Week 4 is the last week before the final round, and we need to win one of the categories if we’re going to go onto the final round, and hopefully win Sara a photoshoot and the rest of us some cash and validation!

Original Post:

Hey all!

So, the purpose of that last Americana-themed shoot was to have our model, Sara, enter photos in the American Eagle Outfitters photo contest (and have a happy fun day, since her husband is currently deployed – I can relate to the need for fun!). If you could please click the following links and vote for all our photos, hopefully we can win!  The grand prize is $3000 and a photo shoot by American Eagle for Sara, so let’s get this soldier her modeling gig.  The following photos are a mix of mine, Michelle’s, and Phil’s…pick your favorites, or if you have time, vote for them all!

Note: You don’t have to choose, you can vote for each photo once. Thank you!

Photo 1 - Best AE Spirit

Photo 2 - Best Back Pocket

Photo 3 - Best Back Pocket

Photo 4 - Most Likely Rock Star

Photo 5 - Class Clown

 Photo 6 - Class Clown

Photo 7 - Class Clown

Photo 8 - Most Likely Rock Star

Photo 9 - Most Likely Rock Star

Photo 10 - Most Likely Rock Star

Photo 11 - Most Likely Model

Photo 12 - Most Likely Model

Photo 13 - Most Likely Model

Photo 14 - Most Athletic

Photo 15 - Most Athletic

Photo 16 - Coolest Hipster

Photo 17 - Coolest Hipster

Photo 18 - Aspiring Artist

Photo 19 - Aspiring Artist

Photo 20 - Aspiring Artist

Photo 21 - Best AE Spirit

Thank you for looking and helping us out!!

• Model – Sara Beth Richards-Hay
• Photographer/Styling/Hair – Michelle Velez
• Photographer/Makeup – Dallas Nagata White
• Photographer/Assistants – Ed White & Phil Velez

I had another article published on Metromix a few weeks back, this time a visual tour of some of my favorite places to go in Honolulu.  I used it as an opportunity to support a few of my favorite local businesses, as well as show some of my less-seen photographs, including a few from my daily photo blog…

…and, by the way, I’m up to Day 91 on Visuals.  This is the one-a-day photo project I’m doing while Ed is gone, and it’s helping each day go by quicker…especially when I’m scrambling at the end of the day for a photo! I totally intend to make a book of the photos and entries once he’s home for good.

I’ve been better about updating our couple-blog, ProAwesome.Com. Yes, the name is a joke about us striving to be professionally awesome.  A good goal, right? We can try, at least! This is also where most of our wedding information will go. Speaking of…

…We got featured in an article by the Honolulu Advertiser‘s Mike Gordon! (Photos by the lovely Lisa Hoang of Windwardskies Photography) Thanks go out to everyone who’s helped us and supported us with the wedding – we really hope it’ll be a fun time for everyone!

I’m going to San Diego soon to visit a friend for her birthday, and I’m looking forward to photographing a change of scenery. Also meeting the mother-in-law and sister-in-law for the first time…exciting! (And nerve-wracking, but I’ll get over it…)

One of the more random and entertaining things I’ve done lately is walk in a UH student fashion show, wearing a shirt by one of my friends who’s in the APDM (Apparel Product Design and Merchandising) program. I’m no model, but it was fun to pretend for a night (honestly never thought my hair could do that!):

Finally, I am also going to be back home on Maui for the first couple weeks of June, and I’m having a portrait special while I’m there:

…and I guess that’s all for now! Hopefully I will have something more substantial to blog about soon.

Fast-forward to two months later, specifically Valentine’s Day.  On this day, he left for his year-long deployment to Afghanistan.  I never thought I would be a military girlfriend dealing with deployment, but when you know, you know, and he is completely worth the wait.  To help document my experiences over the next year on being the significant other of a deployed soldier, I’ve started a 365 Photo blog over on Posterous.  I’m already 3 days down, with at least 362 days left to go, but it has already helped me get through these first few days.

Ed himself is also blogging his deployment via Posterous, so please check it out.  I have contributor permissions for his blog, so I may post something once in a while from the POV of the ‘girlfriend back home’.  His father, Mark White, is also blogging there from a fatherly perspective, so you, dear reader, will get the full deployment experience!

I’ll leave you now with a preview shot from our portrait shoot together with the fantastic Lisa Hoang of Windwardskies Photography!

In short:

Ed’s Twitter

Ed’s Deployment Blog

My 365 Photo Blog

There are a few more announcements of projects and such on the horizon, and I will hopefully be blogging a lot more now, so stay tuned.

Until then, Gabe and I have started taking photos of Koda in random places (while she still fits in them, she’s getting so big!)

Happy birthday to my dear friend, who helped code this site, Kaeo Kepani!