Maui photographers have a great need to come together and share ideas.  The new SmugMug group provides the perfect opportunity to help,  create, inspire and challenge each other.  I was blown away by the number of people who showed up last Thursday for the first SmugMug meeting.

The surprise guest speaker was Jason Lewis. He most recently was in the movie Sex & the City and he has spent many years in front of the camera as a top fashion model. Some of his clients are Guess, Boss, and Tommy Hilfiger to name a few. He’s on island filming a personal project and he’s the one *behind* the lens using a 5D Mark II shooting video. We opened the floor for a Q & A session for helpful tips for ways photographers can make their client feel comfortable in front of the camera to him demonstrating a “crab walk” to keep the video shooting steady.

Beth and Terrie from the Maui Photo Festival came to the meeting and talked about the 2nd annual Maui Photo Festival happening next month in Lahaina at the Hyatt. It’s a 4-day conference on August 25th, offering something for every type of photography. Also we were lucky to have PhotoGraphics Maui in the house speaking about the photography printing services that they offer and also the latest development of being the first camera & equipment rental place here on Maui.

Thank you to Haz Beanz Coffee Shop for opening their space to us. And a special thanks to Catering from Soup to Nuts for providing the delicious fruit plate, chicken skewers and coconut shrimp. It was nice to see familiar faces and to meet new ones. If you’d like to hear about upcoming meetings, sign up HERE. Genevieve and I are excited to see this group take off.

Thank you to my sweet husband Elan for snapping some photos of the first meeting.