Back in February, I assisted Daeja with my first commercial photo-shoot, for Tori Richard. The shoot took place at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, took about 13-hours, but it was a great learning experience for me. Well, several months later, the images are finally up! Head over to the Tori Richard site and check out Daeja’s awesome photos! (They’re under the women’s clothing) The lovely model is Michelle Vawer, currently in New York with IMG. You might recognize her from a few of my images from shoots where I was allowed to shoot from behind Daeja – luckily I got to photograph her before she gets super famous!

The Honolulu Advertiser also has an article with Daeja’s photos, about the clothing designer, Tamar Wong, who is a good friend of Daeja’s.

Finally, here are two images I shot that day that I kind of liked. (No where near as good as Daeja’s, but I’m still learning!) For the first…a green Diamond Head! I sometimes forget what that looks like during these dry, hot summers.

And I do like this one, even though my highlights blew out completely.

Overall, it feels good to see the final images, knowing that I was there holding reflectors, lights, and scrims. I suppose I’ll geek out less as I gain more experience with commercial shoots, but for now, I think it’s awesome!

My friends and I have long participated in the summer obon festivals on Maui, and luckily my trip back home coincided with our favorite, the Makawao obon held at the Makawao Hongwanji. As Gabe was still on Oahu, I went with my friends Sarah and Dustin. Here’s some shots, taken with the Canon EF 35mm 1.4L prime lens:

And here’s me!

For more images, click here.

After the test shoot last week Sunday, I had my old friend Mika Yamaguchi come up to my house for a visit along with Bristol Dunlap, an artist/musician whom I’ve long admired. With Kaeo assisting with the lights, we had an impromptu photoshoot session in my yard while Bristol played for us.

Check out Bristol’s blog for examples of her artwork, photography, and music!

And here’s other photos from the session.

On July 26th, Daeja had a test shoot with Chloe in Haliimaile, with me there assisting and Kaeo using my 5DMK2 to video.  I didn’t take too many shots as there was a lot of light/reflector holding to be had, but here’s a two shot with my 70-200mm 2.8L IS lens:

But, Kaeo made off with my camera after these shots to take advantage of its gorgeous HD video capabilities (and I’m still waiting to see video, Kaeo!) So, I decided to experiment with the capabilities of my Canon G9 while photographing Chloe and our male model, Joe:

(more…)