Last weekend was busy! I enjoyed shooting two of my favorite people and their families on Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday had a blast getting together with other photographers, models, make-up artists and hairstylists at a 'Vintage Glam' shoot to promote a retro-inspired swimwear line. Interviews and clips from the day will be aired on Model Search TV here in Hawaii.

Although I didn't participate, Help Portrait occurred on Saturday 12/12 locally and nationwide to provide individuals and families who could not otherwise afford photography services, a chance to get their picture taken for the holidays. Here is a segment about Help Portrait on CNN. Mahalo to those who came out and reached out to the community!

My very good friend Pinky & her family


Lori's adorable girls in their GAP clothes


the day-long vintage glam shoot, a wonderful event put together by Karine Matsumoto of Seasons of Life Event and Wedding Planning for the 1979 collection
model: Aimee French


model: Valerie Mason

Greig Ohana

This is my good friend Alisa and her ohana. Alisa told me about this sweet location where the views are gorgeous and it's virtually empty of tourists. I was so there. Blue water: check. Blue sky: check. Mountains in the background: check. Super good-looking family: check!




see... pretty babies.














and, a couple of outtakes. alisa, you crack me up sometimes.





Thank you so much for the fun times that day, guys. It was totally my pleasure to capture your ohana at one of your favorite spots on the island!

I attended my first fashion show on Saturday and LOVED it. It was an electric event with lots of colorful characters and clothes. This was the Hawaii premiere of Indashio's Jet Set collection (more on him later), and also featured were local boutique owner Valerie Joseph and ZhanVi Designs by Zhanneta Sharov.

I photographed the showcase of ZhanVi's Victoria Collection 2010. It was simply visual candy. My personal favorites were modeled by Zhanneta's daughter, Victoria, in the first collage (she's the 1st and 3rd photo), as well as the gold ruffley gown, 1st picture of the fourth collage.

All shot with the Nikkor 70-200 2.8 VR II, most at 800 ISO, f/2.8, 200mm, varying ss.

my weekend

A family shoot (my good friend Alisa & her beautiful ohana):



and a fashion show:



It was the perfect end to a nice week, and possibly even the start to a great week ahead.

This morning the kids and I ventured out to Wahiawa to Helemano Farms to pick out our Christmas tree. I wanted to surprise the kids, who had never been to a real tree farm before in their lives (come to think of it, I hadn't either). The trees are locally grown and range from 5 to 20 feet tall. It was especially appealing to find out that these Norfolk pine were not going to mess up my house by leaving annoying trails of needles everywhere. The best part was letting the kids choose their own tree. Not an easy task as you'd think, made even tougher since the youngest was a blur the entire time and had to be chased around the farm. We finally managed to pick our tree, an unassuming but pretty 6' pine that didn't look like it'd give me much trouble going up the stairs at home. The nice gentleman with us cut it down, wrapped it, and tied it down onto the roof of our car. Awesome service!







there are big gaps between branches so decorating was a challenge. I'd love to see how others decorated theirs... maybe I'm missing something. :)










Some of the pictures have a glow to them because they were taken with a 38mm Diana lens attached to my camera. Dianas are plastic cameras and lenses that produce almost surreal, low-saturated, soft focus pictures. Those who know me know I typically like saturated and sharp photos but... it's fun to change it up a bit. Through the invention of an adapter (available here), you can transform your DSLR into a digital toy camera too!

I had my first holiday mini-shoot a couple of days ago with the fabulous Windham ohana. We met at Bellows on a pretty much perfect morning...



I couldn't help but sigh and smile when I saw Miss Chloe decked out in her holiday dress, complete with snowflake tights and fur boots (I sighed because I used to dress my daughter like that, and I miss it. Little girls have the cutest clothes)


one of many 'Chloe sandwiches' :)
















Thank you Kat, Jon & Chloe for a fun and easy session!

I ♥ Faces: Sun Flare

When I read the challenge for the I ♥ Faces was sunflare and Becker is the guest judge this week, I knew I had to enter. One of my favorite photographers and just a master of backlighting and sunflare is Dee, from whom I sought all I could about creative lighting early on in my photography journey. I practiced a lot.

My entry is from a session with the niece of a friend's friend. This was a shoot we did for fun -- which typically means no pressure, be creative (more than usual, anyway!), experiment with the light.

I like Lena's expression here. She's showing a bit of attitude in her pose, and her black top and bike in the background add to the scene. I was going for flare but didn't expect this. I love surprises :)



Check out the other sunflare entries at:

Thanks to a fellow photo-blogger (Hi Christine!), here's a blast from the past of some of my fave images of sunflare and backlighting. I really need to get out and practice again -- they are some of my favorite techniques and effects, and what I started out learning since I was all about natural light. I feel fortunate to live in Hawaii where there is never a shortage of beautiful light year-round.

Sunflare, etc isn't for everyone so I try not to get too creative during client sessions :) All the photos below are from personal shoots (i.e. hanging out with the fam) or tagging along with another photographer.











the next 4 are all from shoots I tagged along with Pinky












Ok, I lied. Here's one from a real session yesterday, but the flare was accidental (I've found that happens a lot when shooting in the sun's direction)

Someone's ready for the holidays around here.

I love this time of year.



Is anyone else starting the "Elf on a Shelf" tradition? I saw this fellow gracing a few blogs last year and thought it'd be interesting to start for our family.

In a nutshell, each day the elf is placed somewhere different around the house (this is where you can get creative!). The idea is that he keeps an eye on children to see if they're naughty or nice :) Kids can't touch him but are welcome to talk to him. Granted, I have two kids who are on the verge of not believing that Santa exists. I'm quite sure one is 99.9% certain of it, but I guarantee he'll still join us on Christmas Eve and watch Santa cross the globe on NORAD.



Day 1: the elf is in place!

(ignore the dust!)

He can be found at any bookseller. I got ours at Borders and with a 30% coupon, it's a good deal considering you can keep the tradition going for a long time.

Images from Day 3 of Amy Wenzel's workshop. Love seniors!

I thought this was great for a vintage treatment, but couldn't decide between vintage black and white or vintage gold.








All three had incredibly striking eyes. To go with their other gorgeous facial features...

"Rock that OCF!" in Hawaii?

Just putting this out there to see if anyone would be interested in attending a multi-day workshop given by Ali Hohn of Rock that OCF! My friend and fellow photographer Pinky would host the workshop, here on Oahu. We are looking for at least 10-15 attendees (enough to make it worth Ali's trip here!) with a possible workshop date in February 2010 if there's enough (serious) interest. Comment here or email me or contact Pinky through her blog. Thanks!

eta: not sure what the cost will be but on Ali's site, she quotes $700 for a 3-day workshop.

saying goodbye.

You know your hubby is gone when:
a) you keep all the lights on in the house for a few days after he's left. not energy-friendly at all, but good for your peace of mind.
b) you don't do his laundry for a while. his shirts smell like him, and that's comforting.
c) you sleep in your daughter's bed the first night he's away (and maybe the second night too) because you don't want to be by yourself.
d) all of the above.

My answer is of course d... guilty of it all, and then some.

We've begun our life of Skyping, emails, and care packages. Thank you for the thoughts and support, everyone. Your words and hugs (real and virtual) mean a lot!

I'm an Amy Wenzel groupie.

Images from Day 1 of Amy Wenzel's workshop. It was cold!



Our models were troopers! They braved 14 pairs of photographer eyes and survived the chilly temps to keep smiling for us. I think it was in the 50s that day but with gusty winds it felt oh so much colder. I was wearing layers underneath my (borrowed) coat and still felt cold. And rather wimpy, too, because look at how these sisters were dressed -- beautifully, I know -- but, gosh, you can just tell they couldn't wait to get in a heated car and sip on hot chocolate.



For readers familiar with Amy's work, you may recognize this beauty from her 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' shoot (the video is on the right sidebar on Amy's blog). Jillian's (Gillian?) portrayal as a mini Audrey Hepburn was so darn cute.








the boys, as equally fabulous as the girls. everyone raved about their hair!

I had written a long, somewhat convoluted post last night about my hubby leaving and how I think I'm turning into Martha Stewart, but I think I'll save it for another day (or for my personal journal) as the words didn't quite match the mood of the pictures below. To recite the chorus from a Yo Gabba Gabba tune (if you're not a parent of a toddler, I'm sorry, you'll have to google 'Yo Gabba Gabba') -- "Think happy thoughts, happy thoughts!"

It was so good to see the Marrero family again. Darcie did a fabulous job with their wardrobe, don't you think? She also brought props and bubbles -- I think she's an old pro at this thing called prepping for a session! Darcie and Keith, I enjoyed catching up with you all and seeing how much the kids have grown. Same time next year? ;)

growing together.

Rylen today


Rylen last November


I think a goal in any business is retention of their clientele. Repeat clients are, in my book anyway, one sign that you're succeeding in keeping them happy with your service and product (in this case, photos). When I started portfolio-building last year with a bunch of new faces, I hoped to see some of those folks again in the future... it meant that I was doing something right! I'm happy to say that a few of you have stuck it out with me a year later. For that, I am grateful. Cheers to clients who make it all worth it!

thawed out...

and inspired after spending an amazing weekend in Grand Rapids. I wish I could bottle up all the emotions and creative energy I feel right now... think overwhelmed, but in a good info-overload-kind-of-way. Credit the high that I don't necessarily want to come down from to Amy Wenzel. She is as genuine and sweet in person as she comes through on her blog. I was privy to her thought and work processes during her intense three-day workshop. Check out her latest post, and you'll see how generous she is with her knowledge, too.

I guarantee there will be another post with pretty pictures.

out of town

I'm off on a jet plane tonight to Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend my first in-person workshop with the incomparable Amy Wenzel. I'll be back (said in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger impression) next Tuesday, Oct. 13. I'll have limited to no internet access so I'll answer any emails when I return.

See you next week!

~Athena