Randy’s PhotoBlog

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The annual Hawaiian music awards were presented this week at the Hawaii Convention Center on O’ahu. I was honored to be the guest of Napua Greig, and was seated at her table (although she was in concert in Japan 3000 miles away!)

Napua won Female Vocalist of the Year! Her album Pihana is wonderful.

Hoku Zuttermeister won Male Vocalist of the Year. Pueo Pata was awarded with Haku Mele . It was really nice to see so many friends and familiar faces. The Entertainment was incredible, naturally.

Serendipity.

I was invited by a photographer friend, David Fleetham (World-renowned Underwater Dive Photographer), to attend a “free Photoshop party” was over on the west side of Maui.

Free? I was intrigued; you usually get what you pay for…

I thought I’d be in the room with a bunch of kids in a summer program because they called it a Photoshop Party and it was being held in the Kapalua Adventure Center. Turns out that our instructor was the Photoshop Guru Dr Russell Brown. Russell is the Senior Creative Director at Adobe. He started working with Photoshop when it was Photoshop 1.0. Dr. Brown teaches creative uses of his Adobe software. He has On-line Seminars, DVD’s, etc. He will teach 3D at Photoshop World in September in Vegas.

This Photoshop “Party”, as it turns out, was for some of Hawai’i’s top creative minds. I ended up on the “secret list” thanks to David.

Dr. Brown taught 2 full days — materials and software and coffee included — for absolutely FREE!

Well, long story short, we experimented with 3D imaging and had a blast. Dr. Brown’s unique style of teaching (he is sort of a Robin Williams on steroids — whacky and wild, until his afternoon nap time, when he knocks things down a notch.) The day after the “Party” Dr Brown came to visit my studio. He “blessed” my computer with his healing hands, sort of like an evangelist touches the forehead of a crippled child — and whammo, things were cured!

He talked me in to attending Photoshop World in Vegas this September. I can hardly contain myself. Really, as an artist/photographer, Photochop is as important a tool as the camera, and lens. I really want to learn the program better.

Mahalos to Dr. Brown and Adobe for the seminar — uh, party!

Spent three days in heavenly Hana, Maui last week. I was in a tent in Waianapanapa. It is Heaven on Earth. The Eastern tip of Maui is what life is all about.

As I drive around Hana, I see so many homes that I could spend the rest of my life in — beautiful, old, rustic, decaying, plantation style cottages which, in my eyes, are mansions and castles. I love the old plantation homes of Maui.

I trespassed onto the yard of this one home. I couldn’t help myself. As I was photographing it, I could actually see myself sitting on the front porch, gazing out across the yard, beyond the lava stone wall to the ocean’s horizon. The “front porch” days of Maui are disappearing quickly. Who has time to sit on the front porch and gaze at the horizon, anyway?

Me. I will make time.

We are getting back into the normal swing of things here in the Makawao gallery. There has been just so much activity for several months in a row that it was hard to catch our breaths.

I eagerly await my two books of Japan Hula Ceremonies — I used BLURB print-on-demand publishers. This is a great way to test-market books, or produce very short-run editions. The software there is getting better all the time. After I press the final send button, I can have the high-quality book in my hands in 5 days. Amazing.

Anyway, I am still reeling from my brief Japan experience and look forward to digging deeper into the hula world over on that side of the Big Pond. I have a lot to learn yet, but I can see how the Hawai’iana Industry has found a significant audience over there.

I did sneak out of the concert hall rehearsals a few times to shoot a few images around Tokyo. Here they are…

Yikes!

I made a new book! Again!

I spend a very fun, hard week in Japan photographing 40 hula dances throughout their Uniki graduation ceremony. It was quite an honor. I shot 3500 inages and just put 310 into a book for the girls to own. You can find a sneak-preview of the book by clicking the link below…

I have no idea why the little Icon will not stay in the green box. Click on it anyway. More about Japan soon. I have to post a few more photos, but not until I finish book number two from this event.

I traveled there with the incredibly talented Lim Family of Kohala, Hawaii. What an honor it was.

Ka ‘Uniki ‘Ana…

Kumu Hula Leialoha …

By Randy Jay Braun P…

I have no idea why the little Icon will not stay in the green box. Click on it anyway. More about Japan soon.

Book Preview

There has been a whirlwind of activity and travel.

I feel like my photography is very much alive right now. You know that feeling? I had a year, or more, when I couldn’t even think about WHAT to photograph, and for the past many months, I can’t even think about slowing down. I am just hoping my cameras hold up through this period. I am cranking out photos non-stop. Most of which I will not release for a while, simply because I can’t find the time do edit and process them. It is just crazy.

This week I was entirely honored to shoot with the well-known landscape photographer and author Elizabeth Carmel, know for her images of the Sierras. I drove her and Olaf Carmel out to Keanae Village, on the Hana Highway for an afternoon of shooting.

Elizabeth does not travel lightly. As I whipped out my low-end Canon, she whipped out her Hasselblad, and mounted it on a tripod which could hold a small house. The weather was junky, and our best location was the painted Eucalyptus tree. After a brief discussion with Olaf about how we Hawaii residents love brilliant colors, I whipped this image together just to make my point.

I proceeded down to Wailea the next day, and the volcanic vog (from the Big Island) was so thick that the county actually issued a health warning for us to stay indoors. I tried to use the thick air to my advantage to shoot an orange-ball-sunset, but is was more of a grey-ball-sunset, and the light went fast.

I am packing for Japan! There, i will photograph 2 hula schools have their Uniki, or graduation ceremonies. I am very interested to see hula on Japan. The interest there is strong still after more than a decade of popularity. I have never gone to the East, and feel pretty excited. I travel as a guest of Kumu Hula Leialoha Amina. I am so thankful for the opportunity.

Person Elizabeth Carmel

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I put together a 36 page photo-book for my Hanai Halau. The book, which I produced using BLURB software, documents the girl’s trip to the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival in Hilo this year. I ordered a hard-cover for the Kumus. I have already started my whale book, as of this morning, and can’t wait to share those images.

Check out this site!

Halau Na Lei K…

Na Kumu Napua Greig…

By 2008 Merrie Monar…

Book Preview

I am feeling a bit sad this morning.

Hawaii has lost the life of the great Auntie Nona Beamer. Nona was a teacher, a musician, a historian, and Hanai Auntie to so many young Hawaiians.

When Auntie Genoa Keawe passed a couple of months ago, the first thought that came to mind was, the torch of her leadership has been passed to others, like Raiatea Helm.

Same feeling with Auntie Nona; there will be others who will have to step into her powerful maternal roll, and carry on the aloha spirit for which she was known. Napua Greig? Haunani Pascua? Ualani Smith? Perhaps.

Last summer I met Auntie Nona and spoke with her for the first time. The first thing she told me was that she has enjoyed my photography for many years. There was no greater compliment, considering the source.

We are all sad today.

I ventured down to see Pele Herself.

She was steamy and hot. It was my first time to see a bit of orange molten lava. I have wanted to for years. The best views were at night, as the hillside was flowing with liquid Earth. But I had to be at the stadium to shoot hula at night. I must return. The power in Her is awesome.