Hawaii book

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/26453292 w=500&h=283]

Took a quick video of the book I made from my February trip to Hawaii. Made the book via Photobooks - a groupon I had purchased. I think the quality of the paper is nice (matte!), the print quality of the photos is just as good as any of the other photo books I've made (My Publisher, iPhoto, Blurb) and you can't even tell the iPhone photos from the DSLR photos!

The software was actually one of the easier ones that I've tried and lots of template options. Oh and it's fully customizable - you can change the shape of any photo box, place text anywhere and use your own fonts!

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I took a risk with the cover and chose indigo silk with photo inset. Don't love that at all. The silk is OK, but the photo inset is glued down on top of the silk and looks crappy. I would rather have a hole through the cover to the front page, or the photo should be properly inset. And for some reason the dust cover pages are a little wrinkly ... not sure why. I give it a B+ overall.

Poipu Beach - Traveler Photo Contest 2011 - National Geographic - National Geographic

via travel.nationalgeographic.com

I've decided to enter one of my photos into the National Geographic Traveler photo contest. It's super hard to choose one to enter, but I thought this one would be good because it's unusual. You don't expect a stormy Hawaiian beach and the sky was incredible.

So "like" it on Facebook an/or tweet it to help me out! Thanks!!

Hawaii :: the end

So it has taken me a ridiculous long time to finish up with the Hawaii photo edits / posting. But I saved the best for last, well maybe not photographically speaking, but fun! I shot a little video of the fire dancer at the Paradise Cove Luau - he rocked!

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I bothered Bethany all week to sneak in a Luau and with the crap weather of the week, we didn't know if it would be worth it. We went ahead and scheduled it for my last night in Hawaii and completely lucked out!! The weather was PERFECT!

And we even got Garrett in his Hawaiian shirt - he had originally protested, most likely because Mom wanted him to wear it ... everything is better when it's his own idea! Kids crack me up!!

We arrived and received lei's - shells since we were in the cheap seats - got our photo taken with some of the luau dancers and received mai tai's. They move you from activity to activity by sounding the conch shell, though it took us a couple of events to catch onto this. We had our photos taken with birds - Garrett even had a bird on his head!! He LOVED that and it was the cutest picture too. Then won more leis by playing ring toss games and such. They have lots of stations where you can make your own headbands, bracelets and all sorts of things. I had an orchid bracelet made by this adorable woman, which didn't cost anything but a tip! She was super sweet. I had to grab the camera to try to capture it and was totally surprised at how good the pics came out given that I shot left handed and upside down!

The dancers were amazing (and super HOT!!) and it was the perfect end to my Hawaii trip. Perfectly touristy and full of photo worthy moments. Aloha!

island video

Playing with the 8mm iPhone app (and adding music via iPhoto = bad) while sunburning at the edge of the water with the ocean waves lapping at my feet... Ahhh!

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P.S. This song is Bethany's ringtone and this video was shot at her favorite little beach. You can see why it's a favorite. One could really get used to this...

hawaii :: days 4&5 : kaua'i

Welcome to one of Hawaii's most beautiful beaches, Poipu Beach. Located on the southern shore of the island of Kaua'i, where the surf is calm and the sand oh so inviting. Well, unless it's raining. Then it's all about dodging rain drops and storm clouds.

I was most excited to take a photo tour of the island, famous for it's beaches, water falls, taro fields and wild chickens. Sadly, the weather did not cooperate, but after several conversations with the tour guides, we decided to venture out and at least see the island and capture a photo or two when possible. Fortunately, I had my rain gear, but Bethany forgot hers and had to sport the most lovely clear poncho. I think she worked it tho...

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I will say this about the tour folks - they were super sweet and our guide tried really hard to make it to each of the locations and was super knowledgable about the island. She was giving photography pointers to one of the ladies with us, which I thought was great.

We drove up the west and north shores, but sadly did not make it to the Hanalei Pier (the one place I really wanted to go) because the bridge to the northern part of the island was very close to flooding. Boo! But I figure the photos would not have been great anyway...

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We made it to the hotel, the Koa Kea, and loved it! It's chic and modern, beautifully manicured and the rooms were fabulous! I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone traveling to Kaua'i. It's right on the beach, has a beautiful pool (that I was so sad not to be able to use), close to some cute little shops and has wonderful food at the Red Salt restaurant. The staff was warm and friendly and even granted us a late check out without hesitation.

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I ventured out on our second day - a little bit of blue sky and a whole lotta clouds, but no rain till later. Took a few photos along Poipu Beach - it's lovely and goes on for miles.

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While my trip was greatly modified from it's original intent, Kaua'i is a lovely island. If you want to get away and just do nothing - check out, sip umbrella drinks, walk along the beach and take in some of the most beautiful scenery, this island is truly for you!