The Maui Photo Festival and Workshops has come to a close.

My life might eventually return to normal. The organizers did a fabulous job with this first-year event and have the second year in planning.

It was a dream come true to work along-side some of my “guru-idols” in the industry. We had four days of instruction, and four night of socializing. Adobe Evangelist Julieanne Kost commented that this was one of the few events where she felt like she was able to meet everybody on a personal level. Adobe Senior Creative Director Dr. Russell Brown has a soft spot in his heart for Maui, and can’t wait to return. Photographer and Author Scott Bourne brought dozens of his followers to the event and so did Photographer and Author Rick Sammon.

Personally, I taught four classes and helped with a couple of other items other things.  The Pre-con class with Russell Brown was a hit and we ended up with several incredible Pirate Posters made completely from scratch. We set up a portrait studio with a green screen,and dressed Russell, Rachael, and Zane in pirate costumes. Students had to start from concept and work to completion. The winner was Ashley Camper with this amazing poster!

Also, I taught High Dynamic Range Imaging, and The Buts and Bolts of Selling your Creative Photos. My final event was the Quintessential Hawaiian Sunset Hula Shoot on the Beach! All had fantastic attendance. This was my first attempt at teaching, and I am thinking I will love to teach more in the future. Man, I was nervous. Can’t wait till next year’s show!

I am exploring the Lake Tahoe area and practicing my photography while trying to relax a bit, as well. Tahoe is a magical place — as is my home on Maui.

Sadly, my new Nikon D700 has a serious electrical malfunction and so I am using a much lower model camera as a backup during this photo excursion. I am really missing the D700!

It looks like a thunderstorm is moving in again this afternoon. Perhaps I’ll find a location to capture the ominous-looking clouds over the lake. Also, this afternoon, I plan to visit one of my all-time favorite photographers, Elizabeth Carmel, in her new Carmel Gallery in Truckee, California.

A hui hou!

Kumu hula Napua Greig married her lon-time boyfriend Andy Makua on the Forth of July. This was not a typical wedding by any means. The pa’ina finally ended at about 2am — which is understandable because it seemed as though nearly guest in attendance had won a Grammy, or Hokuhanahano music award!

Changing the topic…. our gallery packing and shipping department will take its annual haiatus for the next two weeks. Web and gallery orders will not ship within our usual 48 hour time frame. If you have any questions, please call Rachael at the gallery at 1-800-967-HULA for her legendary customer service.

Okay. I have to admit. I get ZERO credit for any Tako caught today. Zero. Zilch. Nada. (note Bamboo the dog eagerly hoping I will drop one of these…)

My son Jay gets partial credit for “tickling” one of these octopus out of it’s home by massaging it with his spear, and then grabbing on to it as it tried to escape in an ink-spewing, suction-cup-clinging battle.

Our mentor, Brady Borge bagged a total of 5 tako, all keepers. Brady has the eye to see these creatures a mile away, while one might be suctioned to my bald head and I’d never even know it. Brady can sense a “tako house” in his sleep. I am so thankful for the time he has spent teaching us.

For dinner tonight I made two styles of Tako poke — one is my new secret recipe.  It is killer.

Oh, geeze, I have plenty of work to do….  More soon, I hope.

Aloha from the most beautiful Island on Earth.

~r

I love summer in Hawaii. Maui becomes a giant playground. My teenaged kids are finally starting to see what the surrounding ocean has to offer, rather than viewing it at an obstical to traveling. Yesterday both kids learned how to stand-up paddleboard. They got to ride a jetski with a lifeguard a couple days back. Last week Jay and I went fishing with spears under the guidance of an experienced local, and brought home three Tako (Octopus) which we promptly ate as poke salad using a Sam Choy  recipe.

I saw some nice moist clouds setting up for a good sunset recently, and ran out the door with my camera to re-shoot a favorite location UpCountry. Love these summer sunsets!

Next Friday is known as “Lahaina Sun” in the Hawaiian calendar. It is the one day where a person in Lahaina at noon will have no shadow because the sun is exactly overhead. This happens a day earlier in Kahului, Maui. This is the tidbit of the day.

The Maui Photo festival is in September. Check out www.MauiPhotoFestival.com. I’ll be offering an HDR class on how to make an image like this one.

Appropriately, I selected a photo of one of America’s heros to post for this Independence Day. I have followed Willie Nelson for about 30 years now.

I tell my kids that I have been in professional baseball and football stadiums - sold out - in major cities, just to hear his message and his sweet voice. My kids don’t believe me.  He lives more than half the year on Maui, so Willie has become a familiar sight to local folks, who treat and trust him as a friend. Because he is a neighbor to all Mauians, I have had the pleasure, in recent years, of witnessing live concerts in tiny gatherings, and seeing him in restaurants, and on the golf course. Last week at the Maui FIlm Festival I thanked him for all he has done for America, looking him straight in the eye. Then I had a few minutes to photograph him up close and personal. It was one of the greatest moments in my life.

Willie Nelson is not a “pop culture” icon. He is so much more for the good people of this great country.

Happy Independence Day. Relax, Enjoy.

(more…)

Yesterday I was in Lahaina making my normal rounds of deliveries to the Front Street retail stores. There is a stand of coconut trees which have alwave captured my curiosity over the years, but I never really took the time to get my camera out and make an effort to photograph them.  Typically, Lahaina is too hot and sticky for me to actually walk with my camera bag, and set up a tripod. Yesterday I made the time and, yes, ended up sweating profusely. The image is cool, though. Sort of avant garde. Any thoughts?
~r

For the third time already this summer, Maui has received a perfect south swell shooting up from Tahiti. I normally find surf photography to be a bit unproductive — you see, I can’t compete with the full-time surf-shooters and their 800-1600mm lenses (plus, a perfectly good lens gets totally gunked-up with a layer of salt). But it was different this time for a couple of reasons; mainly my own son was in the biggest break of his life, and secondly we were at the breakwall at Ma`alaea Harbor where a spectator can sit very close to the action.

This first image was my favorite of the day. What a fantastic look on his face at the moment of realization that was not going to pull out of this tube. I grabbed this kid’s email address and sent him a copy, much to his surprise.

The second image is of my little 13-year-old Jay, who is finally getting a good feel for the waves, and realizing what a gift it is to have an ocean in his backyard. In fact, last week Jay brought home a 1.5 lb. Tako (speared with his three-prong) which we make into the best Tako Poke ever tasted!

For these images, I used my new Nikon D700 with a 70-200 f2.8 lens. I was using a 2X Nikor extender to bring my focal length to 400. I managed to stay high and dry, unlike a few of the other spectators on the wall.

Yesterday was one of the most beautiful days I have ever seen in Hawaii. From my deck I could see Moloka’i, and Lana’i crystal clear.

I drove up into `Iao for a few minutes just to breath the freash air. On the way out I stopped to make a photograph that I had been thinking about creating for many years. This church is always so beautiful. The day was incredible. I headed to the pool for my daily mind-clearing swim, and all way fabulous.

Everybody knows that UpCountry Maui is famoud for the color purple during the month of May. Here we go again! The Jacarandas are exploding into color from Makawao to Kula to Ulupalakua. Come see for yourself.

Oh, by the way, I am handing out free avacados for the next couple weeks at the gallery. Enjoy!