She Is Portrait Project - Summer 2018 Registration
We are so excited to announce the open registration of our passion project the SHE IS PORTRAIT PROJECT!
Many instances have led up to this project.
One of them being having my own portrait photo session done by Mapuana Reed Photography in 2014. I was amazed by how beautiful I felt. She kept telling me “I want you to see what I see”. When I saw the final image I saw a beautiful women looking back at me for the first time in 40 years!
Also, I came across these videos and was so moved by the participants reactions. Its as if either they have never been told they are beautiful or they just don't believe that they are...like I did for 40 years.
"I think you are beautiful"
"You’re more beautiful than you think"
Its my desire to connect with women and make them feel beautiful and show them the beauty I see in them. I hope to encourage women to value themselves and see themselves the way I see them through my lens…beautiful.
I hope to create a timeless and genuine portrait of each women. Each image will be processed in black and white and presented in an art gallery exhibit in Honolulu Hawaii toward the end of 2018.
We are looking for woman of all shapes and sizes and ages who are or who are striving to be:
strong, compassionate, bold, brave woman who are willing to share their stories to be a part of a this super special portrait photography project!
These are woman who are going through or have overcome a struggle in their lives and are willing to share their story (in a 1-2 minute video and/or written text).and would like to have their portrait taken by lead photographer Noelle of Sweet Rain Media.
Each eligible woman will then have their portrait taken in a fun, relaxing, non-judgmental environment and the portrait and story (application video and/or text) will be displayed in an art gallery exhibit setting later this year.
YOU ARE A GREAT FIT IF:
You are a mom who takes cares of EVERYBODY else except yourself all day, errr day!
You are a "mature" women who has age, experience and lots of wisdom to share.
You are a young women who struggles to find your identity in a society that constantly tells women we aren't good enough if we don't look like super models..
You are an entrepreneurial and/or business women who has built your business from the ground up and puts all of your clients first and never takes time for yourself.
You are a women who has never had professional portraits taken.
You are a women who can't see her own beauty.
REQUIREMENTS:
Must be available on O'ahu for your photo session between July 1-14. Specific date TBD.
THE REGISTRATION PROCESS:
1. Fill out the form below.
WHAT YOU RECEIVE:
As a thank you for your time and willingness to share your story, you will receive the following, a value of $375:
A portrait session
A gorgeous Fuji Deep Matte 8x10 matted print of your portrait
The digital image of the print
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Secure your spot and reserve your time slot. Applicants will be notified via email on June 27.
SHOW UP AND HAVE AN AMAZING TIME WITH AMAZING WOMEN!!!
Applications due by June 25 Midnight HST
SESSION DATE IN HONOLULU HAWAII BETWEEN July 1-14, 2018. SPECIFIC DATE TBD.
Dina Maternity Session | Hawaii Maternity Photographer
“The light inside of you is relentless and wants to shine and everything it touches in its path is graced.”
To say this gorgeous mama is glowing is an understatement. I mean, the sun literally shined on her and her belly wherever we went on this photoshoot.
Our gorgeous team member Dina is expecting her second baby boy and we couldn't resist but steal her away for an afternoon of photos. I mean, look at the beautiful bump! I met some of my photographer girlfriends, Jacky, Rebecca, Alexa and Gloria. downtown Honolulu and we explored downtown Honolulu with Dina and her bump until the sun went down.
I could have photographed the bump all day!
Got a bump?
We would to capture your baby bump glow in a maternity session. Contact us for more info.
Hawaii Headshots | Children's Couture Downtown Honolulu
Photography Shootouts are one of my favorite things to do with my photographer friends. The City Streets Childrens Couture shootout was hosted and styled by my two dear friends Kat Parker Photography and Sharleen Mey Photography.
My favorite thing about shootouts is there is no pressure to be perfect, and its a relaxed time to try new techniques, swap lenses with a friend, test out different poses, lighting and composition. Since the girls were young and playful, we had so much fun putting them in fun poses in not so obvious place like inside a window sill, on top of a bike rack, or hugging a lamp post for instance.
There was a large group of us at this shootout so we paired off into groups of 4-5 and took each model for 30-45 to whatever location downtown inspired us. And man, there is no shortage of cool spots to photograph downtown Honolulu, Our models Ava, Summer and Kenzie were super sweet and adorable, and so much fun to work with. A special thank you to their parents for allowing us to photograph their beautiful children.
And can we just talk about these dresses for a second? Ummmm, two words...tulle...and...lace. Yes and Yes!
And a few behind the scenes of the photographers doing their thang!
Hawaii Birth Collective Launch Party and Art Exhibit, April 7, 2017
Its no secret that I adore documenting births! Witnessing a birth is such an honor and truly one of the most magical things to be a part of. I consider it an honor to be in the sacred space of my clients. I love watching couples become families and watching their baby take their first breath and welcome them to the world outside the womb. I even love getting that 3am call because of the rush of excitement I feel about being a part of such a special event. My "job" (if you can even call it that LOL) is incredibly rewarding.
My dear friend Amber, of Amber DeCicco Photography, feels the same way. We met in 2016 and began working together that fall. Through co-working, we realized we both shared the same passion about documenting births. Many of our conversations centered around how much we loved documenting births, longing to photograph and film more of them, joking that we should just show up at a hospital and ask who was in labor, and ask if they'd let us photograph their birth! Here we are at Surfers at one of the very first meetings we had about the collective....its where it all began!
Through our working together, we eventually came up with a plan to form a birth collective together. It was formed originally as a way for us to work together as a team of birth documenters, and a way to give our birth families the assurance of knowing who their backup photographer/filmmaker was, but it evolved into something even greater.
Our hope for our collective is to bring together some of our favorite birth workers on the island to provide an excellent resource for expecting families. A community of Hawaii birth professionals embracing the beauty of birth through photography, connection, resources, inspiration and community support. We are in the beginning stages of the collective, but are so excited to see where it goes. Check out our website www.hawaiibirthcollective.com to get to know the amazing birth professionals we love working with!
We're excited to celebrate with our supporters and would love for you to come out and enjoy an evening with like-minded individuals, so.....
WE'VE SCHEDULED A LAUNCH PARTY FOR OUR
HAWAII BIRTH COLLECTIVE!
We'll have birth photography displayed, pupus, beer and wine and a giveaway! So grab a friend and come on out!
The exhibit and party will be in Chinatown, within walking distance to all the First Friday art exhibits so you can wander from gallery to gallery after you come and say Hello :) We are so excited to share the beauty of birth with you, and sincerely hope you can make it out! Here are the details:
HAWAI'I BIRTH COLLECTIVE
LAUNCH PARTY + FIRST FRIDAY ART EXHIBIT
APRIL 7, 5–9 PM
1110 Nu’uanu Ave, Honolulu
Art . Pupus . Wine . Giveaways
RSVP to the exhibit here
Check out our website for more information: www.hawaiibirthcollective.com
Chef Affron will be providing pupus: www.affronssoulfood.com
and our sponsor, Real Office Centers, will be providing the alcohol.
Here we are busy little bee's curating the show, a little sneak peak of some of the amazing birth photography we will feature at the exhibit.
Oahu, Hawaii Family Videographer | Holiday Video Card for Alex
How do you make a US Marine cry you ask?
You send him a surprise holiday video card from his beautiful wife and one year old daughter while he is deployed overseas for the holidays.
We filmed the sweetest family a few weeks ago as part of our Holiday Video Card Giveaway. I had never met Ashley and her daughter Maci and her mother in law Michelle before I arrived at their home, but before I left that afternoon, we had laughed and cried and shared our life stories and I felt like we had known one another for years.
Ashley's husband Alex is a United States Marine and is deployed overseas for the holidays. Ashley entered our giveaway and won this video.
Out of all the entires for the giveaway, Ashley's story stood out from the rest. I was once a young mother with a baby girl in a town far away from my family while my husband was deployed overseas, so her story tugged at my heart when I read it. The Bowman's were recently stationed in Hawaii and like most of us military families here, she doesn't have family here so she was planning to be extremely homesick for the holidays, alone with her daughter and without her husband. That was until her mother in law Michelle showed up in Hawaii a few days before Alex deployed with a plane ticket home for her and Maci to go home with her to visit family and friends. It wont replace her husband being gone, but I know it sure will help.
Hopefully this short film made Alex feel a tiny bit closer to his beautiful family.
She shared it with Alex and said he has watched it every day since and that it just might have made this big tough marine cry (which is my ultimate goal in life LOL).
Contact us to create your own holiday video card or family film.
Oahu, Hawaii Photographer | Hawaii Military Spouse Photographers Holiday Party 2016
Approximately three years ago, serendipity brought us four crazy kids together, and as luck would have it, we totally jive and make a great team of admins for the Hawaii Military Spouse Photography group. One of our favorite events to plan each year is the Annual Holiday Party. This was our third annual holiday party with all four of us as admins, so together with Kat of Kat Parker Photography, Sharleen of Sharleen Mey Photography and Chelsea of Chelsea Little Photography, we pulled off another amazing party!
I cant event begin to tell you how much I love the ladies of HMSP. We collaborate together, learn from one another, refer business to one another, have quarterly styled shootouts, monthly coffee meetups and so much more. Being a military spouse has its challenges, and we bond over much more than our love for photography. We have become such a tight knit group that we consider one another family and I don't know where I would be without these awesome girls.
Over 30 ladies attended the party and we had such an amazing time. We laughed so hard our cheeks hurt, played silly games, had a white elephant gift exchange, a raffle, and best of all enjoyed each others company.
We had the most amazing swag bags a photographer could ask for, and a ton of door prizes and giveaways from the following generous vendors:
Because of the amazing swag we received from our generous vendors, we held a raffle for some of the donations and were able to raise $450 for a local charity called Hoʻōla Nā Pua, which is a Hawaii-based, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to provide underage female victims of sex trafficking with a pu’uhonua (a safe place) where they can begin to heal from their physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse. What an honor it was to hand over the money we raised knowing it was going to such a great local cause.
Thanks to all the ladies who attended, and the amazing sponsors that donated such fabulous door prizes for raffles and giveaways.
We can not thank our sponsors and members enough for their generosity!!
As is tradition, we had a sparkly backdrop for some silly group photos. Photos courtesy of Chelsea Little Photography
Oahu, Hawaii Photographer and Videographer | Girl Behind the Camera Series - Always an Hour Early
If you have known me for any length of time or have made an appointment with me, you know I am a very punctual person. I would rather be an hour early than a minute late. I pride myself in always being punctual and find it extremely rude if I have an appointment with somebody and they arrive late. To me, if somebody arrives late, its show they don't respect me and they don't value my time. And let's face it, life is too short to be waiting around on people who don't value you.
There are moments in life when you learn the most valuable lessons in the strangest of ways. I don't remember much about middle school but I have vivid memories of my band teacher who was a brilliant musician but quite possibly the meanest person I had ever met.
He trained me to become a first chair flutist, but he also taught me two valuable lessons.
One was to always use a pencil because you need to continually revise and tweak your craft to improve and be the best you can be.
And the other was to always be punctual. I learned quickly that if I wanted to advance as a musician I would have to arrive early to rehearsal. He'd lock us out of band rehearsal if we were late and would throw music stands across the room if we messed up during rehearsal. To this day I can recall the sound of his voice as he would yell at us for arriving late to band and sectional rehearsals and wouldn't let us in. We would have to sit outside in the hallway and listen with agony while the other students practiced.
To this day, I refuse to be late to ANYTHING. I would rather be an hour early than a minute late. I live by William Shakespeare's motto in that its "Better to be three hours too soon than a minute too late".
So the next time we have a meeting together and I arrive an hour early and you see me sitting in the parking lot catching up on emails or reading you will know why. :)