Don and Vita were married along the water’s edge, the mid-day sun enveloping the small ceremony in golden light.  Now, as I’m curled up in my sweats to ward off the chill of Hawaiian winter, I’m enviously remembering the warmth of that day.  They were married by Don’s good friend, with just a few friends as their witnesses.  Don kept us all laughing as he unleashed all his moves for the camera.  Vita, tall and gorgeous, just shyly smiled at her new husband’s antics, tenderly fixing his tie when it became askewed.  Vita’s beautiful daughter was their flower girl and the entire wedding party.   During the ceremony, she found a fast friend in a kitten lounging in the grass nearby.  The formal portraits were just a dream to photograph.  The grounds at Pardise Bay Resort on the windward side provided the lush, tropical backgrounds and the camera just loved this newly married family.

The bride wore a beautiful dress from Cache at Ala Moana and did her own flawless hair and make-up.  The flower girl dress was from Sears.  And can you believe that the gorgeous rose bouquet was from Safeway?  I was floored to learn that, I didn’t even know they did bouquets!  It was rich and elegant. I will most certainly be recommending them to my future brides.

Congratulations, Don and Vita!!!

Trevor is the worship pastor for Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay.  Although he’s one of the youngest pastors on staff, he’s a talented song-writer and musician with a clear vision to change the culture of worship.  If you feel the Ko`olau mountains shaking on the weekends, chances are it’s the people of Hope Chapel rocking it out.    You can download their latest worship CD, “Collision,” on amazon or download it from itunes.  Sarah works for Tori Richards and also shows off her design talents with a unique, handmade jewelry line, Ezer Kenegdo, she and two other friends run.   They were just featured recently in Midweek!  But Trevor and Sarah relish their greatest roles, the ones that earned them the title of “mom” and “dad.”  Levi is a happy and deeply loved little boy.  And, yes, I’m a permanent member of the Levi Fan Club.

Hand-knit hats provided by Jennarations Yarns of Kaneohe, HI

Please contact me if you want to schedule a “Sitting Pretty/Handsome Session” with your baby or become a Facebook fan!!

We chatted and I again questioned why I always end up meeting people at Starbucks since I don’t drink coffee.  Apparently neither did she as she nursed a fruit punch that she had brought with her.  I had a pocket full of Starbucks gift cards that I was hoping I could finally use but she politely waved off my offers to treat her.  So we just sat and got to know each other.

Like most coffee shops, it was crowded and loud but the background noise faded away as she settled in and told her me her story, one hand resting atop her round belly.  From our email exchanges, I knew a little and thought I had prepared myself, but I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up.  I heard a story that sounded so similiar to mine but still so different, I couldn’t imagine what it felt like.  Years of trying to start a family gave way to hope, followed by utter heartbreak, only to find one’s way back to hope again. 

 She and her husband had found out they were expecting triplets. The excitement mixed with anxiety of realizing they were going to welcome three babies into their home.  And then tragedy.  They lost their identical twin girls within a few days of each other in the second trimester.  She spoke then of the gut-wrenching doctor visits and her voice was twinged with sorrow but all I could hear was strength.  Her message is one of hope and faith because after surviving two painful losses, they stand in wait of one very sweet miracle.  Their little girls have a brother.   They had been hesitant at first to plan anything for the future.  They were reluctant to buy baby furniture and had yet to prepare the nursery.   They had put aside the idea of taking maternity photos.  But they have suddenly found themselves well into the third trimester.  And something that seemed so hard for them to believe would ever happen…is really happening.    Leinell and Jeff are just weeks away from meeting their son.

From the first email she sent inquiring about maternity photos, I’ve felt that I should be the photographer for these very special photos.  I felt like I was on a first date as I nervously rehearsed all the points I was going to use to convince her to hire me.  I was so ecstatic when she cut to the quick and pulled out her planner and asked “so, when do you have openings?”  I wonder if she could tell I was hopping in my seat.

Leinell must have been a teacher’s dream.  She took out a notepad during our consult and wrote down my suggestions for outfits.  She declined my proposal that she talk to her husband before we confirmed a date for her session.  She confidently told me “Oh, Jeff will be there. I’ll make sure he’s there.”  On the day of our shoot at Ko Olina, she carried a backpack as we trekked along the shore.  In the backpack, she had everything I had suggested might be useful or creative to use in our session.  We stayed late to get beautiful sunset photos and the minute the light disappeared, she pulled a compact flashlight out of her bag and was guiding our party out of the darkening lagoon. 

I was curious to meet Jefferson after Leinell’s description of him as a tall man with red hair.  Oh, his hair does not disappoint. It’s awesome!  He’s a proud dad and proud husband.  I warned him that I would be working solely with Leinell for most of the day.  He’s completely chill and took a swim and laid out in the sun.  But he jumped up and rushed over to hold Leinell’s hand whenever she had to walk to a different location. 

 I had asked Leinell and Jefferson to bring something special that was of significance to them and their babies.  For the girls, they had a beautiful hand-blown glass ball the same color as the deepest ocean waters.  And Jefferson was carrying a large book with a drawing of the earth on the cover for their son.  When I asked him the significance, he explained that he and Leinell often wrote in that book during their travels together.  And then he said “he’s my son. I want to give him the world.”

Many thanks to Leinell and Jefferson for choosing me to be a part of their journey.  Many many thanks to my dear friend Nalani visiting from the Big Island.  She modeled for my practice shoot, and then acted as assistant and creative director for the big day.  We had quite a fun group outing to Ko Olina.  We were even accompanied by her dad who tagged along to enjoy a sunset on the beach.   More gratitude, again, to Leinell and Jefferson didn’t bat an eye at the surprise enterouge trickling into the parking lot.

Behind the scenes: Nalani keeping our mama nice and cool (left). Draping artfully (right).

I think the Big Island is rubbing off on me

I’m here on the slopes of Paauilo nestled along the Hamakua coastline on the Big Island  finishing up a long-anticipated trip to see my family.  It’s been a fantastic assembly of days.  My sister and brother finally got to meet my baby girl and I finally had the chance to meet my very first nephew who is about to turn one in  2 months.  I am running dangerously low on computer memory as I’ve uploaded gazillions of pictures everyday to my poor overburdened laptop.  There’s been a lot of cows, horses, rodeos, huge home-cooked meals (courtesy of my little sis), barbecuing with real cowboys, and even some country music easy listening.  It’s been amazing to get back home and show Scott the trees I used to climb, the gulches we used to play in, and the hills we used to cardboard sled down.  Can you tell we didn’t grow up with a television?  I’ll be sad to leave my family and I’m already planning our next trip to this relaxed isle.

One thing I did heavily miss was cell phone connection.  My cell phone was reduced to being a oversized pocket watch.  I’ve been utterly spoiled by Oahu and it’s 3G networks and being able to use my cell phone almost everywhere.  I’ve only been able to spotcheck emails on our few trips to Hilo (30 miles away) and I have been jonesing to blog daily on this trip.  But, Paauilo has forced us to take a well-needed break from technology.  But I will be returning your emails by tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow we return to the “city” of Kaneohe.  Thankfully, I’ve weaned enough of a signal off of Scott’s hot spot phone to upload a sneak peek from a maternity shoot last week with Leinell and Jefferson.   I’ll check back in when I’m back on the windward side with my McDonalds french fries in one hand and updating my twitter feed with the other.

May is flying by and it’s brimming with deadlines but it’s also filled with a lot of excting events.  In the beginning of May, I participated in a lighting workshop downtown at FireBird Photography Studio and I’ve got another workshop in Waikiki marked on my calendar for next weekend.  My friend, Nalani, is visiting next week all the way over from the Big Island.  And then at the end of this month, Scott and I are finally going on our annual family trip to the Big Island to visit my family.  My sister and brother will finally get to meet my lil shortster and I can meet my one and only baby nephew.  Before that big trip, I have a special maternity session to shoot and I’m wrapping up editing photos from my last family session.  I’m completely loving this month.  May, you rock!!!

Here’s a sneak peek from Melissa’s family session at Waimanalo Beach.  Her handsome little men were nothing but smiles for the camera.

The star of the day, J, was peacefully sleeping in the next room. So I grabbed some pre-session pictures of J taking his morning nap still in his cute pjs.  He was so comfortable stretched out with his piko peeking out.  Kelley laughed and remarked that it looked a little funny to have two girls circling her bed with big cameras snapping away feverishly like papparazi.

J finally woke up and, surprisingly, stayed up for the remainder of our photo shoot.  He was so charming and beamed with all the attention, we could not cajole him to fall back asleep.   Instead, he stared at us and cooed all sorts of secrets to us that I can’t share.   And boy, did he smile.  Well, not at the camera, but at everyone he saw.   As soon as the camera appeared, the cheeky smile would hide again.  Oh, he knew what he was doing, he was playing with us and having a ball.

J is almost the same age and size of my daughter, so I loved the transitions between poses and set-ups when I had to pick him up.   He was so sweet and huggable, I had to remind myself that I was there to take pictures.  Reluctantly, I would put him down and pick up my camera.  His older sister, G, was a little shy but fascinated by the whole photo shoot.  She ran over to her toy bin and pulled out a toy camera and stood right by my my side  snapping her own pictures.  I was delighted to see another future photographer in the makings.

He looks so blissfully comfortable, this could be an advertisment for luxury bedding. I'm suddenly in the mood for a nap.

Giving us all sorts of looks and different expressions.

The following series are my favorites.  I’ve noticed that my photo shoots with children tend to be girls.  Not this month.  Finally! Finally!!! These past two months, I’ve finally had some handsome little men grace my blog.  It’s a little different.  You can’t rely on adding  more cuteness with tons of cute little hairbands, tutus, bows, flowers, and fairy wings.  I had to  simplify and still produce images that really captured J’s cuteness and innocent wonder.

We got it!! We know where he's happiest to be!

Wait…prepare for it.   I’m just warning you, he’ll melt your heart.

His parents laughed and called this is jail outfit. I love the blues!

One of the things I had discussed with J’s mom, Kelley, was when to take baby pictures during the first year.  One way is a little more traditional and to take photos at the 3 mo-6mo-9 mo-1 year marks.  As an alternative, I like the creative aspect of doing three photo shoots for the first year of baby’s life.  Tummy Time (3-4 months),  Sitting  Pretty/Handsome (6-7 months), and Standing Tall (11 months).   Standing Tall is perfect timing to use those images for 1st birthday party invitations and favors and a cake smash session can be incorporated.

It’s easier to get creative with locations and poses once we hit the sitting milestone but I want to add a special touch only available for 3 month old baby photo sessions.  It’s inspired by the amazing work of a mom, Adele Enersen, who began creating imaginative narratives with photos while her baby daughter napped.    She created a blog called “Mila’s Daydreams” and she will be putting out a book with her photos.  She creates 2D sets around her daughters using just fabric, stuffed animals, and things you might find around the house.  I so love the idea and always wanted to try it with my baby daughter.  But whenever my baby daughter is sleeping, the only thing I ever wanted to do was eat, sleep, or try to tackle the laundry piles.  So I was super excited for the chance to play around with an idea I had and add a local twist.  I was able to set up my first dream scene (although he was wide awake!!) with J.  I was thrilled with how it turned out.  I can’t wait to do more 3 month baby sessions!!   When I showed Scott, the first thing he asked was “oooh, can we do that same photo with our baby?”  Nope.  I want to make all of them uniquely for each baby.  That will be an awesome challenge.  

Surfs Up!!

Stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes breakdown of how this shot was created coming up next on this blog.

Beth and I have kept in touch thanks to the magic of facebook and she’s been a supportive voice this past year as my husband and I dealt with living in the NICU day after day.  Her family had  dear friends who had a preemie 12  years ago and he was in the hospital for 23 months.  Wow!!  The 81 days my daughter spent in the hospital seemed like forever.  I can’t imagine living the NICU life for 23 months.   So, Beth and her daughter, Emma, were a faithful part of the “Aunty Patrol” for their friend’s baby and took turns with feeds and cuddle time.  Emma, who was just 15 at the time, was inspired by the experience and found her life’s calling.  She is a NICU nurse now.  So, Beth and her family have insight into our world and have been there with constant words of encouragement and prayers.

Preparing to take photos of Ian and his wife, Chantel, was an amazing trip back in time.  In my first intial email exchanges with Beth, she wrote ”Ian, Chantel, TBA (baby due next month) coming from California “ as she listed everyone who would be present for the family session.    Baby “TBA” arrived in time for family pictures and I had the pleasure of meeting him so now I can call him “T.”  He was an adorable baby with inquisitive blue eyes and soft whisps of dark hair ruffled by the wind.  He was contently perched in the strong arms of his dad as he took in the crazy family antics taking place on that beach.  Fast-forward to 2011 and “T” has grown a few feet and learned to use his two feet.  Energetic?  A resounding “YES!”  I usually ask parents to bring snacks as a back-up plan to use in the latter part of a shoot when I need to slow children down and get them to sit still for particular shots.  This would be the first time EVER that we had to break into that snack bag in the first ten minutes.  “T” was a rocket chasing after his favorite ball and wrestling with the family dog.  And those snacks bought us just a few milliseconds and he would pop a cracker in his mouth and jet off.  But those milliseconds were perfect.  One glimpse of his big blue eyes and cheeky smile and we all melted, much like the chocolate chips in his snack bag. 

How gorgeous can this family be?

“Dork”

I can’t help but smile and am reminded fondly of my own sisters.  A little humorous ribbing in a family that clearly radiates with warmth and love.  Two sisters who adore each other.  While we were pouring over the final proofs from Megan’s senior picture session, Noelle put aside a selection.  When Megan asked her what she was doing, Noelle said “These aren’t for you.  These are for me, I want these.” 

I love Megan’s whole family.  We all go to the same church and Megan’s mom, Natalie, greets everyone at the door with a hug and a smile while Megan’s dad, Lance, volunteers behind the sound board.  It was a while ago and I was still on maternity leave when they first brought up the idea of me shooting Megan’s senior pictures.   I wasn’t sure when I would be able to resume photography gigs, but Lance and Natalie emphatically insisted that they would wait.  But senior pictures would probably work best if Megan was still a senior when we took them!!!  So, we managed to find one opening but, unfortunately, it happened to fall on the same day that Megan participated in the Straub 10K run.  It’s a community run that Megan was running to complete her Kamehameha Schools PE requirement to graduate.  I was worried that the ache of waking up at 4 am to run 6.21 miles might take its toll, but Megan was a champ.  She didn’t bat an eye at scheduling such a long day and she looked refreshed and beautiful for our shoot in the afternoon.

The senior picture session was amazing.  Downtown Honolulu is a popular place for engagement shoots because of the beautiful architecture and charming feel of the buildings.  We were a little worried at first because we were flirting with the rain.  We started off the shoot with a McDonald’s ice cream cone break to give the weather a chance to clear up…and it did!!!

Megan asked if she could incorporate her favorite book and she brought along Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre.’  That’s one of my favorites, too.

Thanks everyone for chiming in!!!

My good friend, Joy, an amazing photographer herself, was working and I grabbed this opportunity to ask Jenna to come along.  Jenna has a beautiful line of hand-made knit hats available on her etsy store and is also gravitating towards children’s photography.  We’ve been exchanging emails for a while and so this was a great opportunity to hang out and do our favorite thing, taking pictures of adorable tots.

Yopu might like to check out pics of Mr. “T” from my last session with this gorgeous family so you can see what I mean about how much he has grown.  One thing that hasn’t changed though are those bright blue eyes.  Uh-oh, he’s going to be the charmer of Gymboree classes.  His whole family has beautiful eyes.  His cousin has been gracing my website header slideshow (look above) for years now.  She’s the cute little girl with brown hair and startling blue eyes.  Oh, melt away.

Mr. “T”

Comin next, my favorite photos from my downtown Honolulu senior portrait session with Megan.  Stay tuned!!!

We had permission from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki to take family portraits but we were also sharing the grounds with a wedding party there that day.  That was one of the bridesmaids talking aloud to  her friends as they walked past us. Apparently, the bridesmaid knew my clients, Mike and Beka, from high school days and recognized them as she walked by.   And she said it with the same amazement and excitement one would put into pointing out a celebrity spotting.  And I smiled in agreement.  There is something amazing about high school sweethearts.

I adore my husband, Scott, and one of my only regrets is that I didn’t meet him until I was 24.  I can only learn about his childhood and college years through his stories.  I jealously listen to him reminisce with his friends about the good old days and I wish I had been there see it myself.  We like to debate what things would have been like if we had met earlier.  But I would be very worried that if we had met earlier, we would not have ended up married.  Um, I remember the high school me.  I was a dork and so shy that I would freeze up whenever someone new spoke to me.  He apparently also went through this mullet stage (he thought it was funny).  That might have squashed any chance of there ever being any romantic spark.  Thankfully, we did a lot of growing up before we met each other.  High school sweethearts have to do their growing up together. 

So I am pretty fascinated to watch Beka and Mike interact with each other and their kids.  They treat each other with such love and tenderness.    You could easily mistake them for newlyweds.  They have two beautiful children and one more on the way.  You saw the sneak peek here a few days ago, but here are the rest of the pictures I promised.  Warning, there’s an overload of pictures!!! I had extreme trouble narrowing down my faves.

At my last family portrait photography session with them, Little J a.k.a. “Superboy” was a little shy. Well he has grown up and is shy no longer.  He had everyone constantly cracking up the entire time.  He had a different expression for every picture.  Princess M has grown up so much since the last portrait session.  She still lights up when she smiles and now there is just a softness and a grace to her. 

Joy and I had such an amazing time with them.  After we finished, Mike and Beka were going to take the kids to get ice cream and Mike invited us to come with them.  I was so torn.  I didn’t want the fun to stop but after spending the morning watching Mike and Beka hug and love on their sweeties constantly, I couldn’t wait to go home and be with my own family.  Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys!!!

This is my favorite series of photos. Look at those expressions!!!

She was taking a candy break, hence the bright blue tongue=)

This was a first: I didn't have to prompt them to laugh or make silly faces. They were making each other laugh.

The kids really loved these rocking chairs.

The kids got to bring a second outfit of their choice. J wanted to show his martial arts skills.

If you’re interested in booking a wedding or portrait session, you can contact me!!!  Thanks so much to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for allowing us to have our photo shoot there.  They are one of the most desired venues for weddings here in Hawaii and it was an absolute pleasure to spend a morning there exploring their luxurious hotel.