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.