Time for Blog update

Aloha!

I've been swamped over the past several months with an average of 13,000 photos to process at any give time and unfortunately I let my blog slide.

The good news is that my business is absolutely booming in this time of "financial downturn" and I am continually getting rave reviews from my clients!

I've just received some great news from the Japanese Opera Singer named Aika that I did a photoshoot of in August 2008. She has chosen the photos I did of her for her next 2 CD covers as well as inside liners~


While Aika was in Maui back in August 2008, I also shot an HD video of her singing Ave Maria on the lava rocks by the ocean in South Maui. I took still photos at the same time the tape was rolling, if you can imagine that! I was on the ocean's edge with waves crashing all around and $25,000 worth of pro HD video and still camera gear all around me on the lava rocks. Absolutely Craaazy! But well worth it as we captured some beautiful timeless footage that Aika is now broadcasting on Japanese national TV.This HD video will be broadcast every day of April, 2009 on Japanese TV. I'd suggest you watch it in HD if you choose to click on the You Tube link below. In case you've never used the HD function in You Tube, to view in HD, click the HD button in the bottom right corner. The HD button will turn red. It's best to push pause and let the whole movie load before you push play. 

You can read the blog while the loading bar below turns all red. When all red this means the video has fully uploaded and is ready for smooth viewing in HD.)



Aika has chosen to use my photos on her website as well:

http://www.music-net-jp.com/aika/new-cd.html

Last but not least a very popular Japanese Magazine named Soukai is running a feature article of Aika in its spring addition. It will include the photos from my shoot with Aika and even a free CD! If you scroll down to the middle of the page you will see the free CD that is in the magazine

Soukai Magazine


I'll be changing this blog to a Wordpress blog very soon, which is another reason I have not been putting new blogs on this site. In my new blog I will be including my favorite photos from weddings I've recently shot at the Grand Wailea, The Fairmont Kea Lani, The Olowalu Plantation House, The Maui Prince, The Haiku Mill, The Kaahumanu Church in Wailuku, The Sugarman Estate and other various private estates as well.

I wish you a warm aloha and a wonderful spring!

Richard

alohaia.com
richardmarksphoto.com

Feedback from Dress Designer Bernard Foong

Thank You Richard for the beautiful photo series of Aika in your alohaia.com site. They are truly gorgeous! Aika’s rendition of Ava Marie adds much emotion and life to the pictures. I am very blessed to be working with such great artistes and will truly love to get a copy of the photos and video you took of Aika in my dresses – when you have them edited and are ready to reveal to the world.

Aika – My blessings to you! It is our great honor to hear you sing for at our home. What an enchanted evening. Richard did a marvelous photography job of you in my dresses and I know in my heart, when artistes of the right mind/spirit/love come together, BEAUTY creates itself effortlessly. I hope I as a designer can assist in enhancing a beautiful person/singer/spirit such as you to unlimited heights of glory and delight that the world can constantly enjoy. Bringing - Love, Peace & Beauty to the world than the negativity that is being reported daily in the News. Please feel free to contact me as I am always happy to work with you (in all the ways my God given talents has bestowed upon me) to make this world a better place to live in. We look forward to seeing and hearing from you soon.

Blessings of Joy & Delight!!!
Aloha! Bernard
http://www.bernardfoong.com/

Feedback from Maya and Paul

Aloha,

I am still working on processing about 10,000 photographs from recent shoots and just checked my iPhone for client e-mail and found the above e-mail from my recent clients, May and Paul. As a special surprise wedding gift, I did a post wedding sunset shoot several days after their wedding. I liked the results so much that I posted Maya's photo on my landing page.

I look forward to hearing from you and delivering exquisite photos in the spirit of aloha your way!

with warm aloha,

Richard Marks
www.alohaia.com
www.richardmarksphoto.com

Here's one of my favorite photos of Maya:

10,000 plus images!

Aloha,

While in my studio the other day, processing over 10,000 images from the big 8/8/08 wedding week, I heard someone with an absolutely gorgeous voice singing at my studio door. The singing was followed by a very soft and barely audible gentle knock. When I went to my studio door, I discovered three beautiful Japanese woman and one baby boy awaiting me with radiant smiles.

It turns out the singer was Aika, a famous Japanese opera recording artist and sound therapist who was recommended to see me via Suga Kunitomo, the owner of the Japanese Izani Dance Troupe that performed before the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

To make a long story short, Aika said she loves my photography and would like me to do the photography for her next CD. In the last several days we have done 3 shoots. The above photo is one of the photos that we like the most so far. We may be following up our Maui photo shoots with a shoot in Osaka, Japan.

If you want to know more about Aika, the links to her 3 websites are below. They are all in Japanese, but there is some beautiful audio if you want to hear her voice:

http://www.aika.tv/
http://www.kiyora.jp/
http://www.danseg.jp

I look forward to hearing from you and delivering exquisite photos your way!

with warm aloha,

Richard Marks
www.alohaia.com
www.richardmarksphoto.com

Feedback from Maeghan and Mike

Aloha,

The e-mail above is feedback I received today from Maeghan and Mike in San Francisco that I took a screenshot off of my iPhone 3G.

Man o man! I love what we can do with technology these days!

looking forward to connecting with you and making arrangements to deliver exquisite photos your way!

with warm aloha,

Richard

http://www.alohaia.com
http://www.richardmarksphoto.com

Back from San Francisco and Philadelphia Shoots

Aloha,

My apologies for not posting blogs for a while. I have been traveling on the mainland doing shoots in San Francisco and the Philadelphia area.

I am now back in Maui for a long stay and don't any have immediate pressing travel plans except for maybe a trip to Osaka,Japan to photograph models for Getty and Blend Images when the fall foliage starts changing there.

The above photo is of one of my favorite couples, Maeghan and Mike, from San Francisco. They hired me to shoot engagement photos for them in Maui and liked my work so much they extended an invitation for me to come shoot more engagement photos of them in their home base, the San Francisco Bay area, which was my home for 25 years until I moved to Maui in 2001.

If you would like to see more photographs of this lovely couple, you can see a gallery I created of their engagement photos on my alohaia website.

Who knows? Maybe I'll get invited to shoot their wedding in Southern California when they set the date to tie the knot!

with warm aloha,

Richard

ps~ I've just posted a new wedding gallery of Ayumi and Yuichiro...a gorgeous couple from Tokyo who are professional dancers and dance teachers . They had the fantastic opportunity to perform for the Emperor and Empress of Japan a couple years ago.

They had a very beautiful, heart filled and unique wedding ceremony at a sacred Hawaiian site...the same site my wife and I were married at. Please feel free to visit Ayumi and Yuriciro's gallery. I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.alohaia.com
http://www.richardmarksphoto.com

A mini miracle unfolds

Aloha,

I would like to share a little excerpt I wrote this morning in my journal about the wonderful wedding of Maya and Paul that I shot at the Sugarman Estate in Makena South Maui on August 3:

~~~When i entered the house there was a sense of quiet mahem and general chaos everywhere....

the catering staff was cramming all the tables for the 60 guests into a tiny covered porch area....

When I stepped into the room where Maya the bride was getting ready, she was in tears and looking quite sad because it was raining and the skies dark and cloudy with no blue sky to be seen...I began to take pictures of Maya putting on her make up in the mirror but in each photo she looked so sad...and she was applying her make up over and over again which only got streaked by a tiny river of tears falling from each eye.

When the right moment arose, I stopped photographing and asked Maya if I could give her a hug. I gently told her that as soon as I noticed the dark clouds and could smell the rain that day, I began praying all afternoon for a circle of blue sky to open up right above the wedding ceremony and for stars the to be shining above us at night...she softly smiled for the very first time since I arrived but the smile dissolved from her eyes back into a look of doom and gloom and sadness like the dark clouds outside.

Right after I told Maya about my"prayer" I quietly excused myself for a few minutes and ran in the rain as fast as I could to the little pavilion that the wedding was to take place in. I took a deep breath and lifted some prayers and Hawaiian chants to our Creator (whom the Hawaiians call Keakua) to please open up the sky for this beautiful couple who have such beautiful hearts.

"Please Keakua if it is your will then please let this beautiful couple have clear skies for their wedding day...yes... I know that rain is your way of sending a blessing, but please let a circle of blue sky open up to reveal your golden sun and beautiful stars this evening....and as you well know, the bride is really really very upset because of this rain and dark skies, I ask that you please clear the skies for her so she can have a happy wedding day"

After my prayers and chanting, I quickly ran back through the rain to the bride's room to continue photographing the bride...and then ran back and forth between the bride and grrom to photograph the groom his son and his groomsmen... about 15 minutes later after my prayers in the pavillion, much to my joy the rain slowed to a light drizzle and a blue streak of sky opened above Kohoolave!

The wedding was standing room only in a tiny pavillion and was actually quite sweet, but I had to crawl on my knees between people who kindly let me through so I could get the perfect shots.

By the time the wedding ended, ...a huge circle of blue sky opened above us and we had the beautiful gold ball of sun break out through the clouds as it set over Kohoolave.

And the circle of clear sky began to reveal the stars shining overhead so the rather weary staff cheerfully moved all the tables outside, and the dj set up his station and a slick dance floor. A great time was had by all with the wedding dinner under golden lanterns under the open sky followed by the cake cutting and some great celebratory dancing...families of the bride and groom mixing together and dancing from anything fantastic Persian styled music...as the brides family were Persian, to We Are Family disco... I got some great shots of the groom's Mom dancing with the bride's 80 year old grandfather, who was wildly waving a napkin in the air over his head as he danced.

I in no means can take full credit for that mini miracle...I'm sure many of the wedding party were also praying their heads off as well.~~~

Look for a gallery of photographs from Maya and Paul's wedding to be posted in the next few days!

with warm aloha,

Richard

http://www.alohaia.com
http://www.richardmarksphoto.com