Here are some recent Hawaii family portraits, taken in Ko Olina on Oahu, Hawaii.

I met Gina in Paris over 10 years ago, and we never met in person again until just recently, when they came to Hawaii for a family vacation.

For many years, Gina would visit Hawaii occasionally, but we never crossed paths because I was living in Los Angeles. Now that I’m living in Hawaii, getting together is much more likely.

While Gina wanted to have some family photos, our primary reason for visiting on this day was to celebrate her son Nico’s first birthday. Fortunately, we were able to spend a good amount of time at the lagoon behind their resort, and we had a lot of fun!

When we returned to their room, we brought out the cake to celebrate Nico’s birthday. It was so entertaining to watch him eat it!

Thank you, Gina, for inviting us over! You have a wonderful family!

Hope to see you all soon! ]]> http://www.kevinlubera.com/2012/05/17/hawaii-family-portraits-ko-olina-oahu-hawaii/feed/ 0 http://www.kevinlubera.com/2012/04/26/hawaii-wedding-invitations-letterpress-stationery-honolulu/ http://www.kevinlubera.com/2012/04/26/hawaii-wedding-invitations-letterpress-stationery-honolulu/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:09:33 +0000 Kevin Lubera http://www.kevinlubera.com/?p=4223 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

Looking for Hawaii wedding invitations? Look no further than Bradley & Lily Fine Stationery right here in Honolulu, Hawaii!

There’s no doubt that I’ve thought a lot in recent years about what my wedding would be like. I’ve thought about where it would be, how many people I’d like in attendance, and whether it would be formal or casual. Of course, you never really know until it’s time to plan your wedding. For me and Loretta, our engagement wasn’t very long, so we didn’t have much time to figure things out. Fortunately, we agreed on just about everything.

Most decisions were fairly easy. Like choosing our stationer — Stacey and Ian at Bradley & Lily Fine Stationery. When it was time to design, however, we were stumped. We never really thought about what our “theme” would be!

There were just a couple of things that we knew for sure. First, I love orange, so we would incorporate a lot of orange into our details. Second, Loretta loves palm trees. She’s completely obsessed, I must say. I suppose being from Canada might have something to do with it. Perhaps it just makes her feel like she’s on vacation when she sees them.

It’s quite interesting how much of your personality goes into your wedding invitation. Personally, I’m more of a conservative, classic type of guy, while Loretta is more on the “cheery” side. To keep things simple, we chose a sans serif type against a natural white paper. Then we chose a light blue to complement the orange. In the end, our stationery was predominantly blue, with a splash or orange here and there. To be honest, as long as we had orange on it, I would be happy.

When viewing the images below, please note that they were all shot with the Instagram app on my iPhone using natural window light. While you may see some inconsistencies with the colors, they are generally quite accurate.

Here are some images of our invitation collection, starting with the custom letterpress invitation card, complete with hand-painted edges in orange.

We ended up with a total of three logos, two of which you’ll see in this post. Here’s the first one, which we used on the RSVP info card.

We also included a map, labeled with some of our favorite spots on the island, so our guests could use as a reference while they vacationed on Oahu before and/or after the wedding.

Here is a close-up of our 2nd logo. The 3rd logo is a variation on this design, which includes our names, date, and location.

Our venue was distinctly marked with an orange heart.

And of course, no invitation is complete without custom postage!

If you’re looking to create your own Hawaii wedding invitations, Bradley & Lily Fine Stationery does exceptional work. Their work can be seen at South Shore Paperie, Stacey and Ian’s very own storefront, which was recently named Best Stationery Store in the Best of Honolulu 2012 issue of Honolulu Magazine.

Thanks again to Stacey & Ian for our beautiful stationery!!! ]]> http://www.kevinlubera.com/2012/04/26/hawaii-wedding-invitations-letterpress-stationery-honolulu/feed/ 0 http://www.kevinlubera.com/2012/04/03/maui-engagement-photos-self-portrait-part-8-hana-paia/ http://www.kevinlubera.com/2012/04/03/maui-engagement-photos-self-portrait-part-8-hana-paia/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:50:52 +0000 Kevin Lubera http://www.kevinlubera.com/?p=4189 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

Hello, and welcome to another set from my own Maui engagement photos!

Late last year, during our visit on Maui, Loretta and I took a trip out to Hana, where we stayed overnight. Before arriving in Hana, we stopped in Keanae for some fun in the sun. This shot below was just the beginning of lots of laughter. We spent so much time in the sun that we were tanned by the time we returned to the car. And it was supposed to be just a five minute stop!

The morning after, we woke up before the crack of dawn to witness an amazing sunrise. Just in case it isn’t obvious, that’s the wind blowing my hair. I did comb it in the morning, and it might as well be a rooster’s comb as far as I can see.

Then we went for a morning jog.

Later that morning, after our breakfast at Travaasa Hotel Hana, we stopped over at the O’heo Gulch Pools (aka Seven Sacred Pools). The pools were closed off due to raging waters, so we took more photos of ourselves.

Working our way around the mountain, we encountered perhaps the windiest conditions we’ve ever experienced. This one really tested Loretta’s patience. lol

And finally, this one below happens to be one of Loretta’s favorites, taken on Thanksgiving morning, when we also celebrated Christmas with my family.

I hope you all enjoyed this set!

Aloha, and welcome to this week’s set of images, taken from our set of Oahu engagement photos!

Last week I shared a set of images from our Maui engagement photos set, and this week I thought I’d continue with more Hawaii photos.

These images were actually taken during a scouting trip for this shoot, and I figured we might as well take some photos while we were out there. I decided against this location for my client due to the amount of hiking involved with the kids.

I really loved the color palette of the landscape. Loretta was reminded of her trip to South Africa when she saw the final result of the first image below.

Not long after I took some portraits of her, we witnessed an amazing sunset. Makes me want to see that every day.

Hello everyone, and welcome to another set from our Maui engagement photos!

These images come from one of our earliest sessions in all of our engagement pictures. I took Loretta to beautiful Upcountry Maui, where you can drive with the windows down and feel the crisp, clean air as you smell the aroma of eucalyptus.

I took Loretta to one of my favorite spots in Upcountry Maui. She hasn’t spent much time in Upcountry Maui, so this was a great opportunity for me to show her around. I love this place because it’s something most people never expect on a tropical island. And you can go there just about any time of the day and get nice light for photos. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get tired of plain old sunny beach photos.

We had a great time dancing and playing hide-and-seek during this shoot. Fortunately, Loretta is almost always game for my silly ideas. The last shot looks so simple and serious, but you’d be surprised at how much effort went into it; we were pretty hysterical by the time we were through.

And of course, I just had to get a few shots of Loretta on her own.

Would you like to shoot some Maui engagement photos? If so, where would you like to go?

Welcome to this week’s set of Toronto engagement photos!

It’s been a pretty wet, cool, and  windy week or so in Hawaii and, while I thought about posting something “warmer,” I figured I’d take you all back to Toronto to show something on the cooler side. That way, at least I’d appreciate the [relatively] warm weather here.

Last week, I shared some of our Maui engagement photos, and this week we go back to Toronto, where we had a good amount of cold. Brrrr! Our first attempt at shooting the CN Tower didn’t work out, but we did end up with some very usable images. Loretta gave me a mini tour of the campus at University of Toronto, and we took a few shots here and there. At a certain point, we couldn’t move around too quickly because it was starting to get a bit slippery and wet. We took a few shots at one of the buildings where we took cover while it was snowing. You’ll see a few of those images in this post.

In the first image, you’ll see our CN Tower postcard shot (lol), and the last image is one of the last frames that we took that afternoon. The snow was getting quite heavy at the end of our session, and it was actually quite fun! I just love the textures of the buildings, and the snow really added a different element to the images.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — Loretta had a lot of patience, and I’m so thankful for her for collaborating with me on these shoots.

How much do images affect your mood? How do you feel when you see these images?

As for me, I’m looking to shooting more Toronto engagement photos! Such a cool (no pun intended) city, I can’t wait to see it in another season.

Last week I took you to Toronto, and this week we go back to our set of Maui engagement photos.

Loretta had been to the summit of Haleakala a couple of times, but she had never gone inside the crater. I thought it might be fun for both of us to hike in for a little while. Since we wanted to get good light and not freeze to death, we opted for a late afternoon hike. That way, we could dress comfortably and still get some interesting shots. We headed up a little later than I would have preferred, and an unexpected stop delayed us even further. I think the stop was well worth it, though.

As we were making our ascent, Loretta fell asleep, and I suddenly had a vision of jumping on clouds. At every turn, I was hoping for an area where I could execute my vision. Then suddenly, a promising location revealed itself as I was nearing the summit. Loretta woke up as I made the u-turn to park the car.

While we wolfed down the bentos that we picked up from Pukalani Superette, I explained my idea to Loretta. Needless to say, she was quite disoriented at this point. Fortunately, I have a fiancée who is almost always adventurous and who trusts me when I ask her to do silly things.

The idea was quite simple — we would jump and jump and jump until I thought we had the shot. Not an easy task when you just woke up from a nap at 9,000 ft. The good thing is that it didn’t take very long to get what I needed. Of course, it wasn’t hard to stop because we were also out of breath. lol

We managed to do some hiking and get some shots inside the crater. And I think Loretta enjoyed it, despite the rush to beat the sunset.

Thanks, Babe, for jumping when I ask you to! :*

This week’s images come from our session at the historic Distillery District in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Every week since I’ve started this series, I’ve had a difficult time selecting the images to post and write about. Initially, I was going to post the images in the order that they were shot, but I think I’ll mix things up a bit. For this week’s post, Loretta suggested some images from Toronto, and I thought it was a great idea.

This session was fun for us because, for the first time, we had witnesses. Loretta’s parents came out to the Distillery District with us, and I’ll never forget Loretta’s reaction to her parents’ reactions while we were shooting. At one point, Loretta cracked up and said that her parents actually turned around after seeing us hug and kiss each other. Can’t blame them, of course. With that being said, we all had fun, and I got some photos of her parents together, too!

Towards the end of the session, I wanted to do a shot along a row of lamp posts. The light was everything a photographer could want — nice, soft, and even. Then suddenly, as I was setting up, the sun beamed thru the clouds and onto Loretta’s face. I knew I would have just a minute before it was gone, so I rushed to get in the shot. And sure enough, according to the timestamps on my images, the light was gone in 60 seconds. I think God was giving us a break after freezing in the cold all day long. It was so cold that Loretta’s parents went to warm up in the car before we wrapped up the shoot.

Despite the cold weather, I had a great time during my first trip to Toronto. I would love to shoot a wedding in Toronto someday!

These are a few favorites from our engagement session at the Distillery Historic District. Do you have a favorite? If so, let us know!

Last week, I shared one of our engagement photos, and I’d like to share two more from that particular shoot. Looking at the images always reminds me of how windy and cool it was, and yet I remember feeling completely comfortable. These were some of our first images together.

This week, I’m posting a few additional images that were also shot on Maui. These were taken in Makena, where the island of Molokini can be seen in the background. Maui, like any other island in Hawaii, usually has amazing sunsets. Skies can be quite dramatic, as the air is clean — thanks to trade winds — and clouds are never scarce. When I moved to California, I actually missed clouds.

On this day, however, there wasn’t much color in the late afternoon. Nevertheless, still nice light for photos.

In the second image of this week’s post (fourth image from the top), I picked the location to do some shots on the sand, but it was surprisingly crowded. Consequently, we chose to remove ourselves from the sand and do some shots in the rocks. I wanted to capture the movement of the water, so opted for a slower shutter speed. This is one shot that was actually easier to do than if I was behind the camera, because it was easier to tell Loretta exactly how long to hold still for each exposure, since I was right next to her. Since there were no warm colors in they sky, I kept the color temperature close to 5500 K to keep the cool tones.

For the third image (last image), we drove to another location in the area. The light was fading quickly, and by the time we took the shot, I needed my maglite to assist me with focusing. It took a little while to set up because I wanted the horizon to be perfectly level. Thank goodness for bright viewfinders! Without any supplemental light, we would have barely been visible in the image, so I fired my flash off-camera to create separation between us and the background. The main challenge for this photo was staying completely still for a long time. For all the techies, my exposure for this image was 13 seconds @ f/4.5 @ ISO 800.

On our way back to the car, it was as dark as could be, as there were no street lights in the area. As we were packing the car, I nearly freaked out as a black dog and its owner approached us from behind. Fortunately there aren’t too many predators in Hawaii.

Here below are the images, starting with two images that continue from last week’s post. Tune in next week for more!

NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

You gotta love it when a family is willing to miss the second half of the Super Bowl to drive to the beach for some photos. I, for one, didn’t even realize that I scheduled a session on Super Bowl Sunday until just a few days prior! Alison, Caleb, and family were visiting from California, and they only had a few days available to shoot. After looking at my calendar, Sunday afternoon was the only slot I had free. Fortunately, I missed the Super Bowl last year — for the first time since I can remember. So, I guess I’m getting used to missing it. lol

Alison happens to be Daphne’s cousin, and that kind of connection always helps to develop rapport when meeting a destination client, or any client for that matter. I never met this family before Sunday, and yet I felt like I already knew them.

Initially, I had another location in mind, but on Saturday I told Alison that Lanikai beach might work better. It turned out to be a great idea, because by then they had already seen the rest of the island.

When we hit the beach, the kids just started to play, and it never ended. Photographing children is an action sport, I tell you. When you look at the photos, I think you’ll have no doubt that they had fun.

A classic moment was when the little guy, for whatever reason, started to run for the hills. After a few hurried — and unbalanced — steps, however, he found his face buried an inch or more in sand. I actually put my camera down, thinking he’d be embarrassed. But when Alison prompted me, I just had to get a few shots. Fortunately, all it takes is a few Goldfish crackers to get a kid back on his feet.

All I can say is that this was one session worth missing the Super Bowl for.

P.S. I did watch the first half, and then watched it on DVR later that night.