Penny

I met Penny in the Open Space Yoga teacher training that we both attended. She is a southern belle who tells it like it is, and she has a heart of gold, especially where animals are concerned.
Penny recently started teaching at Open Space and needed a portrait to accompany her profile on the studio's website. Knowing that I am a photographer, Penny asked if I could create a unique image for her.

Living in Hawaii, the natural tendency is to photograph yogis and yoginis out in the vast natural beauty surrounding us here. But every single teacher portrait on the OSY website was of yogis and yoginis on the beach in sunset light, in the forest amongst the greenery, at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean...you get the idea.

Penny is different. So she needed an image that was different from all that came before. I asked myself, "what is the opposite of nature? Of course--the city. CHINATOWN!"
Chinatown here in Honolulu is one of the grimiest places in the city. But I had a vision of Penny sitting in padmasana (lotus pose), peaceful and in repose against the backdrop of graffiti and people hurrying past.
I pitched the idea to Penny and she loved it. We set out on a Saturday after work, hoping to make it to Chinatown before all the shops closed and the streets became deserted. We made it just in time. The images below are not quite what I had envisioned, but they do start to approach what I saw in my mind's eye. The next time we go out, Penny and I want to go during a busier time of day and I'm picturing photographing her from across the street so that people aren't so afraid to walk in front of and behind her because I'm right there with a camera pointing at them.

Enjoy!


We asked these people to walk past Penny several times. They were really good sports.


This isn't the most flattering picture of Penny, but I had to show the cool effect of the bus moving behind her to really make her POP out of the image.


This is my favorite image from the shoot. I love the colors and textures and Penny looks lovely.


This image and the one preceding were the two images picked to represent Penny on the OSY website and newsletter.

Thanks to Penny for being such a great subject!