Meranda and Alex Engagement | Makua Tidepools | Oahu Photographer
Meranda’s mom Shannon took me aside one afternoon and told me her daughter was getting proposed to that weekend and after “he puts a ring on it” could I take their engagement photos and of course I obliged. Meranda and Alex are the sweetest young newlywed on the planet. They didn’t have a prefenrce for the location other than they wanted the west side of Oahu so I told them to meet me at Makua Tidepools as it never disappoints with amazing sunsets and often times rainbows.
Since the photoshoot was just days after the proposal we didnt have a time for a typical consultation so when they arrived for the photoshoot we met for the first time. Normally people are a bit tense and nervous at at the beginning of a photo session and it takes awhile to warm up to the camera. Not for these two lovebirds. I barely had a chance to give them my first que and they were kissing and holding hands and basically being the most madly in love couple on earth. Made my job super duper easy. Oh, and yep, we got a rainbow.
Hansen Ohana | Kualoa Regional Beach Park | Oahu Family Photographer
Meeting the Hansen Ohana was such a pleasure and quite the quick encounter. I met Colter on a Friday afternoon at a networking meeting he was visiting while in Oahu for a family vacation. As fate would have it, we got to talking and between 2pm on a Friday and 6pm the following day, we had booked his session, informed his wife to start setting out wardrobe for the three girls and met at Kualoa Regional Beach Park for their session. Oh and side note, 24 hours after the session we met for their Image Reveal and ordering session…now hows that for a fast editing turn around time (this is not normal fyi LOL). The Hansen’s were starting their one year long journey of traveling the US in an RV (well, the officially started the RV thing on the mainland but Hawaii was their first destination on their epic sabbatical). After Colter took some drone footage of the beautiful Ko’olau mountains on one side and and the ocean on the other, we began the photoshoot, which to me seemed more like playtime with their three beautiful daughters more than anything. I love my job. How beautiful is this family? I mean!
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.
Jenna Leigh Weddings | Hawaii Wedding and Engagement Photographer
Mix an uber talented wedding and engagement photographer, a stunning couple, some beautiful mural art in an urban setting...and voila, you have Jenna Leigh Weddings behind the scenes promo film.
When I met Jenna at a photography meetup over two years ago, little did I know that we would immediately become friends who would spend every week "working" together on some project or event....I use the word "work" here loosely because we have too much fun and love our jobs way too much to call it work.
Fast forward two years, and now, not only do we share an office together downtown, but I assist her at most of her weddings and engagement/elopement sessions, (I have been to over 20 of them with her in the last yea!r), we've traveled to Kauai (read about our Kauai adventure here), and Maui, and we always find time to share our love of music as we travel to and from weddings and sessions. Man, do we ever make a great harmonizing team.
I so proud of the photographic art she produces for her clients, but even more happy to now call her my dear friend.
Jenna's passion for her work speaks for itself, she loves what she does and it shows in her photographs. Her couples rave about how they love her romantic style of shooting and how she captures the true romance between them. I have watched her work at over 20 weddings and can tell you first hand this girl LOVES her job and LOVES photographing love.
She is so passionate about wedding photography in fact, that she created the first annual Hi On Life Photography Conference which takes place here in Honolulu March 6-9, 2017 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. This is no ordinary wedding photographer conference, Oh no, Jenna's "go big or go home" motto applies here. She has world renowned, award winning wedding photographers Susan Stripling, Two Mann Studios, Jeremy Chou and many more super talented photographers speaking at the workshop, as well as three sunrise styled shootouts and three sunset styled shootouts, a private luau and an epic dance party to follow. Its shaking up to be a pretty epic three days, so if can skip on over to Oahu within two weeks or you are a wedding photographer in Hawaii and you haven't purchased your tickets, you need to get on it today! Everything Jenna touches turns to gold so I just know this is going to be an amazing conference.
The engagement promo shoot was filmed in the Kaka'ako area of Honolulu. This was such a fun shoot to film. The couple was gorgeous, the model couple looked like they just stepped off of the runway (the bride is Miss Waikiki and .absolutely stunning and the groom looked like a GQ Magazine model). The urban Kaka'ako setting was a perfect place, the juxtaposition between Christina and Morgan's stark black and white wedding attire against the color and vibrant urban backdrop looked amazing. And the PowWow Hawaii artist murals were on point as always and such gorgeous backdrops for their photos.
Typically Jenna's weddings are on the beach or at a more rural venue with a very romantic feel, so this shoot was so fun for me to film as it really shows how when somebody as talented as Jenna get's a camera in her hand, anything is possible.
It doesn't matter where her clients are, she always finds a way to use the landscape and her surroundings to create magical, romantic photographs for her clients.
I always love to watching Jenna work, she just gets "in the zone" and is so passionate about capturing that perfect moment between her couples.
For Romantic, Timeless, and Elegant & Epic
Wedding and Engagement Photography, get in touch with Jenna!
A few stills from the session...
Still images by Jenna Leigh Photography
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. :)