Professional Photos

When you work so hard for days hand-crafting a fresh product that gets eaten in seconds, you want to make sure you capture it! And not just take a picture, but take a high quality photo that showcases the high quality packaging, ingredients, and skilled hands right here in Hawai`i who made it all!

That’s why we are so grateful at Choco le`a that we can hire professional photographers to do their thing!

They take what we create, and bring it to life on the screen where the world can see it!

Lifestyle photo shoots became a thing mid-way through my small business where you began to see people (or me by default since everyone around me is camera shy) in product shots more. It was a way to show customers how to enjoy your products or what it could look like in your life.

So when we launched things like books to read, journals to write in, and our custom shirts to wear, I began recruiting chocolate friends to model and did lifestyle shoots with the amazing Karen De Borja and Karen DB Photography.

When Karen moved, we stopped doing these shoots and I always felt like something was missing to our photos. I took my shot at photography, but really, it’s a whole other skill I have not even come close to getting the hang of and you could see a difference in our photos. They lacked light and life. Miss you Karen!

My attempt at a photo w/ a professional-ish camera

And so, I brought back on an old friend, Darin Auyoung from 3D Showcase Hawai`i, who helped me get those pristine and clean shots showing off our products, the packaging, and all of the details.

He takes the most clear and perfectly placed shots on white backdrop. Clean and simple is his style and it is the best for our website, product descriptions, to send to interested clients, and to just have on hand. He is such a professional and jams so much into such a short time frame and the editing, whoa, I’m so glad he showed me what it looks like pre-edit, and then the magic he can do when I leave the area around the product a mess. He just makes it disappear! He’s so talented. And though most of his clients are realtors and his specialty is the interior of homes and businesses (look him up), he’s a good long time friend and so was willing to do chocolates for us. You da best Darin and and thank you so much!

And then, I wanted to bring back those crazier shoots I used to have with Karen that were fun, filled with movement, and people enjoying the chocolates or the team working behind the scenes.

Enter Lyn from Moments by LM Studio. I’ll write another blog all about her and how we met, and just how God works wonders when we surrender our businesses to Him! But about Lyn, she walked in the door and jived with us within seconds! The energy just felt right and boy did she deliver helping us create content. You could tell she was pro and was confidently and quickly able to pose us for headshots (something my team has never done before). She also had fun jumping into action in the kitchen to capture those behind the scenes moments as well as follow our ambitious photo shoot list capturing all the things. Her works shows it all! We love you Lyn!

Working with professional photographers like Karen, Darin, Lyn, and so many others like Travis, Ashley, Rae, JonJon, and more, has been an incredible blessing! They have God-given talent for sure and bring to life, the work and talent of others (like our chocolatiers and designers) and as a team, we are able to show our best to our customers. Real representations, that show off the details, how we can incorporate it into our lives, the people behind the products, and they help tell our story through photos!

Thank you to all of you! You know who you are. Our business wouldn’t be what it is without you!

tip for peace

Invest in a professional photographer who can help you build your business or better show case your work. It’s worth it for the amount of work you’ve already put in, and will give you peace of mind that the world will see it clearly and can appreciate it too!

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