Many people know I’m a professional photographer. It’s been a passion since I was a teenager and something I started doing professionally after leaving my high tech career in 2004. I was really just trying to keep myself busy while I was looking for the next thing, but through a series of events, it became a new career. While most of my social media clients know I’m a photographer and a geek, what they might not know is, like my friend Erik Blair, I too am an accidental consultant.
Yosemite National Park, not long after I left my career in the Silicon Valley and began exploring options.
After my wife and I moved to Maui in 2006 to get a fresh start on our lives after ending our careers in the Silicon Valley, I found myself on a very pretty rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with photography to market. Worse yet, I found myself on a rock full of photographers. While I wasn’t in competition with most of them, I still had to find a different avenue to market my work, so I went back to my natural tech roots and started using the social Web. Pretty soon, I started getting more questions about how I was using social media than about my photography, so I took that as a sign. It didn’t help that the business of photography as we knew it was transforming before our very eyes due to the proliferation of phone cameras and the growing plethora of apps.
Award winning photo of a Green Sea Turtle being cleaned by Yellow Tangs, taken while scuba diving in Kona, Hawai‘i.
While I continued to shoot, my consulting practice became a full time job and for lack of time, my photography was relegated back to the status of a hobby. Flash forward, and now it appears that my work as a consultant is leading me back to my photography. My clients have reached the point where updated visuals are essential to their ongoing social media efforts. So while I’ve been doing the occasional photo gig on the side—shooting events, headshots for avatars, images for blog headers or Facebook Pages, real estate shots for my wife Kathy, etc.—I’m now being asked to do full-on photo shoots.
So, I’m making it official. I’m offering my services as a professional photographer for businesses who need imagery for their assets or campaigns.
Sunset at Ali'i Kula Lavender, taken as part of my first photography gig with them when I was new on Maui.
Real estate photo shoot for my wife Kathy Becklin, who is a REALTOR® on Maui in addition to being my partner in our consulting business.
Maui Taiko at TEDxMaui 2012 at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, in which I was the Social Media Manager.
A surrealistic HDR render from a recent campaign with the Kapalua Cliff House, a newly renovated, premier private event facility on Maui, overlooking Namalu Bay.
A surrealistic render of Ka'anapali Beach from the roof of Sheraton Maui, taken for the Ka‘anapali Resort Association.
The Slow Food Maui booth in surrealistic HDR at the 2012 Maui County Agricultural Festival, held annually at the Maui Tropical Plantation.
For more information about my portfolios, visit my website at Peter Liu Photography.
