Bev and James Rubio are the BEST hosts! Not only did they take us for a great lunch at a local Japanese restaurant but they took us to the Onomea donkey trail – a place James went as a kid to find opihi.

Our model was Kanoe, a beautiful “island girl”. She did a great job and we got some pretty amazing shots.
Here are some of my favs from the session -

What a great day! Thanks so much Bev and James Rubio! It was an honor to shoot with you guys!

~Amy

No, not shark sightings, that’s not til Sunday, but Rachel and Amy sightings!  

Rachel and I had lunch and talked boudoir noir over checking emails and pulling weeds.    

We picked up Amy from the airport last night. She is looking pretty gorgeous after her flight from Wisconsin.  Can you believe this woman did an engagement session during her layover in Seattle?!!  I thought she definitely deserved a Mai Tai before bed.      She can now check numbers 1, 9, and 10 off of her list of things to do in Hawaii. 

This morning I sent the girls off to the Big Island.   Have fun my lovelies!

Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius. 

— An Wang

On day 003, I had a good conversation with Sister Agnes about her home country of Micronesia. Breadfruit is a staple of the Micronesian diet, and she told me all about it. I got to try some she had fried with salt.

I ended the evening admiring the constellations and playing around with long exposures of the starry night.

For the first several days of my visit, I stayed with the Hawaii Benedictines in Waialua on the North Shore. It was refreshing and wonderful.

I woke up to the sound of a wild peacock outside my window.

Below you can see the view outside my window.

As usual, the trip took all day but I was pretty much grinning all the way. Boston had its first frost the morning I left, Minneapolis was covered in snow, and I think I might have gotten a mini sunburn just sitting by the window all day looking out into the sun and clouds.

When I arrived, one of my best friends in the world picked me up and we went to eat at a crusty old place called La Marianas near the airport. With a tiki vibe and just the right mix of local and cheesy, this restaurant/ yacht dock always puts me in a great mood to live the hawaii life.