The Courage of Women I Photograph

On the weekends, to build up my Hawaiian portrait portfolio, I'm photographing women who are volunteering their time in exchange for images. So far, Craigslist has been amazing at connecting me with models. It's always so much fun to ask women why they responded to my ad. What compelled them to reach out to me? Sometimes they tell me they've always wanted to try modeling. Sometimes they are aspiring models building up their own portfolios. Most commonly though, they are everyday women who were looking for a job or a new couch on Craigslist and when they saw my ad they said to themselves, "Why not? That sounds fun." I find their courage so beautiful — they're waking up early, meeting a stranger, making themselves vulnerable in front of the camera, trusting me to create portraits that will minimize their "flaws" and capture their beauty, handing themselves over to me and hoping that I'll hand back images that make them feel good about themselves. Most of the women I photograph don't realize how beautiful they actually are. I hope that the images I create for each woman opens hers eyes, even just a tintsy bit, so she can see this beauty in herself, feel that boost of confidence and walk across the parking lot with a little extra swagger.

The images above are from my shoot with Amariz at Southside Beach. We were shooting beneath the Kiawe trees. After I got the trees out of my system, we moved down to the beach and took bikini pictures in the crashing waves. Check out the full black & white bikini series here.