with how slowly ‘20 and ‘21 crawled by, it’s pretty incredible how quickly ‘22 whisked through our lives. to honour what happened this past year and to give a little view into what will happen in the next, I wanted to celebrate Makahiki Hou with a little year-end review. first off, my little business made One Year in April! making it to this point was rough and I wanted to give up many times, but this little ship made it through the storms & my biz will be two in four months’ time and I’m so grateful. so, let’s look at some ‘22 wins~

the first major win I want to celebrate is,

1. Community Connection

the biggest thing that kept me creating was finding connections with so many people through photo sessions, weddings, poetry, shooting with and for incredible photographers, and just being a creative friend to others. thank you for sharing your life and heart with me along the way.

Poetry Nights at BoxJelly

I have been running online poetry times on and off since ‘20 as a way to make space to write and connect during the pandemic, and in ‘22 we got to see this community come to real life!

every first Tuesday night since July, we met at BoxJelly to write and share poetry. it has been such a blast and I’m so thankful for every person who stepped up to lead this space into reading, hearing, and appreciating underrepresented poets.

if you want to join us to write, please come by—every first Tuesday night at 6P. if you want to join the newsletter/reminder, email me!

Volunteering with 808CleanUps

this has been the most important thing to shape me since I first started volunteering with 808CleanUps and especially the director of the program, Kimeona, in August ‘21. It has changed the way I see myself, ʻāina, kānaka, and has been a huge motivation to serve the people and community of Hawaiʻi as much as I can through events, volunteering, donating, and telling both kama’aina and visitors about the ways they can give back. I believe Kimeona is one of the most important voices in our community today, and it has been such a privilege to spend time with him and the gang this past year. Come join me or go hang out with them, they have volunteer events pretty much every day of the week!

Hawai’i Creative Monthly Studio Days

I open my studio up to any creative or small biz owner in Hawai’i to get headshots from me—and it’s all completely donation-based.

I know just how important photos are but also how hard it is to prioritise them, so I wanted to be able to give businesses a place to grow at a price they can afford.

doing this monthly studio day completely changed my year. I went from anxious and ready to quit to feeling supported and autonomous.

if you want to come to one of these, I invite you to!! it’s a freeing and creative space, not to mention great for showing your beautiful face on social media or your next blog/newsletter. the next date is January 13 from 7A-7P. book in your session here!

and oh man! there are so many more important connections and relationships I haven’t even mentioned. I could fill pages with gratefulness to all the people who showed up for me, hired me, created with me, gave my opportunities, invited me along, were vulnerable with me, risked with me—thank you Roy N, Keilana, Crichton, Joslynn, Justin P, Chrislyn, Katie, Shai, Chris V, Kaito, Pono & Ivony, Yuzuri, Martha & Mike, Emily C, Kami & Sierra, Ipo & Zabs, Nim, Katrina, Louella, Jada, Megan, Nate & Joyce, Keala & Alana, Mom & Dad, my unprecedentedly supportive and patient husband Garett…. and even more incredible people in my life to whom I am SO thankful for and owe so much of my success and joy to. OKAY! let’s move on to another win this year.

2. Reached a Revenue Goal

I’ve been aiming to make as much as I made as a barista, and I hit that goal! it doesn’t sound so impressive perhaps, but this is a huge win for me. I have so much more margin and joy in my life while also being able to create with incredible couples & creatives and help support our family. thank you so much for your encouragement, support and love.

something important to me is to give back to Hawaiʻi and Hawaiians as I am selling my services on and using the beauty of this illegally occupied land. I had previously pledged $200 built into the package of each elopement for my yearly donation pool, but as I did not end up booking elopement packages this year, I changed my pledge policy to 10% of my business profit.

because I was able to make some profit this year, I’m happy to say my business was able to donate $1200 to Kupu, an organisation leading the way in investing into young people & future leaders in Hawai’i!

Click here to learn more about Kupu and support them as well.

Client highlight: Mel & Juju

when I went to Japan this past November, I got to see my amazing friends Mel and Juju, who were also one of my first couples back in 2018! capturing their relationship and love with this new version of my photography (less direction, more connection) was fascinating and I love how quiet and simple their ‘22 photos came out.

3. Production Done on Major Projects

if you have been following me on Instagram, I mentioned through the year that I was working on a podcast… well, I finished the first round of five episodes of Pau Hana! I will be releasing them in the next couple of weeks—sign up for updates here.

the other thing I launched is my “fan club”, which is a new rewards system I’m rolling out in 2023. if you are looking for an easy gift throughout the year, I’ll mail you as many physical $100 vouchers as you’d like to give away. If any giftees book, I’ll send you 5 prints of your choice (even if you don’t have any photos taken by me, I’ll print whatever you want to have a physical copy of) and if 3 giftees book a session with me, you will get a free mini-session + prints!

lastly, I am working on a book! this one is most “in-progress”, but I decided in October I wanted to self-publish a book, because… why not? its running title is “This Will Not Be a Commercial Success” (lol) and it is a collection of poems and essays on my evolving understanding of success. I’m currently finishing the manuscript and will be going into the editing process in the next month or two.

if I was operating under my previous understanding of success, this year would NOT be it.

however, I understand success to be spaciousness, showing up for others, and deep connection—and in this definition, this has truly been the best year yet.

thank you for following along and being a part of my community. I cannot even tell you how grateful I am for this year and everything we did together.

to everything we’ll build next year,

to the world we are creating,

me ke aloha pumehana,

mar