Photography by Bridget Kaleki

So, here’s a full circle for you:  When I was a senior in high school, I decided to take yearbook.  Having taken a yearbook class and a beginners black and white film class when I was in middle school- the extent of my understanding of photography was primitive. Somehow, four years later, I ended up as the school “photog.”  My teacher would hand me the school’s only camera– a Cannon film rebel, I would then set that sucker on the “green box” a.k.a. automatic, and go cray. I’d take that thing all over the island with me from Kohala to Ka’u and back again, I’d do senior portraits for friends, document weekend adventures, take it to our high school soccer games– you name it.  I basically had no idea what I was doing, but I was gung ho enough to do it, partly because I had a teacher who believed in me enough (or was desperate enough perhaps)  to say, “Go for it!”  That teacher was one of the catalysts in my life that instead of focusing on my lack of knowledge and experience, saw my zeal, and encouraged this interest in photography to evolve into something greater. I’m proud to say that this teacher (who hasn’t aged a day since I was in high school) is none other than, Ms. Molly Satta-Ellis. So when Molly (I’m still struggling to not call her “Ms. Satta” here) got in touch with me about doing photos of her and her boys, I was beyond stoked, what a good looking tribe they are, and it was a privilege it was to spend an afternoon with them at one of my favorite spots in the world. Molly, as trivial as my memory of yearbook class may seem for you, it sparked something in me and I’m grateful for having a teacher like you who would bust out from time to time in pidgin and say things to us like “shoots, can” as you’d rasta-rap, free style, from Three Plus singing “braddahz on da left, sistaz on da right…”  Yes you teachers are daily impacting your students (with your raps and all) in ways you’ll never remember but we will years down the road!   Mahalo for believing in us!