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!

 

First Wedding of 2013

Aloha Shortini Photography Fans,

2012 was a fun year for my photography. I got to work with lots of great people: from Hawaiian musicians to Hula and Tahitian dancers to historic birthday celebrants, wedding and families for portraits on the beach.

2013 is kicking off with a bang. Here are a few images from a touching wedding celebration on the beach.

Tantra transforms from radio DJ to Hip Hop star

The first week of the new year brought me an opportunity that was long awaited.  I got to photograph Tantra Moonwalker Grillo. She's worked for radio stations on Hawaii and Maui islands and is now at the beginning of a new career. She's making the transition from being the personality that plays the hits to becoming the artist who makes the hits. 

Tantra is a song writer and now performer. Watch out for her debut Hip Hop tunes coming out in February. I think...Enjoy!

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