I made my first trek out to Honolulu in December 2007. I was ready to take the next step in my photography career, and wanted to get images that would enable me to connect with clients getting married in exotic destinations. In preparation for the trip, I googled my little heart out in an attempt to connect with other vendors, photographers, and planners in the wedding industry who might help introduce me to the island or help me plan some photo shoots. I spent lots of time emailing to reach out to locals, and for the most part got very little response.

When I arrived in Hawaii, I stopped in at a place called The Wedding Café. It was a new concept – basically a marketplace for couples to come and review promotional materials from all sorts of vendors. The marketing for the Wedding Café seemed perfect – simple, elegant, and able to stand the line between classic and hip – and I loved their directory, WHITE, printed on heavy stock with a clean design.

In “WHITE” I found a profile about Elizabeth Uehara. In her self-description, Elizabeth talked about her multicultural heritage and how she loves to be a part of weddings. I remember emailing her from my room, and being delighted at a very prompt, very helpful, and very sincere response. The next thing I knew, Elizabeth had arranged a day full of photo shoots for me and provided the hair, makeup, and styling for everyone pro bono – in addition to using her connections with a florist and dress shops to get everyone outfitted. I was impressed by the effortlessness of her arrangements, as well as her enthusiasm for the project. She wasn’t overly concerned with compensation, but rather turned the event into a fun and lighthearted adventure.

I fell in love with Elizabeth that day, and asked her to fly out to San Francisco to do my hair and makeup for our wedding (admittedly also to save me from the onslaught of Persian aunties who work in salons!).

If you’re getting married in Hawaii and looking for a dependable, professional, fun, and talented local hair and makeup artist for your wedding, give Elizabeth a call. She will hook you up. (Elizabeth Uehara, beautigoddess@gmail.com, 808-203-7398)

I love Honolulu-based stylist and aesthetician Elizabeth Uehara, so a chance to photograph her kids was an exciting opportunity for me.  Elizabeth is probably the most well-connected social wahine I know!

I had a fun and funny time in Honolulu with my new buddies Emma and Noah. We did a casual photo session to help build up their comp cards, and also did a few family shots. Check these out!

Check out this shot when I told everyone to make squishy faces… Noah looks unimpressed.

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I saw these birds hanging out in Chinatown, perched on top of the concrete structure where all the middle aged Chinese men were busy playing mah jong next to the canal. A few quick art shots yielded this winner, and I used some moody processing to bring out the shapes.

I was finally able to do my Tahitian photo shoot! I was sooo bummed that the weather canceled my session on Thursday… luckily, my plane didn’t leave until after 10pm on Friday allowing me to sneak in another session.

This was the one shoot all week that I was truly excited to photograph! Here is a little known fact about me… while in high school I was in a Polynesian dance troupe. Ok, ok… we danced at nursing homes and summer festivals, but it was fun and I developed a passion for this type of dance. Being able to shoot a Tahitan dancer in Hawaii is a pretty big deal for me!

My vision for the session was to do a few vintage pin-up style shots, some shots along the lines of Kim Taylor Reece and of course some “advertise-y” type shots for the girls to use in promotions. Here are a few of my favorites.

After this Tahitian session the girls styled themselves for a fun beachy lifestyle shoot. More images to come!

~Amy

Last year when Rachel was here in Honolulu, we shot together for the first time.  You can see the magic we made here and here.  If you take the time to look back you will recognize our model Jilly in the photos to follow.  Not only is Jilly training to be a fireman, she is also the most free spirited girl to ever don a wedding dress.  I personally can’t wait for the day this girl decides to really get hitched.  I can only imagine the insanely fun photo session we will have with her future husband. 

This year I got to shoot Jilly with Amy.  She worked in a very calming manner that was the ying to my craziness of a yang.

This was also Rachel’s last day on Oahu.  After a glass of pirate juice and a brainstorming session for Jan 2010, she was off to HNL for a couple grueling flights back to the freezing East Coast.  I am sure she was happy to get to her new home and welcoming arms of her mister.

I am on the way to the airport. It’s been a good time. We’ll be back next year.

I received a stern email this morning from Sonja wanting to see some photos from her session on the Big Island this past week. I have never seen a sad winky face before – ;( it scared me a little, so here you go Sonja!

Sonja knew about a harbor near a shopping center in Kona that had this cool black sand. I love it!

Alison glowed during her maternity session. The extremely windy day combined with a borrowed scarf (a la Rachel) and a beautiful silhouette created this beautiful vision at sea.

Alison and Juan Carlos posed near a coconut grove for a funky photo.

Thanks to Rachel for snapping alongside me today! And especially for running to get me batteries!!!

We made new friends tonight. James and Archer came back to the hotel with us, bearing pizza and an hour to spare. We sat around on the lanai and played games with long exposure photos. (It was deceptively fun.) Before bed, Amy taught me a little bit of hip swayin’ hula to our favorite hawaii song, Local Boys. This is my last night in Hawaii, and it feels right.

This image was a group effort. I (Rachel) set my camera, with 15mm fisheye lens, to 16 second exposure, and we passed a small but bright flashlight down the row, each to spell our letters – we got it on the second try!

We had such a nice little photo session this afternoon with Alison and Juan Carlos near our hotel in Honolulu. Amy organized this shoot and got some really cool shots. These are a couple of fisheye shots I took while she was messing around with equipment.