Family Portrait

Camping-Themed Maui Maternity at Baby Beach {You Are Our Greatest Adventure}

This week, I wanted to share the maternity shoot of my friend Fawn of Maile Maui Weddings, who is expecting her baby boy next month! In planning this session, Fawn wanted to include personal inspiration, so I asked her if would write a guest post to explain. 

From Fawn: "As a wedding planner, I'm lucky to be friends with some very talented photographers. Angie and I instantly hit it off when we first met, and since we've known each other, we've always talked about babies. Angie is a wonderful mommy and I love hanging out with her and cutie pie Miloh. When my husband and I found out we were expecting, I knew Angie would be the perfect person to capture this exciting time for us!

Kai and I have been together over 10 years now and are super excited to be taking this step into parenthood. I really wanted our photo shoot to be about us and our relationship, cherishing this time as we prepare for our son's arrival."

"The original plan was to have an earthy maternity session in the forest, but it ended up being rainy and actually a little cold for the outfits I brought that day. Wanting me to be comfortable, Angie was more than happy to reschedule, but on our drive home, we saw this amazing rainbow and had to take advantage. You can't plan rainbows and we were at Baby Beach, which was quite fitting! 

I had a few different ideas that I wanted to include and Angie was so receptive in helping me make it all happen. Since our first date was a camping trip, I wanted to incorporate a makeshift tent. Our wedding theme was beach meets the forest, so I kind of went back to that feeling when picking out the materials for the haku lei that Angie made --> DIY tutorial here.

After over two years of marriage, we finally watched our wedding video for the first time. We had recorded secret messages to each other and completely forget what we said. At the end of my message, I talked about being excited to take on this adventure of life together, and this inspired me to think becoming parents will be our greatest adventure yet. We, well mostly my husband, made the sign and it will go in our baby's room. We also had to include the cute little baby booties we bought from an alpaca farm while on our honeymoon in New Zealand."

UPDATE // Welcome to the world Osiris "Oz/Ozzie" Satoshi Evermore born 5 weeks early on June 18, 2015 at 10:34am ~ 5lbs 2oz, 18" long

Maternity + Family Portrait Fun at Kanaha Beach Park in the shores of Maui

Maternity + Family Portrait Fun at Kanaha Beach Park in the shores of Maui

Morgana was dreaming about Maui when she contacted me last minute telling me how much they love my work and asking if I can capture this special time of their growing family. I was already flattered and felt emotionally connected though our emails - maternity always gets me so nostalgic of my baby bump - but when we met at Kanaha Beach Park for some fun in the sun and water, I was greatly surprised to realize they were visiting from Brazil. Right away our Latin vibe grew stronger and we the bonded even more. Oh my! Love it when I connect with my clients, seems heaven sent!

I crafted the floral crowns for Morgana and her daughter to wear and later enlisted her husband and little one to help shower his wife with petals. This family was so nice and getting to hear the language when these loving parents talked Portuguese to their daughter was like music to my ears, so beautiful. They were all glowing with joy and it truly blessed my spirit to spend these moments with them and see the gorgeous expressions in their faces.

Read More

Colorful Family Session at Keawakapu Beach Maui

If you've been following my work, you know how much I adore color. So, of course, I was happy to see this family dressed in different colors and patterns for their family photo shoot at Keawakapu Beach on Maui's south shore. They didn't worry about being too matchy-matchy, but with mother/daughter and father/son in complementary colors, it all worked without being too forced.

In fact, that's also my style -  I don't like posing too much, especially with families. It works better when everyone is being themselves, having fun and not thinking about the camera. That's when all the happiness and love shines the brightest. My favorite part of this session was really seeing mommy Jennifer so happy. I know how challenging life can be as a mommy myself and how you may not feel very glamorous at times, so I took the opportunity to give Jennifer a little spotlight. Every mommy deserves a special attention, don't you agree?