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!!!

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.

As if I wasn’t excited already, now I was even more thrilled to be working with the family of someone I know very well.  There’s four sisters total and we must have all crossed paths when the youngest sister,  Grace, got married a few years ago.  I was helping with the wedding coordination and the family remembers me well for one very special aspect of the wedding.  I was assisting the pastor officiating the ceremony and one of my responsibilities was to set up communion for the bride and groom.  I put out a beautiful setting of a single glass of wine to be shared and a bread roll for them to share.  I’ve done it many times for weddings but it’s the bread roll that always throws me for a loop.  If you’ve ever tried to find it in stores, it is actually pretty difficult to find.  I ran to Foodland the morning of the ceremony and I was stoked when I found a roll quickly.  It was a little big but it would look really elegant on the communion plate. During the actual ceremony, I was in the back preoccupied by my wedding checklist.  When it came time for the couple to take communion together, soft music started playing and everyone quieted.  Then I heard hushed giggles spread through the crowd in the front rows.  I was straining my neck to try to see but I couldn’t figure out what was so funny.  I was even more curious when the ceremony ended and I saw people gathering around the communion table taking pictures of something.  I went to investigate and found the source of everyone’s delight.    In my haste at the grocery store, I had grabbed anpan bread.  Anpan bread is a Japanese sweet bun filled with a bean paste, a dark, sticky paste you find in certain mochi.  When the bride and groom tried to break off a piece of bread, they got a little surprise.   Lucky for me, no one has forgotten that little tiny detail and so we’re still laughing over it years later.

You know, no one believes me when I say it’s hard to find bread for communion.  I know a wedding where a well-meaning friend of the bride brought pretzels.  It wasn’t me!!! 

So Summer and I had a great time during that consultation.  Apple is shy and wary of strangers so this was the perfect opportunity to give her time to warm up to me.   She spent the first part of the consultation eyeing me from a distance.  Eventually, her curiousity got the best of her and she was climbing over me to investigate my laptop.  The next time she saw me was at the photo shoot I was old news to her already.  She didn’t even notice me and beelined straight for my big bucket of props.  It was picture perfect and we were able to dive right into her session.

 Let’s get to the fun part…ooohing and aaaahing  over how cute she is.  Make sure to scroll to the bottom to see how you can contribute in the contest to win a gift for Apple’s  family.

Exploring the playground

Taking a break to tie her shoelaces.

Flying ballerina

My favorite from the day!

My tour of the Bridal Expo

I’m a sucker for routine and stability.  I love having the next month or months planned out and I probably spend a little too much time gazing at my calendar (now I can sync it to my phone as well).  My calendar is color-coded and beautiful.    I tend to overprepare for any task and I don’t usually like to do things unless I’ve done it before and I know I can do it well.  Last week, I had a visit from a friend I’ve known since seventh grade.  We’re both from the Big Island so we boarded together in a dormitory.  She lives such a colorful life, she’s always working on multiple projects and they’re always so diverse and creative.  When we talk, I always hear she’s doing something else new.  She’s teaching dance.  She’s taking audiovisual courses.  Now, she’s coordinating and planning a pageant.  After hanging out and catching up, I was really inspired to look for different doors to open.

This week, I began to baby step out of my comfort zone and take up new challenges.  Someone contacted me in regards to helping them with their bridal gown design company.  They were flying in to host a booth at the Hawaii Bridal Expo.  Ummm, Vera Wang I certainly am not.    I live in my worn-out yoga pants, baggy T-shirts, and rubber slippers.  But it certainly was a different door and sounded like a fun way to spend the weekend.  I dragged my friend, Joy, with me and we headed off to the Expo to volunteer at the Bridal Gown booth.  I’m not really a salesperson but I loved striking up conversation with the passerbyers.  We were able to sign them up for a drawing for a free dress and ask them all about their upcoming weddings.

We spent a little time manning the booth but then we had the chance to walk around and spent even more time enjoying the expo.   The last time I had been to the bridal expo was over four years ago when I was planning my own wedding.  Scott and I were overwhelmed and we left pretty quickly.  This time, it was fun to walk around for amusement without all the pressure.  Let me say, it was still a bit overwhelming.  It was fun, but I felt so drained by the time I left.  Poor brides.  Hang in there.  It’s hard but it will all be worth it.    Joy and I took turns playing the bride and indulging in some free cake samples.  Yummy!!!  We also browsed photography exhibits and introduced ourselves to the photographers.   There is such a great community of photographers out there.

Baby Session Sneak Peek

Of course, it’s not like I was cliff-diving or jet-skiiing every day of the week.  I dabbled in a few things I’m a little more at home with, like a baby session with an adorable 10 month-old girl.  Trying to keep away from using just the initial ‘A,’  the only pretend name that keeps popping into my head is ‘Apple.’  Thanks, Gwyneth Paltrow.  Mom was really excited to have pictures of Apple but was nervous since Apple is very shy and wary of strangers.  I empathise completely.  I was painfully shy as a child.   She really wanted an outdoor location so I chose a playground that would set up for a lot of possible poses and would be nice and empty during school hours.  I brought a huge box of toys and we had a little field trip to the playground.  Apple had a blast.   I was pretty pleased with myself for choosing the perfect location.  We had beautiful lighting and Apple was playing so intently, she didn’t seem to notice it was a photo session.   I’m still working on the gallery for mom but here’s a sneak peek to bring in the weekend.

This little one isn't shy at all!!!

“Happy New Years” or as we say “Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!!!”

Our baby girl struggled with chronic lung disease after her premature birth.  Also, Hawaii is putting a ban on most fireworks in 2011.  Thus, we are expecting the island to look like a smoke-filled war zone.  So, combine those two things together and you’ll understand why, for our first New Year’s celebration together, we’re headed to a hotel for the night.  It was our best solution to get Slugger (hubby nicknamed our baby girl) up and out of the smoke cloud.  But our house will be partying for us.  Our friends are having a bash at our house while we’re away.  So, I really have to clean today. I hate people knowing how messy our house really is.  My mantra this week was “I will have a clean house by 2011.”

We got the hotel room on a deal so I’m not sure what it has…microwave, fridge etc.  So, we’re going prepared.  We’re taking hurricane popcorn (that we got from Vinnie and Krystie), sparkling cider (a Christmas gift from Crissy and Todd), fancy hot cocoa and giant marshmallows (a gift from Malia and Chad), and picking up pizza (we figured it can be eaten hot or cold).  We’re prepared for anything.

I’m also starting my “healthy eating” attempt a day early (try to forget reading most of the previous paragraph).  At my visit to my doctor yesterday, she said “your blood pressure looks great (106/67) and…ummm, your weight has…stabilized.”  What she means is, after losing all my pregnancy weight right away…that darn scale is creeping steadily up again. Ugh!!!  That and I get winded just going for walks.  Pitiful!  Even yesterday, my thigh muscles were all sore like I had climbed the Stairway To Heaven (which incidentally I have never done), and I was totallly confused since I hadn’t gone running or exercised.  Took me a while to figure out it was from the day before when I had a photo shoot.  My legs were groaning after just an hour of having to squat down to get eye level with a 10-month old.  So, I had a salad for a lunch yesterday which was slightly offset by the in-laws taking us all out to Kobe Restaurant for steak dinner.

That’s my exciting plans for bringing in the New Year.  What’s yours?

Here’s  sneak peeks from my session with sisters LP and HB.  Remember what I was saying about always trying to find locations nearby and close to home.  This was just up the street from my home.  You can’t beat that.

Introducing LP...I hope we will be seeing tons more of her chubby cheek cuteness.

Sometimes you just see a place and you have to go for it.  The picture above is actually outside someone’s house.   I had a cute set-up on the sidewalk and I saw this wall about 50 yards away.  The house was raised which was a good thing because there were two big dogs in the yard.  I guess they didn’t see us because they were sleeping the whole time.  A good thing since I didn’t want my little models to get spooked.  How adorable is LP?   Her daddy says that she’s so mellow that sometimes they lose track of her at home because she just wanders from room to room playing without a sound.   They’ll find her just playing contentedly in the corner with her toys.  She’s also a non-stop smiler, it just melts your heart.  

Big sister HB is a familiar beauty

I love the light of late afternoon but working with kids has a timeline.  Even with puffed star treats, kids will eventually hit their limit.  As the photographer, I’m always trying to get just one more setting…one more pose…but you’ll know when the kids have had enough.   And you usually want to end the session about ten minutes before that happens.  So, my favorite shot of HB happens to be after we called it a day and we were packing up our stuff.  She saw this in my prop bucket and wanted to try it on.   I grabbed a shot before she even knew it and this last shot happened to be one of my absolute faves.  By the way, that crown was for me to wear at my baby shower.

Liz asked me to take some pictures of her and 2 year-old HB before the new baby arrived to capture their “mommy-me” moments before a baby sister came into the mix.  I’m always on the hunt for new and different locations.  We do a lot of the tried and true beach sessions but I like a lot of variety.  I am also really happy if I can find something on the windward side and close to home.  Always a big plus and makes my tired, old Toyota Corolla happy.  The creativity in photography is what draws me in and inspires me to scan my surroundings with new eyes.  Since my hubby works at Hope Chapel Kaneohe, we make the drive past Kaneohe District Park often.  I’ve done a family shoot there but there was this overgrown lawn of grassy weeds that always caught my eye.  I love Liz because she’s so flexible and I know she trusts me completely.  So, when I asked her to meet me in the parking lot by the corner of the field that looked like it had been neglected by lawnmowers and weed-whackers for months, she didn’t blink an eye.  Basically, we played in weeds.I was hoping it would translate in pictures and the pay off was amazing.  I loved this session.

I am in love with  my little fairy grove that I bet most people pass by without a second glance. You may be able to recognize landmarks in the pictures.  And if you live in Kaneohe, chances are you drive right by it regularly…it’s just 20 feet from Kahekili Highway.  Every now and then, the workers brave the terrain and, sadly, its beautiful wilderness has been tamed with a good mowing.  Wait long enough and it will always grow back.

We took some time for a trip to the nearby playground

Liz, now a mom of two beautiful girls

A 2 year-old certainly keeps you on your toes

I found the perfect fairy for my fairy grove

HB didn't like the grass tickling her legs but mommy made everything fun with a flower tossing game

HB had to have a few hair touch-ups in the midst of all the fun

Okay, now I’ve caught up.  I can post a sneak peek before the New Year of LP, the third party in this session that we didn’t officially get to meet until later.