Watching and learning from a master at work in their passion is a rare experience. When Randy Jay
Braun announced his first Tropical Island Boot Camp for Creative Photography on Maui, people jumped at the opportunity to sign up. When Randy invited me to help with the camp and teach some of skills I know best, I was honored.
Over the course of 6 days, we took 10 boot campers from all over the country to some of the best locations on Maui for photography and encouraged them to let their creativity lead the way to some amazing photographs.
Randy also brought in Adobe
Photoshop Evangelist, Russell Brown, to help with post production of the images we captured during the week. The nightly classes in
Photoshop CS5 and
Photomatix helped bring images into
panoramics and
HDR (high dynamic range) like never before!
The combination of magnificent landscapes and people along with the talents of Randy Jay
Braun and Russell Brown made for some truly incredible imagery.
Having Randy and Russell tag team throughout each day with their humor and energy, brought the campers to life each morning and helped them sing into the night. With a wide age range (24-58
ish) and skill set (beginner to expert), the trick was keeping everyone interested and engaged throughout the week.
Usually, the landscape provided the perfect canvas for inspiration but several days Randy had invited friends, hula dancers, and models to help bring a human element into the week. To capture authentic cultural elements in imagery is getting more and more difficult to do. Randy's lasting friendships and genuine intentions in capturing the spirit of Hawaiian culture is one of his true strengths.
From the red, white and black sand beaches in Hana to the beautiful (and handsome) hula dancers who graciously and patiently agreed to be our models, the diversity of subject matter made it easy to shoot a variety of images.
Some campers even got creative with their cameras themselves, swinging them around taking slow exposures and "driving" them like crazy drivers to get cool blur effects and "essence" shots.
All in all, the week was an incredible experience for everyone involved and a huge success for Randy, who has graciously invited me back again to help teach the next boot camp!
So to all the people taking pictures of people taking pictures of people... See you at the next Randy Jay
Braun boot camp!
Keep taking pictures of great subjects in magnificent landscapes.
To sign up for the next boot camp:
http://randyjaybraun.com/
A
hui hou,
Aubrey
http://www.blogger.com/aubrey@aubreyhord.comhttp://www.blogger.com/www.aubreyhord.com
This summer I had the distinct pleasure of photographing a unique wedding on Maui that was filled with the usual vows plus, infectious steel drum music and a wave or two. 
What?? A wave?? Yes, this bride and groom looooooove to surf and they decided to have a morning wedding that involved a great wave session afterward.
The bride performed a special wedding hula for the groom and a little rain blessed the event, making it a wonderful morning.
Lia and James are not only a great looking couple, but they are super fit, making it easy for the groom to to slip into board shorts and slippers and the bride to slip into a beautiful white swim suit and designer pareo from Maui's own LeTarte Swimwear.
The couple decided to get hitched at the beach and then jump in the water on their beautiful custom made wooden surfboard and invite their guests to go surfing with them.
Once the couple said their vows and the minister announced them as officially married, they waxed up their new board and the celebration moved to the ocean. What a perfect Maui wedding!
So congratulations and best of luck to Lia and James! May you always find waves together and laugh together for the rest of your lives.
They chose the ocean side wedding site on Maui called the Naupaka Lawn at the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel and kept their fingers crossed that nothing would go wrong. It ended up being a perfect evening with light and weather. I lucked out and got an amazing couple! 
They had a wonderful minister for their ceremony who laughed along with the couple during their service and had a truly infectious smile. Finally, they ended their romantic evening with a private dinner on the Naupaka Lawn watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean. 
