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!!!

No bridesmaids. No groomsmen.  At first, Raylene didn’t even want to walk down the aisle.  She bashfully laughed and waved that thought off. Thankfully, someone managed to change her mind because she was radiant as she walked across the grass field towards her groom.  The sinking sun was just starting to fall behind Justin but he didn’t see anything but his bride.  Their three children also walked down the aisle.  Their youngest flower girl took a little break and her big brother patiently helped her back on her feet and filled her flower basket again with the soft rose petals.  The guests stayed late into the night under an open sky splattered with twinkling stars.  Live music played while everyone enjoyed amazing food under hanging lights.  Justin and Raylene went from table to table welcoming each guest while the kids were thrilled to be playing with all their friends.  We were at the beautiful Officer’s Club on Hickam Air Force Base but it somehow felt we were at an intimate backyard party and we felt right at home.

Congratulations to the newly married couple, Justin and Raylene!!!

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!!

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.

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!!!

 There aren’t words that can convey the last 24 hours experience; watching the surreal footage of devastation in Japan then the night-long wait we all shared in the quiet dark, pierced only by the eerie echo of the emergency warning sirens.

I’m currently on an overnight work shift and was getting ready for work when we saw on the news that Japan had been shaken by an 8.9 earthquake. All of Hawaii has such strong ties to Japan; most of us have family or friends there. I’ve only been to Japan once with Scott but he’s visited friends there annually for the last ten years. We have good friends on the north island of Hokkaido and in the south half of Honshu, especially in Tokyo and in Osaka. As we watched the news coverage, video feed began rolling of the tsunami sweeping across the coastline and we could only watch in silence, completely stunned.

And we began our long night worrying about Japan and trying to prepare ourselves for the unknown. Sirens blared, evacuations began and yours truly still had to report to work. Unbelievably, my position is classified “essential” and so I left my husband and baby at home and drove to work shortly before midnight. Thankfully, our home is far away from the inundation zone so I felt confident I wouldn’t be worrying about them while at work all night. I spent a long night watching for updates on the news and online.

This week’s Friday Fave award has to go to social media outlets. The power of Twitter and Facebook is phenomenal. Mayor Carlisle urged everyone to stay off their phones unless it was an emergency. But even with that request, the congestion made my cell phone useless for getting through to anyone. So, everyone jumped on Twitter and Facebook. Our friend Jenny twittered from Nagoya that she was safe. We jumped on Facebook to leave “Are you okay” for Gabe, our friend who works at a school in Nishinomiya. And within the hour, he facebooked that he was unharmed and safe.

PS. That profile pic of Scott is old and he does not look like that. He's trying to convince me he can go back to his mullet days. Not going to happen.

Our pastor was on a plane at the Tokyo airport and although he couldn’t call anyone, we were able to communicate with him throughout the night using his Facebook page.  He posted pictures as he joined the crowds hunkering down in the terminal to spend the night.  Many of us, including his wife here on Oahu, sent encouraging messages and whatever info we had from the news.  On Facebook’s wall, I could literally see everyone reaching out to help each other.  People on higher grounds opening up their homes to those on lower grounds.  It was incredible to watch unfold on the newsfeed.

Facebook and Twitter became the best source for updates, the news stations and radios couldn’t get the information out as quickly as people could on Facebook. In the midst of all this, an earthquake shook the Big Island.  We found out almost instantaneously because people posted it within the first minute. My sister, brother, father, and nephew live on the Big Island but I was reassured when I saw my sister on Facebook  posting a video of my baby girl for her friends to see. I safely guessed that the earthquake hadn’t really affected them.

You could see so many people using facebook to check in with their family and find reassurance.  Our friend, Sarah, used facebook to check in on all her family, including her brother, Paul. 

Throughout the night, there were moments of humor as we reflected on how everyone reacts a little differently to emergencies.  I did tease my niece who was trying to find a van to borrow so she could launch a self-led rescue of the animals at the zoo.  And I admitted that our hurricane kit is probably a little lacking.  We only have one flashlight with half-dead batteries and one candle.

And as the night began to end and we realized how fortunate we were to escape major damage, our first thoughts were once again focused on Japan. 

Now, CNN is urging people to use Facebook and Twitter to reach out to those in Japan that they still haven’t been able to reach. Google has a site to register either information about a person you are trying to find or to enter information you have for someone.  As we’ve learned from Katrina, we all want to help in any way we can but it’s best to donate to established organizations who are experienced in disaster relief and will be best equipped to use those resources.   People can  text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific.  Your donations will be included in your wireless bill (see here for explanation).  You can also go to www.redcross.org and donate to Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami. 

 It’s crazy that they’re not even out of the woods as aftershocks that we would consider major earthquakes are still happening with alarming frequency and the whole world is watching Japan tackle their power plants and rescue efforts.  One thing I must say, the country of Japan is no stranger to natural disasters and their preparedness and building codes saved thousands, possible millions.