Fuego Magic

INTRO

In this episode I sat down with Rodrigo to talk all about his approach to shooting portraits with couples during adventure / engagement sessions and weddings. We discussed how he prepares the clients to shoots, how her make them comfortable prior to getting started. Techniches used to make couples comfortable, how to get them to laugh, where he finds inspiration and new pieces of gear. We had some good laughs and I know you will like this one.

Excerpt from their site:

I’m Brazilian, but I have lived in Canada and have spent a third of my life in the USA. Started living the city life in Los Angeles and made my way west to the Islands.

I love the fact the I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific.  Maui has been home for the past 14 years.  I share my island life with my fiancé Annie, daughter Isabella, cat Kitty and dog Nala.

I love surfing. I’m a craft beer lover. I don’t think anything beats watching the sunset on the beach with your people enjoying a pint. I’m mostly vegan but eat sushi occasionally ( couldn’t give that up). Music inspires me so much! It’s inspiring me right now to write this “about me” and it will probably inspire me to edit your wedding photos as well. Sunshine makes me stoked but rainy days are a must too. No rain no rainbows. Oh, and there’s also coffee.

Photography has been my passion for as a long time and it didn’t start with a romantic story at all. My grandpa didn’t give me an old film camera. My dad didn’t have a dark room in the basement. I actually got my first camera when I was 18 with my own money and it was one of those old digital cameras with a tiny screen in the back. But I used that camera to the ground.  I can’t even remember what happened to it. I just fell in love with freezing moments and telling stories, both important moments and not so important moments. But really, I do believe that that’s all we take from this life. The moments we have with the people we love.

Which brought me to weddings! And I’m so glad it did.

My approach to wedding photography is a little different.  Keeping it simple and relaxed, I seek out the real, raw and emotional moments within the wedding day.  I look to create intimate, honest images of my couples and strive to document this in a way that is as unique as their own love story.  Whether I’m at a big wedding, an intimate elopement, a beautiful engagement, or a casual couple session – if there’s love involved I’d love to be there.

Here are the links to things we talked about in the show.

http://www.maxcutrone.com. The video ninja I mentioned

Sony Camera Rodrigo spoke about

Fuego Magic Presets

 

Guest links

https://www.rodrigomoraesphotography.com

https://www.instagram.com/rodrigomoraesphotography/

Personal Links

www.nvmauimedia.com

www.instagram.com/nvmauimedia

Honeybook

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These two are incredible humans! I had a great time chatting all about their journey and approach to shooting weddings and portraits. I can't get over how genuine and fun they are.

Excerpt from their site:

Hi, we’re Stefan & Audrey! A married photographer duo based in the far northwest corner of Washington State. We tell most people we’re from “Seattle”, but we actually live in a small farming town right on the Canadian border. We both grew up here, and love everything about it. Close to the mountains, the ocean, and the community of people here is absolutely incredible.

We’re “wedding photographers”, no doubt, but we feel like our job is so much more than that. And not because we take photos of other things sometimes, or travel a lot. But because the way we approach weddings isn’t just with our cameras. It’s with who we are as people. Relational, fun, real, and natural. We’ve been privileged to document over 150 weddings now, and we’ve found that the key for us to capture the best possible photos is the same exact recipe that it takes for us to find the energy and passion to continue doing this job year after year. And that’s to engage our couples in an actual relationship with us, to have a lot of fun along the journey, and make the process one that’s enjoyable without overshadowing the fact that it’s ALL about your love and your story together.

We’ve also found that the best photos are created when the level of trust and creative freedom is at its highest possible point. When inhibitions, fears, and worries are left behind. When the anticipation about what’s around the next curve in the road is stronger than the fear that ‘this drizzle is going to ruin my hair.’ And when our cameras become invisible, and you forget about everything else except the person you are embracing.

It’s been almost 8 years since we officially went into business as photographers. And the road hasn’t always been easy. We’ve learned a lot along the way, and still feel like we learn something new every year. Something we know for sure though, is that we love weddings. We’re genuinely excited every time we’re in the car on the way to one, and we’re not sure how, but we have literally worked with the best people imaginable!

We’re more in love with each other than when we got married more than 8 years ago, and would not be where we are without the loving support of our incredible friends, church, family, and to whom we owe everything, our Lord Jesus Christ. This life is a roller coaster, and we’re screaming at the top of our lungs for multiple reasons.

Guest Links

Website

https://www.instagram.com/stefanandaudrey/

Personal Links

www.nvmauimedia.com

www.instagram.com/nvmauimedia

Honeybook

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Wendy is an incredible human and photographer. I got to sit down and chat with her and learned a lot about her journey and approach to photography. My favorite take away was the fact that she is incredibly passionate about photography not only for work but during every day life. She is constantly in pursuit of capturing those real moments with her family and children. If you like mega artsy colorful shots, you HAVE to check out her work!

About Wendy:

Shooting with Feeling

I am more interested in the feeling you get when you look at an image than making sure its technically perfect.  In fact, my love of imperfection is not just in photography but in my whole imperfect life.  Four children, two dogs, one wild cat and my husband are where I call home.   We live on Maui and love our casual life here. Its messy, its chaotic, with a large share of challenges, but I grateful beyond measure to be living it.

My aim with photography is to capture the feeling between you and your loved ones — whether that is your groom or bride or children or parents.  There is nothing that means more to me than a photo where you are taken right back to how you felt in that moment it was taken.   I love shooting weddings and families and people of all kinds.  I love telling their stories through images.    When people ask me for my style of photography, I have no answer because the truth is that I use many different styles to capture weddings and families.  I capture the unscripted moments (documentary photography), I capture the people in posed individual or group posing (portrait photography), and I capture the story and details of the day (editorial photography).  I love to be creative and focus on the feeling of the image while manipulating the technical aspects for some images and for others I favor a beautiful portrait worthy of a magazine feature.  Just like life, its all a mix, but what you walk away with is a complete story of your wedding, event or family that feels like the day, like you, like the feelings you felt, and the love that exists.

(sourced from her website)

 

Guest Links

Website

https://www.instagram.com/wendylaurel/

Personal Links

www.nvmauimedia.com

www.instagram.com/nvmauimedia

Honeybook

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Lisa Rosa came over from the island of Oahu to capture some engagement photos, while here on Maui we sat down to chat a bit about her journey and what she is about. We discussed how Lisa used photography as a source of release and escape. She shared how photography brought light back into her life and how this affected the way she looked at her clients and work. Lisa is an amazing friend, mom, and human. She is not afraid to be real and vulnerable. We talked about SO many different topics, obviously, we touched on gear, technical talk, settings, shooting, as well as how to say no to clients and knowing what YOUR specialty is. You are going to get inquiries to shoot the same things that you are constantly posting / sharing both on insta and your website.

Straight from Lisa's website:

"I am a mother of 2 and it was after I was blessed with my daughter in 2012, I realized how quickly my children were growing.  I picked up a camera with the intention of documenting my children's lives, but before I knew it I was capturing moments for those around me. 

I have a strong passion for the simple things in life and I love being able to capture moments we can relive over and over through photographs.

I often remind myself that there are moments in life you can't get back and that's one of the daily reminders I use to fuel why I do what I do.

That is to simply freeze time in moments you are just... living.   "

 

Guest Links

https://lisarose-hawaii.com

https://www.instagram.com/lisarose.photography/

Throwing Net Photo

Personal Links

www.nvmauimedia.com

www.instagram.com/nvmauimedia

Honeybook

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Alex Cohen is a savage globetrotting photographer. She was kind enough to sit down with me while she was out here in Hawaii Photographing a wedding day for a very blessed couple. She flew over from Oahu and spend a solid hour talking story and sharing amazing bits of knowledge. Alexandra is French-born but currently resides in Australia.

She has a great encouraging story of how she began with her photography career. She has an amazing ability to connect with people at a personal level, we discussed a ton of different topics. She shared about her system to book destination weddings, what it is really like to travel all over to shoot weddings, her passion for design and how it ties in with her photography business. We touched on gear that she likes to shoot with, her approach with clients, setting boundaries with your clients on social media, camera bags, travel gear, how to prepare for your weddings, and much more.

I think what stood out the most to me was our conversation about community and how important of a role it played into getting to where she is at today. How she became part of a photography community and that helped not only grow as an artist but also grow as a business. The true importance of having genuine relationships and friendships with people no matter how far away from you they are in the world. It was SUPER interesting to get her perspective especially coming from such a different market, not only outside of Hawaii but also outside of the United States. I think that this podcast will encourage all of you wedding photographers out there. I think this episode applies to Maui wedding photographers equally as it does to people interested in photography all around the globe.

 

Guest Links

Website

Instagram

Personal Instagram

Personal Links

www.nvmauimedia.com

www.instagram.com/nvmauimedia

Honeybook

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This episode I sat down with an absolute power couple! Dmitri and Sandra are incredible Wedding Photographers here in Maui, Hawaii. Dmitri and Sandra are film photographers who have been in the industry for over 10 years. We talked a bit about what it is like to be a married couple running a business while taking care of two kids. The balance of work and life. It is so cool to hear how they help each other grow, how they are able to challenge and push each other. We talked about their approach to weddings, what it was like to transition from digital to film photography. They had some amazing insight on how to renew your excitement for photography when you feel stuck. I know that for many people it is common to feel unmotivated when you have been doing the same work for years and years. However, your passion can turn into a job after you do it long enough. Dmitri and Sandra had awesome feedback on how they broke out of that feeling. It is always a personal choice to break out of that rut and find inspiration once again.

I can't say enough about these two, they are so kind and genuine. I have seen them in action many times and their approach to weddings is refreshing. They way that they handle every situation with confidence and bring a peaceful stillness to everyone around as they navigate the timeline of your wedding day.

They also gave us some amazing tips on how to get started with film photography. Resources and even choosing your gear! I know many people find this process intimidating so I hope that this episode can shed some light on how to make that transition! Do not forget to send us an email with any topic or guest recommendations!

 

Guest Links

http://www.dmitriandsandra.com

https://www.instagram.com/dmitriandsandra/

https://www.onnit.com

Personal Links

Honeybook

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I sat down with Mykle Coyne, an incredibly talented photographer, and intensely introspective being to talk about his story. I knew this episode would be a long one and that the conversation would revolve about more than just shooting weddings. His journey with photography began as a kind playing around point and shoot cameras, he developed a passion for fashion photography and was determined to make it his career. He now shoots commercial work, weddings, and studio portraits. We had some really interesting conversation around the topic of curating your content and what our responsibilities are as content creators exposing younger generations to images that could be skewing their version of real life.

If you are not into that kind of conversation you can skip to minute 34 of this episode and that is where the photo talk begins!

We spoke about shooting photos indoors and outdoors with off camera lighting. So if you are interested in that, definitely this will be for you.

I am very interested to hear all of your thoughts on how this episode went. As I said before the first 40 minutes or so were completely unplanned. I know that thus far all of my episodes have been about peoples journeys and technical talk, but would you be interested in hearing more discussions about morality based topics and other ethical issues we deal with on our everyday work situations?

if you do, please email me at [email protected] with your thoughts as well as ideas. I would love to hear all about it. I would love to hear your opinions on the topics we discussed in this episode and I will absolutely voice everything you share with the audience during the next episode. I can't wait to hear from you!

Guest links

http://www.myklecoyne.com

https://www.instagram.com/myklecoynephoto/

https://www.shootproof.com

https://www.whcc.com/products/prints

Personal Links

Honeybook

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Okay everyone, I had been waiting a long time to get Tonie Christine on the podcast and I am glad I did. Tonie is an incredible photographer, she is SUPER talented in every aspect of a photography business. Tonie has an extensive business and marketing background. She shared with me lots of amazing tips to market yourself and more importantly stand out amongst a plethora of other talented artists. These tips will help you whether you are a destination wedding photographer in Maui or a wedding photographer anywhere else in the world. It was SO much fun to finally sit and pick her brain about all of these awesome things I had seen her do while following her on insta.

Her journey to getting where she is now is super relatable and I believe will help many. We talked about every stage of her business, how to value clients, how to market by directly reaching the people you want to be working with, talked about resources, business tools, editing software, gear, cameras, lenses, connecting with couples, setting boundaries, how to walk the blurry line of clients / friend, an much much more. She is an all-around amazing human being who lives to help others. Her approach to business really reflects that. If I were you I would head over to her website and check out her blaze workshop which will give you tons of tools and tips to grow your business.

Tonie's Links

Website

Instagram

Business Mentoring - (Blaze)

 

If you have any questions for me or any corrections you may want to share with me, please contact me at [email protected]

I am open to receive topic recommendations and guess referrals! I want you ( my listeners ) to be a part of the creative process in order to make sure that I am putting out exactly what you want to hear and more!

Maui Photographer

For this amazing episode, I sat down with Luke Simon, an incredible Australian photographer. Luke was here in Maui, Hawaii to photograph a wedding and was kind enough to sit down with me and chat about his long journey with the wedding industry. This dude RIPS with a camera. He also has a mega dreamy Australian accent! haha

He has lots of golden knowledge to share about destination wedding photography as well as how to grow into your own skin as an artist.

Guest Links

Luke's Website

Luke's Instagram

International Wedding Photographer of the year awards

Services Mentioned

Holdfast

Tave

Photo mechanic

Honeybook

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