Landscape photography based in Maui ,Hawaii.

 "I am Patti Baker and I can take a pretty good pictures of waves!"

  Originally from Southern California and the greater San Diego area, I decided to move to Maui, Hawaii ten years ago. It is here where I came back to what centers my life and brings peace.

  In my earlier years I played around with pen and ink sketching, then any type of drawing. I would do this for hours at a time, just loosing myself in the love of the art. My grandmother encouraged me to paint as she saw natural ability.  So, with direction and training, I did continue to draw and paint. I would discovered later that this grandmother was an artist from Northern California and her passion was the art of photography. She so loved photograph, she also owned some 90 different cameras, dating back to some of the earliest.  Her inspiration was not just here pictures on the walls but the instruments themselves and from a women before her time, as there were very few women in the field of photography, when she started her journey.  I have since learned, I come from a family of natural born artists. I  myself, have not had any formal education in the Art or Photography to speak of, but I feel it is the passion for it that I keep learning every day. Now, this time in my life, I have a mentor in photography again, much like the grandmother of past. An amazing person that supports and challenges me to learn everything. Teaching not just the camera but everything about photograph now and present. That of software and software tools, light and how artists play with light and searching for that which has not been captured the way I want to capture it. "You see, I have a passion!"

   I worked as a private duty Pediatric Nurse, in California for 13 years.I was more than just their nurse, I was a strong and passionate advocate about the care they all received and was rewarded everyday with a smile! These little ones taught me what is important in life and what isn’t.

  Since living on Maui I bought a quality DLSR Nikon and lens and just started shooting photos and learning about the camera. Here with all the magnificent colors of aquamarines, blues, reds, oranges, yellows and greens, sprinkled with the billions of tropical flowers of all colors, and of course Maui’s beautiful rainbows, it was rather easy to find subjects.

  Drawn to the water, I started out at first taking photos of surf and surfers, continuous shooting while those surfers were on those waves. The local surfers loved it, as each good capture, proved exciting to me and them. Soon, one of my favorite places for taking wave and surf photos, would be the famous, “Jaws” in Peahi, Maui. It has become habit forming catching the swells during the winter months, (November through January) which range mostly between 20-60 feet. It is an amazing sight the capturing of the those powerful blues in the mist but more importantly an amazing subject to shoot. All the local photographers and the lucky tourist within the group adorn the cliff sides in anticipation of that ONE perfect shot in those months. But it is patience that wins out, which I have learned to apply to all my photography now. Sometimes I have spent entire days on those cliffs just waiting for the ONE.

   My words to other photographers, be patient, "learn to wait for the light, for the butterfly to land and the clouds to clear!"