My First Art Gallery Showing

Aloha, Many of you may know that I've been working with the owner of the Rumley Art & Frame Gallery to host an Photo Art Exhibition. Well it happened on Saturday October 5th and I'm very happy to say that it was a big hit. My first gallery opening was more than I could have hoped for. Not so much in the amount of sales but in the numbers of friends and acquaintances who dropped by the gallery to see my work. From before 2pm until 7pm I was on my toes describing my work and describing how I create the images that I selected for the show. Thanks to all of you who scored one of the Bite Sized Pieces we printed for the show. The Leis and champagne were also a big hit with me. So after weeks and weeks of planning the day reminded me of a big meal that you plan and cook for hours only to see it finished in a matter of minutes. But afterwards you remember how good the time you spent with friends made you feel. My work will remain up until Wednesday but Tess gave me another opportunity. After Wednesday she's going to keep my work up on the moveable walls that were built for the show. She's going to find me a space in the gallery. So that means that I will have a continuing presence in the Rumley Art & Frame Gallery for the time being. Mahalo Tess & Ron and Beth and thank you to all of my friends.

Bad photos of me:

 

Great Photos of my work:

 

Photoshop World 2013

Well I attended my first Photoshop World. This year it was help in the Mandaley Bay Convention center in Las Vegas Nevada. We did get a chance to drive around the outskirts of Vegas looking for interesting things to shoot. We visited Needles and Lake Mead and then on to the Hoover Dam.

The first session I took was the DJI Phantom Quadcopter Top Gun Training class. What a kick in the pants that was learning how to fly a 4 rotor flat helicopter. The class attracted 70 people and was MC'ed by Russell brown from Adobe and assisted by Randy Jay Braun from Maui along with 9 other instructors. Executives from DJI were recruited to tell us the company history. What an innovative story of long hours of coding and finding ways to overcome stability and flight problems. In the end they came u with a great package.

After the Pre-Con which is what they call the classes held before the main body of classes started came hour after hour of sessions on all sorts of topics from lighting to using pressure sensitive tablets to learning how to get the most out of Photoshop and Lightroom.

Here are a few photos that I took during my time in Vegas. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.

Perseid's and the Milky Way

Well I came up with what at first sounded like a good idea. But the longer I thought about it the more I realized I was in for a fun adventure.

During a visit to see how my prints were coming I was introduced to a painter. The gallery owner Tess introduced me a a great photographer. Who was I to correct her. I showed the painter the work that I was into as we looked over the large sheet of prints. I also pointed out a photo of the super moon from 2 years ago that I took and Tess hung over the entrance to her shop. The painter mentioned that on August 12th the Perseid meteor shower was going to be visible and that if I was thinking about snapping any photos she would be interested in painting something from one of my images. That started the wheels turning. Anyway, to make a long story short, I gather a small group of folks and we drove up Mauna Kea at 11pm and shoot until 3am. Here's what I came up with. I hope you like them.

Kirk

sunset canvas prints

Tropical Storm Flossy

Lavaroots Benefit event

Aloha,

Last week I volunteered to photography the Lavaroots dance troupe.

Lavaroots Performing Arts is a dance & drum production company based on the Big Island of Hawaii. They perform around the island regularly and also put on larger events and shows.
Michal Anna Carrillo is the director and founder of Lavaroots Performing Arts. Lavaroots often brings together a collection of talented dancers & musicians to create and share the joy of movement and music!

Here are few images I captured from that night of fun, food and lots of energetic dancing.

And the rockets red glare

Well the 4th of July was a good day. I worked my normal shift but afterwards took a stroll down Alii Drive with my camera and tripod in tow. Snapped a few shoots of Kona's 13th annual 4th of July parade, had dinner at the Fish Hopper than it was on to the Kailua pier to setup for the fireworks show at 8pm.

And the rockets did glare.
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there....

Enjoy

Do I need a Blog?

Aloha,

Well I've been working on projects of the past several weeks and not paying much attention to my trusty little Blog. I uploaded several photos from last nights Roller Derby match that was held in the gym in Kona when I started to wonder why do I have a Blog. It doesn't really seem to be doing anything for my business. It's just another place for the same people who view my Facebook posts to see that same photos that I've posted there. So why should I maintain a separate Blog and not simply focus my efforts on my Facebook fan page and my photo website? I met with a Social Media consultant last year and applied a lot of what was suggested and still the needle has not been moved. I have a great book on marketing photography and nothing in it is earth scattering. So I come back to why do I have a Blog!

Anyway, now that I've gotten that out of my system let's just sit back and enjoy a few of the moments from Saturday night's Bruise Fest in Kona.

Busy 2 weeks

Aloha,

Well I've had a busy 2 weeks working the King Kamehameha birthday celebration, concert and the annual Sam Choy Poke contest. But last week's Chcocolate Festival Gala evening event took the cake. So to speak. I got an email today with 3 links to stories written about the event that featured my photos. Ahhhh, the sweet smell of chocolate..

Sold out big island chocolate festival

Fairmont Orchid Sweeps Awards

Hawaii Culinary Education Foundation benefits from Gala

When Creativity meets light in the forest

Aloha,

About a year ago Laura and I were talking about some of the photo themes I was working with as part of the photo creative club I co-founded here in Kailua-Kona. Since Laura is an accomplished computer animator and sculptor she threw out a few ideas of the kinds of themes that she was interested in having photographed some day.  Well after a trip back home she brought back a few items that were destined to become the stuff of creative costuming and ultimately very cool photos. So we planned to the shoot and prayed that it wouldn't rain on us. I hope you enjoy this small sample of what we were able to create.

Kirk

It feels good to finish!

Aloha,

Whoever said that a work in progress never reaches the end point? I started working with Tantra Grillo on January 3, 2013. Well today I finished editing the final few images from our shoot. Tantra is a great lady to work with and I wish her all the best in her new career pursuit.

Enjoy!