JENN'S MATERNITY PHOTO SHOOT...01.22.2023

Funny thing, I did a previous photo shoot with Jenn on 8/28/22 of last year. It was a creative photo shoot, but little did she know that she was hapai (pregnant)!?! I found out a few weeks later when I sent her the final edits from that photo shoot. I’ve never done a maternity shoot before but ask if she was game for me to try & she said yes!

I wanted to wait until she was showing & we waited to do the shoot in her 2nd trimester in January. I also needed her husband, Edric, to be part of this photoshoot. With my assistant Brandon, we went over to their home & I set up my portable WESCOTT X DROP PRO backdrop, love this, it’s so easy to set up & portable that I can take it anywhere. It took us about 5 minutes to have it up & ready to go. A word of warning, the Wescott X Drop Pro is for indoor use only. You can use it outdoors, but if the wind catches it, it’ll become a huge sail! Very basic 2-light setup 42” umbrella as my key & a 24” octa as a rim. I would LOVE to use my 42” & 65” umbrellas more often when shooting my environmental portraiture, but outdoors the wind in Hawaii is always an issue! The light coming out of these is so soft & beautiful, it literally takes my breath away! I’ve come to love using my Flashpoint/Godox AD100 Pro lights on all my creative shoots. I have 4 of them & have stopped bringing my AD200 & AD300 Pro strobes to location shoots unless it’s in the afternoon.

Jenn is a pro at modeling with her facial expressions & posing, which makes things so much easier for the photo shoot to flow smoothly. Even with all of her experience as a model, I always create a mood board as a reference for posing & as well as lighting. I do this will all of my creative shoots & creating a mood board can make or break a shoot. I’ll also send the mood board to the model to give her an idea of the type of vibe I’m looking for.

Jenn & Edric are a beautiful couple, I enjoyed the shoot & made some amazing images! I can’t wait until Part II of their maternity shoot!!!

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!

For inquiries & pricing about setting up your home maternity photo shoot, contact me.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS...01.30.2023

Click on the link to see the full gallery of images from this photo shoot…Aloha

Personal photography project with clay.

From the first day I met Crissy, something about her stuck with me. I’ve come to realize that it was her beautiful, caring soul. She’s the kind of person that even though we don’t see each other for months, we can pick up like we just saw each other yesterday! She has a very rough exterior, but once you get past that & really get to know her, she has a heart of gold!!! Even when she’s stressed, she’s always thinking about others & putting her concerns behind her to help out her friends. She is an inspiration to me! 

For this project, I was inspired by another photographer & his partner to attempt to do this shoot with dried, cracked clay, @kimhenry.dance & @ericparephoto. The images hit me on an emotional level! I knew exactly who that person I wanted to be as my subject, so I approached Crissy & explained my concept to her & she was happy to indulge my vision!

I went back to the basics with just 1 light to hopefully use the shadows & the negative space to create the mood that I saw in my vision.

There is a basic emotion I want to capture with this portrait, somberness but not in a dark way, if that makes sense. Crissy’s had a hard life & she’s never had it “easy. A cancer survivor & recently had an accident that brought her close to death. I want to portray her past hard life photographically. The clay covering her exterior beauty, the cracks representing her past struggles, and there are small spots of clay that haven’t dried, representing the current struggles that are still healing today. Then there are the patches of clay that have fallen off to reveal her inner beauty waiting to be seen with her hopes & dreams. On a couple of images I opted to add color to some of her skin tones as a representation of her inner beauty breaking free of the black & white darkness! I don’t want this to be interpreted as something dark, but it should be seen as struggling out of the darkness & finding hope to move forward as Crissy has done! She is an inspiration to me & I hope that she will be an inspiration to others after reading this.

This project is a huge step way out of my comfort zone. Not too much planning to acquire the materials needed, which is only clay & talking to Crissy about where I want to take this. A few weeks before the scheduled shoot, we did do a test run on her arm to see what consistency we’d need for the cracked effect. I pitched my concept to my team & everyone was excited to assist with this project.

This project was originally shot on December 4th, 2022

A BIG MAHALO to my amazing Creative Team…Brandon, Eric, Tien & Crissy

Inspiration by…
Kim Henry
Eric Pare

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!

A DEFINITE WORK IN PROGRESS...01.06.2023

Shock
Anger
Fear of the unknown
More anger
Confusion about the future
More anger 
Starting over from scratch
Sadness
Acknowledgment of things happen for a reason
Finally, Acceptance 
That’s a lot of shit to go through in 2 months, but I finally realized that everything happens for a reason & this series of events will make me a stronger person. I have to admit that there’s a small part of me hiding in the back of my brain that wishes that none of this would have happened…at least for another five years, but it has nudged me into pursuing a new journey & for that I am grateful!

ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) at sunrise on the east side of Oahu.

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!
*Prints are available for purchase

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023...01.01.23

1 day late, procrastination is not a good way to start off the year! Lol! Creatively 2022 has been, for the most part, an amazing year for me. I’ve grown as a photographer, especially in my lighting & planning what exactly I want in each frame that I shoot. With that said, I failed more times than I’ve succeeded in creating my vision. As with everything we do, with failure, I feel that has moved me to become an overall better photographer & retoucher…I hope?!? I feel that I created some of my best work in 2022. Without failure, we’ll never get better at what we do!

Sunrise silhouettes

Unfortunately, there was a bit of bad news toward the end of the year, but I truly believe that things happen for a reason & it was time that I move on to start a new journey!

First sunrise family silhouettes of 2023

On December 31st, a couple of my buddies, Brandon, Eric & Darcy, planned on shooting the first sunrise of 2023, so we met up at Sandy’s at 5:30 am to beat the many people that would show up to witness 2023’s first sunrise. We made our way out to the “donut hole.” The skies were filled with dark, ominous clouds, but as sunrise approached at 7:09 am, the lower clouds on the horizon opened up & lit up the sky with a beautiful orange-golden light!!! Turned out to be an awesome first sunrise for 2023! Just about 10 minutes after sunrise those same dark rain clouds moved in & we were blessed with rain. The 4 of us met up after to have a wonderful breakfast to sit down, eat, have more coffee & talk story. What a great way to start off the New Year!!!

Mahalo 2022, Aloha 2023

HIGH TIDE, HIGH SURF...11.26.2022

White water bubbles caused by the gigantic surf pounding Sandy Beach

Saturday’s high tide at 5:03 am, sunrise at 6:49 am & high surf conditions were a photographic dream!!! There was just a hand full of times in the past that I’ve seen the shore break wash up all the way back to the grassy area. I forgot to check my surf app, so I didn’t have my long lens with me & I had to make do with the 50mm. Being the crazy person I am, in between sets, as I saw the wave building up, I moved closer to the water’s edge, took a burst of 20 frames & quickly retreated back up the shore. Of course, my shorts were soaked by the time sunrise appeared! I had to stop by my home to change clothes before meeting up with my buddies for breakfast! I went back on Sunday with my 70-200mm, but the swells had settled down. I was so bummed!

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!
*Prints are available for purchase

A HAPPY HALLOWEEN PHOTO SHOOT W/KELSY...10.23.2022

Pumpkinhead Halloween,
On the night of All Hallows’ eve, beware of a beautiful young maiden dressed in all black with eyes that could burn a hole through your heart! Muhahaha! 😳😝😜🫣

This was a last-minute shoot that was put together when Kelsey texted me about a week ago to do a pumpkinhead-themed shoot. It was a super fun Halloween shoot, except for the rotting smell of dead flesh & the occasional zombies walking through the set. They can be so annoying!!! 😂🤣😆

Happy & safe Halloween, everyone!!!

Big Mahalo’s to
Muse: @kelsytattoos808
Assist: @thunder808hi

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!
*Prints are available for purchase

KAHALA SUNRISE IN PARADISE...11.20.2022

Had some fun experimenting on Saturday at sunrise, this is a 2 frame exposure blend, 1 for the sky & one for the foreground. The sky was a 5-minute exposure & the foreground a 7-minute exposure, with a 10-stop ND filter. ISO was set at 50 & aperture at f/11 for maximum dof. Lens of choice, the Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.0 Aspherical MC Lens. It’s virtually impossible to get the sky & foreground exposure correct in camera with just 1 frame.

I’ve been playing around with this lens for over a month, mostly for ICM but have been trying to use it for portraiture & now seascapes. I’m coming to realize how much character this lens has, the sharpness of the subject with the contrast of the shadow & highlighted area & of course, the beautiful bokeh. When you put all that together & nail focus, the images are freakin’ amazing!!! The frustrating part about the Voigtlander is trying to nail tack sharp focus at f/2 is so hard with portraiture!

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!
*Prints are available for purchase

Mental health awareness, don’t be afraid to ask for help!  

***No reposting without permission*** 
All media copyright © Ryan Sakamoto 2022

JENNIE WITH A "J"...11.13.2022

I did an early morning sunrise photoshoot with Jennie & I gotta say that her posing skills are freakin’ amazing! Models who know how to pose, especially free posing, make any photographer’s job so much easier!!!

Jennie is a beautiful young lady who’s a fitness coach & model. She’s very open to shooting different looks & I have to give her credit for being able to hike down to the location in the darkness of early morning with my creative team. I know how much work these models put into their craft of modeling & shooting at 5 am, they have to get up so very early to do their own hair & makeup. I have mad respect for these models that I shoot with who are willing to go the extra mile to do a sunrise photoshoot with me!

The Creative team…
Brandon Kawamura 
@okinamalina
@thunder808
@jennie808

Fitness sillouette rim light photo shoot.

Sunrise environmental portrait.

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!


All media copyright © Ryan Sakamoto 2022

Sunrise Fire Goddess...10.01.22

This girl is on fire…

Fire Goddess in Paradise…
She was born a goddess of smoke & fire, feared by all men! Adorned with a dress made of pure magics!

This themed fire goddess shoot was originally planned to be shot in December of 2021. The first model, who’s in the military, unexpectedly moved to the mainland & I had to put this project on the back burner. I ran across Rebecca on IG about a month ago, wearing a long red evening dress & I knew she would fit the part!

Headed to my favorite shooting location on the east side of Oahu meeting Rebecca & my team at 5am. So many challenges on this shoot, and I was always reminding myself to light based on the fire effects, not only on Rebecca but the surrounding environment & rim lights. There were some shots I didn’t get due to time constraints for the ambient light & the fast-rising sunrise, and I needed more of the darkness to make the flames more prominent in the frame.

It was a fun shoot with Rebecca & my team, and I learned more about lighting for the edit. I think I threw off my team when I started to light the ground!

The amazing & talented team…
Brandon Kawamura
@okinamalina
@thunder808
@dreaming_of_rebecca
@hiflyingdress
@rsakamoto808

Disclaimer: No @hiflyingdress or model was damaged, burned, or charred during this photo shoot! All fire effects are done in Photoshop. No actual fire/flame was present on the shooting site. Do not use any open flame /fire near these dresses or a person!

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.
A work in progress...Learn, grow...repeat!

Using light as the wardrobe…6.23.22

Using light as the wardrobe, 3-light setup. The most challenging part about this shot was keeping the light exactly where I needed it to fall. In hindsight, I should have brought the kicker light on camera left slightly behind at a 45 degree angle to carve out that side of the body with the rim light.

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!

HIDEKO, WRAPPED IN LACE...08.28.2022

I had the pleasure of working again with Tiff. I wanted to explore using the long purple material that we used on our 1st shoot. I didn’t feel the material was giving me what I wanted so I went out to a local fabric shop & found a stretchy lace type of material, which worked out perfectly. This is how I develop my concepts by exploring my failures, not to say our 1st shoot was a failure, but there were ways that I saw how I could improve on what we did base on what worked & what didn’t. Tiff was perfection, failures on my part…persistence, or just hard head. Lol!

I originally wanted to go to this specific spot that I shot from before but I misjudged the tide & how the waves were breaking which made hiking down a little sketchy, so we opted to stay where we were in a safer area.

Once again working with my team we came up with the concept of having the blue fabric flow off the top of the rocks, like a waterfall & wrap around her body Like water as it flows down back to the sea. The team was da bomb on this concept!!!

The hardest part of any shoot is figuring out the lighting. This was a 3 light setup, a key light, background & hair light. It takes time to tweak the light to see how each light is interacting with the subject & background but once that’s done rest is magic!

The team…
Model: @_hideko.__
Assist: @okinamalina
Assist: @thunder808hi
Assist: Brandon Kawamura

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

A work in progress...
Learn, grow...repeat!

SUNRISE FAMILY PORTRAIT IN PARADISE…08.14.2022

I had the pleasure to photograph my friend, @tattoosbykimo & his family visiting from the mainland. He is an amazing tattoo artist who I met, @hawaiitattooexpo a few years ago & we’ve become friends. He also has become interested in photography so whenever he’s in town we go out to shoot my favorite time of the day, sunrise.

I originally had planned to do the photoshoot solo but due to the winds that morning I asked my friend Tien if he was able to assist with my lights! The soft quality of light that comes out of this big 51” defused umbrellas are simply freakin’ amazing! The only problem is, when it’s too windy they become a giant sail that’s impossible to hold in position when the winds hit it. Lol! I really would like to use this light modifier more often in my portrait work but with the Hawaii trade winds, it is very hard, especially if I’m shooting solo.

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

A work in progress...Learn, grow...repeat!

THE EMOTION OF LIGHT

The emotion of light. I see light as an emotion. As I look through my viewfinder I look for that emotion to fill the mood. As a creative, I have the control to light a scene and or a person & show what I want the viewers to see & hide things that I don’t want my viewers to see. I’ve always loved the art of showing enough & leaving some mystery to the viewer’s imagination to fill in the blanks. Believe me that this is such a difficult art to master! I haven’t even come close to it, but I have a few more good years left in this old body of mine to try! 

If you take away anything from this, remember, highlights illuminate & shadows define.  

Highlight & Shadows, illuminate & define, one does not wrk without the other.

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

A work in progress...Learn, grow...repeat!

Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve

#STOPASIANHATE

I'm an artist/creator & I speak through my imagery. Through a chain of events, I was moved to create these images to speak my voice about the injustice that is happening around our country. This photoshoot was based around the hashtag #stopasianhate. These 3 models, Melani, Marissa & Chelsea, all have backstories about discrimination, racism & violence. My goal was not to ask any 3 “Asian” models to be part of this shoot, I wanted it to have meaning behind the words of the girls holding the signs. These are strong young ladies who have the heart to help me speak out for this senseless violence that is plaguing our cities. 

WE ARE NOT A VIRUS

I’ve lived in Hawaii all my life, a melting pot of diverse multicultural people, but it's not to say that racism does not exist here in the land of Aloha. I have had my share of being in a community where I did not feel welcome or have heard stories from close friends of racism & discrimination.
I cannot for the life of me understand WHY someone would feel that it is the fault of an entire race that has cause a world pandemic?!? 

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity…Martin Luther King, Jr.

RACISM

DISCRIMINATION

VIOLENCE

Melani, Marissa & Chelsea are models that I photographed in the past & who I am honored to call friends now! Like all shoots, we had our fair share of problems, like the paper not catching on fire, so I had to add it in post. The constant change of ambient light & cars driving in & out of the alley. I did want to keep the atmosphere light & yes it was a fun shoot with everyone. I also asked 2 of my good friends Brandon & Tien, to help assist me with the setup & lighting, could’’t have done it without them! 

Thank you so Melani, Marissa, Chelsea, Brandon & Tien, you guys are DA BEST!!!

Learn, grow…repeat!
Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve

FINDING RACHEL...03.14.2021

Love working with Rachel! She’s very open & reliable to do sunrise shoots! This would be my 1st time shooting with my new Sony A1, & I won’t lie I did struggle with the shoot! There are a few new features on this camera that kind of threw me off from the get-go. First off, not camera-related, we were on a very tight space on a cliff & I wanted to get a wide environmental shot so I used my 16-35mm f2.8, I think at 19mm. There weren’t many clouds so the sunrise came up too fast & hot! I forgot to take a background plate shot so I could easily erase my assistant out later in PS. It was painfully difficult to remove Brandon from the frame! That was just the start! Haha!

After the sun rose above the clouds, the lighting was way too harsh & contrasty for my liking. We moved down & around the other side of the cliff to the shadow side. That’s when it hit me that I didn’t really know what I wanted to capture as far as the background, so I blacked out the background to look more like a studio shot. BUT the whole reason why we were out at sunrise on location was to capture the environment…DUH!?! LOL! With 50mp & 15 stops of dynamic range, I was able to pull up the background out of the shadows.

Found Rachel

Light & Dark side…Yin & Yang

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

A work in progress...Learn, grow...repeat!

Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve

LOOK BEYOND WHAT YOU SEE...03.20.2021

A work in progress...
4 frame exposure blend, mostly for the waves & splashes on the rock. I added the birds to the left as a new PS doc from LR, the original 4 frames blended doc was 1.95GB.

I started out in the middle of the beach, looking out I struggled with finding a good composition. I stopped, took a minute to relax & looked beyond what was in front of me. The waves we big & consistent, I then saw what I didn’t see before as I looked to the bottom of the mountain & saw the waves pounding the cliffs! I had my 24-105 on but wasn’t long enough. I swapped to my 100-400mm with the 1.4 teleconverter. So the effective focal length racked out was 560mm. I took a few test shots with the auto & manual focus & of course, I could get sharper images using manual focus but it was windy so I had to check my focus after every 2 shots.

*TIP: Before you start to open multiple images in PS, make sure that you straighten your horizon on all of the images & try to match the colors, such as the waves to have more consistency in the color tones & brightness when blending. If you don’t that’s more work for you later on.

RAW image straight out of camera, Base layer in PS

4 frame blend 1.95GB

Bird layers

RAW Image #1, waves splashing on the midground rocks.

RAW Image #2, sea spray in the air over the midground rocks.

RAW Image #3 wave layer

RAW Image #4, this is my base foundation layer. All the spray above the rocks, the waves & bird layers were stacked above this & blended using layer masks.

Learn, grow...repeat!

Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve

INK IN BLACK & GREY

A work in progress...
I met Robert Pho 2 years ago at the 2018 Pacific Ink & Art Expo in Honolulu. I have been a fan of his work 3 years prior to that & for that past year, I’ve been trying to get him in front of my lens for a photoshoot. Through a mutual friend, we finally were able to set this up, big Mahalos to Brian Olmstead!

The next image is the RAW file straight out of camera, no editing. Upper right-hand corner you can see the extension boom arm that my assistant was holding the Flashpoint 100Pro with a MagMod Sphere about 45 degrees up in front of his head.

RAW image straight out of camera

BREAKDOWN
The last image is the breakdown of where I positioned the 3 flashes & removed the extension boom arm on the upper right corner. I intentionally framed up the shot with the least amount of that boom arm showing to make it as easy as possible to remove it later in Photoshop.

***Tip: Always be aware of what’s in your frame. Do border patrol before snapping the shutter, it only takes a few seconds to look around your frame. This will save you editing time in your post-processing.

To camera left, 1 FP (Flashpoint) 100Pro with a MagMod MagSphere & a creative blue gel, kicker sidelight.
To camera right, FP 100Pro with a MagMod MagSphere, no gel key light.
In LR & PS I enhanced the blue kicker light, Changed the white balance to warm up the cliff to the right, which was the original direction of where the actual sun was rising. Lastly, I intensified the colors of the incoming waves to give better separation between Robert, the cliff & the water.

Love working with Robert, he’s so chill & easy to work with! He values your time as much as I value his time, so much respect for him & his work ethic!!! We already have plans for our 2nd project together & it’s going to be a good one…can’t wait! BIG MAHALO’S to Robert! I’d also like to thank my good friend, Brandon Kawamura for the assist & keeping me on track! This was an amazing shoot, 1st time using the MagMod system & colored gels!

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.

Learn, grow...repeat!

Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve

SEEING THE BIG OR LITTLE PICTURE...02.22.21

A work in progress...
I’ve complained about my Sony A7RIV having too many megapixels for a whole year now. I’ve had to upgrade to a 24TB storage RAID to accommodate the file sizes of an uncompressed 62mp camera. I really wasn’t “happy” with the A7RIV except for the updated form factor, it did feel good in my hands. However, with the release of the Sony A1 just around the corner, which I have pre-ordered, I did have a big realization that I do miss all of those megapixels just for the fact that I can crop in & still maintain a decent mp count. Thinking about that I also realized that I’ve become lazy in my composition & knowing that I have the luxury to crop after the fact in post, that I didn’t need to get it right in camera. I did sell my A7RiV, 3 weeks ago & have been shooting with my backup A9I, which is 24mp & I’ve had to really think about, to crop or not to crop? Copping can make or break an image & having the ability to get rid of the unwanted parts of a picture that does nothing to help tell your story will make for a stronger image! It’s brought me back to 3-4 years ago when I didn’t have that luxury to crop with a smaller mp camera. This lesson did teach me to focus on what I should include or exclude in my frame. Sometimes big isn’t always better!

The image above is a 5 frame exposure blend. I gotta say that this was a tuff one to blend, so much masking! Lol!

Learn, grow...repeat!

Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S BLURRY?!?!?!

A work in progress...

What do you mean it’s blurry? Haha! Not exactly sure why I grabbed my camera & tripod off this comp, but it was a happy mistake at the end. I think that the massive grey cloud that was hanging over Mokoliʻi, just got to me! It was big, with no texture to it. So even though it was moving, on a long exposure it would still look like a big grey blob, I think that’s why I picked up & moved.

Learn, grow...repeat!

Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve

LOVE IS IN THE AIR...02.05.21

A work in progress...
I’m continuing to build my portfolio for my portrait, individual, couples family & engagement shoots. I met this beautiful young couple on Friday morning’s sunrise shoot. I kindly ask if they would model for me & luckily they said yes! After I did a few silhouette shots I packed up & gave them my card so I could send them the images that I took. As I walked back to my car I found this big puddle of water surrounded by grass & took a few shots with a shallow depth of field to reveal the bokeh balls! I soooo love bokeh!!!

I continued on to my car & looked back & saw the couple hugging & I quickly mounted my 100-400mm & grabbed a few shots. Using the bokeh ball frame & the hugging shot I combined those 2 frames to create the above final image.

For inquiries & pricing about setting up a photo shoot, contact me.
Learn, grow...repeat!

Aloha a hui hou my friends!
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2021 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserve