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Michael [mahy-kuhl] – noun
1. A male given name. 2. A witty, charming professional wedding photographer who enjoys movies, exercise, romantic walks on the beach and large pepperoni pizzas.
Maven [may-ven] – noun
1. A connoisseur or trusted expert in a particular field who seeks to pass his knowledge onto others. 2. An intense gatherer of useful information. 3. An individual who demonstrates passion for learning and teaching a specific topic, particularly through a well connected social network.
Thank you for coming to my blog! I update it regularly, so if you ever want to know what I am up to, please come by and take a peek. Feel free to leave your comments below.
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Day 88 - Helicopter trip and Hanging out with Kauai |
Had a last minute helicopter adventure this afternoon. I scored the best seat in the Helicopter, the front right seat. Have tons of great pictures, many will end up being screen savers. I bought the DVD, as well as shot a ton of my own video (thanks to Canon 5DII) but need to edit it, so it may be a few days before I post. After the trip I had a couple hours of daylight left so I just decided to wander around for a while and took as many pictures as I could. It was a great day.
Kauai is really amazing. It and Maui are the two places on earth I really feel like I am in love with them- its the strangest thing, it sort of feels like being in love with a person, but only its a place. Not sure if that sounds weird, but if you have felt it you know what I am talking about. Ive liked a lot of places, but....wow! Im already thinking about all the things Id like to do on my next visit. :) |
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Day 87 - Shave Ice :) |
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Hanging with Friends on Kauai |
| Well, if you have been reading whats been going on the last day or two, you can see that I met up with Jessi Ann Mink, her Mom Sherrie and sister Jenna. We drove up to the canyons today and then had some Shave Ice. Strangely, most of the conversation was about business. |
| Jessi Ann was embarassed by yesterday's kayak picture, so I promised to take a better one today. She thinks her hair looks like a lion or something, and I have to agree with her. It does! So, here is a nice one to balance the karma out. Great pic Jessi Ann! |
Near the end of the day, I saw we were going to have a little bit of sunlight and offered to take some nice pics of the girls - These images are important because I used a tiny little speed light as the fill, this is very tricky when shooting into sun light (granted it wasnt full power sun light, but without a fill, the girls would just be dark shadows. There is much more going on in these pictures than what meets the eye. If you look carefully, you can even see where the speed lite was in relation to the girls. Ill include several lessons on the 580 Speedlite DVD about this, and what the best settings are.
For the amount of work it takes to set up a portable studio light vs using a small speed light, I am going to have to side with the speed light. These images were processed in about a minute each with Paintballer Pro, which means you can get images like this without having to invest in a portable battery pack or studio lighting equipment (though granted, once you have it set up, it is dang nice). |
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Day 86 - Waterfall Picture |
| For some reason when I looked at this image last night, I didnt like it. Oddly, Ive changed my mind, so here is the original waterfall picture. :) |
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Zipline, Kayak and Waterfall Video |
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Day 86 |
| This was taken behind a waterfall. |
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Michael Andrew Spotted by Fan (ok...she's a friend too) |
So I am paddling along in this Kayak today, minding my own business, and 2 kayaks were coming downriver and one of the kayakers starts yelling: "Michael Andrew! Michael Andrew! Is that you! Oh my gosh!" and it turns out, it's Dave Mink's wife, Jessi Ann from Alabama. This was really random, here we are in the middle of an Island in the Pacific Ocean, kayaking on a river, and I run into not only someone I know...(uh...I mean...thats not really surprising to me...lol), Jessi Ann is one of my good friend's from Alabama: Mink Family Shoot , and Jessi Anns Birthday Party She just so happened to be on Kauai with her mom to pick up her sister after her internship and they just so happened to be kayaking on the same river, same time of day.
The weird thing is...I run into her or her husband, randomly, on a very consistent basis. I bumped into her husband Dave at the Apple store in Salt Lake City, and then both of them at a BYU Football Game in Provo a few weeks later, just randomly. I saw them (and her sister) at Thad's wedding in Logan, but that wasnt coincidental.
I wonder...what is the deal with this phenomena? |
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Kauai Photo Safari |
Today was a really interesting day and I learned a lot about a lot of different things. I had a fun Photo Safari planned with a Photo Touring Company here. Its run by a fantastic landscape photographer, Vince Tyler and his wife, Michelle. The concept is that Vince or his son takes you to all these great locations and you get to take some nice pictures. Ive never been here and I figured it would save me tons of time, plus I could learn from Vince about landscape work.
The problem with today was, it was COMPLETELY overcast, which is great for portrait photography, but really awful for landscape photography, at least on Kauai. Vince asked me if I wanted to go or not and said I could reschedule if I wanted. I considered it for a moment and I had this thought come to me. It wasnt so much about the overcast sky, or photography, but the concept that less than perfect conditions could change my attitude towards something I would otherwise enjoy, it was like bailing out on the shoot would create some flaw in my approach to life. Obstacles happen and for a person with the right attitude, it just doesnt matter.
I wanted to say a big thank you to Vince, I had a fantastic time and learned so much about landscape photography. I am really excited to get out there when the sun is shining and apply what I have learned. If you are ever on Kauai and enjoy photography, this is probably the best investment you can spend. Vince was very knowledgeable about his craft and a very nice guy. Be sure to check out their website: Kauai Photo Tours
Here are a couple of my favorites for the day: |
Near the end of the tour, we were walking in from the dock where the jumpers picture was taken. I saw this really beautiful, tall woman walking by us and I was surprised by how freaking tall she was. I am almost 6'4" with shoes on and she was about an inch taller than me (she had shoes too). So I just threw out a "Dang girl- you are tall!".
I didnt really think anything of it, I throw things like this all the time to strangers, as a way of complimenting them. This woman turns back and says something, it could have been: "I played a lot of volleyball" or something, but now that I think about it was more likely something along the lines of "You are as handsome as I am tall". The two are pretty similar, didnt really hear it, you know how that is.
A few moments later, Vince asks "You know who that was dont you? That was Gabrielle Reese." As in the volleyball player/model. I still dont really know who she is, but I do remember feeling a flood of relief coming over me, and I sighed a big "whew!"
I mean...what if she would have recognized me? Then I would be stuck there for like an hour signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. Im a pretty busy guy, I mean who has time for that? |
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Day 85 |
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Kauai Scuba Dive |
First let me apologize for the quality of the video. I thought I had it set up to shoot in SD, but it turns out it was set at 320 x 240 @ 15 frames per second- Im not sure why this was the case, I think it may reset when the battery is changed or something. but its my fault for not checking. The Casio EX-S10 will shoot high quality SD (680 x 420), and even has a widescreen version (863 wide). In any event, you can kind of see whats going on and the good time I had today.
Photo Safari Shoot Tomorrow! :) |
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