Prime Time…11.01.25

Nalani is modeling for me—my vision using water and reflections.

No, it’s not a blog about prime lens! Lol! For the past eight years or so, give or take a year or two, I’ve been thinking about my age and how much longer I can hop from rock to rock or hike up & down a trail for one of my creative photo shoots. 

I had a photo shoot with a beautiful model, Nalani, last Saturday morning at sunrise. The hike down this very familiar terrain was our usual trek down, no surprises, but something stopped me dead cold in my tracks as we ascended back up the rocky terrain after the shoot! The moment I had been dreading came when I took a high step up onto a rock with my right leg & for the life of me, I couldn’t push myself up that rock! It took me a minute to realize that nothing was happening. I had no strength to push myself up, and I had to crawl up that rock using my hand to help pull myself up! I must admit that this past year, the trek up this same cliff has become increasingly difficult for me physically. 

Lanai Lookout at sunrise.

That moment hit me like a ton of bricks! Like anything that you try to prepare for, it’s never easy to accept the negative consequences. It’s been over a week, and I’m still thinking about it, almost obsessed with it, thinking about it more times during the day than I'd like. My calves ached for three days after. What made it harder was the 20 extra pounds of camera gear in my backpack. 

On my creative shoots, especially when I plan to use multiple lights, all my gear consists of one 18-liter backpack for my camera & lens, one 35-liter backpack with my lights, usually with 3-5 lights. A lightstand bag with 2-4 stands with A-clamps, extra S-Bracket neoprene padding for the model, empty sandbags & plastic clear bag to cover my light in case it rains. Each of these backpacks & bags weighs around 20 pounds, and I’ll always carry my camera & lens backpack; if something happens to it, I have no one else to blame but myself. This is why I schedule my creative shoots around my team's schedule, cause I can’t carry all that shit by myself! Lol! The other backpack, which contains my lights and the lightstand bag, is usually carried by my two buddies, Eric and Brandon.  If the shoot has complex lighting, then there's an additional backpack, and I'll call my other buddies Tien and Shannon.

As many of you know, Lanai Lookout has been my favorite spot to shoot! Even before I started photographing people, while I was still shooting strictly seascapes with their beautiful rocky terrain. I’m not a young man anymore, that’s for sure!!! But I still love, love, love creating my artwork through photography with people!!! Will this stop me? Probably not, but I’ll be more aware of that location and let my team know that I may need help navigating up the cliffside. This gives “senior” portraits a whole new meaning to me!!! LOL! 

A work in progress...

Learn, grow...repeat!