Trip Journal Entry for Wedneday, August 24th, 2011.

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