Jason Tag Photography

The location we used was perfect for a sunrise shoot. The rising sunlight was gorgeous and looked great against Ella’s skin. However it was at high tide so parts of the location were difficult to get to if not impossible. There were a few shots I wanted to get that I couldn’t because the water was to high to get there. We pretty much stayed on the beach initially. We eventually got more couragous and ventured into the water.

The biggest lesson I learned on this shoot was don’t get the lens wet! Sounds like it would be common sense right? We started to walk towards this great tree that I had wanted to shoot on. The base of the tree was under water but the ocean looked calm so we starting walking towards it. We had to walk through knee high water and a sudden wave came and splashed us pretty good. The wet sarong on Ella really added to the shots but the lens got some water on it and my dry cloth was now a wet cloth. I tried to dry it off as much as I could. When I looked at the shots later I thought the shots were ruined but upon further inspection they have an interesting quality because the water created a soft focus filter for me. The lesson to be learned is that the ocean is made of salt water and salt can scratch a lens pretty good. Fortunately the lens is not damaged in anyway and is still giving me sharp pictures. But it could have been a lot worse. Next time I’ll stay out of the water unless it’s really calm.

Another great lesson and much more fun than a lens getting damaged has to do with accessories. I hadn’t really put too much thought into accessories. Ella had asked me to pick up a shell necklace and I couldn’t decide on just one so I picked up four. These looked great in the shots and gave her something to play with. The necklaces also gave the shots context. I felt that I could have gotten some closeups with the necklaces as the focus of the shot. I’ll save that idea for another shoot.

Time was short on this shoot as I had a very busy day and it was the only day I could shoot with Ella while she was visiting Hawaii. Under normal circumstances I shoot for two hours. But on this day We could only do an hour and a half so we had to work a little faster than I like. As a result it felt like we were going to fast. we didn’t have time to really enjoy the moments we were photographing.

Overall a great morning and a great time of day to be shooting. Ella was wonderful to work with and I know her first morning in Hawaii will not be soon forgotten.

P.S. This is the shot I spoke of earlier where the lens is wet. You can see that the water creates a soft focus effect. Interesting but not a recommended way to achieve this look. There was also a guy walking down the beach so we shot a series with the wet sarong covering her…at least until the guy went away.