2016: A year in review

January, 2016. My teeth chattered as I rushed to load my suitcase into the taxi. The cab driver stepped out to assist. Long white shocks of hair stuck straight out under the rim of his newsboy cap, and the edges of his trench coat swirled, chasing snowflakes in the wind. His leathery hand shake said I have a story, catch it if you can.

Five minutes into our drive to the airport, the pages began to turn. 

"I worked at a suicide prevention hotline for years," he recalled, " and the number one cause of suicidal ideation was always isolation. People think nobody else can understand what they have been through, but the basic emotions are always the same. Fear. Anger. Loneliness."

His solution? Simple- if somebody is having a hard time, take them out to eat. To him, a happy stomach was love. He believed this so deeply, he proposed to his wife with a bowl of soup. The words "Will You Marry Me" at the bottom of the bowl were revealed after her final sip. Sure enough, their marriage had been a happy one, good to the very last drop. She had passed away a few years ago, so now he made soup for his friends.

Several hundred pages later, we arrived at the airport, and I took off for Vancouver, Canada.

Andrew and I spent the next month exploring parts of Canada and the West Coast. He took photos for a travel article, and I interviewed the characters - a hermit turned dog sledder, an ambitious skier turned businessman. In between, we snuck away to explore ice caves and test our own wobbly ski legs.

When I returned home to Hawaii, I resolved to uncover more stories of the human emotions that inexplicably link us together. Stories that said you are human - you are not alone.

I began a personal project- a series of street portraits and interviews, which I called People in Paradise. At first, I was terrified to approach strangers, but the more I practiced, the better I got.

Only a few weeks later, I was able to put these newly honed interview skills to work, and I covered the Eddie Aikau for the Guardian, the first of several stories I wrote this year.

I flew over to Maui and met up with the athletes from a travel racing TV show called Boundless. We shot their own athletic challenge they dubbed The Maui Wowee - 90 miles of tangled bike spokes and rubber soles, frenetic warrior chants, and smeared zinc oxide.

Back home, I continued to shoot, and brought a few creative visions of my own to life.

I taught a 6-week photography course to 4th and 5th graders, which I called Developing Empathetic Storytelling with Photography. We utilized iPads to explore creative ways to tell their stories. I wanted to explore the concept of empathy as it applied to viewing things from different perspectives, and we spent time studying photographs from the lives of other children around the world, comparing and contrasting their struggles, and discussing times they had experienced similar emotional circumstances.

Several wrote in their reflections "I feel like I'm from another planet and nobody understands me." The kids loved finding ways to take creative photos, but many said the discussion component was their favorite.

Then, in June, my father passed away.

When I was 10, my dad planted the seeds for my photography and handed me my first film camera. "A good photograph tells a story," he said. Throughout our childhood, we ducked and moaned as his ever-clicking camera haunted our most awkward moments. 

Now, back home with my family, I spent hours shuffling through the boxes of photos - stories he had left behind for us.

In a bittersweet twist, the painful circumstances brought me and my six brothers and sisters together for a few weeks - the most time all seven of us had spent together in quite awhile, and the most precious moments of my 2016.

Back home in Hawaii, I continued the year with various portraits, events and commercial jobs. I continued to interview people, and published a few more stories.

In the fall, we returned to Canada, joined our friends canyoneering for a feature with the Weather Channel, and then explored some of the amazing climbing Squamish had to offer. In some sort of an inceptionistic photograph, here is an aerial photo Andrew shot of Gaby shooting me climbing a crack on The Chief.

I also did some inter-island travel as a producer for Andrew's video production company. Here's a shot from one such adventure on Kauai, when he was filming for a show on the Travel Channel. 

After living on the islands for five years, I finally witnessed lava meeting ocean, both by air and by land.

I continued to explore the mountains that have inspired me on Oahu. Losing a parent was unlike anything I've ever dealt with. As you grow older, you see parts of them in you, both the good, and some of the things that drove you nuts. It felt like losing a piece of myself. In all this, I found a special solace in the mountains, and spent many treks in solitude exploring the ups and downs of the ridges.

I also found great consolation in stories of people who have felt the same emotions, or dealt with similar circumstances. 

Stories of fear, stories of puzzlement, stories of sorrow, stories of dreams.

 Stories of the shared experience of being human.

In 2017, I'm looking forward to sharing more photos and stories of these people and places that have inspired me.

Breakfast with Pele

My face glows with heat as our helicopter weaves through steamy clouds. Below, Pele's thick lava fingers ooze over the edge of jagged rocks to kiss the waves. The ocean explodes, and then evaporates, sending up smoke trails of steam and particles.

The Kilauea volcano on Big Island been brewing quietly for the past three years, but in May she boiled over, sending fat ribbons of scorching lava cascading down towards the ocean's edge. 

For those of you who aren't familiar with Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire & volcanos, she has a reputation for being quite.. capricious. Legend says you'll be cursed if you remove lava rocks from Volcanos National Park (and as I found out later, it's also illegal). I was skeptical, at first. During my first attempt to explore the park five years ago, I threw a couple sassy remarks at Pele. "Oh do your worst Pele, I'm not superstitious!"

I placed a small black lava rock in my pocket and turned to step away. As if on cue, my foot slipped on the wet rock, and I went flying face-first into the razor sharp A'a rock. "OK, OK, YOU CAN HAVE IT!" I shouted, hurling the rock out of my pocket with my bloodied arm. Needless to say, my relationship with Pele has taken on a much more respectful dynamic since our first encounter.

I recently had a chance to fly over the flow with helicopter pilot Kris Gourlay of 2 G Group and photographers Rob & Allie Cox of AquaNalu. From the helicopter, we could observe Pele's powers from a safe distance. 

The morning sun illuminates steam rising off rivers of lava.

Since the lava began flowing, Volcanos National Park has seen an increase in visitors to over 6,000 lava-lovers daily. Most are content to view the eruption from the park, but a few brave souls make the six hour approach by foot to get a closer look. 

Boat tours make their approach through boiling ocean waters.

A few brave hikers watch the morning sun stream through clouds of steam formed where the fire meets the ocean. These clouds, while beautiful, can also prove deadly. The plumes contain levels of hydrochloric acid, which can wreak havoc on a body, if inhaled for extended periods of time. In 2000, park rangers recovered two bodies inside Volcanos National Park. Their bodies showed no sign of trauma, and the rangers were stumped. But little bits of their skin were eaten away by acid rain, and an autopsy revealed they had died from swollen lungs, caused by inhaling large quantities of hydrochloric acid. For clouds such as these, they are best appreciated from a safe distance.

From the helicopter, we were able to avoid the clouds and still get some pretty spectacular views up close. I always assumed the lava would turn into black, hardened rock the moment it touched water, but it turns out the ocean is not able to cool the lava as fast as it enters. If you look closely, you can see orange fire continues to glow beneath the surface of the ocean.

The rocks form a variety of shapes as they meld with the water. This one resembled Darth Vader blowing smoke out of his mask. 

On the right, you can see waterfalls of lava trickling downwards.

From above, you can watch ocean waves kiss the newly hardened lava rock formations.

Skeletons of the trees killed by the lava flow are strewn across the newly formed rock surface.

But death creates new life. As we flew back towards Hilo, we soared over forests of new trees growing on land formed by lava flows from many years before. 

In the end, my second trip to visit Pele was much more friendly than my first. If you do go to check out the lava for yourself, it pays to do so with caution and respect.

You can consult the National Park for more information about conditions and safety precautions here: https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm

Fireworks from above

Taking photos of fireworks from a helicopter at night is a very challenging, but rewarding photography experience.

My friend Kris Gourlay called me up on July 4th and invited me up in the air to test out a few new fireworks shot ideas he'd been playing with. Kris is a talented helicopter owner and pilot. He's always thinking of new ways to combine his love of flying with his knowledge of Hawaii's beautiful scenery. In addition to working with photographers, he operates various luxury helicopter experiences. Today, he wanted to check out some of the different firework shows across Oahu.

The fifth of July is my birthday. As a child I spent every fourth pretending the fireworks were ringing in my birthday. I don't get so excited about birthdays anymore, but watching fireworks from the air brought back those giddy childhood feels.

I did a little preliminary research, but "Firework Photography from a Helicopter" didn't bring up a lot. I knew that you normally shoot photos from a helicopter at a very hiiiiigh shutter speed, at least 1/500 of a second and up, because the levels of vibration are so high your photos will be blurry otherwise. I also knew that to capture fireworks you would typically use a tripod and a slooooooooow shutter speed, because it's so dark, plus longer exposures allow you to capture the light trails instead of the fireworks looking like little pins of light in the sky. So take a slow photo from a helicopter that requires fast photos..... 

The best night time aerial photos I found were achieved with expensive gyros for stabilization. Since I don't have one, I decided to bring a few options and figure it out in the air.

Sony - ISO 1600 - 55mm - f/1.8 - 1/200 sec

I brought a Canon 5D Mark III with a 16-35mm 2.8 and a 24-105 F4 with IS. I've read mixed reviews about if internal stabilization helps for aerial photography. I also brought a Sony A7rii with a 55mm 1.8, and my metabones adaptor. The nice thing about the 2nd edition of the Sony mirrorless is that the internal stabilization is built into the camera, so regardless of which lens you attach, you have IS. Since the Canon prime lenses don't have IS, you end up having to choose between stability or speed. With Sony, you can have your cake and eat it too. I only wish I had the SonyA7sii, as it handles low light and high ISO much better than the A7rii. 

Sony - ISO 2000 - 55mm - f/1.8 - 1/125 sec

Kailua fireworks began first at 8pm, so we headed out towards that side to start. As we passed Waikiki, we could see boats lining up for the show in the dusky evening glow. I quickly realized my F4 Canon lens was not going to be of any help, IS or not. It was already so dark I was struggling to get enough light with the 2.8 lens. I ended up shooting almost exclusively with the Sony and 55mm 1.8. I now know that in this situation prime lenses with a low f-stop are the only way to go.

Sony - ISO 1600 - 55mm - f/1.8 - 1/50 sec

As we made our way along the coast, I experimented with a few slower shutter speeds on the A7rii. Obviously they weren't tack sharp, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected. 

Sony - ISO 10,000 - 55mm - f/1.8 - 1/100

We arrived just in time for the start of the Kailua show, and picked a spot from the water behind the islands. Getting enough light to capture the islands in the foreground was especially tricky. It helped that we still had some dusk lighting. 

Sony - ISO 10,000 - 55mm - f/ 1.8 - 1/60 sec

Once we got into position, Kris was able to hold the helicopter in place for enough time to fire off a few sharper shots. Everything was manual focus, since neither camera did particularly well at focusing while moving quickly at night, especially Sony. 

Canon 5dMkIII - ISO 12,800 - 19mm - f/2.8 - 1/80 sec

Canon 5dMkIII - ISO 12,800 - 35mm - f/3.2 - 1/80sec

I wasn't able to get any photos that were bright enough to show the islands in the foreground with the Canon, but I did use it when we pulled around to check out Kailua with the city lights. While I had to use a higher ISO, and I think there's slightly more blur without the IS, the Canon handled slower shutter speed reasonably well.  It was also slightly harder to focus quickly while moving - the focus peaking on Sony really is nice for things like that. 

Canon 5dMkIII - ISO 12,800 - 35mm - f/2.8 - 1/40 sec

As we headed back from Kailua, we could see the fireworks starting in Waikiki, so we moved in for a closer view.

Sony - ISO 10,000 - 55mm - f/ 1.8 - 1/125

The view looking back with the city lights in the front was stunning, especially with the reflections of the city lights on the Ala Wai.

Sony - ISO 10,000 - 55mm - f/ 1.8 - 1/125

Unfortunately, air space can be kind of tricky at night. At this point, several airplanes were taking off in our area, so we were forced to land before the grand finale in Waikiki. We caught a few last glimmers as we descended back towards the airport. 

Sony - ISO 10,000 - 55mm - f/ 1.8 - 1/125

Overall, I was pretty happy with the results, given this was my first try. In the future, I would definitely stick with prime, low f-stop lenses, and perhaps a camera that handled high ISO better, like the Sony A7sII. Despite the challenges, I was happy with the results.

In the end, it was one of the best ways I've ever rung in a birthday, and pretty good fourth of July. :)

Have any tips for night aerial photography? Which camera do you prefer for low-light high ISO? Comment below and let me know your thoughts!

5 things I learned as a photographer

2015 was my first official year in the business of photography. I'd been taking photos for awhile, but it's a whole new world when you make a business of it. In true Liz fashion, I learned all of my lessons the hard way. I laughed a lot. I cried a lot. Sometimes I locked myself in my room for days. My first year was all about "The School of Hard Shots." Here's my top 5 photos from the year, and what they taught me about myself as a photographer: 

It's ok to try everything

In this day and age as an artist, there's a lot of pressure to "find your niche." In the beginning of the year, I just knew I liked taking photos and meeting people. Early in the year I did a lot of yoga projects, and some of my photos were a hit (this one made it into some different yoga catalogues and advertisements). I started getting a lot of inquiries for yoga photos. I even got to do a shoot for Lululemon.

But then I froze up. I started worrying if I put myself out there as one "type" of photographer, I would be branded for life. What if I wanted to shoot more than just yoga? For a period, I stopped posting any of my work online. I was scared of being branded as one thing or another. For fear of going in the "wrong" direction, I didn't go anywhere.

In the end, I learned more about myself and photography by just going out there and shooting everything. In addition to my own shoots, I assisted on a lot of different types of shoots for free, just for the experience. Working for free meant also picking up extra side jobs to help pay the bills, and consequently turning down a lot of social invitations due to lack of time. It was fun. Sometimes it was lonely. But overall, it was really rewarding for me. I learned what I like, and what I don't like. I'm eternally grateful to the photographers that took me under their wing, mentored me, and showed me their crafts. On a side note, I gained a whole new level of respect for jewelry product photographers.

When you find things you like, don't give up on them

As someone who is constantly fighting feelings of inadequacy, I find it really empowering to tell stories about strong, inspirational women who pursue their passions. Especially if it involves things I also love, like being active and outside.

But my ideas don't always come together the way I want them to. This particular shot was from my fifth attempt to shoot a girl climbing with blue water at this location. It's over an hour drive from my house, and on this particular day, it was overcast and pouring rain.

It was one of those "NOT AGAIN!!!" moments of frustration.

But then we remembered why we were out there in the first place - to do the things we love, and have fun. We decided to go climb in the rain anyways, just for fun. As we played, the clouds parted. We ended up getting some blue water climbing shots with a bonus rainbow.

I'm currently working on a personal project that I have attempted eight times so far. When I get frustrated, I like to look at pictures like this one. It reminds me to relax, have fun, and just keep working at it.

Always make time for personal projects

It was really tricky for me, finding a balance in mixing my artistic expression with my source of income. At times, I started becoming more of a "button pusher" and less of an "artist." Some of my photos felt downright flat and lifeless.

About halfway through the year, I realized I didn't want to be hired just because I have a nice camera and can push buttons. I wanted to have the creative freedom to work with people who trusted and valued my artistic vision. At this point, I realized I had tried a lot of different things, and I was ready to start making moves towards defining myself as an artist. I've always have been a storyteller. And I have a lot of fun, but quirky ideas.

So I started adapting a more photojournalistic, story-telling style in my photos. And I started working on more personal outdoor creative projects.

For me, personal projects were the best way of attracting my ideal clients who liked my style and trusted my ideas. My "Mother in the Moon" project arose from working with a client who trusted my vision to create something special for her. And that was a really good feeling.

A picture is only as powerful as the story it tells

This was by far, the biggest revelation to me this year. I got to take a lot of beautiful photos this past year. But the photos that meant the most to me were the ones that captured not just a place, but also a story.

This picture of Helene Dumais had a large reach this year. It was from my largest personal project of the year, documenting the first female to complete the Ko'olau Summit Ridge in one through-hike, and it won several contestss. But what made this photo so powerful to me was not so much the timing, framing, lighting, or any technical details. What made it powerful to me was the feelings and story behind it.

It's not actually a triumphant photo of reaching a summit or end-point. It's a photo of defeat mixed with determination and dreaming. It was right after a failed attempt to complete the trek. We were scouting a section of the "saddles," three treacherous climbing sections that had forced us to quit. Our limbs were covered in bruises and rashes, and our knees were swollen. We were completely depleted. But Helene's body language still conveys a sense of strength, adventure, and hope.

I like this photo because it has a meaningful story behind it. It reminds me to keep your sense of adventure in times of adversity, and never, ever, EVER give up on your dreams.

In June, we finally succeeded and became the first documented women to through hike the entire ridge line in one self-sufficient through-hike. Ironically, on the last attempt of the trail, I actually left my camera behind. Finishing the trail required significant weight cuts. It forced us to choose between high quality photos, or being truly ultralight and actually having a chance at finishing. It was appearance vs. experience. I left the camera gear behind, and only brought a mini point and shoot to document. As a photographer, it was a game changing decision for me. I realized that I was first and foremost, a storyteller.

Photos have an incredible power to move a viewer emotionally, and incite action

Emotions captivate me. Happiness. Loneliness. Curiosity. Sorrow. Love. Fear. I spent a lot of this year learning how to help people relax and capture them in their most natural states. That was one thing I discovered about my "style"- I like capturing genuine emotions. Most were in happy moments, like weddings. But I captured other emotions as well.

I took this shot during an emotional search for Moke, a missing teenage hiker. In this moment the father & David (a volunteer searcher) embraced in a tearful and emotional hug after they returned from a flight scanning over the mountains for his son. Moved, I quietly took a few photos of the love & sadness I saw between the people there.

I wasn't sure if it had been insensitive to take photos in those moments. I asked the family before I shared any photos. Surprisingly, they agreed, and actually thanked me for the photos, which we were then able to use for a fundraiser. As Moke's story spread, volunteers and donations poured in. While many different forms of media helped their cause, it was rewarding to be a small part of that. It was the first time I experienced the power of photos to not only tell a story, but to generate action. And that was pretty inspiring.

It really brought home the capacity of photos to move people on a deep, emotional level. And when people are moved, they act, and create change.

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There are so many other things I learned through the school of hard shots this past year, but those were my big ones. What advice would you have for somebody in their first year?