Hapa models

In Hawaii, there's a word, 'HAPA,' which is transliterated from half into English. For our purposes, I'm obviously talking about people who are half, as HAPAs have a unique look. They are generally half Asian and half white, black, etc. I have shot several HAPA models and enjoy that 'different look' when creating.

The great thing about living on this island is the ready availability of HAPAs. I met Sarah online. She was in the Air Force stationed on Guam for a bit, and we got together several times to create.

Our first shoot, of course, was a mix of street and bikini/swimwear photos. My friend Michelle was the MUA. She is always my go-to, as we have a good working relationship and can use that to our advantage.

For the bikini stuff, I always prefer the more natural existing light photos for our shoots for several different reasons, not the least of which is that taking expensive lights to the beach will always be a gamble, I use the Profoto system, and those are pricey. Nonetheless, I still bring it out as I know I will get good work using my lights.

For our next shoot, we shot in my studio, which is the perfect environment because I have complete control when I shoot. Our subject matter was lingerie, and I wanted black-and-white images with lots of shadow and small 'strips' of light.

The subdued light for a lingerie shoot is sexy, and hiding and not baring all contribute to that sexiness. This is accomplished by using a variety of flags and scrims, pieces of material in the studio that partially block light and direct it to highlight parts of the body.