Sarah Lee

From Kona on the big island of Hawaii, Sarah Lee is the best underwater photographer I know. If you look thorough the underwater portion of her portfolio (http://www.vivantvie.com/Portfolio/Underwater/11417492_9Akgn#979445387_5KaQe) you can’t help but let your jaw drop in amazement. Her shots stir emotion and are exceptionally creative. Its no wonder Chapman Magazine (http://chapmanmagazine.wordpress.com/) employs her to do all their photos. Sarah also books weddings, engagements, portraits, and lifestyle gigs, shooting everything from maternity to landscapes to production stills. Everything shot she takes has her own style in it, whether  its a wave curling over the camera or waterscape of a remote beach in Hawaii. Words can’t describe the epic, raw beauty of her style. You have to check it out for yourself – http://www.vivantvie.com/

I met Sarah Lee at a swim team retreat my freshman year at Chapman. One of the first things she asked me was if I was from Hawaii because I was wearing a U of H shirt that my brother gave me. (He swims for the University of Hawaii). You can tell Hawaii culture and lifestyle heavily influences her work. She shys away from cliché shots and things conventionally considered good photographs. The way she distinguishes herself from other photographers is getting the shot no one else could get or even think of getting. When you see a Sarah Lee photo you know no one else could have captured the same thing, whether thats a surfer under a wave or a mermaid descending in a strawberry dotted ocean.

Sarah is a film production major like me. I’ve worked on a couple of sets with her where she was the director of photography. Sarah has been gracious enough to take me on some fun underwater shoots and has opened me up to the the limitless possibilities of underwater photography. From being around Sarah I’ve learned that what you enjoy doing is worth photographing. We went surfing at 5:00am one morning and some of the coolest shots I had seen in months were taken out in the water at Newport beach as the sun came up. And we weren’t even going to take pictures. I was just trying to learn how to surf. Sarah has also influenced my equipment purchasing. I bought a 7D because she had one. I bought the underwater bag she had because I thought what she did was so cool. When I was looking at buying my first lenses I asked her input on what I should get, and the lenses she suggested were the ones I ended up being happy with. (The ones I bought that she didn’t suggest I wasn’t as happy with.)

Sarah has the raw beauty of the Hawian islands in her photos.