Holy Wedding Week :) From Maundy Thursday To Good Friday

The week before Easter and Love is in the air! We have had a couple of great weddings this last week. The first was on Thursday with Kathy and Alex out at Secret Beach on Kualoa Ranch. This wedding was for Dawn Nash of The Romance Specialist in Hawaii. Check out her site, she is an Awesome Coordinator and will do a great job on your wedding if you are planning one. 

Alex (The Tree) and his new wife Kathy are Canadian and a lot of fun, aye?! They were very comfortable and their family was one of those that you could tell just had fun together. The Light at Kualoa Ranch was simply AMAZING! Which made this one of those weddings that photographers absolutely love to shoot.

After the ceremony, the couple spent a little time getting a Plumeria shower from their family. They happened to be the brides favorite flower and her laughter along with the fragrance of the flowers, filled the air.



Our second wedding this week was today, Good Friday at Wahiawa Botanical Garden. Hawaiianpix was one of just 25 people in attendance at the intimate ceremony for Nuu and Dove. The weather was great in Wahiawa, cool with those occasional trade winds we love here in the islands and blue skies.

The couple were very traditional, not seeing each other prior to the wedding and you could tell the minute their eyes met; that the wait was worth every minute.

Dove was soooo cute with her freckles and genuine playfullness. Nuu was a big strong young man, that totally fit the " strong silent " type of guy. They were just perfect together.

And when you get a couple like this and ask them to "snuggle" it becomes very apparent that they are completely in love with each other. Photographers love moments like this by the way.

We wish both of our Easter Week Couples and their wonderful families all the very best. We truly appreciated working with both of these couples and were honored to be there as they started their new lives together. - Aloha

Son's and Senior's on a Saturday in April

This last weekend we had a great time in the studio and on the beach. First on Saturday we got to work with 2 young men. 

Really Young, 4 and 1 in the studio. Jonah our "Rockstar"  and his brother Dylan came in with their parents for a portrait session. Very cute kids and very well behaved! Awesome job Mom and Dad!

Once they got comfortable in the studio we began to play and got some great shots of both of them individually as well as together. The whole session took about an hour trading off time in front of the camera, the boys were ready for it to all be over by the time our hour was up. Thanks guys for playing with us and we hope to see you again.

Later on Saturday we traveled up to our favorite Beach to do some over due Senior portraits for Ashley.

Now we have worked with Ashley, her family and friends before. The first time was a couple of years ago when we did photos of her and her friends in Haliewa. That was a really fun session with some great "kids having fun" photos on the beach in Hawaii. Well Ashley is all grown up now and graduating High School here in Hawaii this year and needed to get some Photo's done. We were more than happy to be there for her. 

Congratulations!!! Ashley, we wish you all the very best as you begin your new life out there in the big ole' world. We are sure you will do just fine. 

Portrait Thursday, Everyone Loves The Beach!

Remember When You Were A Kid?... 

Well Part Of You Still Is.

Ahh little girls. Daddy's love em' and so do we. Today we (Janel and I) had the good fortune to photograph lil' Eva in celebration of her second birthday!!!! Yay EVA ! We also Photographed Alyssa, who will be graduating High School in a few weeks. Both of these young ladies were a ton of fun.

Happy Second Birthday Eva! This is the second time we have gotten to work with Eva and I think she is finally warming up to us. This very serious little girls is the " strong silent type" of girl. She is an absolute delight though when she smiles and her giggle is.... well quite contageous. You just can't laugh at anything, just ask Eva, she saves it for just the right time. Thanks to Mom Sarah and Janel we were able to get some truly amazing photos of this wonderful little girl at the beach and playground today. Thanks Eva for being one of the 2 girls we worked with today. I had a lot of fun!!! 

Oh did I mention BUBBLES?

And the Beach and the Bubbles?

Oh this one is all girl, putting on her bracelets, necklaces and man she is ready to get in the water too. You go Eva, Mom will just have to keep up as you get older :)

 

Remember Lilo and Stitch? We met em' today!

So our second shoot of the day, High School Senior From San Diego, Alyssa and her family. What a great bunch of folks. They are "regulars" to the islands having visited here 5 times in the past. We know we are working with a serious young lady when she is the one that calls and reserves her session over the phone herself!

Alyssa is one of those young ladies who seems to be ready for adulthood, yet there is a little something that keeps tugging her back. That would be " Stitch". You know from Lilo and Stitch? She brought him along with her to the session. What an awesome open spirit, sharing her favorite movie with us and doing so with an amazing sense of self awareness about who she is. Seems everyone at home believes she is Lilo..... you know I can see it. Strong independent and knows what she wants. Yep she is Lilo. We of course had to work with Stitch too. You know he is a pretty cool guy when you get to know him.   

We wish Alyssa (a.k.a. Lilo) and her family all the very best as she begins her new life this fall in college ( we'll keep our fingers crossed that you get the school of your choice) honestly though this young lady will excel no matter where she ends up. Congratulations on your up coming graduation Alyssa!

And what ever you do never lose that sense of wonder, Lilo is alive and well and I was privledged to meet her today. - Aloha!

Digital Photography 101 for April Here Comes Easter!

In this episode of Digital Photography 101: Photo Tip #116: Shooting Sports Series: Soccer Digi's Workshop Digital Photography 101 is brought to you by: https://pixurelab.lifepics.com

Order Prints   |  Create a Photo Greeting Card   |   Create a Photo Book Photo Tip #116: Shooting Sports Series: Soccer Greetings Fellow Photographers! The seasons are changing, and I can certainly feel it everywhere I go. And with the new season comes the kickoff of a number of different sports! I'll spend the next few emails giving you some tips for shooting at outdoor sports games. So get your cameras ready, because the action happens fast! Today, I will start with soccer. Benefits of Soccer Shooting One of the benefits of shooting at soccer games is the wide open field. It allows you to compose a variety of different angles in your photos. Also, there are typically no fences at kid's soccer games, so you can get close to the action without anything blocking you. Of course, if you are shooting at professional events, you need a pass for that kind of access. But either way, use these benefits to your advantage when shooting. Composition I've found it is best to stand near the corner of the field rather than along the sidelines at a soccer game. Standing near the corner allows you to shoot the action coming toward you, as well as near the net without the net getting in the way of the shot. If you shoot from the sidelines, your shots will mostly consist of the players running from side to side, and you will have the opposing team's bench in the background. Get down low on your knees or sit on the ground when you compose your shot. This adds more drama to the photo and makes the players look more powerful, which is a really cool effect for kid's games. It also helps you avoid a lot of background clutter and distractions and concentrate just on the action. Also, I find that the best lighting is when the sun is directly in front or behind the players, and not coming from the side. Take the Shot I strongly suggest charging your battery and clearing your memory card before the game, because you should take a lot of shots. Professional sports photographers shoot hundreds or even thousands of photos during a game just to get those one or two amazing photos, so don't be afraid to let loose and shoot a lot. Use a long lens if you have one to help isolate different players and shorten the depth of field, set your aperture to f4 or f2.8, drop your ISO to around 100, and use a fast shutter speed, like 1/500 or 1/1000, to freeze the action (read more about using manual mode on your camera). Also, try to anticipate what is going to happen, as well as how and where the players react. If your kid has the ball and is on his way to shoot a game winner, capture the action, and keep shooting during the reaction to get some emotional shots of the team celebrating together. Lastly, resist the urge to run up and down the field with the game. Instead, stay in one place most of the time, and let the action come to you. Your photos will be better because of it. Digi's Site Tip Did you know you can use your online account to convert your photos to black and white or sepia, then order prints, photo books, cards, or other photo products with the black and white or sepia photos? Well, you can! Simply log in to your account, click "My Web Photos" on the right, select a photo to edit, click the "Edit" button from the toolbar above the photos, and click "Edit/Crop Photo." Then, in the Edit Tools page, click "Effects," choose "Black and White" or "Sepia," and save a copy of the photo so you don't save over the original. The edited version will show up in the same album, and you can order it as you normally would. Also, we now have an integration with iPhoto (versions 10 and above) that uploads your images from iPhoto to your account so you can easily order prints, create photo books, and much more: 1. Download LifePics Uploader for iPhoto 2. Double click the file and follow the installation instructions 3. Open iPhoto and select the photos you want to upload to your online account 4. Choose from the top menu: "File," "Export," "LifePics Uploader," and then click the "export" button. Voila! Your photos will be uploaded to your account. View my previous photo tips! Order Prints Create a Photo Greeting Card Create a Photo Book Thanks to everyone that has shared their photos with me since the last email! If you would like to submit a photo for me to post in an upcoming email, please use the "Share via Email" feature in your online account: log into your account, click the green "share" tab, and follow the steps to share via email (the photo must be uploaded to your account, which you can do by clicking "Add Photos"). Share the photo(s) with me, digipixels@lifepics.com. Feel free to include info on how you got the shot, and whether or not you used any of my tips! Here are a few recent submissions, including some great black and white shots as well as silhouettes. Also, check out these cool links and apps! Facebook Link Twitter Link iPhone App Android App Win7 App Facebook App "This is a photo I captured of my husband and 2 year old." - anonymous "Thanks to pollution and clouds, every day in Mesa, AZ, ends like this!" - Bob "The highway is in Philadelphia. I had just gotten my first DSLR camera in August when I went on a trip to visit my sister. I was shooting on manual trying to learn the settings. For this picture I was on a tour bus moving past the underpass and snapped the picture. The fence is a bit blurry but I think it adds to the picture a bit." - Shawn "This picture was taken at Ausable Chasm just outside of Potsdam, NY. I was not yet on your email list so I will be anxious to see how/if my skills improve as I take your advice to heart. Thanks!!" - Melissa Are you an App Developer? Or, do you know one? I am always on the lookout for cool photo apps (mobile or software). Check out the LifePics OPEN Program to learn more about how your app can make you some money! View my previous photo tips!

Aloha 2011 - Look at all the things we've done - whew

Aloha All Welcome to the new year and our first blog post, yea we know it is April already and the first quarter of the year is behind us.... That's why we want to catch everyone up. We have been real busy the first part of the year working hard for all of you. So a brief overview for stuff you might have missed

New Workshops
Hawaiianpix has added 3 new workshops for 2011

Click Here to check em all out
 
Photoshop For Beginning Photographers
Portrait Lighting Inside and Out
Lightroom For Beginning Photographers

These workshops have been very popular and if you haven't attended one you are missing out. both the Photoshop and Lightroom workshops include full DVD's of the material covered in the workshop in video format, so if you forget something, no worries, pop in the disk and you are right back into it. Register early workshops are limited to just 10 students each.

Awesome Images
Once again we were asked to be a juror for the University of Hawaii's Annual Survey and Exhibit of Digital Photography In Hawaii. This year there were over 400 images that we evaluated and many of them were just amazing. It was REALLY great to see some student work enter the fray. Several past students entered images into the event and many of those images were displayed. 

The exhibit opening was last evening April 1st, 2011 in conjunction with the monthly 1st Friday Celebrations that take place in downtown Honolulu. The images were displayed at Frame Arts Hawaii, on 627 South St. in Honolulu and the place was packed. Some great prizes were handed out and many of the two former students won very nice prizes including a " purchase prize " of which there was only one, it was presented by the Halekulani Corporation.  Congratulations to all the artists for a great showing. If you would like to visit the show, it will be on display through April 30th at the gallery. 


OC16 "Down The Aisle On An Isle"

We have had the good fortune to be a part of a reality wedding show called " Down The Aisle On An Isle" in the last month. This show can be seen on OC16 exclusively in Hawaii. The show tracks the planning and actual wedding of Cherie and Travis as they go through the necessary meetings, planning, coordination and of course their wedding day. Check it out on OC16 all through the month of April. Mahalo to our crew, Scott, Janel and Leslee for being a part of this very special event. I hope you all get a chance to review the show. I also want to thank Darcie of Royal Weddings by Lavender and Kalehua Featherton of Weddings by Kalehua for asking us to be a part of this amazing event. 

SHOW TIMES

PREMIERES    
          Show #1    Saturday April 2nd at 2:30pm
          Show #2    Saturday April 2nd at 3:00pm
          Show #3    Sunday   April 3rd  at 4:00 pm
          Show #4    Sunday   April 3rd  at 4:30 pm
 

REPEATS         

          Show #1    Monday April 4th at 5:00pm
                          Friday   April 8th at 2:00am
          Show #2    Tuesday April 12 at 6:00am
                          Friday    April 15 at 9:00am
          Show #3    Tuesday April 19th at 2:00pm
                          Friday    April 22nd at 8:30pm
          Show #4    Thursday April 29th at 8:00pm


Set your DVR and don't miss this first time ever showing of a real wedding in Hawaii from beginning to end. - Aloha