Photos from Hawaii….

Well I haven’t blogged in quite a while because I went to Hawaii to shoot a fabulous wedding, and then I needed some time to regroup after that. It’s amazing how much time it takes to get back into the swing of things after going somewhere as relaxing as Hawaii… Needless to say I was not super excited to come home after having such a great time there, but here I am and have finally refocused my mind on work. 🙂

Heather and Chris were the bride and groom, and Chris is the cousin of my friend Kevin. So, I was invited to join all of their family and friends, who flew in for the wedding, in exploring the island in the days leading up to the wedding. They were all so welcoming and so much fun to hang out with. I had an amazing time and I took a lot of photos, so I have a lot of images blog!

You need to check out this list of things to do and places to eat if you ever happen to go to Hawaii.

The first day on the Big Island of Hawaii, we were in Hilo and visited the local Farmer’s Market. I thought this guy was so great. He had been carving one of these beautiful banjos and took a break to play us a song.

The colors of Hawaii are to die for.

I was able to snap a photo of this awesome gecko before he sped away. These guys are fast!

These were the step leading up to a local bar. I thought that “Bring Money” message was pretty funny.

After the Farmer’s Market, we drove down to South Point which happens to be the southern-most tip of the United States. There are 40-foot cliffs here that you can jump off of into the ocean below. When you jump, there is nothing between you and Antarctica. How crazy is that??

Here’s the bride Heather checking out the view from the cliffs.

There is dried lava everywhere on this island. Such great texture.

This was the view from the edge of the 40-foot cliff. How awesome does that water look??

Here’s Kevin making the first jump of the day. Yes, I actually jumped but there are no photos as proof. I’m not the type to avoid such a unique experience… I jumped four times and it was awesome!

Here we are driving from South Point up to Kona, where we would spend the rest of our trip. In Hawaii, it’s actually legal to ride in the beds of trucks, which probably isn’t the safest but it was a great way to see the island on the 1 1/2 hour ride.  Photos shot by Kevin.

This is one of the scenes we saw on that drive. Love the colors.

Eloise at the Plaza release

The next day, I just sat and enjoyed the sunset across the street from our hotel.

The heavy clouds actually prevented me from seeing the typical gorgeous Hawaiian sunset, but this was beautiful anyway.  The last night we spent in Hawaii actually had a great clear sunset, but of course I didn’t have my camera with me!

We went to a place called The Place of Refuge where we enjoyed some snorkeling. This beach wasn’t a sandy beach, rather it was surrounded by dried lava which made for some awesome photos. I wish I had an under water casing so that I could have photographed the amazing stuff I saw under water!

I wish we had water this clear here in SoCal.

Here’s a close-up of some lava. Loved the texture!

I thought this was really striking. This was a national lava park where all you see for miles is lava. Amazing to think about how one day long ago lava was just free-flowing across the entire island.

I took this photo on Hapuna Beach which was about 45 minutes from where we stayed in Kona. Because the beaches in Kona were mostly very rocky, it was great to be able to lounge around on a sandy beach… and the sand here was so soft! The water was great, too… At first we were bummed that the sun wasn’t out, but I grew to love these amazing clouds.

Finally, here’s a collage of some of the people I spent my time with on my trip. Such fun, great people! The top right corner of this collage is Chris and Heather, the lovely bride and groom.

What an awesome trip!

Thank you all so much for including me! I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to join all of you in this amazing experience. We’ll have to do it again sometime. I’m available to come back anytime! 😉

I will be posting images from the beautiful wedding soon!