The new Above Maui Edition eBook features some of my favorite aerial shots when touring over the island of Maui by helicopter. No doubt, a helicopter tour is one of the most expensive excursions on the island of Maui, but by sharing the images in this eBook, I hope to bring that experience and the amazing views to those that might not otherwise get to see them in person.

And who knows, I may end up inspiring a few readers to book a flight and see why I love these aerial shoots.

Grab a Copy

Just like the first edition, this eBook is absolutely free!

Head over to the Maui by Poster eBook page at the Daily Maui Photo website where you see previews from both editions in the series to date, as well as download PDF versions for either your mobile device, tablet, or your computer.

Aloha on Your Wall

And also like the first edition, you can also order prints of your favorite images from this eBook as well.

Visit the Maui Posters page to learn about how easy it is for you to Put Some Aloha On Your Wall.

Share the Aloha

Lastly, help spread the Aloha by sharing the eBook download page with your friends and fans online, via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and any other of your favorites. Our Maui by Photo Facebook page is also a nice and easy way to share with your friends, too.

So, fasten your seat belts, and prepare for take-off…

Enjoy!
– Kris

Well, you’re already halfway there!

#MauiSunset Project Update

Earlier this year, I posted about the #MauiSunset project I started as part of the Daily Maui Photo website.

The concept is simply to have Maui fans on Flickr submit their Maui sunset photos to the #MauiSunset Flickr Group, and then we could all use this link to view them listed by year, month, and day.

As of this post, we already have Maui sunsets from 185 nights for the calendar year 2011. That’s already half of the entire year!

You Can Help

185 nights for 2011 is great, but wouldn’t 365 be awesome?

If you visited Maui in 2011 (or any previous year) and have sunset photos you’d like to submit to the Flickr Group, we’d love to see them.

You can also help my sharing this post or any of the links mentioned here in your own favorite social networks and get the word out so we can try to reach that 365 total for 2011.

Mahalo,
– Kris

Taken by Kris Nelson on August 27th, 2011.

Location: Hyatt Regency Maui, Ka’anapali, West Maui.

Photo Story

Last weekend, our ‘ohana was visiting our 2nd favorite travel destination, Door County, Wisconsin, for our last vacation of the year. We were with my wife’s family – who are also huge Maui fans, by the way – and we spent one night that weekend shooting star trails in the state park.

As we talked, we began comparing the stargazing conditions we had that night in northeastern Wisconsin to those we’d seen in Maui on our many trips before. And that discussion brought me back to this photo here.

Family Star Portrait

You may have seen this week’s Sunday Photo if you were following along on our last trip journal entries. It was from the last Saturday night of our Maui trip this year, and I spoke about the significance of sitting under the stars with my son. Also, if you read that journal entry and saw this photo before, you’ll also notice this one is a much nicer, newly edited version.

How They Compare

You’d think it wouldn’t be a fair fight between Hawaii and the Midwest in terms of comparing stargazing conditions. Any you’re probably right, but it usually depends on a few factors.

For example, in more developed places like Ka’anapali or Kihei, there can be more surrounding light pollution from resorts and buildings that would damper your ideal gazing conditions. Being able to lay on a beach towel and listen to the ocean, however, can more than make up for that, though.

There’s also the occasional vog or clouds off the mountains depending on which way the winds are blowing, too. Much of this can be averted, however, by getting up high. Like really high. As in, being up at the Hakeakala summit at night or camping out in the crater. On my bucket list, for sure.

So then, how about where we were last week in Wisconsin?

I’d have to say, from the time we’ve spent up there as well, the completely dark sky and surroundings we had last weekend seemed to be on the less frequent side. Not much of the area we stay at is very developed at all (as evidence of driving the unlit roads at 5:30am to the coast for the sunrise. It’s also a peninsula, with Green Bay to the west and Lake Michigan to the east. So, depending on the time of year, the weather patterns off either body of water can cloud up an otherwise clear sky in the matter of hours. That kinda closes your window of opportunity before it really opens wide enough.

More Maui Stargazing

Awhile back, I posted a Travel Traditions series at the blog, with one of my favorite entries being the stargazing post. While some of our trips have been busying than others, I always try to get out at least one night for a little shooting at night.

I had also started a Stars Over Hawaii group on Flickr for anyone that wanted to view more, or share their own photos the night sky above the Hawaiian islands.

And as always, if you wanted to Talk Story about your own stargazing experiences or tips while visiting Maui or the other islands, leave a comment below.

Mahalo, – Kris

Taken by Kris Nelson on August 26th, 2011.
Location: Ka’anapali, West Maui.

Photo Story

Another image captured during the 3rd Annual Maui Photo Festival in August.

We were doing a sunset shoot on the beach outside the Hyatt in Ka’anapali when I spotted this family setting up their fishing polls. Can’t think of a better way to spend a family night on Maui than enjoying the sunset together.

Taken by Kris Nelson on August 25th, 2011.
Location: Ka’anapali, West Maui.

Photo Story

This photo was taken during the 3rd annual Maui Photo Festival and Workshops last month, during their doors-off helicopter excursion. I had previously posted how excited I was about this helicopter flight after flying back in ’09, and coming up to the event, I started sharing with the MPF staff and instructors how bad I really wanted to get this shot. Well, here it is!

The thing about the Sheraton is – for those new to the blog, anyway – is the place where we fell in love with Maui back in ’06. It’s also where I took my first Maui photo, right from the lanai of those ocean front rooms you see left of Black Rock in the photo. So having an image like this and being able to point to the fourth floor of those buildings and say “we were there” is pretty special to us.

Also, it gives you a great perspective on just how large the Sheraton Maui Resort really is. Maybe you’ve never visited there before or were in one of the ‘ohana suites and never ventured on the other side of the resort. Back when I blogged about some of the walking paths and lookout points from this side of the resort, this view from above really lays out those photos better.

The Return of Sunday Photos!

It’s been a few months since the last Sunday Photo now, but after coming back from the Maui Photo Festival last month and having so many new images to share, it’s about time to get back in the swing of things again. After all, we already have over 85 photos in our Sunday Photos series, so it’s about time we hit that century mark and blow passed it like a whale pod cruising by a boat of spectators. Be sure to follow along.

Share the Aloha on Facebook

There are also a few other updates for the site in the works – one of which is the new ability to Like our posts on Facebook. It’s a pretty popular feature over at my Daily Maui Photo website, so I decided to put it to work for us here, too. Go head, give that little Like button a click, and even post a comment to Facebook about this image if you like, too. The more, the merrier.

Also, you’ll notice the Facebook Fan Box (the official term, by the way) for my Maui by Photo page. You might remember a post way back when in which I introduced this FB page back in ’09. Since then, we’re now at over 10,000+ Maui fans, which still blows me away. If you haven’t seen it yet, why not join us for daily photos and discussion.

Check Back Soon

We’ll have another Sunday Photo available next week, but don’t be a stranger until then. If you’d like to stay up to date with the blog throughout the week, every week, view the Subscribe options on the upper-right of the page and stay informed.

Until next time,
– Kris

Photo: Peter Liu

From the moment we landed on Monday, we knew Sunday would be here way too soon. But we had the full day to enjoy, and some friends to see before we left.

The Roughest of Mornings

This was our sixth trip to Maui, which means it was the sixth time we had to wake up on the last day of our trip, take one last look out from the lanai, and finish that last minute packing before checking out. And I can’t honestly say it gets any easier each time we do it.

Now, can we say that the morning we wake up to leave Maui is rougher than the 2:30am wake up call back home on the day we started our trip by being at the airport at 4:30am? That’s a toss up.

Wrapping up the Festival

Sunday morning starts with the final session of the Maui Photo Festival, which is centered around the awards ceremony and closing remarks.

It’s also one last chance to network and swap contact info – or these days, Facebook pages – with the other photographers you’ve been shooting next to and talking with in passing over the last few days. That morning, I had at least two people I had never met or spoken to online come up to me and mention my photography blog and said they’ve been following it for awhile and liked my work. That caught me off guard, and I was very flattered.

As part of the awards ceremony, the crew behind MPF put together this slideshow of the winners. It’s a good sample of the types of photographs everyone was taking over the four days, and if you’re looking for a good, visual recap of the entire event (not just what I attended), it’s a nice start.

And if you end up watching the entire slideshow, you’ll be sure to see this shot in there under the Best Aerial category.

It’s a pretty neat feeling having one of my images honored (again) at an event like this. Not too much you can describe in words, that’s for sure.

Congrats, Andy!

Our blog here isn’t the only one that had a photographer at the workshops receive an award this year, either. Andy Beal, the photographer from Go Visit Hawaii, also picked up the Best Hula award for his stunning sunset hula shot as well. In fact, head on over to this post at GVH and you can enter to win a canvas print of his winning photo. Hurry, you only have until Sunday!

Last Stop in Lahaina

With the awards ceremony wrapped up and after officially checking out of our hotel room, we were headed into Lahaina for one last stroll and to grab some lunch.

We walked around a bit, deciding on where we wanted to eat. We noticed that what was once BJ’s Chicago Pizzeria was now changed over to Lahaina Pizza Company, so we gave into our curiosity and made our way upstairs. After all, just because the sign on the door changed, there are still great views like this one.

Plus, I’m Italian, and it’s deep dish, and we’re from Chicago. You do the math.

Maui Tweeps to Go

After lunch and before our drive to the airport, we had carved out some time to meet up with some of our Maui pals on Twitter at Kalama Park in Kihei. Organized by popular Maui blogger and one of Maui earliest Maui tweeps, @AMauiBlog, it was actually the same spot where we first met up back in February ’09. In addition to Liza, we also met up with @raatz (David) – another one of the tweeps from that first meeting – @peterliu47 (Peter) and @roxannedarling (Roxanne). Peter we had met previously and was shooting along with the rest of us at the Maui Photo Festival. Roxanne was a new introduction (IRL, anyway) to us, and it turns out she came over from Oahu only a few months ago.

There were a few others hoping to make it, but schedules didn’t align in time. Next year, we’ll have to plan a few different meetings.

Like Father, Like Son

As we talked story for a bit, our son was getting a little antsy, so I broke out the cell phone at first and gave it to him to play with. Obviously it wasn’t the first time, since you can see below that he’s getting used to holding it the right way now.

Mahalo to Peter for taking these shots, too. They came out pretty neat.

Photo: Peter Liu

After seeing how much fun he was having posing for Peter, I decided to be brave and take out my camera and let him pose with that, too.

Photo: Peter Liu

Something tells me Christian and I might be a father-son photography team before he’s out of middle school.

As with the last few trips, it was great to hang out and chat with some of our Maui friends before we head home. As depressing as that last day of a Maui vacation can get sometimes, having a group of friends to help take your mind off it for awhile is priceless.

Aloha on Our Side

After our get together in Kihei, it was time to make our way to the airport and prepare for the late flights home.

We weren’t running late or anything, but the timing was a little close, and you always just want to get through the routine of rental car return, checking bags, and security as quickly as you can. Especially with a nine month old along for the ride.

So as we pulled up to Hertz to drop off the car, little did we know that we were about to fly through that routine faster than ever.

Hertz with a Save

In the opening post of our trip journal, I mentioned that we drove off the car rental lot with a bad taste in our mouths, even though we had been using Hertz on Maui for years. Well, when we pulled up to return the car and were 3rd in line, we were in for a more pleasant surprise. Just as I started to unload the luggage from the minivan and bring it over to the airport shuttle, the nice lady checking our rental signaled for one of the drivers to bring us to the terminal instead of waiting for the shuttle. Not only did that save us at least 10 minutes or so waiting for the shuttle, it also meant I didn’t have to unload the bags from the rental, get them to the shuttle, and then unload them from the shuttle at the terminal. Well done, Hertz. Mahalo!

United Stepping Up?

Living in Chicago and flying out of O’Hare airport, we’re always a little spoiled with their curbside check-in at the terminal. No waiting in lines to check bags, and straight to security.

For those used to flying home from Kahului, you know there is no such luxury. And in the past, we’d end up spending at least 30-45 minutes in line waiting for the United attendants to show up at the counter and start moving the line along. So when we arrived at the terminal, we were prepared for the long line that was already there ahead of us. Sigh.

But this time, something different happened. A few United baggage handlers had carts and were checking baggage for those inline, which meant we didn’t have to endure the line that was in front of us. That was totally unexpected and equally awesome. Another 30 minutes (at least) saved. This was getting good.

Comes in Threes

The last part that finished off the shortest trip through the Kahului airport was the super quick security lines. It was probably fast because of all those passengers still waiting inline at the United counter in the terminal, but still, there had to be only 4-5 people in line ahead of us.

One could really get used to that type of efficiency, mind you.

The Flights

Now that we were already go to and relaxing at the gate before boarding, it was really setting in that we were about to start our journey home.

Although Christian did fairly well on the flights coming to Maui, we weren’t thinking that the flights home were going to be a slam dunk. Especially since we were flying the red-eye back from Maui to San Francisco, and than continuing to Chicago after a few hours in between. Seeing how the little guy was going to take to his normal full night’s sleep time to being on a plane instead was the big question.

And to our relief, and those in the rows near us on the plane, he pulled it off with only one outburst. Not bad for a nine-month old on a four and a half hour flight in the middle of the night. With the first flight out of the way, we had a few hours for a quick breakfast (after everything opened) in the San Francisco airport before the last leg of our journey. And aside from a late gate change from one concourse to another, boarding and the final flight itself went as well as could be. In fact, during the last hour of our flight to Chicago, there was one child older than our son that was starting to fuss and make more noise that Christian was. Who knew?

Home Once Again

With that, we were back home and ready to sleep in our own bed (and crib). After being used to 2 week vacations to Maui, this second time going for just a single week surely felt less than adequate. But as with all our previous trips, we never wait very long after getting home – or even during the flight home – to start thinking about when our next visit to Maui will be. Even with our son now, that unwritten rule hasn’t changed, and we have a good idea of our Maui plans for the near future and beyond. We’ll be sure to share those here on the blog in the coming weeks and months.

Mahalo Nui Loa

That just about wraps up the trip journal for our ’11 Maui trip, thank you so much for following along with these posts this last week.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our time spent on Maui, and that maybe they’ve sparked ideas for your future trips or even about coming to the island for the very first time. In either case, please feel free to comment or leave any questions that you might have on this or any of our previous trips, and I’d be happy to talk story and share my thoughts the best I can.

Thanks again,
– Kris

Could it be, our last full day on Maui already? With the helicopter tour and sunrise at Haleakala crossed off the list, it was time to just go with the flow.

Sleeping In

Saturday morning was back to the regular golden hour shooting time at 6am, which was sleeping in compared to the Haleakala sunrise the day before. This shoot was an action shoot of skim boarders on Ka’anapali beach a few resorts south from where the Hyatt was. The morning air was fairly calm that early in the morning, but the waves that had been rolling in rather rougher than I’m used to seeing made for some nice action shots that early in the day.

Seeing that I was pretty content with the weeks event to-date, and keeping thoughts of leaving the day after out of my head, I put myself in a more carefree and stress reduced state of mind.

I shot for about an hour before heading back to meet with the Mrs. for a little breakfast at the Hyatt coffee bar. Here was the shot I was most happy with from that first shoot of the day.

Classes and Lunch

The rest of the morning was a few different workshops on digital editing and modifying light for portraiture. Not directly Maui related, so I’ll breeze of those details for you. I do have a full review of the entire workshop at my photography blog if you’re interested, though.

With our last full day on Maui, we did decide to head back over to Whalers Village again, and had a nice family lunch at Leilani’s. Just lunch this time, no doubling up on the Hula Pie twice in one trip. Or year, for that matter.

There wasn’t too much time left after lunch to hit the shops again, so it was back over to the Hyatt to finish off the afternoon.

Back to Class

The next session after lunch was a portfolio review class, where each photographer could submit a handful of photos and have the instructor review and critique them in front of room full of other photographers. Sound scary? It’s actually pretty helpful, and after getting good tips in the same class back in ’09, I knew I had to attend again this time around.

Again, I won’t ramble on about the class details, but it is worth noting that this was a big shift for this session because in ’09 I submitted some of my Maui landscapes. This year, I was sharing portraits of our son that I shot over the summer. Quick a big contrast in subject matter. You can check out the photos I submitted here if you’re in the mood for cute baby photos.

Beating the Dinner Rush

With the portfolio review class wrapped up, there wasn’t anything in next time slot that particularly intrigued me, so we decided to head off for an early dinner and be back in time for the sunrise. We didn’t want to stray too far from the resort, and found ourselves over at Aloha Mixed Plate right behind the Cannery in Lahaina.

We had lunch at AMP one trip and remembered that the food was good, the prices were reasonable, and the parking was a little hard to come by – depending on what time of day it was. Well, we lucked out this time because there were only 3 cars in the lot when we pulled up. Nice!

Compare that to the 2 cars waiting for an empty spot when we were ready to leave, we knew we had timed things well. And speaking of timing, we had a sunset to catch.

The Final Sunset

Part of me thinks that heading sounds a little ominous, but that’s exactly what it was. Before we knew it, we had our final Maui sunset quickly approaching. It was time to soak it all in and make this one last until our next trip back to the island.

We knew we wanted to back down to the beach and maybe let our sun play in the sand one last time, but we had to fight for a spot in the sand and the odds were against us. The last sunset shoot of the photo festival was a faux wedding setup, and as luck would have it, there was also an actual wedding happening on the beach by the Hyatt as well. So not only did the paying bride and groom get their stretch of paradise for their special day (and rightfully so), the crowd of photographers had staked their claim, too.

We setup just South of the beach near the beach park, which was okay for sitting on the beach blanket, but being under the trees in the area meant the sand wasn’t the greatest for a nine month old to go exploring on hands and knees. But still, whenever you have an ‘ohana with as much Aloha in our hearts as we do, and have a gorgeous Maui sunset as a backdrop, you know there are memories to be made.

See for yourself.

Now, I will go on the record and say that the sunset portrait from Thursday’s journal entry was my favorite of the sunset shots, but that last one right here is a close second. Although there’s not sunset, just knowing the fact that we’re coming to terms with leaving the next day and how amazing it’s been to be new parents and back here on Maui made it a very special moment. Not as bittersweet as you’d think, just sweet.

History Repeats

Aside from the saddening task of having to pack ahead of checking out the following morning, I was still contemplating whether I would go back out and shoot the stars again that night. I had done so on the final night of the ’09 workshops and ended up with this self portrait of me and the Milky Way.

I was maybe 50/50 on whether I’d go or not, but being in our room at around 9:45pm and seeing as our son was hardly settling down for bed, I decided to pack up my gear, grab my tripod, throw him in the stroller and head out for a stroll along the beachwalk. If I could get him to doze off and then get some shooting time after that, it would be a win-win.

And it wasn’t long before the cool summer air and the sounds of the waves against the beach put him right out, so I was off to scout for a location. While I didn’t find the exact spot from ’09, I did wind up with another great view of the Milky Way. Maybe after 30 minutes or so, I had things setup and came up with this sequel to my ’09 photo.

It was truly a great moment, and I good have stayed out there for another hour, but not two minutes after this shot, my son woke up and he was NOT happy. Being on the other side of the resort and all my camera gear setup, I tried walking him in the nearby lawn area for at least 20 minutes before I had to call for reinforcements. Before long my mom came down from the room and had him quiet in no time while I packed up and walked with them back to the resort.

At least I got my shot.

But Wait, There’s More

Even though Sunday was our last day, it was still going to be a full day thanks to the red-eye flight schedule out of Kahului. And we still had some friends to meet up with, too, before leaving for home.

Just one more trip journal entry to go!

– Kris

If there’s one truth about the roads on Maui, it’s that around 3:30am or so every single day, a trickle of cars start passing by the airport and form an impromptu caravan along what ends up being a 38 mile drive from base to summit. Yup, everyday, like clockwork.

Don’t Rise and Shine Me

It’s 2am on Friday morning. And there’s a reason why you pack all you camera gear the night before – it’s too darn early when that alarm goes off. Of course, I’m talking about the ritual known as the Haleakala sunrise. Number three for me, and the second going up as part of the Maui Photo Festival event.

While the excursion in ’09 was led by a local tour company on one of those mini-buses, this time around our brave few (maybe 12 or so) drove up in two separate vehicles. The first driven by Zane, one of the event organizers, and the second was piloted by instructor Andy Dunaway with me as his navigator. Our vehicle also carried instructor Stacy Pearsall, and her sister Meggen, which leads to another story on our descent back to the summit. But first, the photos:

The great thing about having already been up to Haleakala for the sunrise (twice, as mentioned) is that you already know what to expect mentally and physically. This time around, our temp at the top was 42F when we left our vehicle. Good thing I had my hockey jersey on (scroll down for pic).

Another great thing is that no two Haleakala sunrises are ever the same, so even if you have a “been there, done that” attitude, you’re missing out on something if you take a pass on the early morning journey. And although I had a great shot in my head that I wanted to capture that morning, we didn’t make it up early enough to see the stars and we didn’t drive all the way up to the summit either. But I was still happy to be up there, just as I was the first time.

Is There a Doctor in the House?

While the dark drive up the mountain with steep climbs and no guardrails once inside the park, the excitement this trip was actually on the way down. Less than 5 minutes after we started our descent down the volcano, and about 90 seconds after we drove through the clouds at about 9,000 feet or so, we found ourselves stopped in a small traffic jam. One caused by a bicycle accident.

Luckily for the injured gentleman, Stacy’s sister is a registered nurse and we were only four cars behind the accident when we arrived. Meggen quickly – and without hesitation – sprung into action to help out until the park ranger could get to the scene and the 45 minutes or so it took the emergency team to make the drive up the mountain.

While we waited, I had quite a bit of time to admire the view of the valley down below and take in some of the brisk, chilly mountain air. Some quiet time for reflection in what otherwise if a pretty busy an active four days of workshops.

Back to Class

Once we finally arrived back to the Hyatt, the next session I was looking to attend was a session by Judy Host, titled Photographing Children of All Ages. Now, even though I fell in love with photography while shooting landscapes of Maui while on vacation, my latest endeavors have been taking photos of our son pretty much any chance I can these days. And while he’s only nine months old now, he’ll eventually be all the ages that Judy was covering in her class, so it was time to learn what to expect.

The second half of her workshop session was shooting a family of three young daughters, and also a mother with her newborn daughter of only eight weeks. And wouldn’t you just happen to know, the mother and daughter were the friends of ours that I mentioned in the trip journal entry for Wednesday? So on that note, here’s the very peaceful looking, and very happy mother Natalie and her daughter, Mia.

Do note that baby Mia is flashing a tiny little shaka in the photo. How cute!

The interesting part of capturing this shot is that we met Natalie two years ago when she was the photographer taking our keepsake vacation portraits on that trip. And now, after staying friends on Facebook and her and Cindy keeping tabs on each other’s baby bumps this past year, I’m now shooting her portraits. Just another one of those neat little things that made this journey back to Maui so memorable for me.

Let’s Get Ready to Hula!

As with the previous two years, the signature event of the Maui Photo Festival every year is the Quintessential Hawaiian Photo Shoot: Hula on the Beach at Sunset led by Randy Jay Braun. It was the same event back in ’09 that I first really ever took portraits, and seeing how much I had learned in the past few months practicing with our son, I was really looking forward to it.

In the end, the event didn’t really turn out the way I had anticipated – although it was still a great shoot for many of the photographers there. I put my take on it in my full review of the workshops over at my photography blog if you wanted to read more. But, despite only shooting about a dozen shots in less than 5 minutes, I still captured this image, which I’m very proud of.

I will say, this session put on by the festival and the volunteer dancers – a few of which were also in the shoot back in ’09 – is one of the great opportunities these workshops have to offer. If you do come for a future event, you’ll definitely want to plan on attending this shoot.

Cue the Sunset

It may not be a State Law, but it could very well be considered a law of nature that every day on Maui should end with a great sunset. And after straying from the crowd of photographers shooting the hula dancers, I made my way up the beachwalk to prepare for the sunset.

The first one was neat because there was a family setting up a few fishing poles right there under the palm trees. I would have shot them all the way through to the sun setting on the horizon, but this pack of photographers started walking into my scene. I wonder where they all came from.

The third sunset in the set is named Sky Candy, and you can plainly see why. Something about the way the bright clouds rims the clouds just over the horizon that always makes me stop and take notice.

Maui No Ka Oi – The Magazine

The end of an extremely long day (a la 2am wake up call) was capped by a presentation by the editor, the art director, and a photographer from the magazine, Maui No Ka Oi. They were there to talk to us about the types of images and the consideration that goes into picking shots for the cover, as well as full page spreads and story lead-ins for their publication.

What stuck with me was the photographer on the panel that night said he had logged over 100 aerial shots over Maui. Unbelievable. Just imagining the collection of shots I could get with only a fraction of that (I’m only at 3 so far) made me super jealous. If only one day…one day.

Saturday Morning Awaits

One of the only good things about waking up at 2am for the sunrise is that no matter what time you have to get up the next day, it still feels like you’re sleeping in. So when it was time for our last golden hour shoot at 6am on Saturday, I felt as rested as one could be.

Stay Tuned,
– Kris

Thursday was the first full day of the photo festival, and my return to the skies with my second doors off helicopter tour. Prepare for take off.

Starting…Early

As with years past, the full day sessions of the Maui Photo Festival all start with golden hour photo shoots at the early hour of 6:00am. Yup, 6:00am in the morning. Knowing that you’re getting up that early usually means you get your rest the night before, but not me. Since this was the day I was going back up for another helicopter shoot, I was up going through photos from the last flight and reviewing the settings and gear I would be bringing with.

Thursday’s golden hour shoot was natural light portraits on the beach with instructors Judy Host and Lou Freeman. There was a professional model posing for us, which made me realize that photographers don’t get to complain about waking up so early to shoot when there’s a model that has to get up earlier than us and has to look beautiful at the same time. Better suck it up.

Morning Photos

This was the first time I was able to shoot with a professional model before, since the last few months have been spent taking portraits of friends and my family. There were 20 other photographers out on the beach for the shoot, so it was more awkward for her having so many cameras pointed at her than it was for me shooting a model for the first time.

The shoot itself lasted the entire two hours – bless her heart – but these shots were mostly from the first half of that morning.

The First Keynote Session

After the morning’s golden hour shoot, it was time to get the workshops started. First up, was the the well-known island photographer and artist, Randy Jay Braun. He was presenting on the Art of the Landscape, which gave some good insight into his thought process for capturing awe inspiring images that end up in his artwork and his gallery. And although I haven’t been to his gallery in Paia yet, just looking at photos of it on Facebook are pretty telling. This guy knows what he’s talking about.

It was a good session for me – and one I probably could have really used 4-5 years ago when we first started coming to Maui. It shed some good light on what some of my previous landscapes were fairly popular on Facebook and my Daily Maui Photo website, while others were only greeted with a luke warm reception. It has given me a few new things to consider when I go out and shoot landscapes in the future and when I go back and edit photos I’ve taken of Maui from previous trips. Good stuff, thanks Randy!

Doors Off, Buckle Up

After the session with Randy, it was time to focus in on the helicopter ride. It was even better this year now that I knew what to expect from the first flight, and that I had a newer camera that I bought in November before our son was born. And this time, the weather was looking absolutely perfect.

Enough talk, here are some of the shots I came away with.

The flight plan was slightly different this year, which was great, too. Initially, we weren’t going to go back into the valley in the west mountain range, but the pilot talked us into it and it was well worth it. The shot below is from what the ancient Hawaiians call “The Wall of Tears”.

That made it worth it.

When we came out of the valley, we made the flight around west Maui and did a flyby passed Kahakoklua Bay like last time. We came from a different approach path this time, which made for some more dramatic shots than back in ’09. Total score.

The Money Shot

The one request I had this year was to fly over our favorite resort – the Sheraton and Black Rock. Of the two other helicopter flights I’ve taken in Maui, neither made it to the Ka’anapali resort area. This year, however, was the year.

And here’s the shot.

I must have fired off about 45 images in the 20 seconds we hovered over the area. There was one other angle I was hoping for, but I’m more than happy with this shot and the others. It’s great because those rooms right there overlooking the ocean were rooms we stayed in for our first four trips to the island. This one’s definitely going up on our wall at home.

Thursday Sunset Shoot

The sunset shoot for the festival on Thursday was a Maui Swimwear model shoot right there on the beach. Sounds fun, yah? Well, I took a pass on it.

Instead, I had my own models, and we went out for our own shoot. Instant memories.

Although our son won’t remember these sunsets from his first trip to Maui, his mother and I will cherish these photos forever. You can be sure of that.

Aloha Friday Already?

Looking ahead to the next day in our trip, it was hard to believe it was Friday already. And I was determined to make the most of it as myself and a handful of others were heading up to Haleakala for the sunrise. So if you want to make the most of your Friday on Maui, you better start early? Good luck with that.

– Kris

If Tuesday was the day of exploration, Wednesday was staying with the ol’ familiar. And speaking of familiar, the open ceremony of the Maui Photo Festival on Wednesday night felt like a good ol’ reunion, too.

Front (Street) and Center

Waking up Wednesday, we already knew we’d be staying close to home this time. And before the morning was over, we were already browsing the shops along Front Street looking for some keiki-sized Aloha wear. While almost two years had passed since we were last in these parts, many of the places we were used to had stayed the same, with only a few minor alterations.

By not having breakfast, we were ready for an early lunch. And like years past, it had to be Cheeseburger in Paradise. Sure, it has a tourist feel to it, but it was one of the first places we ate on our first Maui trip in ’06, and it just feels right as one of our other travel traditions.

And even though we had little Christian with us, they still chose to seat us upstairs and right near the window. The views of the harbor are pretty nice up there, and even Christian had to come over and glance out the window for a few moments. He was half fascinated by the boats out on the water and half fascinated by the water running up the sand and the shore directly below us. I imagine he was connecting the dots from his first beach experience on Tuesday, but you can never be sure.

Time in the Shade

We didn’t spend too much more time shopping in Lahaina after lunch, but we did wander over to the Banyan Tree to cool off in the shade for a bit. While we were there, I walked around looking for a few images to capture.

It is, after all, one big honkin’ tree and has been around for over 150 years now. It’s not that easy to get the entire scene in just one shot, so I was more interested in finding a few different angles from underneath.

Oh My, Hula Pie

After leaving Lahaina, it was back to Whalers Village for the next biggest challenge of our trip…the Hula Pie!

Okay, we were actually going to Whalers Village to meet one of my very supportive followers on Twitter, Gale… aka @MauiKindaDay. One of the great things about Twitter is that you can find and follow folks that are living the good life on Maui, and then when you actually get to meet them in person, it’s even cooler. Gale and I had been trading photos of Maui and sunsets for at least six months now, so meeting IRL (in real life) was extra nice.

And while we were there, of course, we just couldn’t resist the Hula Pie.

Mind you, we didn’t actually give our nine month old son Hula Pie to eat – which would have been a HUGE mistake if we had ever wanted him to sleep again for the rest of the week. The server just happened to bring out 4 spoons, and with each of us already using one, Christian felt like he needed to do as we did.

We did find it somewhat alarming, however, that up close, the Hula Pie was almost as big as he was. Yikes, that’s a lot of goodness on one plate.

Back to the Hyatt

As we waited for the sugar coma to set in, we drove back to the Hyatt to get settled for the evening and the opening ceremonies.

When we were making our way to the elevators in the Lahaina Tower, the Maui Photo Festival crew were already setting up and ready for check-in. We stopped to say Aloha and made introductions to the ‘ohana that was joining me this year. It was great, thanks to Facebook, because the head folks for the MPF had already seen tons of photos of Christian online and were happy to finally meet him in person.

After checking in to the festival, we made our way to the room for a little downtime. Cindy and I ended up heading downstairs to the Umalu restaurant at the Hyatt to bring back dinner upstairs, and I started to work on a few photos from Monday and Tuesday. Before long, it was already time to get cleaned up for the MPF ceremonies downstairs and get the party started.

Opening Reception

It didn’t take long once the crowd outside the ballroom doors at that Hyatt started gathering to bump into some familiar faces from the ’09 photo festival. From instructors to other photographers, I was blown away by how many people remembered me from two years ago. I shouldn’t have been that surprised, though, since most of us have been keeping up with each other on Facebook since the last time I was on Maui. Regardless, it was a nice moment.

There were a few folks, however, that we hadn’t met yet that had us really excited to meet face-to-face.

New Faces

First up, we were saving two empty chairs at our table during the first part of the reception, for the great folks over at Go Visit Hawaii – Sheila and Andy. We had been tweeting, blogging, and sharing with GVH for what has seemed like years now, so getting to meet them IRL after all that time was really great. Also, Andy is a big fan of another one of our Maui photography pals, Peter Liu, so being there for that introduction was neat, too.

And last, but by no means least, was getting our first up-close peak at Baby Mia, the newborn daughter of our friends Chris and Natalie. We met Natalie back in ’09 when she shot our amazing vacation portraits. We met up again later that same year at the first Maui Photo Festival and have been keeping in touch ever since. It was one of the many highlights of the night, and I even had the chance to shoot portraits of Natalie and her daughter later in the week, so you’ll need to stay tuned to the trip journal for those, soon.

That’s a Wrap

And just like that, the evening was over. The Maui Photo Festival and Workshops had officially begun, and the shooting was starting at 5:45am the following morning. That, of course, meant it was time to get some shut eye and brace myself for a non-stop 3-day learning marathon.

Thursday Was Up in the Air

It was a little hard to sleep Wednesday night, because looking ahead to Thursday meant another date with the heliport and a doors-off helicopter ride with my new camera gear. It was a thrill to fly and shoot back in ’09, and it was going to be an even bigger event going up for a second time around. Stay tuned!

– Kris