Jetstar Magazine Cover and Waikiki Images

Earlier this fall I was contacted by the art director for Jetstar Airways in-flight magazine in Australia. He had discovered my Aloha Hawaii travel photography series through a simple online search, and reached out about the images I had shot of Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii. Amazingly, a casual back and forth about purchasing a few images eventually evolved into them publishing a 7 page spread and cover featuring my photography for their December 2017 issue. 

Jetstar Airways is based out of Melbourne, Australia and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas. With flights within Australia and New Zealand, as well as to Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Hawaii, the idea of having my work featured so prominently and on such a large scale is understandably exciting for me and my business, Editing Luke. 

The cover of the December 2017 issue is a collage of 8 images that I photographed around Waikiki Beach. Inside there's an extended double page collage, followed by a 3 image layout, another double page spread, and finally an article featuring snippets of my images and an interview I did about shooting my photo series in Hawaii. By the way, that original photo series with highlights from around Oahu, Hawaii can still be explored here.

Despite selling quite a few images internationally over the last few years, on a personal level, this publication feels a bit more noteworthy for two reasons. The first, is that outside of selling prints or a photo book with my name attached to it, it's pretty rare that I'm selling my photography for an article or feature that is actually about my experience in creating the work. 

Secondly, as a travel photographer and someone who flies often, I love the idea of having my images all over an in-flight magazine. The number of people who will unintentionally see it, thumb through the magazine because they're bored, or maybe just scribble all over my pictures because it's something to do, makes me smile. After all the in-flight magazines I've looked through, I like that I can say that I've been featured in one now too.

Since I won't be flying between Australia and Hawaii this month (however much I might wish to make that happen) I was happy to have a copy of the magazine arrive from Australia this week. The publication looks even better than the digital proofs I was sent online, and the quality of the publication has easily made this coffee table worthy. So, apologies to my friends and family in advance for talking about Hawaii over Christmas a bit too much - but this is cool!        

Airboating in the Everglades: Part 2

A continuation of my photo set from airboating in the Florida Everglades.

Airboating in the Florida Everglades

The mangrove jungles and tropical wetlands that make up the Florida Everglades are an incredible natural wonder that are best explored up close and on the water. In visualizing a few iconic Florida scenes for my travel photography series, the idea of airboating through the Everglades in search of alligators was an experience that I knew I had to make happen.

I chartered an airboat out of Everglades City on the western side of Everglades National Park. While there are a number of airboat tour operators to choose from in the area, I opted for a private airboat charter to somewhat customize the exploration (and because I wanted to guarantee that we'd have enough time to find alligators in the wild). 

I can't fully express just how much fun it all was. From racing through long corridors in the mangroves to drifting in the open water, the airboat ride alone was a rush. The very first bit of wildlife we spotted was a small pod of dolphins feeding. They popped up right next to the airboat and continued to swim around us for about 15 minutes.


We then ventured further into the Everglades in search of alligators. We had been looking for about an hour without any luck, but with a lot of alligator-looking logs pointed out. Then it finally happened. Off in the distance the captain had spotted something. We inched closer and there it was, my very first alligator sighting in the wild. We were no more than 3 or 4 feet away, and as I snapped my pictures and soaked up that moment, in my head I was thrilled to finally be crossing this amazing airboating adventure off of my bucket list. MORE HERE.