There’s a particular kind of magic in photographing a big family — grandparents, parents, kids, sometimes even great-grandparents — all gathered in the same place at the same time. On Oahu, that’s rarely something that happens by accident. Getting three generations onto one island, on one day, usually means someone flew in from the mainland, someone took time off work, and everyone made it a priority. That effort is exactly what I want the photos to hold onto.
For sessions like this, Kualoa Ranch is where I bring almost every big family I work with. It has what large groups actually need: wide open meadows backed by the dramatic Ko’olau mountains, enough space for kids to run without crowding every frame, and a beach nearby if the family wants a second, more intimate backdrop. Unlike a lot of Oahu’s more compact beach spots, Kualoa doesn’t force twelve people into a tight little huddle — there’s room to breathe, room to actually move and interact, which is where the real, unposed moments happen.
What I’m always chasing in these sessions isn’t the perfect symmetrical lineup — it’s the in-between: a grandmother laughing at something her grandson just said, siblings leaning into each other without being told to, the quiet weight of an entire family standing together in one place, maybe for the only time that year. Those are the moments that end up meaning the most once everyone’s back home and scattered across different time zones again.
If you’re planning a family trip to Oahu and trying to get everyone in front of a camera together — even just once — I’d love to help make it happen.
