Saturday, December 27, 2008

So it rains...


My cousin and her family decided to make a trip back to Hawaii during the Holiday Season. I thought it might be a good time to do another family portrait.

So my cousin got everybody to agree (even my camera shy Aunt) and we scheduled an outdoor session the day after Christmas.

As the time for the session approached, the weather started to get questionable. An hour before the session time, we had a major downpour. Well, scratch the outdoor session. Backup plan? Decided to do it at their home, the scene of the annual Christmas party the night before. Had to do some cleaning up but it worked out.

My uncle is the last one remaining of his generation so we felt it would be important to get this portrait done.

If you have relatives in town and the family is together, it's something that I think you should consider while everyone is available.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The holiday season is upon us and it's time for families to get together for a family portrait. This is especially important if you have family from out of town getting together. As my studio space is relatively small, I find it necessary to go on location for the larger families. Here are some of the images that were created this year before and after my back surgery.

This family was photographed in the morning at the Wahiawa Freshwater park. I've been photographing members of the family ever since the daughters were in high school many years ago.













This next family was photographed at the East West Center Gardens on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. It's always a challenge to coordinate that many people but it's always a lot of fun and the weather cooperated.













My dentist's family at the park in Wahiawa. He was a classmate back in intermediate school and I also photographed his wedding about 25 years ago. I watched as the boys grew up year after year. Now the youngest is graduating from high school.













Way out on the beach at Makapuu. I had never photographed there before (primarily due to distance) so new locations are always fun and challenging for me. Since the mountains blocked the direct sunlight, we had a nice soft light for the portrait.













Finally my special beach on the North Shore. I photograph this family every other year and it's getting easier as the youngest one is starting to listen to us as he is given directions on where to stand and how to pose. It was a small challenge this year but the next time should be easier as he will be older.



















There's still a lot of time to schedule your family portraits over the holidays so call or e-mail us to schedule a session.

We hope you have a Merry Christmas Holiday and a Happy and Prosperous New Year (we're all going to need it).

Saturday, November 22, 2008

It's over...

My first full wedding since my surgery. I think it went ok considering how kaka the weather was. Raining the whole time, dark, windy, wet, forget about taking any photos in the garden. They moved the ceremony to a part of the hotel where I never shot before but that was no biggie, it was just a matter of adjusting.

My concern was how could I manage the photography. I was concerned enough to make sure I had two of my associates there instead of my usual one. After I started going, I realized that the only difference was that I had to be careful when I moved around otherwise, it was business as normal. I probably could have done the wedding with one associate but having the second one there made life a lot easier.

I'll have images posted once I process them...

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Getting back into the swing of things

Some of you may or may not know but I underwent emergency back surgery on Sept 29 of this year. If I didn't do it, I may have been permanently paralyzed.

Thankfully, the surgery was successful and with ongoing physical therapy, I'll be back to normal in due time. I'm already back to doing studio and location portraits and will be photographing a wedding this weekend, 11/22 with the help of my two second shooters. For next month's weddings (two of them), I should be able to handle it with my usual single second shooter.

I still have to be careful as to how much weight I can lift so my poor assistants will be doing the trucking of the equipment.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I'm on the road to a complete recovery.

Friday, August 29, 2008

The "joys" of having older relatives.

Well, I just put my aunt in a nursing home. She hasn't been the same since she was mugged almost two years ago. Due to her osteoperosis, she fractured her hip in that incident. Since she's never been married (and no kids), I ended up with the duty of taking care of her.

She still has two sisters who are living (my mom and her oldest sister) but Mom has dementia and my older aunt is in a care home so that leaves them out. Her #2 sister passed away a couple of years ago. I have a cousin but he's been taking care of his Mom and works full time and my sister is in Dallas so she really can't help. Since I have my own business, my schedule is a bit more flexible.

She did go into a care home last year while she recovered from her initial mugging but had to go back in at the first of the year because she couldn't take care of herself. Being hard headed and not listening to instructions from her caregiver resulted in a fall which fractured her hip so bad that she had to go into surgery. After surgery, she was put into the Rehab hospital but that lasted about a week because she could not perform her therapy sessions.

Thus she's in a nursing home on a (hopefully) short term basis while they try and get her walking again (at least with a walker). They will continue to do therapy there but on a less rigorous regime.

I know her mind is still good because she is a motor mouth and won't stop talking even though you're trying not to listen. If she shut up without being asked to, I would then worry about her state of mind and her health.

As my Mom says... "Don't get old..."

Monday, May 26, 2008

Michele & Solomon's Engagement Session

With my full coverage packages, I offer a bonus engagement portrait session on location. There are several reasons why I do this. First, it lets the couple get a feel to how I do my photography, my posing, how I direct the posing or let them do their own thing.

It lets me see how they photograph. Is there a better side to their face, how at ease are they at creating the poses. I realize there are photographers who let the couple do their own poses which is fine but I prefer to direct the posing so that the pose looks comfortable and has a feel of elegance and flow(even though one may not feel that way when executing the actual pose). There will be times when I will let the couple or the group do their thing while I capture the images but I feel that in most cases, a tweak her and a tweak there will result in better images.

It gives the bride an opportunity to do a trial makeup and hair session with their makeup artist to see if she may or may not want some adjustments for the makeup on the wedding day.

These are images from Michele & Solomon's engagement session. The location is Downtown Honolulu on the weekend (nobody around) for an urban look and on the North Shore of Oahu for a more casual look.







Sunday, May 18, 2008

It must be the shorts...


Ok, so I have this pair of shorts that I wear whenever I do a beach shoot and I might be walking in the water. Every time I've worn those shorts, it's gotten soaked by a rogue wave. This session was no exception.

This model is a contestant in the upcoming Miss Hawaii Scholarship Pageant. We were doing a shoot for content to be used in an upcoming advertisement in the Miss Hawaii Program book. She was at the edge of the water and I was up the bank at the edge of the high wave mark. You would think I was safe... WRONG!!!

You can see the sequence as she's posing and the wave is sneaking up behind her. She then gets nailed by the wave. What you don't see and I wish there was someone there to capture the moment in video for America's Funniest Home Videos was that the wave also got me. I'm sitting on the dry sand. After she got nailed by the wave, I felt a lot of water around me. Yup, the wave was stronger than I thought it was and I was soaked up to my hips. Luckily none of my cameras or gear got wet. A couple of things on my belt and my wallet was a little damp but other than that, no problems other than a clammy set of underwear and sand up my pants.

Monday, May 5, 2008

ok, the kid's really getting tall!!!

So I go outside to take a photo and she insists on posing this way. What can I say? Talk about coconut head.



She's already way taller than her grandmother and will probably shoot beyond me this year. She's 11 going on 12 next month. I can still remember when she was sooooo cute!!! Now she's a spoiled brat. But who spoils her? Uncle of course...



Favorite Texas Model



I've been photographing Yesenia (aka Jessie) since early 2000. At that time she lived in Abilene, Tx (3 hours from Dallas) and she drove from there to Dallas to do the shoot. I've also driven to Abilene twice to photograph her. We've also met up in LV as well as shot in the miserable rain. Every time I've photographed her, the hair has been different. She got married after my second Abilene shoot and moved to the DC area. We kept in touch and hooked up again when they moved back to the DFW area. She's a great model and I enjoy getting together with her whenever I'm in Tx visiting my growing niece (photos to come).





Sunday, May 4, 2008

Workshop, workshop, workshop





I was involved with a scrapbooking website a while back and disappeared on them even though I still lurk on their message board. I noticed they were trying to do a Get together about the time when I would be visiting my niece (11 going on 22 but turning 12 in June) so offered to do a workshop when I was there.





We decided to meet at the Ft. Worth Stockyards and do things there. I arranged for a couple of models knowning full well that chances are one may flake (that's the average). One showed (even though she got lost and was late) and the other flaked. The one that showed up (Elle Frazier from Model Mayhem) was a trouper and did whatever was asked of her (including sitting on freshly laid caulk that no one knew was there until she stood up and there was a straight gray line on her black shorts on her butt). The group was challenged into shooting in the mid day sun with no clouds. By learning to look for the right light, I think they got something out of the workshop.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Another Bridal Expo, Another Crop of New Photographers...

Just finished participating in the World Class Wedding Expo at the Convention Center. Another weekend of tired feet, minimal sleep, tired smile muscles, connecting with colleagues and talking to potential clients.

My van is still packed with the materials from the Expo because I was too zinged to store it away. Maybe later today.

What was enlightning was looking at various styles of photography from the different photographers exhibiting their work. Some were very good, others really different (not sure if I liked the style) and a couple photographers that really need more work in their craft if they expect to call themselves "professional".

Need to make a change for the next Expo in October so I guess I'll be beating my brains out trying to determine what to do...

Back to take a nap for now...

Friday, April 11, 2008

The importance of a family portrait

Late last week, my high school classmate called me to pick up photos of his family that he wasn't able to pick up because of his schedule. When he came by, he advised me that his Dad had just passed away.

We had photographed his family clan just last year since the whole family (well most of them) were in town. Besides doing the big family group, we also got images of the individual families and the parents both together and separately.

It was a simple matter to find the file and prepare the portrait for printing, mounting and framing. I know my classmate appreciated that he had gotten his family together for this portrait session.

Time and time again, I get calls from clients or friends of clients asking if I could take the small photo that they have of a deceased family member and make an 8x10 for their funeral service. I'm happy to do this for them either as a service or at a reduced charge. What's unfortunate is the images are so small or of poor quality that it's a challenge to get a decent image out of them. However, the clients are happy that they at least had a photo to get retouched and enlarged.

To minimize this situation from happening, it's a good idea to have a family portrait taken at least every few years. A good time is just before any family members will be moving out of the area or if the older children will be leaving for school on the mainland.

Now that the school year is almost over, it might be a good time for families with graduating seniors to consider getting a family portrait taken. And don't forget to include the grandparents and any extended families.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Miss Downtown Honolulu Pageant Group

Here are the new photos of the winners of the Miss Downtown Honolulu Pageant Group.


L-R: Naomi Piilani Klein - Miss Leahi
Lauren Cheape - Miss Ala Moana
Rachael Gonzales - Miss Downtown Honolulu

Naomi Piilani Klein - Miss Leahi

Lauren Cheape - Miss Ala Moana

Rachael Gonzales - Miss Downtown Honolulu
All will be competing in the Miss Hawaii Scholarship Pageant in July.







Friday, February 29, 2008

Has it been that LONG????


A bunch of us from my Leilehua High School Class of 1966 got together tonight to celebrate the year that we all turn 60!!! Kanreki in Japanese terms. I haven't seen some of these people since we graduated high school which was 42 years ago!

The restaurant we celebrated at closed at 9:00 pm but at 9:45 most of us were still there catching up on all the happenings over the years.

We almost didn't get this photo as I almost forgot that I had left my camera in the car. Glad I remembered (this old age thing and memory sucks).

Friday, January 25, 2008

Finally finished the Narcissus Archiving

Still dealing with some sort of nerve or muscle irritant. Walking real weird right now. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.

Spent almost 20 hours scanning a multitude of Narcissus Souvenir books and who knows how many hours creating the layouts and posters. It was a challenge to get it done in less than a month but hopefully all those who get to see it at the Coronation Ball will have good memories of the years past.

Here's some of the stuff that was done:

1. Court Photos - mostly scanned from the old souvenir books.



2. Contestants Posters - Some posters were still intact but others needed to be recreated such as this one.



Then the Narcissus Souvenir Book Covers - 59 Covers total of which I've photographed a little over half of them.




And lastly, memoribilia posters such as this one which featured sisters who ran in the pageant. There was even a Mother/Daughter combo.



To view the whole set, stop by the Narcissus Coronation Ball at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom on Saturday, January 26 starting about 6:00 pm.

The Complete Set will also be on line once the Coronation Ball is completed.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Ok, so I haven't blogged in a LONG time

Dealing with a bunch of stuff but that's besides the point.
We now have a new Narcissus Queen and Court and this is my 33rd year (or thereabouts) with the Pageant.


The new Queen is Catherine Wong Jayne. Her Princesses are from left, Theresa Lu (3rd Princess), Jacklyn Ma (1st Princess), Leilani Soon (2nd Princess) and Chantel Ching (4th Princess). The official portraits have been taken and I'm just waiting for them to decide which one they want for next year's souvenir book.

I've also been involved with archiving 59 years of Narcissus Souvenir programs. Had to go down to the Chinese Chamber offices and scan 59 books, 59 Queen portraits, and about half of the contestants (those we didn't have posters for). Then those scans were compiled into posters and display pieces to be exhibited at the Narcissus Coronation Ball at the end of the month. I'll post some of the images after the Ball is over.

I also needed to get off this rock (Oahu) so I went to another rock (Kauai) for a day. Visited a photographer friend there (Herbie's photography) and he and I secured a model and went on a photoshoot.

The model is Gena from Hanalei and we all got wet. I was sitting on the sand doing some low level shots when a gentle wave came in and managed to douse me (camera remained dry).



This is to prove to Herbie's wife that he was working. LOL!

Back to work for me. Hopefully the pinched nerve in my back will resolve itself soon...