Pet Photography

Aloha,

    A few months back a friend asked if I'd be interested in photographing her dogs. I agreed but one thing let to another and we had to postpone our shoot several times until last Saturday. We finally had openings in our schedules so I agreed to shoot her dogs and packed up my SUV and headed over to her house. On the way to her house she phoned to let me know that she was running a little behind schedule and would probably be in the shower by the time I reached her house. She gave me instructions on how to get into the house. I asked her if the dogs would be secured and if they would bark? She assured me that they would probably ignore me and might not even notice that I was there. Buoyed with confidence I rolled up to her house and before I could open the door to my SUV all 3 of her dogs started barking loudly....  I got out and started unpacking my gear hoping that they wouldn't be able to leap over the fencing but since they were wagging their tails I figured they were just bluffing.

    By the time I got to the door my friend had let them into the house and all 3 of them were anxiously waiting for me to come inside. They were still barking, mine you, so I wasn't convinced that I wasn't going to be torn to shreds in the next few minutes. When I got into the house they started licking, sniffing and jumping on me. The owner was surprised that they liked me. I was just happy that I wasn't having to pull any teeth out of my flippers.. LOL!!!

They finally calmed down and resumed their normal lives which included digging in the back yard, barking at the chickens and turkeys and running in and out of the house. They were fascinated by the flash and the cooling fans for my lights. I took some photos with full studio lighting and some in natural light. They were hysterical to work with. Working with pets is not like working with people who at lease can speak the same language. Making funny noises and waving your hands seem to work to get their attention but they were mostly like working with 3 furry children.

Enjoy.....

More flames and sand

There were so many exciting moments during Tahitian Dancers shoot I hosted 2 weeks ago that I had to post more photos.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I had taking them.

Tahitian and Fire Knife Dancers

This past Saturday November 10th my photo club held its third photo shoot. This week's theme was Tahitian Dancers. We had the privilege to photograph 6 Tahitian dancers - 3 females and 3 males. They put on a great show for the 7 photographers and 1 videographer...

I hope you enjoy the photos that I was able to capture.

fire dancer prints fire dancer posters

5th Annual Photo Walk on Maui

This past weekend has been a whirl-wind adventure for me.  I flew over to Maui on Friday for the Scott Kelby 5th Annual Photo Walk on Saturday October 13, 2012.  This years event was lead by Randy Jay Braun a very talented photographer and resident of Maui.  I met Randy and several other photo Pros about 4 years ago when I attended the first Maui Photo Festival and Workshops on Maui.  Randy was one of the guest instructors.

This years Photo Walk drew about 40 people, which makes it one of the largest in the world, to the Tedeschi Winery in up-county Kula.  The setting was  beautiful and the weather was stunning albiet one of the hottest days they've seen at that altitude but we made the best of it by roaming around trying to find interesting subjects to photograph.

Since I came over early I had lots of time on my hands which I proceded to fill with picture taking.  One of the features that I was hoping I would get to visit was the top of Haleakala National Park.  A small group braved the 44f cold ad high winds to photograph the Milky Way as it revealed itself after sunset.

I hope you enjoy what I got to capture during my brief trip to Maui.

The Photo Walk at the Tedeschi Winery

Scenes from the mountain roads on the way to Haleakala

Sunset on the summit of Haleakala

The Milky Way from the summit of Haleakala Maui

Darlene Ahuna Concert

Aloha,

Last night was my 22nd opportunity to photograph legendary Hawaiian artists at the Keauhou Village Shopping Center.  This month the featured artist was Darlene Ahuna.  from Hilo she's a well known singer song writer from the Big Island.  She went through a nice set of her favorites plus the opening Hula Halau of Keiki and Kapuna entertained the crowd until the sun went down.

As an added treat the newly crowded Miss Hawaii Skyler Kamaka helped collect the food donations and giving out the prizes and she finished with a solo Hula near the end of the concert.

I hope you enjoy the images that I was able to capture.

Ka'ea & Skyler

Heidi Lee Hart

Darlene Ahuna

Darlene Ahuna

Miss Hawaii 2012 Skyler Kamaka

A Kona and vicinity Photo Walk

Today was another beautiful day in Kona and the first time that I've been able to put together a local photo walk.  Although there were only 2 of us we still had a great time poking around corners to see where the next subject was going to be.  We started at the Kona Farmer's Market where farmers and artisens from around the area come to sell their fresh produce, flowers and object of art.

I was surprised once I got into photo mode how many venders had the same produce items. Lots of papayas and Devil fruit...