If you follow my work, you'll see that I enjoy paying homage to particular scenes in movies. With Consuela and Ryan's maternity shoot it was no different. I didn't particularly enjoy "Armageddon," but there was this cute scene involving animal crackers:

I asked Consuela and Ryan to channel their inner Liv Tyler and Ben Afflecks so we could create our own version of what happened.

Congrats on the soon-to-be new addition! And thanks to Scotty for the lighting assist on this one!

Congratulations to Brenda and Donnie! They had a beautiful wedding on the island of Maui on August 5th. Here's to an even more beautiful marriage. Mabuhay!

Special thanks to Mike at Carino Studios for helping to photograph this wedding with me. :)

Taylor wanted some pics to celebrate her first anniversary with Will. Here are a few pics from that shoot!

I was pleasantly surprised when Helm called me a few months back to see if I'd be willing to photograph his wedding. He'd gone through several channels before finally getting a hold of me, and it seemed like he was pretty intent on hiring me on the spot. I've known Helm since the first grade and hadn't talked to him since high school so it was wonderful to hear that he was doing well and that he'd gotten engaged to Jade (his long time girlfriend and a schoolmate of ours). Exciting! The wedding turned out to be a quasi-reunion of sorts, and I would see friends I hadn't hadn't seen in a long time. It certainly was a fun and quite monumental. 

(I got some help on shooting this wedding from Jonas Maon, aka "umbrella light guy" and Lauren Victoria aka "baby attention getter and smiler". You guys rock!)

(above: photo by Jonas Maon)

Congratulations to Jared and Joy, an amazing couple I met via Twitter. They flew all the way to Hawaii from Alabama to be married in front of friends of family!

Special thanks to my friends Dallas and Ed White of D'Amour Pacific for co-shooting this wedding! 

I spent Sunday evening in the company of some very talented people.

Fellow photographer, Dallas Nagata White had always talked about collaborating on a 1940's shoot style shoot with me and some other creative types - I just didn't know when. When she texted me late in the afternoon, about 2 hours before sunset, saying that she was getting her hair and makeup done and that the shoot would be happening that evening, I was...caught by surprise to say the least. It was not only pouring outside, but I wondered if we'd have enough time in sunlight to make it happen. 

Now, I've heard in the past that what separates "professionals" from the rest of the pack is that they are able to accomplish tasks quickly without degradation of service and quality of work. I believe that the collaborative effort brought forth yesterday was testament to that. With everyone bringing their talents to the table, it was almost a walk in the park, no stress - just a bunch of us having fun with what we do. (We're also very fortunate that our leeward beach wasn't in the path of the flash flood watch.) The crew consisted of:

• Models - Dallas Nagata White & Ed "Awesome" White
• Styling, wardrobe, props - Dallas Nagata White, Ed White
• Monae Johnson Watkins - Hair 
• Pinky Yoshimoto - Makeup 
• Photographers: Pinky Yoshimoto, Athena Plichta, Ashley C. Smith, Alisa Greig... and myself :)

Since these folks work together often, I considered myself the visiting photographer that didn't want to get in the way of things. The following shots, I took mostly from the sidelines using my 70-200L, F2.8 "ninja" lens. (I can't wait to see how everyone else photographed the Whites).

The processing styles used here are inspired by old family photographs, Michael Bay's 'Pearl Harbor,' the famous VJDay Times Square "The Kiss," and the movie version of 'Where the Wild Things Are,' by Spike Jonze.

Enjoy! 

Words and images open hearts. For this engagement shoot, I wanted to tell a little bit of a story. I decided to to use the fact that Donnie and Brenda are currently in a long-distance relationship as a narrative element here. Donnie, still a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa spends weeks or months apart from Brenda who's has already started her career in Travel Industry Management on the Big Island where she is from. Recently engaged, they miss each other dearly and yearn for time in which they can share and be together again. (I've witnessed first-hand their googly banter on Facebook! Awww, so cute!) He bears himself in a letter, which he mails with some photographs of sentiment. As Brenda reads the letter (for the 100th time) on the beach one day, he surprises her with a visit, and for a moment, they are one again!

I had the honor of photographing the joining of two old college friends this past weekend. Troi and Narda were married in the light of dawn at Magic Island here on Oahu last Sunday among family, friends, and colleagues. It was certainly a moment to behold and one to cherish! Congratulations and may they live happily ever after and produce beautiful babies. Ha ha!

I hear that the wedding itself was planned in about 3 weeks; they kept things simple and used every resource available: the help of their very good friends and family, tricks like online dress shopping, and querying the local social media community to produce a live internet stream of the event (kudos, Ryan, Ricky and Jeff). "Simple weddings," don't necessarily mean that elegance is sacrificed and I'm hoping the following pictures convey that.

One more note: fellow photographer Jonas Maon assisted me on this. Lots of credit to him for being up to the challenge and volunteering his time and effort. You da man, Jonas!

Enough talking. Enjoy! 

photo taken by Jonas Maon

photo taken by Jonas Maon

photo taken by Jonas Maon

photo taken by Jonas Maon

And now, I present to you a few picks from the next set of photos in my couples series. My intent was to make these pics look a lot colder and more rough so that it would contrast against the last shoot I did ("Romance in the Country"). That one was set in nature among foliage and trees and quelled with highlight. In this one, our subjects are covered in cool weather clothes and mostly bordered by buildings and architectural lines.

Kicking off couples month), Nalani, Hoku and I headed down to the Windward side of Oahu for a shoot in the country. Things didn't turn out exactly as I had pre-conceptualized, but we did well enough, considering the circumstances. Photography is a game of variables, and luck and you do the best you can with the cards dealt. I'm not going to go into detail as to what happened... I get another chance next time!