Maui Habitat for Humanity Build a Thon

This past weekend, as the sun rose on the island, Maui Habitat for Humanity invited me to their annual Build-a-Thon, taking place in Paukukalo. The huge team of volunteers took on the immense task of rebuilding two homes in the neighborhood from the foundation up. The job had its perk though, an incredible view of both the ocean and the West Maui Mountains from the rooftop. I was there in the early morning hours and got to see the trusses go up on the roof, weatherstripping windows and the prepping of the lanai.

Everyone seemed in good spirits and very focused on the task at hand. I felt like I was on the set of Extreme Home Makeover with all the work going on at the houses at the same time.

Trusses were going up on the roof while the outside was being weather stripped and painted. Incredible!

Check out the view for the roofing team!

Thanks to the dozens of talented volunteers who made this day happen and for contributing your time and skills to a new home for a needy family. For volunteer opportunities, check out www.habitat-maui.org.

A hui hou,

Aubrey

www.aubreyhord.com

Aerosmith Rocks Maui

One of the greatest rock bands in American history came to Maui this month and gave an amazing show to 10,000 happy fans in the War Memorial Stadium. Hosted by the Maui Arts and Cultural Center www.mauiarts.org, and presented by Tom Moffatt, the concert was held at the largest venue the island has to offer. The band members got up close and personal with the fans and limited number of photographers who were granted media passes to photograph the show.

A long catwalk extended into the crowd, allowing the band to interact with fans, thrilling the audience!

Maui News photographer, Matt Thayer (with wrist bands on), gets up close and personal with lead singer, Steven Tyler.

Joe Perry set up a keyboard stand and played his guitar right in front of the photographers during the first couple of songs, making is super fun to photograph. The hard part was, when Joe Perry was right in front of us, Steven Tyler was out on the catwalk with the spotlights on him- which way to turn??

The band put on a totally dynamic show non stop for over two hours!

Steven Tyler making his way back to the stage from the catwalk.

The band, jamming right in front of the photographers.

My favorite shot of Mr. Tyler. You can see his lei around his neck if you look carefully.

The ever impressive Joe Perry on bass.

Steven Tyler thanking kumu hula, Lehua, and her hula halau for opening the show. She also presented him with a lei, welcoming him to the island.

The incredibly talented Maui musician, Vince Esquire, opened the show with his band. He got the crowd on their feet right off the bat. They didn't sit down for nearly 3 hours!

More great music is on the way to Maui so stay tuned!

A hui hou,

Aubrey

www.aubreyhord.com

AHP image is used on iPhone application!

Exciting news from Aubrey Hord Photography and Accuterra for iPhone. If you have the mapping app AccuTerra for iPhone, you most likely will see this image of Hawaii when you open the mapping program for the state of Hawaii. It covers all the islands at a USGS 7.5 ‘ level. The image is a “splash screen” that is displayed every time the app launches.

The photo is from the Keanae pennisula on the road to Hana.

Cool stuff!!
I received full rights to use this image on the blog from Intermap, of course.

Happy iPhone "apping",

Aubrey

http://www.aubreyhord.com/

Maui Ukulele Festival 2009

The 2009 Maui Ukulele Festival was held outdoors at the beautiful Maui Arts and Cultural Center on Sunday, October 18th. An impressive lineup of musicians filled the venue with ukulele music for the afternoon. I had the honor of photographing the event for the MACC and am grateful for the opportunity to capture great moments in time with musical talent.

Ukulele master, Roy Sakuma, and his wonderful wife, Kathy, put hours into organizing the events across the state of Hawaii every year and they always impress us!

We enjoyed the music of many masters of the ukulele...

Hula halaus performed their graceful dances to the music...

Ukulele bands from around the island came to perform on the stage.

Our mayor, Charmaine Tavares, was also on hand to present the MACC and Ukulele Festivals Hawaii with a proclamation.

Thanks so much to all the musicians, dancers and volunteers that made the event happen without a hitch.

A hui hou,

Aubrey

http://www.aubreyhord.com/

Rock Stars

Coming up with fun and fresh poses for family portraits is always a joy, especially when you have great clients. I always try to make my clients feel like rock stars but sometimes they really play the part too! Here are a few selections from a recent family portrait session in Kapalua. We used the theme "Rock Star" to get things rolling and the family took it to a new level having fun and encouraging each other along the way.

We did formal portraits as well but had a little break with the "Rock Star" theme while the sun was coming down.

Limited holiday bookings are available. Email me at aubrey@aubreyhord.com for availability.

A hui hou,

Aubrey

http://www.aubreyhord.com/

Family Fun continues with "Strike a Pose"

I had a great family for family portraits on the beach in Wailea a couple of weeks ago that really wanted to show off their poses and jumping skills and poses, even getting wet at the end of the session so here ya go!

Thanks you guys! That was really fun! Can't wait to see you next year.

A hui hou,

Aubrey

http://www.aubreyhord.com/

2009 Kula Festival a huge success

Thanks everyone for visiting my booth at the St John's Kula Festival in late September! It was great to see everyone and have some great comments! I love my customers!

Photo: Shawn Boeckman

A hui hou,
Aubrey
http://www.aubreyhord.com/

Maui Photo Festival 2009

Well, we finally did it!

Thanks to a huge amount of work by a dedicated team of people from Maui and across the country, Maui hosted the first Maui Photo Festival which was an enormous success! Thanks to Zane and Beth Mathias, Barbara Santos and Terrie Eliker for all of their hard work!

The Hyatt Kaanapali hosted the event, providing a beautiful backdrop and much inspiration for imagery for photographers from Hawaii and all over the mainland. Hundreds of photographers, both professional and amateur, joined the fun, meeting world renowned photographers representing Nikon and Canon from multiple industries. We had professional fashion, wedding, wildlife, photo journalism, military, travel, underwater, shorebreak, nature, portrait, landscape, studio, natural light and aerial combat photographers from all over the country sharing their expertise with us for 5 days. Some of the best included fashion photographer, Lou Freeman (http://www.loufreeman.com/), National Geographic photographer, Jim Sugar, nature photographer, Scott Bourne (http://www.scottbourne.com/), travel photographers, Rick Sammon (http://www.ricksammon.com/) and Andy Katz (http://www.andykatz.com/), portrait photographers Judy Host (http://www.judyhost.com/) and Jack Resnicki (http://www.jackresnicki.com/), photojournalist, Eli Reed (http://www.elireed.com/), military and aerial combat photographers Stacy Pearsall and Andy Dunaway (http://www.ccforp.com/), wedding photographer, Dane Sanders (http://www.danesanders.com/) and many more!We also had the honor of hosting several technical experts as well to help us fine tune our creations. Lori Barbely, Island Magazine photo editor (http://www.islandsmagazine.com/) was on hand to review our portfolios. The uber rockstar, Russell Preston Brown, Adobe Systems senior creative director put a show the first day highlighting the power of Photoshop called "The Pirate Project". The ever-popular, Julieanne Kost from Adobe, and Eddie Tapp (http://www.eddietapp.com/), took everyone through the secrets to great editing in any Adobe product.

Local pros like Maui fine art photographer, Randy Jay Braun (http://www.randyjaybraun.com/) Maui boy and international underwater photographer, David Fleetham (http://www.davidfleetham.com/) and the hottest new wave photographer from Oahu, Clark Little (http://www.clarklittle.com/), were on hand to provide us with a sense of place along with sharing their incredible talents. We had a fantastic sunrise session with Clark Little and sunset session with Randy Jay Braun who shared his technique of photographing the art of hula dancers.

We started at sunrise every day for special golden hour sunrise photography sessions and finished well after dark at the Paradise Cinema, listening intently to every word from our experts. We could experience photography on a doors-off helicopter tour, underwater or up at Haleakala Crater.

So, if you missed it, next year's dates are August 25-29, 2010 on Maui. Register at http://www.mauiphotofestival.com/. See you next year!

A hui hou,

Aubrey

http://www.aubreyhord.com/