Miss Chinatown Hawaii 2008

Ok, I haven't posted for a LONG time. So, here goes. On November 4, 2007 at the Historic Hawaii Theatre, a new Miss Chinatown Hawaii was crowned. The new Queen is Sherilynn Chang and she will be competing in the Miss Chinatown USA pageant in February.





I'm sure she'll be a great representative for Hawaii at the National Pageant.

My Niece - getting taller/older/sassier

I get to see my niece at least twice a year (or I try to). She and her Mom and Dad came to Hawaii to visit so of course I had to take her portrait. Got my regular makeup artist to make her a little more glamorous but being the rascal she is, getting her to stand still was a challenge. One of the better shots is the Featured Image on my website's home page.

I'll be taking Grandma to Dallas in October to spend time with the kid again. Of course if she stands still, I'll be trying to take her photo again.

Pregnancy Photos

Trying something different. Lot of photographers are taking photos of pregnant Moms to be. Since many of them are similar in style, I thought I'd try something different. Here's a sample or two:

It was a dark and dreary day

I've been photographing Yesenia (aka Jessie) since 2002. Except for the first hiccup, she has been an enthusiastic and dependable model for me and I truly enjoy working with her. She's exotic and intelligent with a unique sense of humor. After she got married, she left Texas for a while but we still managed to get together once to do a photoshoot in Lost Wages. She's driving over 100 miles to do a shoot, I've driven over 100 miles twice to her place to do a shoot and finally she's settled down in a community about 30 minutes from my sister's place in Dallas.

Well, I traveled to Dallas earlier this month to visit and spend time with my niece and managed to schedule a photoshoot with her on a Sunday. The day started out nice but by the time I left to meet her, it started to rain pretty hard to the point of thunderstorms. As I sat in the parking lot, it started to hail. Fortunately, by the time she got there, it was still raining but not so hard that I figured if I could find some covered areas, I could still do the shoot. After all, I flew over 4000 miles and to not do the shoot would have been a waste of time.

We drove over to the town of Grapevine (about 5 minutes away and discovered that the streets were completely deserted since it was already Sunday evening. Here are the results of the shoot.

OMG, she's getting TALL!!!

This is my 10 year old niece who lives in Dallas. I swear last time I saw her (Aug), she wasn't this tall. I guess it's just a matter of time before her height shoots above me. Her California cousins are pretty tall too but she may surpass them. These shots were taken a couple of blocks from her house.

A Photographer's Wedding

On May 5, 2007, Stanley and Shiho Shigematsu tied the knot in an afternoon ceremony at the Shingon Misson in Wailuku Maui. Being a photographer, he had several photographers capture the event for him. I took the opportunity to capture the candids with a special wide angle lens to get a different viaew.

It was a local wedding so removing the shoes to enter the worship area is a must.



The bride emerging from the limousine accompanied by her uncle



The uncle receiving the traditional Hawaiian Maile Lei



Walking down the short aisle




The participants remain seated as the priest goes through his mantras. At this point, I had forgotten to turn off my cell phone and it started blaring the Olympic theme. I went to apologize to the priest after the service and he said he didn't hear it. Being that the priest was a classmate of the groom, the photographers had free access to do whatever we needed to get great photos



The bride and the groom share sips of sake at the altar.



Finally, he's hitched!!!



The bridal party. The best man is a school friend of the groom and the maid of honor is a friend from Kanagawa, Japan.



The Bride


The Groom - never saw him smile so much in one day.



Portraits of the couple taken on the grounds of a private estate in Wailuku





With their stretch limousine and the driver



The fabulous photo crew!!! (I'm on the left)



Shots from the reception







The groom was not very nice to the bride during the cake cutting.



Of course, the "famous" money dance.



Best Wishes to the newly wedded couple.

Another year, another fashion show...

Since the mid 70's, I've kind of "volunteered" to photograph the garments of the Fashion Design students at the University of Hawaii Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising. I don't remember how it started but it was a good way to develope my technical and posing skills and the "cash strapped" students were able to get photos for their portfolios at a reasonable price. I got to work with novice models, established models, some up and coming models and actresses (including Tia Carrere when she was Altheia Janario).

I've seen styles change and was able to photograph some very prominent fashion designers outfits when they were part of the program (including designer Anne Namba).