You've Got a Friend

This image is one I took two years ago, just after my oldest daughter graduated from high school and her friends were all getting ready to head to different colleges.  They were sharing one last sunset at the beach together.  Their friendships have endured since grade school and they most recently got together just a few days ago for a party at our home.  It's wonderful to see them all grow and change, and to see how their friendships still remain strong.

So when a friend shared this song today, it reminded me of how valuable our friendships are.  (This song was suggested for someone who's creating a playlist of positive songs to listen to whenever she gets a little down.)  This song takes me back and always wraps me in warmth.  I'd forgotten how much I love it. 

To all of you who are reading this, my warmest aloha to you and yours and I hope all of you are blessed with an abundance of love, gratitude, and great friendships!  I hope you'll share the warmth!

Maternity Portraits

Oh, how I love doing maternity portrtaits.  I get to photograph some amazing things, and a woman awaiting the birth of her baby is so magical.   Here's a portrait I recently did that I just love.  I think the look says it all.  I call this one, "Lindsay Waiting".

I'm always chasing rainbows

I was ready to settle in and do some office work this afternoon.  Then it started raining.  Pouring.  And the sun was shining!  That meant only one thing-- rainbows!  I'm a sucker for rainbows.  So I grabbed my camera, jumped in the car and headed to my favorite little bluff overlooking the city.  Of course, rainbows only come about when it's raining and the best shots are when the water is still coming down.  I really don't like taking the chance of getting my camera wet, but you really can't get a good shot while you're sitting in the car.  So I hopped out and snapped away.   Getting wet was worth it.

Living in the Moment

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I truly, passionately, absolutely love what I do!  I get to capture a moment in time.  A moment that will never be repeated.  The light will never be the same, the clouds will never be the same color, the expressions will never have the same look.  Just recently I got to capture a moment with Peter and Tiara against the beautiful Ko'olau mountains.  As I put them in position, we saw the sky start to change color and the sun shoot across the top of the mountains.  It was one of those "omigosh" moments and as soon as I snapped the image, I knew this moment was a keeper.

Why I love senior portraits

High school senior portraits are definitely one of my favorite types of sessions.   Maybe it's because I have two teens of my own and love the challenge of capturing their personality.  I get to be really creative and we have a lot of fun during the session.  We chat.  And sometimes we just stop and laugh.

I think the main reason I like working with seniors is their energy.  They have the whole world waiting for them. We talk about their plans for college and what they plan to study.  Where they want to go  and how they came to their decision.   It's fun knowing I'm photographing future surgeons, nurses, journalists, designers, engineers, and who knows?   I hope they'll drop me a line in the future and let me know how they're doing.

More Senior Portraits

Hawaiian Shaved Ice--In Kansas!!!

Who would imagine finding a Hawaiian Shaved Ice stand in Kansas??!!! This little place in Junction City, Kansas was a surprisingly great find.  Living in Hawaii I'm used to having some delicious, authentic shave ice.  Pelican Pete's in J.C. was a treat!  The ice used at Pelican Pete's was more finely ground than what we're used to in Hawaii (I liked both kinds), and the flavors were just as yummy.  The 110-degree heat index also made these taste especially good.

We got a huge kick out of the decor......

 Tiki man was a bit scary-looking.....

And I'm pretty sure we don't have alligators in Hawaii....at least not on my roof we don't! 

The kids (my two daughters and a friend) enjoyed the oversized swing.

But my favorite decorative item was the pedal-boat-to-nowhere....

A great place to go on a hot summer afternoon!  (Evenings are great, too--the place is ablaze with twinkly lights and happy music.)  How can you help but love a place like this??!  It'll definitely be on my tour stop the next time I'm in town.

City Girls and Country Cows

I was in Kansas recently, helping my oldest daughter get settled back at K-State.  It was also a great time to visit with friends and family.

One of the first days I was back home, we visited a dairy.  Since my girls are "city girls," my mom thought it'd be fun for them to see some cows close up.  Visiting cows was not on my girls' list of things to do while on vacation (their idea of sightseeing is to visit shopping malls), but they went along for the fun.  We were warmly welcomed at Hildebrand Farms and invited to go visit the cows in their pens.  (I had to remind the girls to stand upwind, not downwind!)  It was great fun, and I'll bet those cows have never been photographed so much!  

This little calf craved attention:

She even offered free kisses:

And more pics:

It was a great little visit to Hildebrand Farms.  Although we didn't get a chance to try the ice cream, we did buy some delicious fresh cheese curds.  The ice cream will have to wait til our next trip....

Shooting my kids

This was literally one of the hardest sessions I've done in a long time.  It was hard because these are my daughters.  And they wouldn't sit still!  They kept giggling, tickling each other, refusing to get close, and then they'd complain they were hungry.  One would make a comment and they'd fall over in a fit of laughter.  I told them it was easier to photograph the family pets than it was to photograph them!  (You can see some of the pet pics in an earlier post.) 

We'd been planning to do a formal session for awhile.  My oldest daughter (the one on the left) was home from college for the summer and both girls wanted formal portraits taken.  (Caroline will be a sophomore in college and Catherine will be a high school senior this fall.)  My friend Corvette Dela Cruz is an awesome hair and makeup artist and she offered to come over and make the girls up.  They were so excited!  You would think that being the daughters of a photographer they'd be tired of getting their pictures taken.  Not necessarily.  When they're in the right mood, they love to ham it up for me.  This session was especially fun (and challenging!) because I'd shown them some ideas I had and they were just plain giddy.

It took me over an hour to finally get the shot I wanted.  Not because I'm slow, but because they'd sit for a second, then look at each other and burst out laughing.  It's a far cry from when they were younger and would argue constantly or simply refuse to cooperate.  (Someday I'll have to post a pic I used for our Christmas card when the girls were little.  I tried to get everyone smiling, but my youngest refused to smile.  So the annual card had a family pic with her scowling while everyone else was smiling.)

For this session I was finally able to get them to settle down by doing what I always do when working with wild animals.  I bribed them with food.  I told them that if they'd sit for just a couple more shots, my husband and I would take them out for a nice dinner.   It worked like a charm.

It's nice to have this image of the two of them because creating the image was almost as fun as seeing it finished.  I smile every time I see it.