Hawai'i Landscapes- Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea was such an otherworldly experience I think it deserves its own dedicated blog post. For those who don’t know, Mauna Kea is an inactive volcano on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and from land to summit it is 13,800ft. above sea level! Unfortunately half of the volcano is in the Pacific Ocean so Mount Everest is still considered the tallest mountain in the world (29,032ft. base to summit), otherwise if we are including the part of the volcano in the ocean to summit, Mauna Kea is technically 33,481ft. tall.

In planning our trip to Hawai’i the number 1 thing on our to-do list was to go up the volcano. There are some things that you need to plan ahead if you are making the trek yourself (otherwise there are plenty of tour companies that can bring you up, and will prep you accordingly):

  1. Having a 4WD vehicle is mandatory, you will be turned away if you do not have one. If renting a car, double check your agreement— most of the road up to the summit is unpaved and on rough terrain so lots of rentals do not allow you to take their cars up. For this reason we rented a truck on Turo and double checked with our renter ahead of time.

  2. Along with this you must have a full tank of gas— you will use lots of gas going up and down, and the nearest station is 50km away.

  3. You must stop at the visitors centre (9,2000ft) for at least 30 minutes to acclimate to the altitude change.

  4. Be weary of altitude sickness; it only gets worse the longer you continue, and can only get better by descending.

  5. You can only stay on the summit for about 30 minutes after sunset before a ranger escorts everyone down. Again, the road is unpaved, rough, and unlit. You can, however, continue stargazing near the visitors centre for as long as you’d like.

  6. Despite it being about 30C around the island, bring a jacket, pants, and layers for the summit! It was about 4C when we were there, and was getting cooler as the sun set.

We took a couple of side quests on this journey, the first being a quick hike up Pu’u Huluhulu quite literally right across the street from Mauna Kea’s access road. Just over 1km loop with 150m elevation gain, this short trip gives you beautiful view of the surrounding area from what felt like high up at the time lol. Another quest was nearly to summit; a 2km out and back ‘walk’ to Lake Waiau. Don’t let the 2km fool you though, this unmarked, unpaved, but very clear and easy to follow, trail is 13,000ft. above sea level and is much, much, harder than it sounds because of how thin the air is.

Much like trying to describe Hawai’i and it’s landscapes in general, I feel as though as most words will not do this justice. It really is a ‘you had to be there’ kind of thing. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience that we are so privileged to have both experienced, in addition to having these beautiful photos to commemorate it.

Landscapes below are available as prints— send us an email for more info! Click the photos below to enlarge and browse through.

Hawai'i Landscapes

Winter is always a time for us to refresh and reset but admittedly winter in Toronto is fairly drab so we always like to take some time off as a way to feel renewed. In years past we go all in on winter; take a long drive up north, bury ourselves in snow, and have some wine by the fire every night for a week straight. This year we wanted to change things up though. After working (and missing) most of summer, this winter we wanted to head somewhere warm. We have been talking about Hawai’i for a while— Ethan loved a trip to Maui he took years ago— so this year we finally said, let’s skip winter for a couple of weeks!

After some research we opted to go to the Island of Hawai’i, also known as Big Island, as in the largest— but interestingly youngest— of the Hawaiian Islands. There were a few key things that we wanted to do on this trip: Summit Mauna Kea, Papakōlea (Green Sand) Beach, and to hit up some black sand beaches. We’re happy to report that we did cover all of these things, and more!

We decided to stay on the less touristy side of the island near Hilo (we stayed in Pāhoa), instead of Kona, as it was closer to the attractions we wanted to go to. Unfortunately, Hilo in February is the more temperamental time of year with rolling rain, cloudy days, bigger waves, and cooler temperatures but in the end it worked out really well for us. Our first week was our ‘adventure week’ where we covered Mauna Kea, Papakōlea, Volcano National Park, Waimea, Waipio Valley, even taking a shelter dog on a field trip for the day from the Hawaiian Humane Society! We also lucked out having the beautiful Kehana Black Sand beach a short drive away from our AirBnB, which we absolutely made sure to visit every. single. day. Our last week was filled with nothing but sunshine and warm weather so it turned into our beach days where we started and finished our books, lounged around, and took in every last drop of sunshine before returning home to winter.

I don’t think I have enough words to describe how beautiful this trip was. Even Ethan said that he enjoyed it more than Maui (for different reasons!) Having so many landscapes— from the ocean, to tropical rainforests, incredible volcano-scapes (mountain like landscapes, but you know… with a volcano). Going from the water front to 2000+ft above sea level just driving across the highway; one moment you’re swimming, the next you’re quite literally driving through a cloud. In trying to capture this trip in one word, majestic, incredible, surreal, are all adjectives that fall short. Just know that we will be back, I simply cannot imagine a life where we don’t return.

Landscapes below are available as prints— send us an email for more info! Click the photos below to enlarge and browse through.

Mini-Headshots with Talia

Did you know we offer mini headshot photography sessions? It’s great for those who may only need a couple of new photos for your LinkedIN profile or your work directory. Something quick, something easy, and something that is representative of who you are, right now. Don’t worry we also like to use whatever current headshot we have for as long as humanly possible lol, it’s a common thing. Not everyone wants or needs the more organic and environmental approach to portraits we usually shoot, some folks need to stay within the corporate realm so we do offer studio mini sessions right from our apartment in Toronto!

Get in touch if this is something you are interested in, they’re the perfect affordable headshot photography option for actors, accountants, lawyers, professors, realtors, and more. We’d love to shoot with you!

Ralph Nigro for Ontario Principals Council

One of our favourite shoots of the year is always with the Ontario Principals Council. It is always a joy working with the same team over the years, and in this case we always have a new face to photograph. The acting President of this year is Ralph Nigro, who we photographed at OPC housing HQ in downtown Toronto. Principals come from all around the province and with OPC’s office based right beside the Eaton Centre they have a condo unit for those who spend their term working in the city.

It can be a bit difficult working in the same space year after year and finding something new to do. Our last few sessions have been on the same rooftop but I think we have lucked out with having such an amazing view of the city from that high up that using the same backdrop over and over still looks as beautiful as the first time. Ralph was warm and welcoming, and very generous with his time. It’s no secret that photographers will often say “ok just 1 more thing” and then think of one more thing to do, and one more thing, and one more thing, and Ralph was incredibly patient with this. We had a beautiful and bright morning on our shoot day which ordinarily would be great but in this case was just a biiiit too bright for anyone to open their eyes all the way so we used a scrim to diffuse as necessary.

Click the photos below to enlarge and browse through