“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” Vincent Van Gogh

Aloha!

Hi! I’m Mariko, and I’m David’s wife. Most times, I am running things in the background and you don’t often see me in our photos or videos. So, I wanted to introduce myself and share a little about what it is like to be on this photography journey with David for the last 18 years. 

While we share the same values and beliefs and many interests (yeah ice hockey, Star Wars and, of course, coffee...our favorites are Misto Box, Ali`i Coffee!), David and I are pretty opposite in many ways. He takes life in stride as it comes; I like to plan. He’s 6’ tall; I am 5’ tall. He likes to stroll; I power walk from Point A to Point B. David loves hot coffee, no cream, no sugar; I love iced coffee with lots of cream and sugar. David’s Spotify playlist is full of classical and jazz; my Spotify playlist is full of pop punk and emo. One big difference is the amount of time we can spend exploring a garden, museum, zoo or aquarium. Given no time restraints, David would spend about 5x as long in any of these places than I would. And here is where I have learned a valuable lesson about how talented photographers take their perfect shot — it's all in how they view the world around them.

Changing Our Lens

Vincent Van Gogh once said that “if you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” I absolutely love this mindset. As I am sure is true for many of you, the last three years have been full of difficulties, loss and sadness at various levels for us. We have lost precious family and friends and economic opportunities as well. This year, our family decided to focus on gratitude…finding beauty and joy wherever we are and thanking God for those blessings. We are changing the lens through which we view the world around us - swapping complaining and discontent with gratitude. Through this lens, we are teaching our children (and ourselves) to stop and smell the roses. Instead of always hurrying from Point A to Point B, we are being intentional about stopping, being still and observing — basking in the beauty that surrounds us.

Discovering Another Layer of Beauty

Journeying with David, I’ve discovered there is a depth, another layer of beauty, we miss if we don’t stop and patiently wait for nature's beauty to unfold and reveal itself. Take a recent family walk. We saw so many beautiful flowers, waterfalls, and cloud shrouded mountains that spark wonder and gratitude and would make a wonderful photo op. But as I sped along taking brief moments to enjoy the beauty, David took the time to look a little closer. I saw a creative mailbox. David saw a very peculiar, tiny fungus growing on the tip of the duck's wing (so minuscule it would almost go unnoticed). 

Here’s what I saw:

Here’s what David saw:

I totally didn't even see that layer of beauty. But David's photographer's eye saw it. He encouraged our children to stop, explore and observe the tiny piece of nature that has such a depth and complexity that we would usually walk right by.

So today and every day, take some time (even for just a few minutes) to stop, go outside, and observe what’s around you. Feel the peace and joy that comes from being in creation and take a closer look…you might discover another layer of beauty that you never knew existed. With three children and a small business, I understand how difficult it can be to carve out even a few precious moments of silence and solitude. But it’s totally worth it! Happy Exploring!

Blessings,

Mariko

Some photos from our walk