What, we leave for Maui in two weeks? Holy crap!

That’s tongue-in-cheek, of course, no doubt we’re very excited to be going back to the island that we love for the first time in almost 2 years. What’s snuck up on us is just how fast things as a new ‘ohana are racing by and how that first early morning flight will be here before we know it.

The Good News

The good news – or bad news, if you wish – is that this trip is shorter than our previous 2-week adventures, so there isn’t too much else needed to plan. We arrive Monday, so we have Monday night, all day Tuesday, and most of the day Wednesday to ourselves. Wednesday night starts the opening of the Maui Photo Festival and Workshops, and that runs all the way through to Sunday morning. Sadly, we leave on a late flight that night on Sunday.

So, what to do with what equates to just under 48 hours of free time on Maui before the workshops start? Well, we land mid-afternoon on Monday, so no doubt they’ll be a stop at Costco before heading to the Hyatt. Since we’re travelling with keiki this trip, we’re renting a larger vehicle than we’ve driven previously, so that means more space for groceries and supplies (aka baby stuff). We’ll see how travel day treats us as to where we end up for dinner that night.

Getting Social

Tuesday being our free day – or at least mine, anyway – we’re thinking of heading down to Kihei and catch up with a few friends that we might not be able to meet up with on Sunday before we leave. We’re tentatively entertaining the idea of two gathers with friends on Tuesday and then on Sunday, but now’s really the time to kick that into high gear.

Personally, I’d also love to cross off La Perouse Bay off of my wish list for shooting photos while we’re down there, but I don’t know how realistic that would be with the entire family. If not, we may end up walking the Wailea Boardwalk during sunset again if we’re still down that far.

Wednesday will likely be our Lahaina day, as we drop in on Front Street and checkout what has changed (or hasn’t) since our last visit in ’09. Given all the early evening walks we’ve been taking with our son in his stroller this summer, we should be right in our usual rhythm (praying my mom’s knees can hold up, though). And as mentioned, we’ll be back at the Hyatt Wednesday night for opening ceremony and presentation of the photo workshops, so that’s when we’ll start to see some of the familiar faces from the ’09 event.

The Workshop Schedule

While the official workshop schedule is already available, I haven’t gone through it thoroughly enough yet to know what I am going to be attending (aside from the helicopter tour, of course). I actually have a business trip next week and before we leave for Maui, so I downloaded the schedule to my iPad and plan on spending some flight time reading through and picking my selections. I’ll have a follow up post on that, too, over on my photography blog.

One of the things I’m really excited about this year is how much I’ve progressed and learned since the last session I attended back in ’09. That, plus the recent shift to shooting portraits (thanks to our son), means I’ll be looking into different sessions than last time. No fear, mind you, I can’t easily give up my original passion of shooting gorgeous landscapes of Maui, so there will be plenty of that, too.

More to Come

Although it’s really starting to take a last-minute feel to it, I’ll probably have a few more things to share before we leave. Primarily they’ll be around meetups with friends from last trip and even some we’ll get to meet IRL for the first time – most notably the great folks Sheila and Andy from Go Visit Hawaii.

And last, but not least, our son Christian gets to make his Maui debut and meet all his Maui fans from Facebook that can’t wait to see him up close and personal. Who knows, some of them might even be his future babysitters. *wink* *wink*

Well, that’s all for now. Aloha!

– Kris

Don’t you just love math problems?!

Not only are we completely stoked to be returning to Maui next month after a two year hiatus, and I’m very excited to be going back to attend the Maui Photo Festival again this year, things went up another notch this weekend. I booked another doors-off helicopter tour as part of the workshops. Nice!

Deja Vu

I’ve mentioned previously that my experience at the ’09 Maui Photo Festival and Workshops was a total thrill. Prior to that, I had never been around that many photographers before or had so much instruction stuffed in my brain in only a few a days time. Now that I get to back with a new focus on shooting portraits (thanks to our new son), some seriously upgraded camera gear, and not to mention two years of practice and experience, this year’s event is going to be even bigger for me.

And as the highlight of my ’09 experience was flying high above Maui with nothing between me and the Earth below but my camera lens, getting to do it all again is going to be awesome. I learned a lot from that last flight in ’09 (and one other flight I did in Wisconsin after that) that I can’t wait to apply to this year’s flight. Add with the new camera upgrades I made last year in preparation of our son’s birth, and there’s no telling what new favorite images I’ll come away with this time.

Previous Photos

To help make my point on how amazing flying above Maui is and getting to shoot without windows or doors in your way, here are a few images from the excursion back in ’09.

You can view more photos on Flickr in the Doors-Off photoset on Flickr or on ImageKind.

Not only have these aerial shots been featured here at the blog and my Daily Maui Photo website, but they’ve also made it into my first Maui eBook and my iPhone app as well. You can bet that the images I hope to come back with after this year’s flight are going to be shared in just as many places, if not more.

One Nagging Question

There is one minor hiccup from the last doors-off flight from ’09 that I’m wondering if I should try to address before we take off for the Valley Isle in less than two months. What do you guys think, should I get a buzz cut so this doesn’t happen again?