Ethan likes to say that I (Stef) am unable to have “just a normal vacation”. While Ethan is always on the hunt for our next life adventure together, I’m always searching our next photo opportunity. (In my own defence: we typically travel with our gear anyways and there’s just something so inspiring about shooting in a new location that makes me feel excited) I’m happy to say that this time the tables turned and it was actually Ethan who pitched shooting with Taira, which to our joyous surprise she was on board for!

Taira runs a beautiful leather goods company called Salty Western— “Salty Western was created by islander Taira Barron Cran. She grew up on the North Shore of Oahu and surfed before she could walk. Everyday revolved around the ocean, though her love for horses and the country life grew just as strong. Eventually, she moved to a 35,000 acre cattle ranch on the Big Island of Hawai’i. In her new little cowboy house, she started to use her creativity through leather. Experimenting with it, she began wetting it, dying it, cutting it up, and carving it. She drew inspiration in from her versatile lifestyle; from coming out of the Pacific ocean with dripping salty hair, to sitting by a fire with dirty cowboy boots, sipping whiskey after a long cattle drive. Much like living through an old western movie, though this one is surrounded by Hawaiian salt in the air. This was how Salty Western was born.”

We spent an evening with Taira at her ranch (after first going to the wrong ranch lol) where we photographed her working on, and with, some her of products. Waimea is also known as Hawaiian cowboy county, full of rolling green pastures, and home to lots of cowboy and cattle ranches so this was truly the perfect backdrop to shoot with Taira considering her brand ethos. What is it about watching other artists work that is so beautiful and interesting? Because that’s how photographing Taira felt. We walked around the ranch, said hi to a horse (!!), and later watched the sunset after we parted ways. It was such an honour to do this and we’re so thankful for Taira’s invitation to visit, we look forward to returning one day!

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Winter is always a time for us to refresh and reset but admittedly winter in Toronto is fairly drab so we always like to take some time off as a way to feel renewed. In years past we go all in on winter; take a long drive up north, bury ourselves in snow, and have some wine by the fire every night for a week straight. This year we wanted to change things up though. After working (and missing) most of summer, this winter we wanted to head somewhere warm. We have been talking about Hawai’i for a while— Ethan loved a trip to Maui he took years ago— so this year we finally said, let’s skip winter for a couple of weeks!

After some research we opted to go to the Island of Hawai’i, also known as Big Island, as in the largest— but interestingly youngest— of the Hawaiian Islands. There were a few key things that we wanted to do on this trip: Summit Mauna Kea, Papakōlea (Green Sand) Beach, and to hit up some black sand beaches. We’re happy to report that we did cover all of these things, and more!

We decided to stay on the less touristy side of the island near Hilo (we stayed in Pāhoa), instead of Kona, as it was closer to the attractions we wanted to go to. Unfortunately, Hilo in February is the more temperamental time of year with rolling rain, cloudy days, bigger waves, and cooler temperatures but in the end it worked out really well for us. Our first week was our ‘adventure week’ where we covered Mauna Kea, Papakōlea, Volcano National Park, Waimea, Waipio Valley, even taking a shelter dog on a field trip for the day from the Hawaiian Humane Society! We also lucked out having the beautiful Kehana Black Sand beach a short drive away from our AirBnB, which we absolutely made sure to visit every. single. day. Our last week was filled with nothing but sunshine and warm weather so it turned into our beach days where we started and finished our books, lounged around, and took in every last drop of sunshine before returning home to winter.

I don’t think I have enough words to describe how beautiful this trip was. Even Ethan said that he enjoyed it more than Maui (for different reasons!) Having so many landscapes— from the ocean, to tropical rainforests, incredible volcano-scapes (mountain like landscapes, but you know… with a volcano). Going from the water front to 2000+ft above sea level just driving across the highway; one moment you’re swimming, the next you’re quite literally driving through a cloud. In trying to capture this trip in one word, majestic, incredible, surreal, are all adjectives that fall short. Just know that we will be back, I simply cannot imagine a life where we don’t return.

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