About Ryan Sakamoto

Aloha, I’m Ryan, I started off my Honolulu photography journey as a hobby 20 years ago, capturing my two daughters playing basketball in high school. Somewhere along the line, I found a love to photograph these beautiful Hawaii sunrise & sunsets, which I still do today when I’m not taking portraits or photographing an engagement. In the last 12 years, I’ve found myself including people in my sunrise photography, which has led me here to capture a colorful Hawaiian sunrise creating portraits with individuals, couples, families, high school & college seniors, maternity, engagements & elopements.

I am blessed to have grown up on the island of Oahu, where I currently reside, where sunshine, Aloha & leis are abundant. I see myself as an artist first & what I capture through my camera lens is my canvas of your memories. Photography has been my passion for the last 20 years, my hopes & dreams are to help you capture moments that will last you a lifetime, My tagline, more so my philosophy, has always been “creating memories from the heart for the heart” I’ll take this same philosophy from our first meeting to the final edits that I will present to you.

I genuinely believe that as an Oahu photographer, I had to teach myself how to see a single special moment in time & instead of just watching it happen & letting it pass, I had to keep my eye on the viewfinder of the camera & instinctively press the shutter to capture these special moments.

The image to the above left is a behind the scene picture of a maternity portrait session I recently did down at Waialae Beach Park at sunrise with a beautiful couple, Jenn & Edric, who are starting their family with a baby girl. I had my assistant boom a small flash over their faces. All I needed was a small pop of light to illuminate their warm smiles.

The final edit of the scene above right, I find it so amazing what just a little bit of “good” light can do to an image & make a photograph come alive with the emotions of a couple that’s in front of my lens! This technique of removing my assistant from the final image is fairly simple & can be applied to any individual, couple, or even a senior portrait. Words cannot describe the emotions that go through me after a successful photo shoot! I do love, love, love the smiles and the laughter of a couple as they interact with each other, at times they forget that I’m there with a camera, these are the best moments I have as I photograph them at a session, especially if we’re blessed with a beautiful sunrise! It’s all about seeing their love for each other!

Things I love doing, going out to watch & experience a beautiful sunrise! Experiencing a sunrise with or without a camera in hand, for myself can be so meditative! It is definitely my “happy place.” Above is a silhouette portrait of a friend at Waialae Beach Park. It was a gloomy day, but just as sunrise rose over the horizon, the clouds parted to reveal the beautiful colors as they gently kissed the surrounding rain clouds. Images like this are how I experience a sunrise!

Sunrise sillouette self portrait with the Milky Way.

When not photographing clients or working on personal projects, I still find myself out at sunrise sitting at one of my “secret” spots, just sipping my coffee with my camera still zipped up in my backpack & just enjoying the beauty of the sunrise, I find this very relaxing & meditative…my happy place!

This drives my passion, chasing sunrises & capturing special moments like this! I do have a personal “play” website, it’s a collection of my art but more so my creative outlet! When you have a minute, please go ahead & drop in to see my art, ryansakamoto.com.

Aloha & a hui hou

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