Not only are they excellent at helping you with your loans, they represent some of the best vacation rental properties on the islands.

Aloha Luxury Properties

There are few companies in Hawaii that represent as many quality vacation rentals as does Aloha Luxury Properties.  Find accommodations on all of the Hawaiian Islands, but especially on Maui with their Hawaii Vacation Rental List.   They’ve got the best rentals at various locations such as:

• Wailea Beach Villas
• The Ho’olei
• Kaanapali Royal
• Makena Surf
• Kapalua Golf Villa
• Kapalua Ridge Villa
• Kapalua Bay Villa

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Hawaii’s Premiere Mortgage Company

Need help with a new or existing loan?  Contact Tricia Morris and her qualified staff to help you through the process with ease.  Their reputation is impeccable, and you can expect your mortgage to be handled with diligence and efficiency.  Learn more at Mortgage Maui or Call and speak with one of the following staff members.

• Tricia Morris, President/Owner
• Duffy Herman, Co-Owner
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Call Today! 808-874-8800
535 Lipoa Parkway, Suite 101
Kihei, Hawaii 96753

• Resorts tend to charge for things that vacation rentals don’t.  A good example is using certain areas of the pool.
• With a kitchen, you save a bundle!  Doing even just 1 meal a day at the house will save you considerably.
• Cocktails!  Resort bars and pool bars will crush your wallet.

With that extra money you save, why not put a few extra bucks into your accommodations?  With Hawaii Bound, agents will help you find the perfect spot for you and your family.  Call today and ask about inexpensive, beautiful homes.  You won’t believe the kind of places that are available on Maui.  Give them a call at (808) 443-0221 or toll free at 1-800-711-6284.

To see listings available on all islands, go to Hawaii Vacation Rentals.

THE GOOD

• Location! Perfect for outdoor photo shoots and workshops. The beaches here are amazing and perfect for sunsets.  you can’t ask for a better area to shoot at.
• Warm, Strong Community. This is different from any other photography convention we’ve been to.  It’s not as huge as some of the mainland conventions, which brings people together more to meet and learn from each other.  These things are fantastic for networking and learning from other professionals and enthusiasts. It’s a less intimidating environment allowing everyone time to speak to the pros and mingle.
• Off-site Workshops. There are plenty of opportunities to shoot with the expert speakers away from the hotel.  There’s a trip to Haleakala Crater for sunrise, doors-off helicopter rides, and much more.
• Studio Lighting. For a few hours they set up studio lighting for anyone to use.  They also had some models there to give everyone a chance to shoot.
• Contests and Prizes. Each year there are multiple contests for photos taken during the week of the festival.  Awards are given on the last day and prizes are exceptional.  Some prizes this year included: Wacom Tablets, CS5 Photoshop, camera backpacks, and many more.  See some of last year’s best photos.
• Student Scholarships. We love that the Maui Photo Festival sponsors aspiring photographers from local high schools.  These kids are truly gifted and have a bright future in photo.
• Magazine Staff. We liked that staff from popular magazines came and spoke to us about how to submit photos to their magazines and what they’re looking for.  People from The Knot and from Maui No Ka Oi Magazine came and spoke.
• Live Models. Beautiful models are brought in to allow us opportunities to hone our craft.  There was studio shoots, outdoor shoots, hula dancers, bikini models shoots, etc…
• Great Speakers and Experts from all Over. World renowned experts and local legends include:

Jim DiVitale – I’m in awe of this man.  Unfortunately, most of the teachers I’ve had over the years for any technical matter offer too slow a pace.  Jim, on the otherhand, moves at times too fast.  He’s perpetually on a serious caffeine high and blows through material.  He’s incredible.  I’ve tried to go to all of his workshops the last 2 years, and I gain so much from each one.  he is a Photoshop wizard.

Randy Jay Braun – Randy is a local artist that is gifted in bringing the culture of Hawaii to the masses through beautiful images.  He’s proven to be one of the more successful photographer artists in Hawaii, and just happens to be one of the nicest guys you’ll meet.

Some of the Other Speakers include: Jim Tierney, Michael Sweet, Douglas Peebles, Judy Host, Stacy Pearsal, Andy Dunaway, Eddie Tap, Jack Reznicki, Randy Hufford, Lou Freeman, Lewis Carlyle, Rebecca Crumley, Frederick Van Johnson, and Mike Sidney.

Our Suggestions

• The Rooms are Too Cold. Air conditioning needs to be cut down a bit. This is an easy fix that I think they can have set up better next year.  Bring a sweatshirt just in case though.
• Parking. Many times we’ve gotten lucky, but the Hyatt isn’t great for parking.  If you get there too late, you’ll have to valet.  It’s $18 to valet, but you can get it validated if you eat at one of the restaurants.  Umalu is reasonable and good, but the new restaurant Japengo is outrageously expensive.
• Offer More Broad Classes, other than Photo: It would be nice if we could have some classes on business, marketing, branding, advertising, website design, networking, etc… I know that’s kind of a lot, but if there was time and an extra room, it’d be nice to offer some of these workshops.
• Mixers to Mingle. It would be great to have a different local restaurant/bar help sponsor a different night for every night of the fest.  This would be a great way for our photographers to get to know eachother away from the classrooms and help build lasting relationships in an even more casual setting. Sponsor host restaurant/bars could offer 1 free drink to each paid attendee and all other drinks are cash bar.  I’m sure plenty of locations would be interested in the exposure if Maui Photo Festival were to add some advertising for them.
• Breakout Sessions. We’d love to see a few hours each day dedicated to sign up sessions to have pros interact one on one with attendees.  Photoshop or shooting, it’d be nice to have a few hours where our experts stick around a classroom and meet with each person to discuss their questions one on one.  Not sure if this is possible, but it’d be cool.

Learn more at the Maui Photo Festival.

See more Maui wedding photography by Natalie Brown Photography.

This year at the Maui Photo Festival, some of the best photographers on the island joined up to enjoy lectures, hands-on sessions, and connect with the photography community.  We went to many of the classes and lectures and found most of them extremely helpful.  Some classes were enormously helpful in learning tips and tricks about Photoshop and Lightroom from masters.  Others were inspirational and good for business.

Throughout the event, we enjoyed photographing scenarios that the festival had set up for us. For example, they had portrait set ups, wedding set ups, and hula dancing shoots.  This allowed attendees a chance to shoot with their peers as well as master photography speakers.  It was a lot of fun and extremely educational.

At the end of the event, participants had an opportunity to submit their photos taken at the event to a contest.  This year’s event brought hundreds of photographers and around 1,000 submitted contest photos.  Among the awards given, Natalie Brown was able to take the most prestigious of them.  She won both the Best Hula Photograph Award as well as the Best Overall Photograph Award.  She was kind enough to share some of the award winning photos on this post.  Mahalo Natalie and congratulations!  These images are truly fantastic and really give our readers a unique view of Maui, Hawaii.

To see more of Natalie’s photos from the festival, visit Maui Hawaii Photography.

COMMENTS:

Congratulations Natalie! And congratulations to all the participants and organizers. Well done! Liza

As you can see in the photo, Maui fires can scorch huge areas in a short period of time.  This one is in West Maui close to the Pali (the winding, coastal cliff road from Maalaea Harbor to Lahaina.)  Personally, I’ve spent  a long night in my car due to a similar fire a few years back.  I was driving south from Lahaina, and the roads were completely stopped.  The road closure lasted until the next morning around 8am.

If you ever find yourself stuck in traffic due to a road closing from a fire, it’d be wise considering staying on the side you’re on.  Some adventurous people decided to drive around the back side of the West Maui Mountains.  This route takes much longer, but some of them made it.  Unfortunately, annoyed locals shut the road off after sometime.  This area is pretty dangerous to drive in traffic because it is often 1 lane on cliffy roads.  If someone is coming in the opposite direction, someone is in for a long, scary reverse.

Almost every year, Maui experiences some fires.  There’s not much you can do about it.  Stay away from it and hope it doesn’t cause too much damage or danger to homes and lives.  If you need to get anywhere, and you’ve heard there’s a fire, call (808) 986-1200 for road closure updates. You can also contact your Maui car rental office.

COMMENTS:

There’s a new fire today that’s been burning on the Maalaea side of the West Maui Mountains. it began last light and is burning hard still today. All of South Maui is covered in ash and smoke. For a while we all thought the sugarcane was being burned again and stronger than normal. Nope, it’s another fire!

The fire continues to blaze today. 1 fireman was taken in for smoke inhalation and many have been evacuated from Maalaea and the wind farm.

The Maalaea fire that started the other night is still going. I can see it from our lanai. I am glad to told your readers this “If you ever find yourself stuck in traffic due to a road closing from a fire, it’d be wise considering staying on the side you’re on” that’s the wise thing to do during this Maui Fires.

That’s so scary! Hopefully they’ll be able to put out the fires soon. It’s especially sad that sometimes these types of fires are started intentionally by arsonists… it’s terrible to think that someone would put so many lives at risk that way!

There are 2, among many, reasons why the Cultural Commission has failed in their thinking.

- They feel that the Halloween event takes away from the cultural identity of the town. Please keep in mind that Lahaina is as well known for its whaling than the Ali’i that used to congregate here. Does every event have to reflect ancient Hawaiian history? It’s important to continue promoting the cultural significance of an area, but shutting down a successful event just because it doesn’t directly have historical references is rediculous.

When we say “successful event” we mean to state that it is one of the more peaceful and positive celebrations in Hawaii. Opponents will refer to the 24 arrests made last year for disorderly conduct. We ask them to name any event with anywhere from 25,000-35,000 attendees where there haven’t been some bad apples. When you do the math, the fraction of disruptive individuals compared to orderly attendees is miniscual.

- The one event being granted a permit for this Halloween in Lahaina will be the Keiki Costume parade. In their thinking, Keiki’s dressed as ghosts and cowboys are far less culturally destructive than an adult wearing a similar costume. What the Commission seems to be ignoring is that with less outdoor activities, adults will be forced to spend more time in the various bars that will be holding costume contests. This will lead to more alcohol consumption and more arrests due to drunk driving and disorderly conduct. If they would continue to allow outdoor activities (where alcohol is forbidden), Lahaina is more likely to see order and cheerful behavior.

The nighttime excitement of Halloween is always positive. This atmosphere is conducive to family fun and the Aloha Spirit. Lahaina Town is famous for its gatherings through the centuries. Promoting Ohana and Aloha is the real historical significance that should be respected and upheld.

Even though the events will be trimmed down, Halloween in Lahaina, Maui will again thrive this year with vehicular traffic being traded for costumed foot traffic. Hopefully after the commission sees how their ill attempts and closing the event are ineffective, maybe they will bring back permits for the many fun activities that we’ve enjoyed for almost 2 decades.

COMMENTS:

Aloha, o.k. so………we are going to be in Lahaina this year for Halloween, what gives? On a few websights it looks like it’s not going to be a party anymore. am I reading it wrong? We LOVE Maui & this will be our 8th trip, 1st time @ Halloween. Any info you have would be great.

Mahalo, Cassy

Halloween 2009 will still be on in Lahaina, Maui. This last year, it had tamed down a bit, but still had thousands of costumed people roaming around from bar to restaurant. The only difference is that the police are no longer blocking off the streets to vehicles, which is a bummer. Now the road is filled with taxis instead of a party parade. People are on the sidewalks enjoying the festivities.

It’s still a lot of fun, and probably the biggest Halloween celebration within our islands, but not quite as big as before. There is word out that Paia may take over the celebration on Baldwin Ave, but it’s still up in the air.

Last year was our third Halloween in Lahaina and until they go back to closing front street to car traffic it will be our last. I don’t know how the powers that be expect us to spend hard earned money to come to Maui only to have way too many people on the sidewalks. It was SO crowded you really could not enjoy yourself. In most places you could not stop for more than a few seconds without people bumping into you almost to the point of gentle pushing. For the same reason you really couldn’t enjoy most of the costumes. When Front street was closed there was enough room for everybody, you could enjoy the costumes, visit with people, go into and out establishments very easily it was a very pleasant experience. I used to encourage people to visit Maui for Halloween.

NOT ANYMORE, I go out of my way to discourage people from visiting.