Zak Noyle's Aquatography Workshop.

I was very blessed to be part of an exclusive photography workshop by one of my favorite photographers, Zak Noyle. It was an event which I entered in last year but didnt get chosen but this year I was lucky that I got picked out of the hundreds that entered. This particular workshop stressed the focus on surf and ocean photography as well as learning about establishing your photography as a career, lighting, lenses and much more. It was a two day event with the first day covering classes and key speakers at the Republik, and the second day covering the hands-on demonstrations of various photography gear at Sandy Beach. The Speakers on Saturday included, Chromoco, Sunny Moniz, Hawaii Camera, Pro Photo, Amber Mozo, Spl Housing, Rick Noyle and Zak Noyle. There was so much information being presented and I did take notes on some important things that I needed to know about photography. Just being there in the presence of those important people was very heavy and I was able to see and meet them in person. It was aslo cool being surrounded by other people who had the same interest in photography.

For the second day event at Sandy Beach, it was the hands-on demonstration course. This included four stations: SPL Housings, Understanding how to use lighting backdrops, Telephoto lenses, and Pro Photo flash systems. We pretty much spent the whole day rotating throughout the stations as groups and everyone was eager to get into the water tho shoot with the SPL housings. It was a lot of good fun and so much things were provided for all the participants, we had all the redbull and wailoa coconut water we could drink, acai bowls, bentos, and most importantly, sunscreen! I also even made new friends with some of the participants and saw familiar faces there as well. It was such a good day, I cant even explain everything else that happened.

Now to rap it all up, I had a great time learning with these two days of the workshop. I have to send a big thank you to Zak and everyone else that made this experience possible for me and the other participants. I have learned so much and been inspired more to strive to take my photography career up to the next level. I hope to be part of this event again next year even if it means helping out in some way. Thanks Zak for being part of my inspiration to taking my surf photography to where it is today.

Everyone was having a blast thisSunday out at Sandy Beach. Here's our group learning about and using the Canon telephoto zoom lenses. The 800mm was a beast!

This image was shot with the Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM Lens, a $12,000 lens (I KID YOU NOT). It was crazy trying to shoot people in the water because of massive amount of zoom. SO I looked around the blow hole point and found a fisherman and I was able to to get this shot.

I think this was shot with a Canon 800mm or another telephoto lens. The power of these lenses can get you extremely detailed shots, especially since these lenses are fast enough to capture a lot of action moviement.

Some of the participants testing out the lenses.

Ho yup, quick selfie with my canon 70D and 10-18mm Wide angle lens :)

One of the guest speakers of the two-day event, from Profoto flew from California to attend the session. He was demonstrating to us about lighting and a lighting system that replaces the flash on our cameras. He's holding a portable lighting system that cost over $2,000 but is really incredible to use. It's more powerful than flash mounts and can be controlled remotely. You can sync up more than one camera and even use both Canon and Nikon at the same time. Such an awesome peice to use and something I'll be considering to use in the future.

This is a good example of how great this lighting system was, better than my flash or flash attachment.This was taken with the Canon 70D and 50mm Lens. I also wanted to rep my clothing sponsor and latest design of my own photo on a shirt.

This lighting system was incredible. Giving you the potrait quality effect without having to blur out the background or wash out the photo.

The crew from SPL Housing provided us the equipment for our photo shoot session in the water. Zak Noyle also provided us with his housings and cameras. Hawaii Camera also lent available cameras to be used incase anyone didnt have a camera to use in the housings. I had to say these housings are far better than my dive housing. I was able to use a Canon 7D with a wide angle lens and the it was much more comfortable shooting with. Although it was a bit heavy, the feels and controls were easy to use and it looked more professional. It was fun to be able to use an SPL housing for the first time, I'll be getting one very soon.

This is Commercial photograhper, Ric Noyle, who is also Zak Noyle's father. He was a good guest speaker on Saturday and gave us all important information about photography and how we can make it into a business. On Sunday we was teaching us about using screens to control lighting when doing photo shoots. He is such a great person with the knowledge of photography and defitnetley tought me something new. Without him, Zak probably wouldnt be doing photography today. A big Mahalo to him for giving us the opportunity to share us his advice and knowledge.

This time I got to jump in after the event and use my camera and bulky Dive Housing. Here's Keliko dropping in to a left.

Nalu almost running me over while I get the shot.