I moved to Hawaii six years ago and spent the first year entirely underwater working on a scuba dive boat as a Divemaster, which is where I first fell in love with photography. Since then I've had a camera with me nearly every day. It didn't take long before I went from photographing turtles and octopus to families and weddings - but I'm still not entirely sure how that happened! Along the way I've accumulated photos of some Hawaiian wildlife (mostly by chance, while I was at a photo shoot or going to or coming from one.)
Most people are utterly shocked to realize how many 2-4 gigabyte hard drives I have that are filled with nothing but clients photos. I have taken so many thousands of photos that within just a few years as a working photographer, storage of all those photos starts to become a real management issue. :-) My point to all this is that as in my work with thousands of people of all types, shapes, sizes and colors, one common reoccurring theme I see on nearly a daily basis is a fear or discomfort with being in front of a camera. I've literally lost count of how many times I've heard, "I'm not photogenic."
You came all the way to Hawaii for sunshine, blue skies and warm sand between your toes. Then you saw this website and thought to yourself, "Self, I LOVE this guy's photography and I want photos just like that for me and my loved ones!" But naturally, of course, the very evening of YOUR photo session it's gray, overcast, dull and threatening rain! Geez, why even bother?
If you're in the market for a photographer, one of the first things you'll encounter is some marketing themselves as "natural light only" photographers. At first glance, that seems a bit noble, maybe somehow superior. In this article, however, I'd like to dispel some of the natural light vs flash myths and show you the difference so you can make more informed decisions on what YOU like. In my opinion, a professional photographer should be able to do both.
When I first fell in love with photography, I was working as a scuba dive master and I was mesmerized by the amazing images of octopus, seals, turtles, whales, dolphins and other incredible life that my fellow divers were taking. So I got my own underwater camera and dived in to the world of photography with a passion. I've always been a nature freak so it just felt like a natural extension of my lifelong love of the outdoors and nature. If you had asked me then if I'd ever become a family or wedding photographer, I would have laughed my head off. I was not interested in taking pictures of people!
Discover The Power of the Silhouette
I had long noticed I liked silhouette portaits but I'd really never given it much thought. Then one day I was browsing through thousands of my Hawaii family photography imageslooking for a particular photo when I noticed my eye kept stopping on the silhouettes. That's when I noticed that in a "counter intuitive" way, they were actually emotionally stronger. In a weird way, removing information (the flash in this case) actually improved the storytelling aspect of the image.f
