Meet Scott Mead

At the age of seven, during a Hawaiian family vacation, my grandfather presented me with a small Kodak Instamatic camera, a hand full of film cartridges, and told me to have fun. Some 30 years later I’m still having fun, trudging deep into bamboo forests, climbing lava formations and hanging out of helicopters to capture some of Hawaii’s most dramatic landscapes.

I began my photographic career at the age of 16, capturing cars, plants, landscapes, and wildlife on film, often donating my images to local clubs and charities. After studying photography at the California Polytechnic University under the tutelage of noted commercial photographer, Wayne Rowe , I spent several years as an automotive photographer and journalist for Edmunds.com and Motor Trend Magazine before switching my focus to landscape and nature photography in 2003. Apprenticing with renowned landscape photographer and conservationist, Robert Glenn Ketchum, I decided to concentrate my creative energy toward my true love – the islands of Hawaii – where my family has noho kai (lived by the sea) for part of every year since 1975.

A virtuoso at the use and manipulation of light, I carefully select my subjects and locations to optimize the ever-changing luminosity and atmospheric conditions the Islands present. Tempered by patience and uncanny timing, my images depict an intense variation of light, fluidity and motion, capturing the pure essence and mana of Hawai’i through the lens.

I reside along the slopes of Haleakala, on the island of Maui..