09/20/2026
yes, all of these have been said. and honestly, it happens more often than I’d like to admit.
you want a golden hour sunset shoot on the beach with a horse in Hawaii?
great! I’m the girl to make that happen for you, and I promise it will be the highlight of your Hawaiian vacation. but I can’t do it for a discount, I can’t even do it for $500, and I most certainly can’t do it for a free.
do you know it takes me over an hour to drive to the location where I do these shoots? yeah, we might be on an island, but unfortunately a million people live on this island and to make it for that golden hour sunset shoot, I have to sit through rush hour traffic. an hour plus there, another hour home.
permits are required to shoot on all public beaches and state parks. some of those permits take weeks to get and cost $100.
those beautiful horses in all my beach photoshoots? $400 to rent them. where the owners spend countless hours handling and training their horses to be safe enough for anyone to be around. plus their time to assist at the shoot and clean the horse so they are photoshoot ready when you show up.
that’s just the tip of it. not to mention the hours and hours I’ve poured into my craft, my business, marketing, editing, communicating with clients, etc plus the lifetime I’ve spent around horses.
oh and I live in Hawaii… arguably the most expensive state in the country. and I still work two jobs to afford my life here.
but my dream would be to do this full time. offer incredible experiences to people who are visiting, support other locally owned businesses, and show people an authentic side of Hawaii that they might not otherwise experience.
so yeah, my photoshoots are not cheap. I’m aware of that, but there’s a reason why I charge what I do. there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes and so many layers that most don’t see.
I don’t make this post to snark, but to just shed some light and transparency about what goes into these shoots.
