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  • About me

    I'm quirky and I sometimes talk too much (okay, more than sometimes). Photoshop ninja. I'm not passionate about photography, I'm obsessed with it.
    Then there's the 100 Things About me.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Beauty

The desire that was once only a crazy idea to show women how beautiful they are has officially been launched into reality.

My beauty sessions are now, offically, OMG! in full swing.

It began with my own midlife crisis when I was feeling less than pretty. I knew that many of my friends and I are of that certain age where kids, family, work and time have done their level best to destroy our self esteem. Some of us have come out the other side a little bruised but stronger because of it all. Others, well..let’s just say the war is still being waged.

Mary-Margaret

My hope is to create a moment in time where they have a chance to be the center of attention for another day (hopefully, the first being their wedding).

Sara

For them to see themselves on the outside the way that I see them on the inside. In addition they are so undervalued as mothers and women it borders on ridiculous. Wait…it IS ridiculous.

Christina

These were taken yesterday and today I go this email from Christina:

OMG you are AMAZING!!! I can not thank you enough!! Yesterday really gave me a boost! I actually got up and put on make up this morning (i do not wear make up normally lol):)
amandalyn loved being there! she came home and told her dad all about helping auntie!

I am going to find time to book a family session with you soon!:)
christina:)

The best part was that they all stayed around for each others sessions and chatted and had fun!

We laughed, drank mimosa’s, ate cheese and crackers, laughed some more, listened to music and left the husbands and kids at home.

The room was filled with stunning beauty. Inside and out. And I have the pictures to prove it.

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Fire Jam

This year I decided once and for all I was going to do it. I was so envious of the peeps who did it last year that I spent an entire day reading about it after it was over. I’m talking of course about the Worldwide Photo Walk that Scott Kelby puts on every year. This year it was on October 4th and I absolutely loved it. I met some wonderful people (Hi Billy) and decided to join the group of photographers that put it on. I am the newest member of HIPS (Hawaiian Islands Photographic Society). I will post about it later.

It was the two nights later that I found myself roaming around a dark parking lot of a local park looking for the “Fire Jam” we were supposed to get together and shoot. Creepy night people lurked everywhere. For nearly an hour I silently thanked my BFF Jen for teaching me how to kick box. I finally stumbled upon it stuffed in some way back corner.

Turns out that the group of fire dancers are out there all the time and trying to get organized. Most amazingly there was a boy out there fire dancing too! Honestly, kept thinking “I’m so glad that’s not my kid.” I have a ridiculous reaction when I smell something burning and do not know what it is. My kids think I’m insane. My husband has nearly had his eyes lodged in his skull from rolling them at me.

I shot manual with my ISO parked at 8000 (there was no other light), aperture wide open (f4) and tried various shutter speeds to get a bit a blur without stopping the action. It basically depended at which angle I was to the spinning fire. I was rolling between 1/3rd and 1/100th spending a lot of time at about 1/40th.

Mozilla Firefox, or Mo, one of the fire dancers, introduced herself to me. We’re having lunch tomorrow!

Anyway, without further gilding the lily and no more ado, the best of the photos.

Getting the face not to blur was my personal challenge this evening

Looks like a lions head

Young kid!

While I wandering around looking for my group, I saw this

This guy with the fire whips was the hightlight of the evening.

The rod was falling through the air and the exposure ended right when he caught it.

Wednesday I’m off to San Francisco for five days to round out a photo project. I will be in the midst of World Series fever. Should be awesome!

Ciao for now!

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Rebecca - November 16, 2012 - 5:01 PM

OMG Laura, these are AMAZING!!!!!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Hot Mess

Jasmine recently star wrote about her husband JD and his attention to detail. When I read it my eyes nearly lodged in my skull from rolling so hard. My husband is the EXACT SAME WAY. They both took an extra helping of OCD when it was being dished out during creation.

On the other hand I personify the title of this post. I fly by the seat of my pants, I take chances and am all artsy and big-picture-ish. In other words, a complete nightmare for someone with control issues.

Sunset over the Koolau’s. I have named it “hot mess”

In equal parts, this drives my husband crazy and makes him love me more. I am the freedom and casualness that he longs for yet THERE IS NO ORDER TO IT! I refer to this second part as his GERMAN! ENGINEERING! Put in this way, we do not wash dishes together well.

Unfortunately my end of the bargain is not as refreshingly heart warming. His drive for perfection sometimes makes me feel sloppy and unfocused. Somehow I have figured out how to embrace my lack of organization but it has not been easy with an incessant bar next to me measuring my exact level of incompetence.

On the plus side, I know that if I ask him to do something it will be done right and most times better than I expected. I count myself lucky time and again because I know of so many women who would say that the previous sentence most definitely does NOT describe their relationship with their husbands.

Most days I love myself and manage to use my buoyant personality to bring levity to many situations (most notably when it is inappropriate) which keeps life interesting in my opinion.:-)

The lessons I have learned because of this marriage are numerous but by far the biggest one is that I do not need anyone’s approval. I am the way I am and if you don’t like it then you are the one that is having an issue trying to control me.

At the end of the day it’s all a balancing act and depending on which moment you observe one side of the scale is dipping but it is just a matter of time until it changes direction. And every once and awhile, it is balanced right in the middle and that is where some of my best memories have been made.

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