Constructed between 1879-1882, the Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaii was the official residence of the royal family of Hawaii until the monarchy was overthrown in 1893. The palace is the only official state residence of royalty located on US soil and features decorative plaster ornamentation throughout the interior and a beautiful koa wood staircase in the grand hall.
Following the overthrow, the palace then served as the capitol building of the Provisional Government, Republic, Territory, and eventually the State of Hawaii up until 1969 when the new capitol was constructed. Today the Iolani Palace is a museum that's open for public tours and has been stunningly restored and maintained as a National Historic Site.
Over the last several years, road trips and nice cars have become staples of my travel shoots around North America. While admittedly a bit extra, the truth is that just like good music or iconic views, a classic set of wheels turns any good road trip into a truly unforgettable one.
One story that's come up occasionally when discussing my travel shoots was the time I road tripped around Oahu, Hawaii in a Bentley Continental GTC back in 2015. The experience happened only a year into Editing Luke becoming my full-time production company, which alone made the trip feel significant. In a long list of ideal things to do, let's be real, a Bentley convertible cruising along the coast in Hawaii just checks a lot of boxes. Not surprisingly, a lot of that content did really well when it first appeared on the site.
Circling Oahu in a $200,000 car is a fun anecdote to share with friends, but what really made this a story worth repeating was that the travel images I shot in Hawaii (completely out of the blue) went on to land me a magazine cover feature in Australia in 2017.
After I completed my Hawaii series and shared it on Editing Luke, an art director in Melbourne found my work online while searching for images of Waikiki. Long story short, after brainstorming some ideas, they ended up licensing a good chunk of my photography for publication and ran a feature about me and my work. More on that here if you're interested. In a fast growing list of memorable travel shoots, you probably won't be surprised to hear that I still rank this one pretty highly. Experiences like this only further proved what I already believed - you never know who you might reach or how far your work can actually go when you actively network your content. To wrap this up I'll leave you with a few of the incredible Hawaiian views I captured from the coastal roads of Oahu - with a few Bentley shots thrown in for good measure.
Following the overthrow, the palace then served as the capitol building of the Provisional Government, Republic, Territory, and eventually the State of Hawaii up until 1969 when the new capitol was constructed. Today the Iolani Palace is a museum that's open for public tours and has been stunningly restored and maintained as a National Historic Site.
