Maternity: Kacie and the yummy oreos

What: Kacie's Maternity sesion (joined by hubby, Clinton, and little man "L")
When: a Saturday afternoon in June
Where: Kalama Beach Park

So, Kacie's session was actually a few weeks ago so she has been patiently waiting for her pictures. The wait is finally over. I aim to do maternity shoots between the 32nd and the 36th week of a woman's pregnancy. You'll get the nice baby bump but you dont' want to be too close to the end, where you may be a little more uncomfortable or...the baby might make a surprise entrance before we can get those pictures. So we had to squeeze the session into June. She brought her hubby, Clinton, and their little manly "L" to the family maternity session at Kalama Beach Park. It was a location they chose because of it's meaning and special significance, the place where Clinton proposed to Kacie and set in motion the journey their family would take together.

This was also a Joy and Light production, I was joined by another photographer, Joy Pishcura. She literally had returned to Oahu just three days earlier after being with family in Ohio for six months. I had a sprained ankle so I was hopping around the beach and so I wanted that pair of second eyes there. It was a full car because my hubby decided he wanted to go to the beach and he brought along his friend, Jasen. Don't get me wrong, I love company...if I had any complaint...it would be that when I had a shot lined up with Clinton and Kacie in a sandy pathway under trees with the sand and ocean stretching behind them....there rising out of the seas like King Triton was my husband in his bright yellow surf shorts. His only response to my frantic arm waves motioning for him to move out of the frame was "What? You don't own the beach." Oh, that's my Scott.

Little "L" is...hmmm...I think he's two. He had just come from another party and was crashed out. Then he woke up to find himself at the beach with Auntie Keao chasing him around with a camera...he was more interested in playing. So we let him play. He actually found a dollar bill just digging in the sand and then he found a lone, unclaimed boogeyboard on the beach. His dad, clinton, wisely advised him to leave it there so that everybody else would get to use it.

Thanks so much to Kacie for letting us in on their family day at the beach. Kacie is our women's worship leader at our church and we've sung together so many times. She's an absolute sweetheart. Her hubby, Clinton, is also an uber-talented musician. He played the drums with my husband's band at our wedding and he also has a T-shirt design company, No Idols. They, of course by the pictures, have an adorable little boy "L", and will be joined by their very much already-loved daughter at the end of this summer.

Here's some of my faves from the day:




























To view these images and the rest of the session, please visit http://www.keaosphotography.instaproofs.com/.

And by special request (so you know i don't make up these stories), here's a little gem of the stud in the yellow surf shorts.

Don't be jealous, he's mine!!!

Growing Up: Senior Portraits Dylan and Irish at Kualoa Ranch

What: Senior Portrait Session with Dylan and his sis, Irish
When: Prince Kuhio Day, March 26th, 2009
8:00 am
Where: Kualoa Ranch

I have to give props to my friend and client, Bow, whose maternity session really generated more opportunities for me to photograph other beautiful people too. And by the way, Bow just gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl, Mikaela, a week ago. Note the spelling of her name, the third choice they settled on (if you've been keeping up with my posts). Stay tuned for some sneak peeks of that newborn session.

So shortly after Bow's maternity session, I received an email from ....tada....Gina. I've known Gina for a few years already, we both volunteer in the baby nursery at Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay every other Sunday. She's also a good friend of Bow's and loved the pictures. She asked if I would consider taking senior pictures of her son, Dylan, and doing a portrait session with her daughter,Irish, on the same day. Um, Gina, of course. I knew Irish because she, like her mom, also volunteers in the nursery but I hadn't met Dylan before so mom had to email me his school picture. We set the day for Prince Kuhio Day, a State of Hawaii holiday, for which I'm not really sure why. Scott is going to mock my hawaiian education, considering I went to a school only for part-Native Hawaiians, but I don't know who or what Prince Kuhio did. I think Kuhio was from the Big Island too because we have a mall named after him in Hilo.

It was so awesome for me, because Gina already had an idea of where we could hold the session and she was able to get a permit to shoot at Kualoa Ranch on the north shore. I met her, Dylan and Irish there at 8 in the morning. Poor things, having to wake up so early when you don't have school. And I was a little nervous because Gina claimed that Dylan and Irish didn't like taking pictures. If that's the case, I don't know who she swapped in for them because these two teens were complete hams. Seriously, you can never call these two shy. The location was so awesome and just fun to explore. They climbed trees and walls so I had the easy job of just chasing after them. We were done in no time at all and I LOVED their pictures.

Dylan is laid-back, his mom says always reading a book or playing a video game. Once the camera turned on him, he gave Zoolander a run for his money.

We don't have fields of wheat but I finally found a field that I could get this shot. I'm always tempted to let our yard get seriously overgrown so i can use my backyard, but I think my neighbors would glare at me.





I love this next one...I don't know why. He just looks like he's the king of the castle.

Irish, the slightly younger sister, is not shy at all. She's an avid volleyball player and you can see her every other Sunday in a room full of 2 year olds at church. She's also gorgeous, just look at the photos.

Irish was resisting the urge to play up her farmer side...she cracked me up.



I love this next shot, I wish I had taken a few more and had them pose. But Irish was just climbing up and I got nervous and had her come down. There was a significant drop on the other side.

This one...MY FAVORITE!!!


This was my first senior portrait session and my subjects are usually well over twenty or under the age of three, so I was a tad nervous. Can I just say, that was the most fun session ever!!! I had to call the hubby on the way home and just gush about the entire experience. Thanks to Gina for raising beautiful kids, and Dylan and Irish for being totally cool with my crazy ideas and going with it. You guys rock!!!

To view these pictures and more from their entire session, please visit www.keaosphotography.instaproofs.com and click on "Dylan and Irish Portrait Session."

And stay tuned in the next week for photos from Whitni's Maternity Session and baby Mikaela's newborn session.