Wedding: T and B north shore

What: Wedding of Tiffany and Bill
Where: North shore of Oahu's coast
When: March 20th, 2009, 4:00 pm

Scott and I had the chance to work together again. A local wedding planner requested our services, this time on the north shore at Kawela Bay. Scott and I have never been there. He drove, 1) cause I like when he drives and 2) because I was still half asleep having to cut my sleep in half to get to this wedding on time. We drove past the acces path the first time, probably thrown off by the "No trespassing" signs posted over the fence.

The sun was blazing overhead which I thoroughly dislike for photos because it's too harsh. I tried using my flash as a fill flash but it just kept blowing out the exposure. I am watching a lighting DVD and am trying to learn, but when the pressure is on and time is running out, you start getting frantic. However, before the ceremony, I took pictures of the flower girl and bride in the shade of a banyon grove and I loved it. For the formal pictures, I had scott hold a screen to provide some shade and relief to the wedding party.

There was a man there playing ukulele and singing accompaniment music for the ceremony. The ceremony was really small and quick so he was finished after like 20 seconds...so he just kept playing while I took pictures of the bride and groom and family. It was really nice...mood music. I sang harmony (softly of course so only I could hear). After we were finished, he came up and turns out he was my classmate from Farrington upper campus. He said "i know you never recognize me cause I was wearing da sunglasses. I'm the one with da nice eyes. See, still got em!!!" And he pulled off his shades to reveal green eyes. Scott and I thought that was funny. It's true, at a school with all part-Hawaiian, green or blue eyes really distinguished you.

I finally put up $24 bucks for the next year to upgrade my flickr account just so I can control the sizes of the images I blog. On the free account, you're only given three sizes and if you try to resize it, you risk getting pixelly. I've finally learned that the web only cares about pixel size, not inches. So all these images are 800 pixels on the long side. Finally, after how long, I've learned. It was just freaky because on high resolution, 800 pixels wide means that these photos are only like an inch high.



















I'll post soon about a cooking mishap. Stay tuned.

Wedding: Sneak Peek of Tiffany and Bill

Wedding of Tiffany and Bill
Where: North Shore, Oahu
When: March 20th, 2009 at 4 pm




This was the flower girl, I believe she was the groom's daughter. This was in the banyan grove between the road and the beach. This was before the ceremony so I didn't want her to waste or dirty too many flower petals. So, she only tossed about four in the air and I cloned/copied the petals to create a shower. It was a little easier because the background was blurred enough so the petals had a defined outline. I used the magnetic lasso tool to trace around a petal, copied it to a new layer...then moved and distorted the size and angle of the petal. Repeat a couple times.


I played around with this trick with Sammie's confetti shower. There was a light background so I copied/cloned groups of stars and spread them around. Sometimes I would rotate or invert the group. Here's a game, draw circles around similar groups...you heard me. Pick up that permanent pen and go to it. I'm sure you can figure a way to scrape it off the computer screen later.

My thoughts: Black and White conversions

So I know I posted this in the previous post, but I love it. And it brings to mind black and white conversions. Black and white conversions are key when you're trying to achieve a certain look, add an artistic flair, and it's also an escape if your colors are off in your photograph. Black and white is very forgiving for skin tones or color casts. The problem is that I suck at black and whites. If you just convert your color photograph to black and white (grayscale or desaturated), it looks blah. And all my black and whites look blah. They will look very flat, very gray. You have to adjust it to get deep blacks and bright whites and add in interest. I couldn't for figure it out for the life of me. I added blacks but the skin still just looked gray.

My last post had tons of black and white, cause I found an action I really like. I downloaded a free set of photoshop actions from Pioneer Woman http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2008/04/actions/. She has two black and white conversions, but I found I like to use the "soft and faded" action and just turn off the sepia "tweak" layer. So awesome, I just select, hit play....and voila. I do adjust the "soft and faded" layer which is a screen layer (lightening layer). And then after I flatten all the layers into one image, I use selective color to bump up the blacks a little. Still working on it, but at least my black and whites are finally showing improvement.

Growing Up: Sammie's 1st Birthday

Today is Samantha's 1st birthday. Sammie turns 1. Her mom and I have been trying to get together to take pictures of this little girl for a while. With six days to her first birthday, we just scraped it in. Before she was born, Kanani showed me pics of her other kids when they were babies and told me "my babies don't have hair but they're the cutest babies you'll ever see." I thought she was just speaking with a mother's bias, but she was right. Sammie has these big eyes with the longest lashes, simply striking.

I showed up at their house early Monday morning. Sammie is not my biggest fan, she usually clings to mom constantly (and I'm not exaggerating with the word "constantly"). However, since I met them on location at their house, she was in her comfort zone. And when I unpacked my bags of goodies...alphabet blocks...my lens and flashes, she became my best bud. And since mom was adventurous and let us try all sorts of poses, Sammie was delighted to find that she could now climb on anything she wanted. All rules went out the door. But the real delight, was when mom brought out the cupcake with yummy pink frosting. Too bad, she dropped it frosting side down and spent ten minutes digging through the cupcake trying to find it. I hope I got enough good ones. She's a smiler but quick...she mastered walking weeks ago and has moved on to jogging.

Wedding

Just me and my life-Trying to get fit

Following Scott and my adventure doing the Great Aloha Run (see Scott's blog), I was inspired.

Early sunday morning, the first morning of March 2009, I found myself at Kapiolani Park surrounded by a crowd of women all wearing pastel dry weave running tanks and black shorts. I actually used to love running, I ran track, soccer, and mostly just for fun. The only community runs I did was the Straub Women's 10K race back in high school. Fifteen years later, and 20...30...maybe 40 lbs heavier, I signed up again. I've been running a little frequently but I mix it in with a lot of walking so I wasn't sure how I'd do, but I was really curious to find out.

Sunday, March 1st 2009

5:00 phone alarm goes off
5:00-5:15 Hitting snooze alarm multiple times...even lying on cell phone to muffle sound
5:30 rushing to the car with tons of stuff for church
5:31 stopping to toss some stuff into Scott's car
5:32 In car and going going going
5:42 Pondering "I did toss my running shoes in the car, right? Yah, I definitely did."
6:10 Finding a sweet parking spot only 1/4 mile from the race start
6:10 Sitting in my car realizing that I maybe didn't bring my shoes after all

Yup, I'm sitting, all decked out in my workout clothes...and my black rubbah slippahs. Hmm. I called Scott and woke him up all distraught. Even in a deep sleep, he was able to offer insightful advice. He thought I should go to the officials and ask if I could borrow their shoes. He was really serious. When I didn't jump at the idea of asking strangers to lend me their shoes, he volunteered to jump in the car and bring me my shoes. Yah, Scottie, my hero!!!

While waiting, I jumped in line for the bathroom at Kapiolani Park which took forever...scott actually had drive from Kaneohe to Waikiki before I got to the front of the line...and that's even with the women taking over the men side as well. Much to the dismay of the very drunk weird guy who kept yelling "what? You got to be kidding me!!!" even as he patiently stood at the end of the line. And Scott got there five minutes before the starting gun went off, bless my bestest husband ever.

As I stood in the crowd of maybe a couple hundred women and waited nervously for the race start, I started to get the feel that perhaps I'm a little behind the times. All these girls that these earbuds with cords that disappeared into these cute little miniscule white mp3 players on armbands or in some pocket.

Here's my music player of choice:

I can't believe these are out of style already...I finally made the big switch from a walkman to the discman a few years ago. Scott and I hosted a dinner at someone else's house and the host apologized that the stereo system was broken but offered IPOD speakers. Scott and I had to scoff a little and say "IPOD? We don't have IPODS."

I also can't stand having things in my pockets. So, guess what was clenched in my sweaty hand for 6 miles.

And let's face it, I'm not in the best shape. Check out these chubby legs. Do they look like capable of speed? I think not. These babies are meant for sitting on the couch watching Top Chef.

During the run, I tried to pace myself but I pushed myself too hard in the middle section cause I died at the end. I had to start walking at the end but then people kept stopping and encouraging me to run with them. So, when I crossed the line, I felt like I was going to throw up. And they have volunteers that form a tunnel and channel you to the middle of the park. They were waving their hands in my face and I pushed through them praying "please don't throw up on them...don't throw up...don't throw up." Thankfully I finally calmed down and got my breath back.

I'm so proud of myself and I want to keep going with this.
Final Time ~ 1 hr 7 min (10.8 min/mile)

Straub Women's 10K Run-Check

Following Scott and my adventure doing the Great Aloha Run (see Scott's blog), I was inspired.

Early sunday morning, the first morning of March 2009, I found myself at Kapiolani Park surrounded by a crowd of women all wearing pastel dry weave running tanks and black shorts. I actually used to love running, I ran track, soccer, and mostly just for fun. The only community runs I did was the Straub Women's 10K race back in high school. Fifteen years later, and 20...30...maybe 40 lbs heavier, I signed up again. I've been running a little frequently but I mix it in with a lot of walking so I wasn't sure how I'd do, but I was really curious to find out.

Sunday, March 1st 2009

5:00 phone alarm goes off
5:00-5:15 Hitting snooze alarm multiple times...even lying on cell phone to muffle sound
5:30 rushing to the car with tons of stuff for church
5:31 stopping to toss some stuff into Scott's car
5:32 In car and going going going
5:42 Pondering "I did toss my running shoes in the car, right? Yah, I definitely did."
6:10 Finding a sweet parking spot only 1/4 mile from the race start
6:10 Sitting in my car realizing that I maybe didn't bring my shoes after all

Yup, I'm sitting, all decked out in my workout clothes...and my black rubbah slippahs. Hmm. I called Scott and woke him up all distraught. Do I just give up and come home? I don't think I can run in slippers and I have to be at church soon so I don't have time to just walk. Scott to the rescue. He jumped in his Saturn and volunteered to drop off my shoes.

While waiting, I jumped in line for the bathroom at Kapiolani Park which took forever...scott actually had drive from Kaneohe to Waikiki before I got to the front of the line...and that's even with the women taking over the men side as well. Much to the dismay of the very drunk weird guy who kept yelling "what? You got to be kidding me!!!" even as he patiently stood at the end of the line. And Scott got there five minutes before the starting gun went off, bless my bestest husband ever.

As I stood in the crowd of maybe a couple hundred women and waited nervously for the race start, I started to get the feel that perhaps I'm a little behind the times. All these girls that these earbuds with cords that disappeared into these cute little miniscule white mp3 players on armbands or in some pocket.

Here's my music player of choice:

I can't believe these are out of style already...I finally made the big switch from a walkman to the discman a few years ago. Scott and I hosted a dinner at someone else's house and the host apologized that the sterio system was broken but offered IPOD speakers. Scott and I had to scoff a little and say "IPOD? We don't have IPODS."

I also can't stand having things in my pockets. So, guess what was clenched in my sweaty hand for 6 miles.

And let's face it, I'm not in the best shape. Check out these chubby legs. Do they look like capable of speed? I think not. These babies are meant for sitting on the couch watching Top Chef.

During the run, I tried to pace myself but I pushed myself too hard in the middle section cause I died at the end. I had to start walking at the end but then people kept stopping and encouraging me to run with them. So, when I crossed the line, I felt like I was going to throw up. And they have volunteers that form a tunnel and channel you to the middle of the park. They were waving their hands in my face and I pushed through them praying "please don't throw up on them...don't throw up...don't throw up." Thankfully I finally calmed down and got my breath back.

I'm so proud of myself and I want to keep going with this.
Final Time ~ 1 hr 7 min (10.8 min/mile)

You can't handle the truth

So, a part of my job is being able to testify in court. It was a part of my training, I had to testify in a mock trial. I thought I did really well, but my coworker and I got blasted out of the water in our evaluation and it depressed me. I've gotten subpoena-d (what is the past tense of subpoena?)twenty times at least but have goten away with never having to testify in the last year and half.

My luck ran out this past Monday. I can't go into details. I can tell you this. I had to wake up freaking early to check in a circuit court at 8:30 in the morning. I met a coworker at work at seven am to ride together. So, first, I had to find my court clothes...thankfully I found the pants in the back of our closet. Then I was running out of time, and i couldn't find my makeup bag. I found part of it and just grabbed it and ran to my car.

It wasn't until I got to work that I really started to evaluate my "court" attire. I guess my pinstriped pants doesn't really match my nice fitted gray jacket. In fact, in the sunlight, the pants look way more brown than gray. The worst is when I opened my makeup bag and discovered that I had stocked it for make-up for my last big event...my 80's themed birthday party in October. No lipstick and only a palette of bright neon eyeshadows. I kid you not, not a subtle color anywhere there. I had to settle with the fuschia and hope it melded in..especially when I started to turn red on stand. I also used some of the eyeshadow as a hint of lip color. I was the MacGyver of make-up. But, if you got past all that...I looked good!!!

I did have to resist the urge to blurt out "You can't handle the truth" when I was asked my name and occupation. And I have no idea what I was saying sometimes because I just kept fixating on whether I should fold my hands on my lap or on the counter. I wish I wasn't such a nervous dork sometimes.

Troy and Bow-A Valentine's Maternity Session

Who: Troy and Bow a.k.a. "Expecting Parents"
Where: Their beautiful hale on the shore of Kaneohe Bay
Oahu, Hawaii
When: February 14th, 2009, 9 am

A year or two ago, Scott and I were filmed in this little skit about couples and love life with another couple from our church, Troy and Bow. One 2 minute ditty and I still see pictures from that clip at church everywhere I turn. Now a few years later, and Troy and Bow are just a few weeks away from their first little blessing. Bow is a petite woman and I was really worried about getting too close to her due date and having her feel too uncomfortable. I didn't have to worry...she climbed on piers and sat over the water for me. She was such a trooper. And I had to be careful to pose her to show her belly because you couldn't even tell she was pregnant from a lot of angles. She photographed beautifully...absolutely beautiful. I think I have my model for any portfolio building.

I had asked them prior to the session what they planned to name their baby daughter, but I wasn't sure what the exact spelling. I was still confused when I arrived because I hadn't heard a definitive answer, and I found out why. They are still on the fence with two alternative spellings for the name. I didn't want to pressure them to make a life-long decision in the next ten minutes so...if you see multiple versions of the same shot...that's why!! And their property is right on Kaneohe Bay. Gorgeous. And windy. So when a gust of wind tossed my reflector over the wall onto the shore...I jumped over a little too hastily to retrieve it before it rolled into the water. Big mistake. Apparently, the "shore" was really just a dry crust over thick swampy mud. Oi!!! I sank to my ankles. I had to wave off Troy, the gentleman, who was moving to jump down to help me. I'm Big Island. Mud don't scare me.

Hah, I really love this one...


See, can YOU tell that she's pregnant?
I
I almost forgot it was Valentine's Day (Scott and I are such the romantics) until I saw all the balloons Troy had set up everywhere for Bow. Aw...and he made us both breakfast.

This is them just being cutesy while I was trying to get my camera set up.

Look, they had such fun locations on their property.





Look, A DOCK!!! They said I could use it anytime....sweet.








These are just my favorites.

Sneak Peek-Troy and Bow's Blessing-In-Waiting

I just got back from a weekend in Maui so I'm using my first minutes back in civilization (not a knock on Maui, Kelii!!!) to upload some sneak peek photos from a maternity session from this past weekend. I went straight from this session to a one-year birthday party to work on Saturday...running...ahem, I mean slow jogging/moderate walking 8 miles in Monday's Great Aloha Run followed by a 36 hour trip to Maui. Can't believe I made it and dreading the return to my hum-ho every day life. Here's my favorites so far from an awesome session with two very excited expectant parents.

Adventures in Babysitting

I have kind of an odd job...if you watch CSI...my job is a deglamorized version of that. Most people are pretty surprised when they find out...they seem to put me in the category of preschool teachers or librarians (which I admit I would love to do either). However, my job is very practical, stress-free, and very secure. I am so blessed, especially in this rough patch in the economy. My days off are pretty variable so I had yesterday and today off.

So, I went to my older sister's and watched her 9 month old twin girls so she could get out and run errand.Man, my nieces are adorable...but, oh, boy...they can wreak havoc. They are now mobile...they can crawl. They can pull themselves up and thus pull things down. And their new favorite snack is paper. They kept me busy and sometimes I just sat and watched them destroy things together because it was just fascinating to watch. I came home and told Scott "I want twins." He said "okay, as long as they are born two years apart."

Hmmm, I guess that's a no.

I'm trying to blog but I'm a little distracted watching Top Chef. I definitely have a crush on Fabio. Scott knows...I must tell him 10 times during every episode.

I'm back at work

I took a week of vacation... I didn't go anywhere but I did have a wonderful time.
And now here I am...back at work. *Sigh. It's not too bad.

This month will be pretty filled with change. Stanton is trying to close on a townhouse and then he'll be moving out. We're getting a new roommate, a girl from our church whose lease is running out this month. But, it looks like it's both up in the air when the moves are happening. But it is a blessing to me and Scott because I was pretty worried about financially trying to make it when Stanton moves out.

Anybody want to see "He's Just Not That Into You?"

Wedding Bells-Heather and Brandon

A month ago, I got an call from Moana Bjur, from Sands of Time Weddings. I've photographed weddings for her before and I have always loved her weddings. They're beautiful down to the smallest details and so well-organized, which I love (I'm a high S and C in the DISC personality tests). This time was different because she also needed an officiant and so, my hubby, Scott got a call too and we got to work together. The couple, Heather and Brandon, had asked for the officiant to wear a solid colored shirt, preferably blue. I was thinking a muted blue or maybe a navy. But, no, the morning of the wedding Scott pulled out this bright, vivid blue shirt. He insisted on it, saying it was a "non-aloha" aloha shirt. I don't know what that means. Thankfully, he didn't steal the spotlight because all eyes were on the Heather and Brandon. The groom, Brandon, is stationed nearby on the Kaneohe Bay Marine and the men were in their dress blues. I've never been to a Marine wedding. Although we had colder weather this past few months, the morning was pretty warm and I didn't envy the groomsment in their uniforms.

Kailua Beach is our stomping grounds but I have never been to a wedding there. It was a young, fun wedding...including the classical procession music played from the groom's jeep, the bride going barefoot under her beautiful strapless gown, and of course, the family having way too much fun with the formal portraits. We also had a few beach-goers who sat nearby and watched the whole wedding. That's Kailua, my old hometown for you. I tried my best to try to photoshop out the shirtless old man sitting in the sand behind the whole ceremony