Family, love, and the days worth keeping.
Portrait, wedding and event photography on Oʻahu. Serving Honolulu and Hawaiʻi's Vietnamese community since 2019.
Recent work
Everyone is finally in the same place.
Relatives fly in for two weeks. Grandparents are here now, and the kids are the age they are right now. Then everyone scatters, and the only picture of all of you together is a phone snapshot somebody took in a parking lot. That window closes quietly, and it does not reopen.
What I photograph
Family & Portraits
Multi-generation family sessions on the beaches and ridgelines of Oʻahu. Grandparents, cousins, everyone in one frame, in the light of the islands.
Weddings
From lễ gia tiên at home to the church, the beach, and the reception. Full-day coverage that follows the whole story, both traditions.
Quinceañeras & Celebrations
Quinceañeras, birthdays, baptisms, graduations and church celebrations. Ceremony coverage that respects the moment and still gets the picture.
Business & Headshots
Professional headshots, team portraits, food and interiors for Hawaii businesses. Clean, current images your customers will actually see.
One rate. Every photo.
No package tiers, no per-person charge, no per-image unlocks. Bring four people or forty, the rate is the same.
$250
per hour
any group size, any occasion
What you get
Every raw file from the shoot
Not a curated selection. Everything I shot, unedited, delivered to you. Most photographers will not do this.
10 hand-edited images per hour
The strongest frames, finished properly, at full resolution and yours to print.
No charge per person
Every other photographer on the island bills extra past six or eight people. A multi-generation family should not be a surcharge.
Minimums
- Portrait and family sessions
- 1 hour
- Celebrations, quinceañeras, church events
- 3 hours
- Weddings
- 4 hours
Travel and permits
- Honolulu, Waikīkī, Ala Moana
- included
- Kailua, Hawaiʻi Kai, east side
- +$50
- North Shore and Ko Olina
- +$75
- DLNR permit, when the location requires one
- +$20
Travel and permits are charged at cost, not marked up. If your location falls between two bands, I quote the lower one. Note that Honolulu's Bill 38 bans commercial photography outright at city beach parks from Waimānalo to Makapuʻu, so nobody can shoot there, permit or not.
About
I'm Sony Ho, a photographer based in Honolulu. I've spent years photographing this community: weddings, family reunions, quinceañeras, church feast days, and the small business owners who keep the neighborhood running. I work in English and Vietnamese, so nothing gets lost between us, and I still hand-edit every image myself before it reaches you.
What I shoot with, and why it matters to you
- Canon EOS R5 + Canon EOS RTwo full-frame bodies on every booking, so a wedding never depends on one camera surviving the day.
- RF 24-70mm f/2.8L · RF 70-200mm f/2.8LThe working pair. Wide enough for a forty-person group, long enough to stay out of a ceremony.
- RF 85mm f/1.2LFor portraits and for dim church interiors, where a slower lens would force grain or flash.
- Sony A7R III + FE 24-50mm f/2.8 GA third body for long event days and for a second angle during a ceremony.
- DJI Air 2SAerial frames when the group is large or the landscape is the point.
Take these, no strings
You do not have to book me to use any of this. If it saves one family a bad shoot, it did its job.
- PDF · 3 pagesThe Oʻahu Family Photo GuideWhen to shoot, what to wear, where to go, and how to get grandparents and toddlers through it. Includes a Vietnamese summary.Download
- PDF · 2 pagesThe Oʻahu Wedding Day TimelineBuild the day backwards from sunset. Includes the H1 traffic buffer, where lễ gia tiên fits, and the family formal list that saves the most time.Download
- 2560 × 1440Wallpaper: the point, desktopShot from the air off the south shore.Download
- 1170 × 2532Wallpaper: the point, phoneSame frame, cut for a phone screen.Download
- 2560 × 1440Wallpaper: open water, desktopDeep water off the windward side.Download
- 1170 × 2532Wallpaper: open water, phoneSame frame, cut for a phone screen.Download
Let's talk about your day
Tell me the date, the place, and what matters most to you. I'll come back with availability and a quote.