New Photoshoot with Mariah D.

Taken at Grapevine TX

Cierra's combined Photoshoot

Flew to Maui to photograph Cierra, Miss Maui 2009, One was a high fashion shoot and the second was a casual fun shoot.

Maui No Ka Oi!

After the successful photoshoot with Miss Maui 2009 (Cierra Rauch) and Miss `Ulalena 2009 (Marissa Petsas) I figured why not do another shoot on Maui. Contacted Miss Maui again and another model whom I wanted to photograph after I had done one session with her earlier in the year.

Day 1 was with Cierra starting in downtown Wailuku town. I just looked for old buildings and areas that I thought would make good sets.





We then moved to the Pali between Wailuku and Lahaina and shot in the dry grass there. Yes, it was bright and HOT!





We then finished off at the end of the road past Makena towards sunset.






The next day I connected with Morea, a recent Seabury Hall graduate who will be attending the University of San Francisco pretty much on a full scholarship. She's a mixture of Filipino/Caucasian and looks older than her 18 year old age (which happened the day after the shoot).

Since she was a Seabury Hall alumni, we were able to get permission to use the school grounds as a location.








We finished the shoot at the beach by Mama's Fish House which was a major challenge in itself with the blustery wind and the bright sunlight.





Good luck to Cierra and Morea in their future endeavors.

When a makeup artist gets a crazy idea...

And it ends up costing me $$$ but who cares? I got some really different stuff from the stuff I usually do. Mahealani approaches me and since she's on hiatus from her latest job, she wanted to get some portfolio stuff with local models having worked with a lot of fashion models from Europe recently. Fortunately, I met a pair of models who were the top winners in the Miss Maui Scholarship Pageant this year and both had the height whom the makeup artist (Mahealani) required. Being Maui residents, we either had to fly them over or go over to Maui. We decided that it would be advantageous to be on Maui. So I contacted the models, made part of the travel arrangements and started planning.

We had planned to shoot all day for two days straight. That meant and early morning wakeup to catch a flight to Maui. First glitch, makeup artist slept through her alarm. Fortunately she woke up when I called her cell. We get to Maui, get some food, go to first model's house. Check wardrobe, start makeup application. By the time she's ready, it's almost 10:30 am and nary a cloud in the sky. We go to the first location and it's bright burning HOT and BRIGHT! Good challenge to photography skills.



"Minerva" (private joke) made it easy even though I think I got sunburned. Sun is straight overhead so I nix any further shooting and we go to get some food. One of my colleagues (Jerry Grigory) meets us and we head towards Hana. Stop on the side of the road and Mahea needs to release some excess behind the bushes. We grab some stuff and do a shoot along the roadside dodging cars.



Next stop, the Bamboo Forest. No one tells me it's a half mile hike DOWN! Down is manageable, going back up with equipment is another story but Mahea wants water, rocks and dirt. Get some great stuff and "Minerva" is a trooper moving around in the water with tadpoles around her feet.



Shoot finally finished in Makena with some sunset bikini shots. We pretty much ran out of light that day.



I slept well that night with Mahea dealing with a cough that wouldn't go away. The next morning, "Mary" (another inside joke) met us at the hotel and after Mahea went over her wardrobe and did her makeup, it was another late start for the day. Fortunately, "Mary" knew of a location that might match the makeup so into the canefields we went looking for the abandoned Sugar Mill to get a different look for the model.




We finished there near noon so went looking for food again. After lunch we headed up Haleakala for some hopefully wild pasture shots but it was too sunny and Mahea was not feeling well because of the turns in the road up and down the hill (I was waiting for her to lose her lunch).



After doing some shots by the Sugar Museum at the bottom of the hill, we headed for Makena again, looking for a rocky beach. Mahea was totally out of it and just lay on the sand and vegged while I finished the session. Think I got my best head shot at that time.



I'll be back on Maui again at the end of July to do a couple additional shoots.

What a difference proper makeup makes.

Here are three shots of our current Narcissus Queen with three styles of makeup. See what a difference proper makeup makes in your photos.

This first one was taken for the souvenir book. I'm assuming that the makeup was applied by herself. It's ok but too light for photography so doesn't accentuate her features.



The next one was taken for the official portrait. The hair and makeup were done by professionals that normally help out with the pageant. She thought it would be better to have her hair down but whoever did her hair forgot that she would be wearing the special anniversary crown and gave her a hairstyle that blocked the view of the crown. The makeup was ok, but again was not properly done for photography.




Since another photo session had been scheduled, we decided to advise her how her hair should be done to make her look more elegant and I referred her to my favorite makeup artist Beverly Kaneshige (www.makeupbybev.com) whose work I trust as she knows how to properly apply makeup for photography. She also does hair so Bev created a hairstyle that would make her look elegant and properly show the crown.




Proper makeup does make a difference.

After a three month hiatus

After recuperating three months for my back surgery, I finally had the opportunity to do a model shoot. I contacted Jessica, a recent Narcissus Queen to see if she was interested. Fortunately she was.

I wasn't sure what I was planning for the shoot but needed to do something, just anything to get back into the swing of things.

I arranged for my makeup artist, Beverly Kaneshige to do Jessica's hair and makeup as I knew Bev would do a great job. She didn't disappoint.

We started at the Sand Island Park in the mid afternoon. It was windy and we started by some structures on the East end of the park. We then moved to an area on the West side of the park but the area I had planned to use was closed so I headed out towards Makapuu on the other side of Honolulu.

As I figured, it was pretty windy out there and we were losing light fast as sunset was coming about in an hour and I had a lot of stuff I wanted to photograph.

Well, Jessica is a quick change artist and got in and out of her outfits quickly. She was also game for almost anything and took direction well.

I'll probably do additional sessions with her in different locales to get some different looks from her.