All Asian People Look The Same

I've heard it said that "all asian people look the same."  Here is a blog post that is going to put that theory to the test.  These three girls, are from different countries in Asia.  I want you to guess WHERE each girl is from, and let us know in the comments.  

Girl 1

Girl 2

Girl 3

Let us know in the comments which girl you think is from what country, i.e "I think girl 1 is from... girl 2 is from... girl 3 is from..."  I will post a blog next week telling you, who is from where.  

3 Steps To Better Inanimate Object Photos

One of our blog readers The Moldy Cannoli asked us how to take beter photos of inanimate objects for blog posts.  If you look on her blog, her photos look good already.  But here are some tips for others that might be useful.  

The other day Jess found a snail shell outside, so I'm going to use that as my example.  I took the two photos below with my iphone 3gs which is not a good camera at all.  I purposely choose to use this "camera" to show that you can achieve decent results with any camera.  

The first example is the snail shell on a dining room table.  It's a snapshot, the object is placed in the center of the frame and you can sort of tell what it is.  But lets talk about what makes this photo  a not so good photo.  

1.  The first thing is that your eye is always going to be drawn to the BRIGHTEST part of the photo.  That happens to be the glare from the sun on the table.  So automatically my eye is drawn away from the subject.  

2.  The piece of junk mail on the table in the upper left hand corner is also distracting.  

3.  Lastly, you can't see much detail in the shell and the lighting is rather flat.  

For the "better" photo I took the shell over near a window.  The shell is actually on an afhgan hanging over the back of the couch.  The shell is probably about a foot away from the window which is to the left.  Window lighting is ALWAYS flattering, it's soft lighting because its indirect.   It won't be soft lighting if the sun is beating directly into that window though, so pick a window on the side of your house that the light is indirect.  The side lighting gives the shell more "shape" because of the light and shadows.  (Not flat like our last photo)  

For this photo I moved in closer which does TWO things.  It allows you to see more detail, AND it eliminates a distracting background.  I should have cropped this photo at the top and bottom so you were really focusing on the shell.  The folds in the afghan at the top are distracting.

I also positioned the shell in a way that was more flattering.  I remember someone who was hired to photograph some jewelry and instead of laying the pieces flat on a table he found a small peice of drift wood and hung the earrings so that they would display more in their natural state.  Sometimes simple adjustments to presentation will make or break your photo.  

So three steps to improve your photos of inanimate objects are...

1.  flattering lighting
2.  positioning the object in a flattering way
3.  non-distracting background


Did you find these tips helpful?  What other advice would you give?  Let us know in the comments!

Protect Your Camera From DUST

Honolulu Color Run 

Saturday Jess ran in the Honolulu Color Run.  I took our Canon S100 point and shoot to document.  I didn't think it through very well... 

8 TONS of color.  That means 8 tons of colored cornstarch filling the air.  

The photo above was one of the last photos I took before my camera just stopped working.  

Now it won't start back up saying it has a lens error.  I'm sending it to Canon tomorrow.  I don't think its going to get repaired for free when they take it apart and a lot of colored dust comes out... 

Moral of the story.  Protect your camera from dust.  I should have put mine in our underwater housing.  

Have you ever had to have a camera repaired?  Share your story in the comments.  

Shut the BEEP UP!

Emily from my school of photography. 

Want to know a simple way to improve your photography?  

Mute the volume on your camera so that when you turn it on, it does not make that annoying start up sound and won't beep every time your camera focuses.   

Silencing the beep will help you get better photos.  To get better candid shots you want to try and blend in.  Camera sounds don't help that cause.  When people hear that beep they know someone is taking a picture, so they are going to awkwardly scan the room to see who is taking their photo and there goes your "natural" moment.  
I was in a meeting recently and besides the person speaking, the only other noise was someones camera making digital shutter sounds.  Please don't be that person.  :)   

Have photographers ever been a distraction to you?  Do you need to go turn your camera beep off?  Let us know in the comments.  

Oahu Landscape Photographer | Sunrise

Here is another Oahu sunrise photo!  The original location we wanted to shoot at got rained out, so we drove home and saw this on the way.  It's currently my desktop background.  I think it's one of my favorite photos.  :)

What do you think?  Let us know in the comments.  

*Prints available for purchase.  Contact us for details.

Oahu Photography | Honolulu Cityscape at Dusk

  

It's rare that I go back to the same place to get a similar shot, even though it shouldn't be.  But after shooting Honolulu's cityscape at night, I wanted to go a bit earlier so I could the sky to be blue instead of black.  (Click here to see the original version)

Which crop do you prefer?  1 or 2?  Let us know in the comments!  

*Prints available for purchase.  Contact us for details.

Oahu Landscape Photographer | Which do you like better? More sunrise photos

Which do you like more?  The first one or second?  Let us know in the comments.  Prints available, let us know if you're interested.  

Oahu Landscape Photographer | Bellows Beach Sunrise

Bellows Beach, Oahu Sunrise

I'm thankful that my wife encourages me to get up at 4:30am to get beach sunrise shots.  Because if it wasn't for her encouragement and getting up with me to go do this I think I would just lay in bed.  I think waking up that early was worth it don't you?  

What do you think?  Let us know in the comments!  Want a print of this for your wall?  Let us know what size and we'll give you a quote!  

Oahu Family Photographer | Joanna and Jihan

We LOVE returning clients!  We recently did a family photo shoot for the Denny family.  Joanna's sister Jihan was visiting her here in Hawaii and they asked us to do a sister and cousins session for them!  We had previously done Jihan's maternity photos and baby photos for George on the mainland.  George is growing up so fast!  He's 9 months now.  We headed out to Makapu'u and grabbed these photos!  

Thank you Jihan and Joanna for continuing to choose us as your photographers!  We hope these are photos that you will continue to cherish as your families grow!  

Which photo is your favorite?  Let us know in the comments! 

Honolulu Hawaii Portrait Photography | Mahea part 2

Last week I posted Part 1 of Mahea's photoshoot.  We grabbed a few more shots in front of a shipping container at the playground and then headed down to Waikiki.  

Which photo is your favorite?  Let us know in the comments.  Big mahalos to Mahea for doing such an awesome job modeling for us!