Turn off the lights (Dec 26)

What do you do when the lights go out? Nothing. Living on an island, especially growing up on the Big Island, power outages are frequent. Earthquakes because of volcanic activity can knock the power out so I should be used to it by now. This time, the source of our blackout may have been a freak lightning storm. But it knocked out the power on the entire island.

Friday night before 7 pm, I was at home watching tv and the lights kept flickering until they finally died and never came back on. It was a pretty entertaining night. Scott and I drove up to church to see if they needed help running or shutting down the Friday night service and to grab lanterns that Scott had in his office. When we got there, we found service was canceled and we almost didn't even get up the driveway because the person they appointed to stand at the gate was a little too into their job and literally stood in front of our car frantically waving the flashlight in our faces yelling "NO CHURCH TONIGHT!!!" "It's okay, he works here...he has to be here" we yelled back until we finally were allowed to drive up. It was chaotic trying to bustle a bunch of junior high kids down the driveway in the dark and in the rain so they could wait for their parents to pick them up.

Lesson's learned from power outage:

1. Keep your gas tank filled (the emergency radio station was flooded with callers looking for open gas stations to get gas...I assume for their generators)

2. Keep your cell phone charged

I didn't have to work but I knew they might get swamped so I told them to call me if they needed assistance. Then i watched as my cell phone died permanently. Oh, well, at least the thought counts.

3. Keep your DVD players charged.

Because of my sleep schedule, I woke up at five in the morning and watched a DVD on my laptop until it died. Thankfully, the sun had just risen so I at least could get up and move around...but I wished I had thought to keep my other DVD players charged and ready.

4. come to our house for food and showers.

We have gas water heater and gas stove so we have hot water and we can cook. I was up since 5 am so by 8 am I was bored to no end. I annoyed Scott until he relented and called our friends to come over and we cooked up all our leftovers for a deluxe breakfast. Then the Garlands taught us the funnest game I've played in years "Telephone Pictionary." At one point, I was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face and I couldn't breathe. Aw, good times.

I didn't take any pictures...so I had to borrow from another fellow flickr member.

Oahu Blackout 2008, originally uploaded by colleeninhawaii.

Our power finally came back on after noon Saturday. A good 16 - 18 hours of blackness in our house came to a close. Thank you!!!

Jen and Frank's Wedding

Following the island-wide power outage, Scott and I went straight from a lunch birthday party for my niece, Lauren, to a formal-clad celebration of Jen and Frank's wedding. Frank and Jen are high school sweethearts and seem to have been literally just waiting to be old enough to make a lifelong commitment. Jen just graduated with her college degree and Frank now works on staff at Hope Chapel as the junior high pastor.

Scott and I were really late as we drove into Waikiki when we saw Carl, Kanani, and Stanton in the car ahead of us pulling into the parking garage. Let's just say that someone was beeping their horn and yelling and someone else was giving the bird. I'll give you a hint...neither was me.

Fortunately, the wedding ceremony didn't start until well after we arrived. I have never been to the Crystal Chapel but I remember hearing that Jen always knew that's where she wanted to get married. It was small and quaint so we squished ourselves in the back against the door.

These are just my photographs I snapped with my work camera (hey, we were told to practice with it). The wedding was professionally photographed by Marina Miller of Red Heart Photography. She's an absolutely amazing photographer who also photographed the wedding of Jen and Frank's officiant. I had a chance to meet her at that wedding when we were sitting on the same table. I was watching her work (okay, only slightly stalker-sounding) during the ceremony and I really don't know how she seems so calm and collected. I know the thing nowadays is to have a second shooter or carry two bodies but she breezed through it solo. I saw a sneak peek on her blog. Damn, she's so good. And she's absolutely the sweetest thing.

(Pastor Scott, Pastor Stanton, Pastor Kanani, and Pastor Carl)

(I thought it was so endearing a third of the crowd was from Jen and Frank's ministry)

(The day that was 8 years in the making)

Pastor Tom, the high school pastor, was the officiant. He just had his own wedding back in June of this year and Jen was a bridesmaid. Tom and his wife, Grace, did the decorations in the reception hall. No pictures there...I was too busy eating and trying to get Scott to dance.

(during their personal vows)

Most couples decline when asked if they want to do their own vows. Frank looked like he was fighting back tears during his vow. I didn't even hear Jen's. She leaned into him, looked him in the eye, and whispered her vows to him. It was obvious that they were sharing that moment and reveling in the commitment they were making, it was so endearing.

(the trendy couple)

(Scott with his second favorite girl-Haley)

(Rob and Deb and their grand-daughter, Haley)

(some of the men of Hope Chapel: Rob, Scott, Carl, Frank, Tom, Stanton, and Trevor)

Third times the charm- Merry Christmas

I'm scared to even start this post. The last two times I've started, I've literally been at this point when the phone rings and a big case has come in. Ooops, have I unwittingly divulged that I might be blogging from work. Not true, I completely deny it.

Well, Merry Merry Christmas. Isn't my husband a doll? I couldn't believe he was so agreeable in letting me try out my idea for this year's Christmas card. It was the Thursday that it was gushing buckets from the skies and we had no electricity the entire day. The rain stopped for 30 minutes and I rushed us outside. Absolutely no sun in the sky and Scott kept squinting in every picture and claiming "It's too bright...it's too bright, I can't open my eyes." So, I gave up on trying to find a "open eyes/smile" shot and we used this one. I love it, it's one of my favorites. He makes me laugh...every day.

He can also make me cry. I blogged earlier about the recession and us deciding to forgo a Christmas tree. Well, several days later, I came home about 8 in the morning from work...opened the door, and there was this beautiful Christmas tree standing right in front of me. I must have been tired because I instantly started crying. It was the sweetest gift Scott could ever have given me. I'm walking around, tears in my eyes, taking off my backpack...when I think....wait, what if this is Stanton's tree and I'm crying over my brother-in-law getting himself a Christmas tree. So, I creep into our dim bedroom and sniffle as I nudge Scott gently "who..sniff sniff...whose tree is that?" I don't remember, but I think that even half-asleep, he had some wise-ass reply...but I didn't care because I was right...it was our tree and I cried even more. I love our beautiful beautiful, already brown and dying Christmas tree...it is be-yu-ti-ful.

To all my friends and family...and you too, I wish you a Merry Christmas. Despite the hard times of the economy, this Christmas is proving to be completely filled with joy and laughter. Last night, I opened the gift from my sister. She got me a huge case of Coke and Scott a huge case of Dr. Pepper. Hee hee, she knows us so well.

Shhh...another secret blog by me

I wanted this blog to be about my journey and mistakes and I try to learn the art of photography combined with posts about nothingness and my random daily life.

However, I do have my name attached to the blog and posts and I fear that future prospective clients find this blog. I feel like I can't be completely open.

I created a new blog, still linked to my gmail account but hopefully not as obvious to find.

http://reallifeweddingpics.blogspot.com/

It's a more honest and revealing blog about my mistakes, my weaknesses, and experiences in learning photography. Bookmark it, google reader subscribe...I'm going to remove this referring post in a few days.

The calm after the storm

I'm up...at five in the morning...and its eerily quiet. Yesterday's monster winds and gushing rainfall has finally abated. I just had my two nights off and, yesterday, I woke up at four in the morning. I was feeling super productive so I started doing laundrey which meant I had to carefully slide through the pool of water on the back patio in my rubba slippahs. I also couldn't close the glass door in the back so I had to blast the TV to hear it over the thunderous rain. I got an IM from one our friends, Abbey. It is her first Christmas in Hawaii and she asked if this was normal for Hawaii. I told her this was our "Hawaiian Snow." Enjoy.

Then our power went in the middle of my watching TV/working on my computer/washing clothes/drying clothes. Agh, it was so sad. Scott and I spent the rest of the day in darkness until about five pm. We tried to think of all the things to do that didn't require electricity. I realized how dependant we are on electricity. Because of the storm, it was very dark even in the middle of the day. We decorated our Christmas tree with lights and our seven ornaments..it was pretty hard to without being able to see where we were putting the lights in the dim living room. We're trying to get an ornament every time we visit someplace so our tree looks pretty sparse. We had to spread them all out on the side of the tree that faces the door, about 1/4 of the tree surface.

So, we ended up leaving and trying to run errands in the rest of town that had electricity. We got to see the Garland's infamous Leaning Tower of Christmas Tree and visit Mike, Liz, and Haley. I had some pictures from her last month milestone. All in all, it was a great day off!!

Haley's Thanksgiving/Fall Session (taken on location at HCKB church)

Tonight is the first Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay Children's Church Christmas special music. My choir/worship team will be at all the services. It's going to be a fast-paced weekend. =)

Darilyn's trial run-Junior Pictures

My niece Darilyn just turned sixteen on Thanksgiving Day. Last year as a sophomore, she asked if I would take her senior pictures. I loved that she gave me two years to prepare. While standing near the golf course outside our vacation rental, I made her do some quick poses.

Happy Thanksgiving Part 2 of 2

I'm so tired...I only slept two hours yesterday. Just so much to do and I have a hard time falling asleep knowing how hard it is going to be when you have to wake up in the middle of a deep sleep. Scott is on vacation so its so nice that when I'm actually home, he's home too. Today he helped with the children's worship team practice. They're so cute...I took pics, I'll blog after their christmas performances this weekend.

I can't believe that Christmas is coming up in two weeks already...no christmas shopping even attempted. We're not going to get a Christmas tree this year to cuts some corners...that's probably the biggest disappointment. Maybe next year we'll get two. And there's not much room in our budget at all so we're just going to pray and make do...you may expect some beautiful hand-made Christmas cards decorated with crayon masterpieces this Christmas. Nah, we'll be creative and you will love it.

These pics are for my family...the last installment from our thanksgiving family reunion. Pray for my dad, after months of spotty jobs with his construction crew, he was laid off three weeks ago. Such a common story amongst people we know in our islands, it's tough times. The thing I love and admire about my dad is his faith. It's not a blind irresponsible faith, he's resourceful and hard-working but he's not beat down or discouraged. He really trusts in God.

(Lauren was really fascinated with Papa Jim's mustache...probably not used to seeing that much gray!!!)

(Jordan and his girlfriend, Caroline, holding Cassandra's twins. I think the twins became completely spoiled in that three day vacation...they never touched the ground)


(What's more cute, that they are holding hands or that they are both watching tv intently?)

(Papa Jim looks a little distracted while trying to watch football. Notice Lauren nail him with her stuffed "Nemo.")

Happy Turkey-Day

I feel like I've told this story too many times already, but it's a winner so let's document it for the ages:

My younger sister came up with the idea of having my older sister, her family, and me and Scott fly down to the Big Island for Thanksgiving as a surprise for my dad. So we flew into Hilo on Wednesday. My sister found a really great deal and her whole family was staying in a beautiful two bedroom condo in Waikoloa. I stayed at Scott's family one bedroom studio in Waimea. I flew straight after work so I was exhausted and went to bed at four in the afternoon.

My younger siblings, Genesis and Jordan, were driving dad to Waikoloa. They told him they were taking him to A-bay, he hates that beach so he wasn't really thrilled but they were really going to drive him to Cassandra's unit. So, I woke up at four in the morning after 12 hours of glorious sleep...oh, and freezing my butt off by the way. It gets into the fifties during the night in Waimea and Hawaiian houses offer no resistance at all to cold and do nothing in the ways of retaining heat. I proceeded to drive to Waikoloa at around seven thirty on Thanksgiving morning on the high road (there's two ways from Waimea to Kona, the low road and the high road).

I'm cruising along at 55 mph along the rolling hills through Parker Ranch with nothing but pasture-painted slopes when I spot a lone wild turkey sitting on the side of the road. I ponder whether I should turn around and try to find my camera in the trunk. I mean, it was a picture perfect postcard...almost like he was trying to get into the thanksgiving spirit as well. About five minutes later on the same road, this time I see a group of three turkeys on the left side of the road and two on the right...hmmm, I hope none of them try ...
NO, DON'T DO THAT".

I see one of the turkeys on the right decided it was time to cross the road, he started to dash across the road right in front of my car. I tried to slow down and veer but it was too late...I clipped him and he tumbled...onto my hood...over my windshield...I could hear him rolling on my hood towards the back...whoa.

Thankfully, as I looked in my rear view mirror, I saw him scampering across the road as he finished his cross. Turkeys are tough birds. So, yes, I almost hammered a turkey with the front end of my car on Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey Day!!! What irony.

Here are some pics of the fun we had. More pics and stories to come soon.
What was the highlight of your thanksgiving?

(my dad holding his youngest grand-daughter, Chayne)

(my younger sister, Genesis, teaching our niece, Lauren, how to fly

Sarah and Ava

Little Ava, when will you be joining us? When I first started to become really good friends with Scott, he was working at Hope Chapel with another young guy, Russell. I remember the church sent them both to a conference in Florida and Scott would call me to talk...and his roommie, Russell, would be chatting on the phone with his "friend," Sarah. Well, three years later, they've been married for about two years and are expecting to grow their family by one beautiful baby girl. They moved to a different church, Grace Bible (hey, I used to go there with Josh), but they hit me up with an email asking if I would want to take maternity pictures of Sarah. Would I? So cool!!! Something completely foreign to me but what an opportunity because it is becoming very popular nowadays. So, I had to do some research on my favorite flickr site to look at possible maternity shots...and it's so much better to go in with at least a few shots already lined up in your head. And fortunately, Sarah had done some research on her own and had some ideas of her own. The one thing that I learned when I had her sit on the grass is that hapai women will be uncomfortable in certain sitting positions. I had no experience of that so I definitely learned quickly that you can't ask them to be doing the splits.

(this one was just a casual snapshot...and I can't stand the stone wall in the background. I did a blatant and ugly blur but it's still there. However, Sarah and the little "nameplate" is super cute...and I was really surprised that this photo rapidly got 37 hits on my flickr site in one day. wow! the "name plate" is also an idea from my flickr research.

(hee hee...no, this session was at Sarah's mom's house in Kaneohe...we didn't rapidly jump to Waimanalo beach...I shamelessly photoshopped the background. I'm usually not a big fan because it adds a fake touch to things...but I felt it made this one more dreamy and artsy)

(taken against the side of the house...so simple...but I really like this one)

(here's also why researching poses can be rewarding. I saw the idea of using an ultrasound with the parents holding it on flickr...and I just changed it up to appear more like a window into Ava's life right now. Absolutely one of my favorites. I would put this on our walls but I think Scott and Stanton might not approve.
(from the beginning, Sarah wanted to take pictures in this little separate living room. It was such a cloudy day that I didn't think there would be enough light so I kept it for last...she was right, it was perfect lighting. Every shot was absolutely beautiful.)
(the most popular pose for maternity shots...I don't care...so worth it. So cute)

An Aussie vow renewal by the sea

I'm in shock...I came home from work, showered, laid down to watch tv, fell asleep...and didn't wake up until Scott woke me up to go back to work again. Well, that wastn't exactly what I had planned to do. So, just trying to make up for lost time. This was a while ago but Scott did a very small vow renewal. He does weddings through our church but he also has a friend who plans destination weddings and these are usually simple, quick affairs. We met the couple at their Waikiki hotel and walked down to Waikiki beach at sunset. They didn't ask for photographs but I used the chance to practice. And John and Abbey were with us, so the three of us played on the sand nearby.

The couple renewing their vows were from Australia. Not only were they beautiful, but they had the cutest accents, as if they couldn't even get cuter. Like our other vow renewal, even being from gorgeous Australia, they said they were fulfilling the dream they always had of getting married in Hawaii.

(I love how I see the little girl playing in the sand in this pic)

(A waikiki sunset -Straight out of the camera)

(A Waikiki Sunset- processed)

Is it Halloween or Easter? (HB at 8 months)

I admit...I am not creative when it comes to dressing up for Halloween. One, my parents didn't let us dress up when we were younger and by the time they stopped caring, so did we. And, two, I don't like spending money. So, I really thought it would be another costume-less Halloween when I remembered I had a summer kimono from my Japan Mission Trip. So I was a Japanese girl...one year of being married into a Japanese family and I fully converted. Halloween fell on a Friday so we wore our costumes to church but we were the rare few. Then we went bowling afterwards with our good friends from Ignite. It was a blast. I was having like one of the best games ever but I had to leave halfway through the game to go to work.

Speaking of dressing up, here's one little girl who is definitely started early and set the standards high with her creativity.

BEFORE

AFTER