Kalino Portrait

Bruce Kalino had asked me about doing a family portrait, of course I wasn't against it. Now I'm not a fan of indoor portraits because they always come out looking like elementry school photographs (no offense to those who do that sort of thing) but too plain for my taste. Since the family was staying at the Royal Sea Cliff, we had decided it was most convient for everyone to have the portrait done there. The Kalino family was very enthusiastic and very patient about doing the photoshoot. It was fun to shoot this one and I enjoyed it! Along with some of the beer and pupu's afterwards!

Info: Very harsh lighting once again. I had subjects backlit with the sun behind them, but the light was still too much. I was having a hard time overcoming the sun and balancing my strobes. 1st location was a great spot, but crashing waves and ocean spray in the air + my strobes made some shots look too hazy & noisy. Eventually we moved to a sidelight shot that worked out much better then the back light, but I lost a good location. Used two SB600's on light stand cross lighting, one of my strobe's batteries began to lose power so I was getting intermitent operation. The harsh lighting was beginning to make my subjects too uncomfortable so I decided to finish up with one working strobe, and some ambient for fill. Lenses used: 18-200vr f3.5-5.6 & 10-24 f3.5-4.5, processed with Nikon Capture NX2

Waikaloa Engagement

We went to Waikaloa to meet our couple @ the Hilton for some engagement photography. It's a good thing our clients were down for anything, because man it was hot! and at 5:00pm on this day the light was very harsh and very difficult to deal with. Walking around, in these conditions was not fun for anyone. For whatever reason the couple had requested photographs be taken from the chest/shoulder area up, I was curious but never asked why they wanted to do that. Because of the harsh lighting I hardly had a chance to take photographs, and to save the photo shoot, I worked the reflector to shade our clients while Claire took most of the photo's.

Strobist info: last picture in series was shot with two Nikon SB600's one was placed behind the couple to provide rim light and to illuminate the tree. I couldn't get this light into the position that I wanted to without having my light stand sitting awkwardly on the stairs behind them leading into the water and/or potentially falling into the water this explains the sidelight on his face. F4.8 @ 1/200 ISO 400, strobes @ 1/4 & 1/8th. The second light was placed up and camera right. nothing spectacular The 3rd shot in the series was shot with a single SB600 pointed down and shot through an umbrella F4.8 @ 1/200 ISO 400 strobe @ 1/4 all strobes triggered with SU800. Lenses used: Nikon AFS18-200mm VR, Nikon AFS 50mm f1.4

Waverider Graduate!

I recently took photos of a graduating Waverider Celena Rasay, during the commencement ceremony for the class of 2009, and at the last second she also wanted me to shoot some photos @ her graduation party held this past friday, no problem. You've been to one party you've been to them all right? What was most interesting about this party is that it wasn't the usual, sit down and eat food party, the planned entertainment set this party apart from most.

Strobist info: The fire knife dance was shot using a single SB-600 placed on a low 3ft tall table slightly off center and to the right of the dancer, about 8ft from the subject, camera left. Strobe was fired using a SU-800, group A in manual mode, with 14mm zoom @ 1/8th power. These shots were not set up either. At the spur of the moment I decided to set up the strobe and see what I could get, I'm glad it worked out great! Lenses used: Nikon 18-200vr, 70-300vr, 10-24

Wilson / Fuga Engagement Photo's

One phone call and we were headed down to a location to get in some last second Engagement photo's for Inah & Patrick. Along for this photo shoot was friend and fellow photographer Claire Suzuki. Claire's brother happens to be known photographer Bruce Omori. Taking pictures of Inah and Pat went was fun because they were very easy to work with, and were down for anything during the shoot. Often though you'll come across a tough crowd, one that would almost make you feel like a washed out comedian telling one too many bad jokes, unwilling to participate in cool poses or open to fun ideas for the photo shoot, lucky for me Inah & Pat were far from it. Here are a few shots from the shoot.

Lenses used: Nikon 18-55 3.5 & 55-200vr