Posts Tagged ‘websites’

Weekly Website: Hawaii Photography

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Welcome to another installment of our Weekly Website series.

This week’s website gives us many great views of the Hawaiian islands, through the eyes of both professional and amateur photographers alike.

Hawaii Photography – Share in the Hawaii Photography Community
http://www.hawaiiphotography.com

I really enjoy looking at photos from Hawaii, and on any given day, it can be a toss up whether I enjoy taking photos of Maui more or viewing those taken by others. In any case, Hawaii Photography offers a lovely collection of top rate photographs from local Hawaii photographers and from visitors (like myself) that have really taken a liking to snapping photos on vacation. There is also a sense of community at the Hawaii Photography website, offering features to post and discuss topics with other photographers on the islands with similar passions for shooting in paradise.

Features
When you visit the home page of Hawaii Photography, right away you’re greeted with a slideshow of some 75 photos or so from members on the site. These aren’t tiny little thumbnails, either. They’re 800px by 590px full of Aloha goodness that showcase everything from flora to sunsets, and portraits to whale encounters. Kind of seems like a no brainer to have on the front page of a photography site, but I was (and still am) very impressed when I first saw it.

The next thing to notice is the Members list on the left-hand side. The site currently has about 60 members, which in today’s web terms is relatively small. Yet for a site with a narrow focus (and I use the term narrow lightly) on just the Hawaiian islands, it’s a pretty strong community. Viewing the Members page on the site lists a few Featured Members at the top, showcasing some of the professional photographers capturing the Aloha spirit on the islands.

There are a few other features worth noting that add to the community feel of Hawaii Photography:

  • Customizable home page for members
  • Comment and sharing features for photos
  • A blog to post updates and photos to
  • Individual discussion groups per island
  • An overall discussion forum to Talk Story, share ideas or arrange meet-ups
  • Slideshow badges like the one I posted below


Find more photos like this on Hawaii Photography

There are a few other features, too, that I haven’t discovered yet, so be sure to check it out for yourself. While my profile page hasn’t really been customized at all, I wanted to share the one from Natalie Brown. She is the photographer we booked for our vacation portraits next month when we’re on Maui, and seeing some of her worked online at Hawaii Photography certainly helped make our decision to choose her that much easier.

About Hawaii Photography
Hawaii Photography was created and managed by Hawaii Web Design, and looking at the dozens of websites they’ve put together for businesses and groups on Maui and across the islands, they sure know a thing or two about portraying the beauty of Hawaii online. Be sure to check out their portfolio to see if any of your favorite sites are done by Hawaii Web Design. Looking at my list of future sites to feature in our Weekly Website series, there are one or two coming up shortly.

Talk Story
Head on over to Hawaii Photography and let us know what you think. If you’re like me, you’ll probably be drawn into all the amazing photos, so be sure to share your favorites. And for any other vacation photographers or Hawaii enthusiasts with a hard-drive full of photos, why don’t you sign up while you’re there?

As always, if you know of a website or blog you think we should feature in our Weekly Websites series, check out the contact details below.

Mahalo.
– Kris


The Weekly Website Series here at our blog showcases various websites and blogs that we like to frequent, as well as recommend to others. There are so many Maui and Hawaii focused sites out there, it might seem a little intimidating at first. By featuring sites that we us ourselves and have found very helpful and engaging, we hope to introduce others to the very best out there.

To follow along with future editions of our Weekly Website Series, be sure to subscribe to our blog feed to get the latest posts and updates. We already have a bit of a queue, but if you haven’t seen one of your favorites yet, you can contact us or send me a note on Twitter.

Weekly Websites – Coming Soon

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Laptop on the LanaiLast week, we launched a new weekly series here at the blog that cover our travel traditions. This week, I’m also setting the stage for another new series, the Weekly Website series.

Back in August, I shared a little glimpse of how I like to keep tabs on Maui when I’m on home the mainland. In that post, I also  spoke to the websites and blogs that we follow regularly, and how you can find details about those in our (still growing) Reviews section. But there are some really great sites and blogs out there that I follow, and just having a little paragraph about each can’t really do them justice.

So, starting next week, I’m going to make a commitment to feature one of the sites or blogs from that list here at the blog, and give others the opprotunity to talk story and share their thoughts as well. This will give me more room to detail out what I like about each site or blog, share some of my favorite and most recommended posts from each, and give our readers a better feel for why they should check them out. 

There’s Still More to Come
The more and more I’m online reading about Maui, and Hawaii in general, the more I stumble across so many great sites.  It’s really hard to keep up sometimes, so taking the opportunity to feature a different site each week will encourage me to stay on top of things. :)  As an example, one blog that I recently discovered and added to the Blogs list is A Maui Blog.  This blog, written by Liza, features many different aspects of life on Maui, as her and her family have experienced over the last 15 years.  There are some great posts about local events and other happenings on the Valley Isle, and a lot of great photos, too.

I’ll have more on A Maui Blog in a future edition of our Weekly Websites series, but don’t wait until then, check it out now.

Have a Website or Blog?
If you have a website or a blog that covers the magic of Maui or any of the Hawaiian islands, we’d love to see it.  Just contact us with the details or look me up on Twitter and drop me a line there. 

Also, if you have comments or thoughts on our own website, do please take a minute to share them with us. You can do so in our Talk Story section. We really love hearing from everyone.

Mahalo.
– Kris