What I'm Up To In Hawaii

At the time of writing this, I am staying pretty busy here in Honolulu. Each week I am filming and editing a new video for Shaka Livin’, a growing Youtube channel where we go on all kinds of exciting adventures. In just the first six weeks, I went cageless shark diving, big wave surfing, and learned to hold my breath for nearly four minutes, documenting everything along the way. In just the first few videos, we have amassed over 400 subscribers and 60,000 views. I have the wonderful opportunities to sharpen my skills in vlogging, compelling storytelling, action videography, and making the everyday look more cinematic.

Check out any of our first four uploads: shark diving, free dive training, surfing with a big wave surfer, and POV surfing with the GoPro 9.

Additionally, about twice a month I film and photograph for fellow yogi Desi Bartlett. Desi has been a treat to work with, and I enjoy our conversations about yoga, meditation, and living in Hawaii. We shoot yoga flows, meditations, and photos for her Instagram account, which has grown to over 40,000 followers. This work has been a great challenge and opportunity to grow as a filmmaker. Most of my work has consisted of documenting a scene or event that’s already happening, but with videos like this one, creating a perfect scene with lighting and framing is my responsibility, as well as managing audio and 2 cameras.

Check out this sunrise shoot or this meditation on the beach if you’re curious!

I am grateful to have found work here, and am doing my best to work in time to create Youtube videos of my own to express the thoughts in my head. Mahalo for stopping by :-)

Why me?

Why work with me?

Queens Beach, Honolulu, HI

I’ll get right to the punchline:

I don’t see my purpose as a creator to be just making pretty pictures of videos.

I see myself as an artist, a creative, and a trusted confidant on your team who propels our collective vision forward. Forward not just into something beautiful, but into something that tells an authentic story. Your story.

Photography and videography are much more than a way to make pretty Instagram posts; they are a means of expression. They are a means of capturing a vision.

When you hire me, I am doing much more than clicking the shutter at the right time and right angle. I can only tell your authentic story once I’ve begun to understand its importance. As your creative, I will get to know you, your product, or your business, and the importance of the underlying story.

In my opinion, what sets me apart is my understanding of how important it is to create art from this foundation. I take in your situation and seek to understand exactly what you need me for. Who will be seeing these pictures or videos? What do you want to say to them through these visuals? Why now?

With a strong background in public relations and years of experience working with all kinds of different clients, from artists to non-profits to normal people like you and me, I know what steps I need to take to honor and properly broadcast your authentic story.

And, being on the outside, I am in a unique position to learn all about you, and to learn what needs to be said to the outside viewer. The steps between idea and tangible final product are all about collaboration. You tell me what you see your story to be - what you want to tell to the world. Then, I will take it in, process, offer feedback, and begin planning for how our collective visions will translate into photos, videos, and written word.

Creating the media that you see across this site is my passion and something that I am honored to do. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to work with you soon :-)

Maggie Scruggs Art

“Working with Luke is like talking to an old friend. I’m never the one to be on camera and he created an atmosphere where I was completely at ease, all while teasing out my life’s purpose. I feel Luke’s passion for creating in his attention to detail (move this brush, adjust this blind in the background) to create a setting that feels like me and creates a beautiful image. Working with him just feels like a natural extension of growth and transparency. Most of all, I’m really grateful for Luke’s creating a really intentional container for me to share - there was space for my work to come through and space for his to hold it. It feels less like transaction and more like relationship. ” Maggie Scruggs

Maggie is an artist and yoga teacher based in Athens, Georgia. She paints, draws, and takes killer self-portraits.

Working with Maggie was a dream. I had long admired Maggie as an artist, and even hired her to make a commission for my girlfriend’s Christmas present. She also helped lead my yoga teacher in the spring of 2020! When she contacted me about making some content for her I was thrilled.

I created a cohesive collection of photos for Maggie that showcases the artist at work, and, in addition, two videos to be displayed on her website which tell the story of who she is and what she’s up to as an artist. These pictures and videos then, in turn, would become part of the visual backbone of her brand.

Before shooting, Maggie and I had several candid discussions about what we would make together. “What do you want these photos to show your audience?” “Who are you as an artist?” “What do you feel when you are in the act of creation?” These types of questions, and conversations we had about what we love and don’t love about what we do, gave me a clear picture of what I needed to convey through her pictures and videos. As I came to understand - Maggie is an ARTIST. She creates very intuitively. Sometimes it’s pretty, sometimes it’s messy, and there is always more to her art than what you see. As we mutually agreed, it’s “in your face a little.” I love that.

I loved the whole process with Maggie, from talking about her process and what she stands for, to observing her in the act of creation, all the way to my role, figuring out what is most important to show her audience and helps convey an authentic picture of who she is.

Karly Rae Ceramics

This series of photos features a lovely mug handcrafted by Karly of Karly Rae Ceramics (@karleyrae.ceramics). She is a ceramist based in Athens, Georgia, and this lovely grey & beige piece is my new favorite mug.

In addition to showing off the mug, I took this shoot as an opportunity to have some fun shooting something I love - coffee. Coffee culture has always fascinated me, and peaceful, cozy coffee shops are a part of who I am, so I intend to do more work involving coffee. Throughout my time in Athens, I was loyalist of Jittery Joes, a local chain that makes a great cup of joe (and was also my favorite place to edit and study any day of the week). A typical morning for me during the lockdown period of COVID, however, began with a batch of pourover coffee (with beans from Jittery) that I’d drink on my front porch.

Click through below to see the gallery!

ESP - Wynnie's Story

This video premiered at Extra Special People’s annual gala, Big Hearts, at the Classic Center in Athens, Georgia. It was shown as part of a night of speakers and content that culminated in a room full of passionate people raising over $150,000 to benefit Java Joy, a non-profit that employs adults with special needs and brings all kinds of smiles to its clients.

Making this video was one of the great pleasures I’ve had as a creative. One of my great passions when making certain videos is to create something that builds emotional depth such that it truly cuts through to the audience and pulls at their heart strings. So, how do I gauge this when I’m staring at a screen, at the same footage, for hours on end of editing with only myself as the audience? The metric I’ve developed is this: once I put something together that makes me well up as I’m editing it, I know I’m getting somewhere. I’m happy to say that this video was able to do that to a room full of people - it truly made an impact.

In my opinion, working as a creative with a non-profit is a difficult but worthwhile task. It asks much more of me than to just make a pretty video - it requires that I immerse myself in the cause, the story, and the potential impact of telling that story well. Put simply, if I am telling the story, I need to know and care about it. This is the story of Kaeti, Nick, and their daughter Wynnie, the cutest kid you’ve ever seen with the most radiant smile.

Throughout the process, there was much for me to learn, and many questions to answer. After sitting down with the family, as well as the team at Extra Special People, I learned that Wynnie nearly didn’t make it. Before her birth, doctors discovered three large cystic hygromas which would threaten her life and, if she were to beat the odds and survive, she would have Down syndrome. For days, Nick and Kaeti’s heads spun, and they wondered what they would do if their daughter wasn’t born, and who to turn to for support if she was. Shortly after receiving that news, an encounter with a Java Joy Joyrista, an adult with Down syndrome, gave Kaeti and Nick new hope for what their daughter’s life could be like.

Three sessions of filming were planned, all of which you can see in the final product below. First, we filmed Kaeti and Nick interacting with their daughter at home to capture the love that they have for Wynnie on a day to day basis. In that same session, I interviewed them in their home about their story of fear, and then hope for Wynnie (my questions even sparked tears from Kaeti, which you can see at the end of the video!). Then, I filmed them walking through the facilities at Extra Special People to capture the hope that ESP provides the family for Wynnie’s future, as this will be a place that Wynnie can receive an abundance of support throughout her childhood. Also during this session, you can see Wynnie interacting with other children of different abilities as well as ESP staff at a program for young children called ESPlay. Finally, we headed to a Java Joy pop-up event to film Wynnie interacting with Joyristas. This serves the purposes of providing a visual aid to Kaeti’s story of meeting the Joyristas for the first time, as well as capturing the hope of Wynnie becoming a thriving Joyrista one day.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you to Kaeti, Nick and Wynnie for letting me tell your story!