Photography and Inkjet Printing Renaissance at Limited Editions Maui

Randy Hufford, owner of Limited Editions Maui, does and has done just about everything related to photography, art and printing. Hufford started shooting and developing film at an early age and by the time he was 16 he picked up his first professional paycheck for $500 from Hobie.

Surf photography
Randy Hufford pioneered nighttime surf photography in the 1970s.

“I took pictures of a pro skateboarder sponsored by Hobie skating in a pool with the tuxedo he got married in, and Hobie paid me for one 35mm slide from the shoot,” recalls Hufford. “I got a clue that this was fun and I started doing a lot of surf photography.”

But Hufford wasn’t content with run-of-the-mill surf photography. He pioneered nighttime surf photography, building a strobe inside a water housing for unique stop-motion action photography. He was recognized for his work by Surfing Magazine as a progressive surfing photographer.

Around that time, Hufford met his wife, Becky. They lived in a camper and camped out wherever the surf was good, capturing the surf scene and basically living a Bohemian lifestyle in Hawaii.

Hawaii landscape photography
Much of Hufford's fine art photography captures the majesty of Hawaii's landscapes.

The Huffords traded their camper for a more permanent abode in a guest cottage, where they turned a closet into a darkroom. Though they weren’t actively seeking out enlargement and photo processing business, people found them and their demand necessitated a larger and more operational lab.

“People were knocking on my door at 10 at night, so we moved down to central Maui and opened a photo lab,” says Hufford.

From there they built a growing and successful photo lab business to not only meet demand on the island, but to control their own images.

Photographing Hawaii“The main reason I opened a photo lab is because as a photographer I didn’t have control over the entire image process. I wanted control over my image: dodge and burn, lighten and darken, adjust the color, make corrections and changes,” says Hufford. “The photo lab made me excel as a commercial photographer: shooting interiors, food, aerials. I could also provide finished mounted prints. Most photographers don’t realize that we’re in the most exciting time of photography because of the control you have with Photoshop, calibrated monitors, printers and all the stuff we can print on.”

With the advent of inkjet printing, Hufford says everything changed, mostly for the better since he was able both simplify and expand his offerings.

Photographing trees“After 25 years all that processing equipment was basically useless. We liquidated most of our equipment and I moved my studio to a rural area on Maui in a pole house. We replaced a big photo lab with one 44” inkjet printer,” says Hufford. “A lot of people don’t realize how powerful one inkjet printer can be. Those machines are like printing money; you can output so many prints without the labor. I can generate as much income as a $5 million lab with just one 44″ printer.”

As mentioned earlier, Hufford has done just about every type of photography and every aspect of the process, from capture to finishing, but he says his passion is education. Hufford holds classes each year at a facility called the Institute of Visual Arts.

Big surf photography“All we do is go out and shoot. It reminds of when we lived in our camper, because I forget everything else and just go out and shoot and create images. We just did a class on shooting HDR panoramas and in a week I shot around 60-80 panoramas, each composed of 70-150 images stitched together,” says Hufford. “It’s so much fun to create such powerful images. When I shot interiors in the past with film it meant 300 to 500 bucks in Polaroids and a whole slew of strobe lights. Now I can go in and shoot HDR, pick up the ambient light of the room and see the exposure outside the window which I couldn’t do with film.”

In addition to the Institute of Visual Arts, Hufford has produced a number of educational DVDs on finishing, inks and media, digital art enhancement, marketing giclees, calibration, fine art photography and processing HDR panoramas. Hufford has also come up with a product called the Dual Edge Ripper to create unique deckled edges on fine art papers.

Educational DVDs on photography and printing
Hufford has produced educational DVDs on everything from processing HDR panoramas to color calibration and inks, inkjet media and finishing.

“It’s amazing the amount of things we can output now. I’ve been testing a backlit panel with LEDs that light the edge of the Plexiglas so it lights evenly. The LEDs are ten times brighter than they used to be, they’re full spectrum so there’s no color cast and the images have more dimension, plus they’re dimmable,” explains Hufford. “We’ve been experimenting with it in the fine art market where we put the art in a frame and just plug it. They have so much dimension that it feels like you can walk into them.”

Hufford is obviously busy with everything a photographer and educator can possibly do, but he’s not too busy for his favorite pursuit: creating photographic art.

“There’s a place down the road called Grandma’s Coffee House with the best breakfast in town, which is decorated with my images. The heliport nearby has hundreds of tourists come in every day. I put some of my prints and backlit panels there as well, and having my work at both places helps sell my work. I’ve been working with other businesses where I help them by decorating their offices from which I get additional exposure,” says Hufford.

The Seventh Wave of Surfing, Photography and Inkjet Printing

Home decor ocean artwork
This stunning piece, Perfect Blue by Larry Beard of Solitary Exposure, was printed on LexJet Sunset Photo Metallic Paper and topped with acrylic.

In surfing lore the seventh wave is the crackin’ one; that epic wave in a series that begs to be caught. Whether or not the seventh wave lore is really true, there is at least a figurative seventh wave, one that Larry Beard has caught numerous times, both on a board and with his camera.

Pro surfing and inkjet printing
Larry Beard surfing professionally back in the day.

Beard is a former pro surfer who transitioned into photography – mainly fashion and commercial photography – after his time on the pro circuit. Beard’s connection to the ocean, however, was too strong to deny and surf photography soon became his focus.

That transition back to his first love, the ocean, also brought up the question of how best to present the photographic ocean art he was capturing. The picture shown here of one of Beard’s creations that adorns a client’s dining room is representative of that evolution toward the ideal presentation of his work.

Art blocks on acrylic
More examples of Sunset Photo Metallic behind acrylic, aka Solitary Exposure ARTBLOCKS.

Beard explains its creation: “First, we print the image on Sunset Photo Metallic Paper we get from LexJet. I’m really happy with that paper, by the way; it’s awesome. We then laminate it to either 1/4″ or 1/2″ acrylic, attached to a wood backing that has a Z-bar hanging mechanism. The Z-bar is an interlocking channel system where on channel is attached to the piece, top and bottom, with a corresponding Z-bar on the wall that you literally just drop it into the interlocking channels. A 1/4″ acrylic piece will weigh about 50 pounds; on half inch it’s about 80 pounds. It’s a substantial piece that you don’t want coming down in an earthquake or if someone bumps into it, and the Z-bar makes it solid.”

Canvas giclee art
Hells Angel and Sons of Anarchy star Rusty Coones with a 65" x 40" giclee Sunset Canvas of Solitary Exposure's "Liquid Avalanche".

Beard has created these stunning acrylic pieces for homes, offices and restaurants. This particular piece, called Perfect Blue, was selected by Beard to complement his client’s newly remodeled home and dining room.

“With the acrylic and the Sunset Metallic paper you get the utmost in detail. It’s so sharp; it looks like a flat screen HD TV. The acrylic gives it a glow that softens it and at the same time gives it more detail; I know that’s an oxymoron, but that’s the best way to describe it. It’s by far my favorite medium. It’s so high-end looking,” says Beard. “That particular image is so majestic and when you print it on Sunset Metallic it really elevates that room.”

Canvas art giclee triptych
Beard also creates Sunset Canvas triptychs of his work that are quite popular with home owners.

Beard began doing his own printing a few months ago when he purchased a Canon iPF8300 from LexJet. His expertise in color management and Photoshop, coupled with the wider color gamut of the 12-color printer, has been a revelation.

“I’m blown away with what we’re able to produce with that printer,” says Beard. “We were sending our work out before we got the printer and our prints look 20 to 30 percent better.”

Perfect Blue was captured during a photo shoot in the South Pacific with pro surfers Sunny Garcia and Koby Abberton for Carve Sunglasses. The shoot was another opportunity for Beard to capture the perfect, or seventh if you prefer, wave and add it to his online store at solitaryexposure.com. The online gallery also carries and prints the work of photo artists like Russ Sanders and David Puu.

“There are all kinds of techniques, styles, creativity and locations from talented artists. Once you get over yourself, you open up to being able to help those artists and pass along a wider variety of images,” says Beard.

Fine art canvas triptych
Beard also works with other artists and photographers, who are part of his online gallery at solitaryexposure.com. This is Russ Sanders with a Sunset Canvas triptych called "Gone Fishing".

The quality of Beard’s work comes from quantity. It takes a lot of time in the ocean, and the hazards associated with that, to capture his signature style. It starts before dawn when Beard dons a wetsuit and flippers, toting a his Canon 5D Mark III in a water housing to find what he calls those “magic moments.”

“With digital photography and GoPro, as well as file sharing on social networks, people are inundated with so much really good stuff. My thing is to get out there at five in the morning when the best light is best and put myself in those situations where you can capture that moment. That magic moment requires a little bit of luck, so the more you’re out there the more chances you have to capture it and come away with something special and unique and over and above what’s out there,” explains Beard. “In order to get some of those barrel shots you have to put yourself in the most critical part of the wave: I try to get it where the lip of the wave barely misses my head. I went to Bali after the Carve Sunglasses shoot since I was over there anyway and got smashed on the reef on my first session out and my water housing hit the reef, put a hole in it and flooded my brand new Canon. It’s got its perils, but I love the images I get.”

Fine art photography on canvas
Sunset Burst by David Puu, perfectly rendered on Sunset Canvas by Solitary Exposure, San Clemente, Calif.

Based in San Clemente, Calif., a nice, relatively sleepy beach town on the Southern California coastline, Beard says his favorite spot to shoot in SoCal is south Laguna.

“There are a lot of unique coves that are amazing. You can go down there this time of year and there’s no one down there. It’s such a perfect spot with the cliffs, the coves, a surf that breaks really shallow for dramatic photos, and the water is very clear,” he says.