The Big Island of Hawaii offers amazing variety of gorgeous scenery for professional family photography. We can travel anywhere on the Big Island, whether it’s gold sand beaches of Kona or Waikoloa, black sand beaches of Volcano, turquoise water beaches with tide pools of Hilo, active Volcanos with moon-like landscapes in the midst of a lush rainforest, or even the Green Sand beach!
Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii (Big Island) started erupting for the first time in 38 years at the end of November 2022. Mauna Loa, meaning “long mountain” is the largest active volcano in the world!
Exclusive large prints of the Mauna Loa eruption can be ordered here!
We spontaneously decided to go there to witness the historic Mauna Loa eruption in the middle of the night/morning of December 1, 2022. The following few photos were carefully selected as best shots from that session. More new photos of Mauna Loa eruption coming soon, weather permitting!
After driving for about an hour, we pulled over as soon as we got a good glimpse from of the Mauna Loa eruption. It was very cold and dark outside making it more challenging to take good photos (or even set up equipment!)
We were still quite far from it to keep it safe and luckily I brought my telescopic zoom lens 🙂 Our gas was running low 🙂 But since we were so close to another vantage point we decided to drive up a bit more.
We drove up to a nearly the same elevation as the erupting crater to take the shot above. It was magical and unreal! In the photo above you can see the fountains of lava spewing hundreds of feet straight up into the air!
The shot above is one of my favorites. As the cosmic cool Moon (Mahina) is setting down in the West, Mauna Loa’s fiery earthly lava and hot smoke are rising up in the East. The ultimate Yin and the Yang experience.
On the night of November 28 I stepped out of our house and saw the sky on fire! My first impression was reminiscent of something apocalyptic and mysterious. It looked like a gorgeous sunset, but it wasn’t. It was the glow of the Mauna Loa’s lava reflecting up into the night sky!
It was then that I felt and saw with my own eyes the awesome magnitude of the Mauna Loa’s eruption – from our house, even though it’s 34 miles (55km) away from us!
From that moment I had to get closer to witness and document the glory of Mauna Loa’s historic eruption.
Professional wedding photography at Magic Island in Honolulu is a must to capture the incredible beauty Magic Island offers. Located very close to Waikiki and right next to Ala Moana Beach on the island of Oahu. Magic Island offers unobstructed views of Diamond Head, small boat harbor, Waikiki, Ala Moana, and Kaka’ako skylines, calm water lagoon with turquoise water, amazing views of sunsets, a huge green park with large trees, fireworks on Fridays, and unobstructed beach views of sunsets into the ocean.
No wonder, Magic Island is one of the most popular destinations for outdoor Weddings in Hawaii. Most of these weddings are small destination weddings and some are medium to large weddings. Medium to large size wedding require a well planned set up, so the wedding guests could comfortably sit and the wedding couple could be nicely framed inside of a beautiful beach style wedding canopy.
This medium-sized Wedding was carefully planned towards later in the afternoon, so that the ceremony finishes just in time for sunset and that it’s not so early in the afternoon that it’s too hot for most people. This Magic Island Wedding photoshoot was about 2.5 hours total. So we were able to capture the bride’s arrival, take lots of pre-wedding photos of the couple, their friends and family, details of decorations, the Wedding ceremony, after-the-wedding group shots, candid photos, the newlyweds at sunset AND evening style photos too!
It was lots of fun and the lucky couple ended up with a super nice variety of awesome wedding photos shot by Pasha of Best Hawaii Photos.
Ko’olau Gardens is a great spot for Weddings of any size. Located at the prestigious Ko’olau Golf Course in Kaneohe on the island of Oahu. It offers a very nice and convenient indoor wedding reception site Ko’olau Ballrooms with full catering, an indoor waterfall, as well as a very scenic wedding ceremony site right outside. Ko’olau Golf Course is rated one of the best 100 golf courses in the world.
Incredible views of the Ko’olau mountains, lots of greenery with large trees, tropical plants, and ponds create lots of opportunities for stunning Wedding Photography.
Since Ko’olau Gardens is located on the rainy side of Oahu, it’s advisable to plan the wedding at a dry and sunny time. Of course, Hawaiian weather can be unpredictable and forecasts are often wrong. But, this lucky wedding couple got lucky with the weather, since it rained the day before, but cleared up just in time for their wonderful wedding.
This awesome wedding was organized and planned with the help of Ko’olau Gardens and I Want to Marry You Weddings with Reverend Watters Glover. Photography by Pasha of Best Hawaii Photos.
This amazing Honolulu Wedding at Foster’s Point was blessed with some stunning sunset photos, to say the least. Foster’s Point is located at Hickam Air Force Base near Pearl Harbor. It offers unobstructed ocean views of sunsets, Diamond Head in the distance, all under a huge tree! Foster’s Point is a small park with basic amenities and it can be reserved in advance for special occasions like weddings. Reserving Foster’s Point turns it into a private and semi-private escape. This wonderful wedding was planned by I Want To Marry You Weddings with Rev. Keawe Bray as the officiant and Pasha of Best Hawaii Photos as the wedding photographer.
Haiku Gardens is a beautiful spot for a special Wedding tucked away on the East side (Windward side) of Oahu. Haiku Gardens features a serene Hawaiian rainforest environment with it’s own lake, lush greenery, and Wedding amenities.
Haiku Gardens has a wedding gazebo, a special wedding reception structure with open walls, and change/make-up room for pre-wedding preparation. Haiku Gardens also has a restaurant called Haleiwa Joe’s with an incredible view overlooking Haiku Gardens – perfect for that wedding after-party!
Professional Wedding photography at Haiku Gardens is a must in order to capture all the special moments in this incredible location! Follow this lucky newlywed couple to the beach, where we continued our journey of taking great after-the-wedding photos!
Maternity is a special time in a woman’s life that should be honored in many ways. One of the ways to honor Maternity in Hawaii is taking high quality professional photos of the Mother. Hawaii offers a perfect, natural backdrop to these special moments in a woman’s life that need to be captured the right way.
In this case the mother-to-be is 29 weeks pregnant. She is full of energy and feels great! We took this special Maternity photo shoot at an uncrowded, but beautiful beach and we even went in the water! It was lots of fun! And most importantly captured these life’s special moments that the baby to be will be able to see!
Follow this mama’s Maternity journey captured a week later at 30 weeks pregnant on the North Shore on New Year’s Day!