Wedding photographers must stop taking couples to sacred spots, Hawaii officials say

Some Hawaii wedding photographers have been taking couples to “dangerous or sacred” locations to get epic photos. Officials want it to stop.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said several wedding photographers were sent cease and desist letters after officials said they ignored rules and took couples to certain locations illegally.

“There’s no argument the photos are stunning, with brides and grooms perched on ridges overlooking the rugged Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park, beneath a waterfall, or at sunset on a quintessential Kaua‘i beach,” officials said in a news release.

Those “stunning” photos, however, might be illegal. The Department of Land and Natural Resources said photographers are often going to these locations without a permit.

The prominence of these illegal photoshoots has also warped couples’ expectations, officials said. Photographers who follow the rules are getting less business because couples have come to expect to have photos done in similar locations that they’ve seen on social media.

“Renegade photographers create unhealthy expectations for visiting couples as they see photos online or on social media and they’re asking our members to shoot in the same places,” Mike Danderand, the president of the Kaua‘i Wedding Professionals Association, said in the news release. “There are places on Kaua‘i that are sacred or dangerous.”

Sue Kanoho, the executive director of the Kaua’i Visitors Bureau, said she has filed complaints against “bad actor” photographers who ignore permit rules for years.

“If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time you might suffer the scorn of residents, you could get cited, and there are other things that can go wrong,” Kanoho said in the news release.

Officials said Bradyhouse Photographers and The Foxes Photography both received cease and desist letters.

Photos on the Bradyhouse Photographers website and social media accounts showed images at several “naturally and culturally sensitive” locations across Kaua’i, areas that officials say they wouldn’t have issued permits for.

The founder of Bradyhouse Photographers said they were told by the Department of Land and Natural Resources that permits were required to work commercially at some locations, which they didn’t know beforehand. The company said it has initiated a “zero exception policy” for photographing in off-limits locations.

“Since then we have made sure to educate ourselves on the process of obtaining the required permits for every single session for the last 10 months and we have been approved every time,” Bradyhouse Photographers said in an email to McClatchy News. “We are doing the best we can to make sure we are being respectful and compliant with the permitting requirements and have adjusted our location guides, client process and education as well as our team structure.”

The Foxes Photography, which has elopement tours in Kaua’i, was also issued a cease and desist letter, according to the department. Officials said the company promotes its business with photos that were taken at state parks without commercial permits.

The company said it has photographed a total of five elopements in Kauai in the past five years.

“Furthermore, our photo from Wailua Falls that was cited in the article was taken years ago, before we knew that trail was off limits — like the Kauai Wedding Professionals Association mentions in the video, ‘everyone does it,’” The Foxes Photography told McClatchy News in an email. “It was an honest mistake.”

The company said it removed the photo from its social media and webpages but forgot it was also on an old blog post.

“To say we are greedy photographers driven by money is a gross misrepresentation of what we do and why we’re elopement photographers,” the company said. “Kauai makes up a small portion of our business and it’s extremely expensive for us to travel and shoot there. But we do it because we love the island.”

Officials said couples can protect themselves by asking if their wedding photographer is part of the Kaua‘i Wedding Professionals Association.

“They may not be able to get you to the exact spot of the likely unauthorized photo you saw, but they do know exactly where it is legal and appropriate and where it is not, due to culturally or naturally sensitive resources that are out of bounds,” Division of State Parks Administrator Curt Cottrell said in the news release. “It’s Kaua‘i, so pretty tough not to get amazing photographs.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 11:02 AM.