Kapalua Bay Maui Family Photographer

Two sweet families traveling together decided on a back to back session at beautiful Kapalua Bay. They both opted for a mid-day session. While mid-day sessions are bright, the payoff is an extremely blue ocean, and this family visiting from chilly Canada wanted bright, Maui vibrant color to work into their session. I hope the gorgeous Maui weather brings back many warm memories when they get back home!

When we arrived at Kapalua Bay, we actually had a rain cloud hovering over us for a bit. As it cleared, a giant rainbow appeared for a few minutes! Then we traded and their friends had their session. All the kids were so wonderful to work with – it was such a fun session!

The day before this shoot, I had an ASK THE PHOTOGRAPHER submission on my Facebook page. The question was about photographing in mid-day sun. This was a really great question! Mid-day, bright sessions are always going to be more contrasty than their early or later counterparts, but there are some things you can do to make them great. It’s always important for me to get skin tone right, so I will usually meter off of the skin to obtain the correct exposure. Sometimes this will blow out the background just a little, but I can help bring that back in in the post-processing. Another challenge with mid-day shooting and bright sun is shadows – sometimes with groups one person’s head can be in a shadow. It’s important to move and arrange people so that everyone has the same amount of light. Eye sensitivity is also an issue. On some images, I needed to count to three to have everyone’s eyes open. Do you have a question for Mariah in her ASK THE PHOTOGRAPHER series? If so, head on over to her Facebook page!