About Us - Blog

Artist's Statement

Growing up in a small town in Oregon, I remember being in awe of nature. Our family went camping each summer, to either the mountains or to the coast. I was quite content to sit in the car while we traveled and look out the window at the world going by. I was fascinated with everything I saw the trees, the rocks, streams, rivers, clouds, barns, fields of grass, it was as though I couldn't take my eyes off anything, afraid I would miss that something really special.

Around age 8, I remember thinking how cool it would be if I could share all that I was seeing with others, so they could see how beautiful Mother Nature was. At age 12, my Grandmother gave me a Kodak pocket instamatic camera for my birthday. I was thrilled. I would do any odd job I could to make money to buy film and to be able to develop them. I was in heaven and so happy each time I would go out and take pictures.

From that point on, any time there was a birthday, a graduation or maybe just some visitors came to our house, I would break out the camera and snap away. I always wanting to capture as much as I could so those people that couldn't come to the event, would at least be able to see the photographs.

It is so weird to me, even today after 40 plus years of photography, I still feel so driven to document events, people, places. For posterity sake, for the Grandkids, for the student doing a report, for Grandma to set on her T.V., I just felt compelled to make certain that each of these people, places, things or happenings, had some pictures of it. It seemed important to me and I felt that people would be glad that they had a photograph to hold onto, touching that second of time, reliving it in a way and able to imagine they were there.

I was born on March 4th - my Moms' birthday. I'm Mom's only daughter, and thus, a very special child, in my mind anyway. I have 3 brothers, 2 older by a year each, then the youngest of the family, 7 years younger than me. We all went to Catholic school 1st to 8th grade. Then, 9th grade, which back then was called Junior High, was a Public School. Commonly, we "Catholic kids" would go wild in the 9th grade. No more nuns to constantly discipline and control our every move, every thought. Jesus, it was beautiful!

My Mom said I was a calm child, always sitting quietly, watching something or reading. I have always loved to read and to observe. My mind goes crazy with thoughts as I¹m watching whatever it is for the moment. Images flash, words pour out, my mind is a whir, as they say. So getting a camera in my hands was the best thing that ever happened to me. Now I could capture those seconds of time, those million thoughts and preserve them with the snap of the shutter, one 60th of a second at a time. "A picture is worth a thousand words" is a phrase that could explain what photography is to me. For every single one of my photos, I could sit you down and talk about it, tell you stories - for days.

March forth; March 4th, my date of birth became my motto. It fascinated me when I realized that my date of birth is also a statement. March forth, go forth, go forward, and keep going. No other date of birth is a statement. I must be a special child.

All combined, the love of observation, love of the power of words, a driving life motto, I am living my passion. I am documenting life; people who have come and gone, places that once were, now destroyed or decaying, things usual and unusual, all still fascinate and entice me. Some people are born as something, a doctor, a carpenter, a nurse...a photographer. I feel blessed that I was given the gift of observation in this lifetime.

My intention is to share with you as many of the sights I have seen over the years and offer you the opportunity to relive some of those seconds in time.

...imagine if you will.

Sincerely,

Gail L. Pyburn

Why I love Photography

I was born and raised in a small town along the Willamette River in Oregon. Growing up, I traveled with the family on weekend trips to one of the many mountain or ocean beach parks. I was fortunate to have seen those lands back then, walked thru the forests, climbed on the huge sand dunes, fished in the lakes, streams and ocean.

I lived in the middle of the Willamette valley where we were an hour from the mountain lakes and rivers to the east and an hour from the ocean to the west. My Grandparents had bought 13 acres along the old highway, built a couple small houses, a barn and had a single lane track along the boundary from the highway down to the river. They had an orchard with plums, cherries, pears, peaches and apples as well as, the biggest garden I have ever seen.

My Grandma grew long, long rows of carrots, onions, cucumbers, beefsteak tomatoes, radishes, chives, green beans and corn. It was so awesome to be that close to the ground, smelling the dirt, watching things grow and helping to bring in the harvest each summer. I was the happiest kid in the world whether sitting on the sand at the beach, walking thru a stream with pants rolled up, socks and shoes off or clomping thru the snow up in the mountains, riding sleds and inner tubes down the hills.

I was a bit of an odd child in that I liked to sit and look at anything. People in their cars, on their bikes, kids with toys, pulling a wagon or just sitting jabbering to themselves, animals wandering the neighborhood, the clouds floating by, rain falling or snow covering everything - I found it all fascinating. I could literally sit for hours, just looking at the world around me.

Those early days helped to develop my obsession with documenting as much as I could in my lifetime. Many times when I am driving, I'll take either my video camera or my still camera with me and grab a few minutes of video or numerous still photos while I'm out and about. It's a torturous thing, always the dilemma, take the camera, don't take the camera - what's a girl to do?

That's why my freelance photography is so wonderful for me. I'm hired on a schedule, whether it's an hour or two, or a couple days shoot, I am completely committed to doing my best for the client. I enjoy the challenge of each new project and recognize the discipline it takes to carry it through.

My first 30 years were spent in Oregon, where I had an intimate relationship with and knowledge of the places and people in my immediate world. I moved to Hawaii in 1985 at the invitation of a friend, Judy, who told me in effect, you can stay with me and do your photography and just make your way. I was wide eyed, feeling like a 4 year old, in a place where I knew nothing and wanted to learn about everything, stunned by the amazing diversity of this new world. Moving with awe and respect, I have been busy documenting people, places and things ever since.

About our name

Sometime in 2004, I was on a photo shoot with my friends, looking for shots to put on their web site for a new business they were starting. We were driving along the east coast of the Big Island of Hawaii and had pulled over to shoot at a tide pool. As we were getting back in the car, we had been talking about my business that was in its very early development phase when suddenly, a Lilikoi fruit dropped off its vine and rolled in front of us to the side of the road. How odd,I thought and said, "huh, a rolling Lilikoi on the road." My friend said, "hey, that's what you could call your business...Rolling Lilikoi Productions." And so the name was born. Lilikoi is Hawaiian for passion fruit. Rolling passion!

Women / Lifestyle

Being born a girl was the luckiest thing. I was allowed the freedom to be how I wanted to be - play with dolls, quietly, in a make-believe world or go race around the neighborhood with my brothers, being wild and adventurous. I had the best of both worlds. Boys were alright, but girls were so cool.

In 1st grade, our teacher, Sister Christine, in her Catholic School uniform, penguin suit, as we called them, amazed me. I would watch her every move, hang on her every word, be completely delighted when she would talk to just me - the rest of my classmates disappeared.

Throughout the rest of my school days, I can remember various women captured my attention. I couldn't figure out why I was so fascinated with them, but in some instances, I couldn't take my eyes off of them. I shudder to think I was a voyeur at such an early age, yet, I know I was intrigued by watching people. Somehow, women interested me more than men.

All of my life, I have fostered a deep admiration for women - being Mothers, teachers, nurses, secretaries, always the care givers, nurturing their families and friends, they seemed to be able to do it all, withstand any adversity and still maintain their femininity. They seemed to have an inner strength that carried them, whether they were wearing a dress or coveralls, they could handle whatever situation arose.

In my day, most girls were raised with one thing in mind - find a good man, get married and live happily ever after. Have kids, take care of them and your husband for the rest of your life. College somehow, was an odd option that wasn't really presented as a serious choice for a girl.

So, I followed the path laid out for me, found a good man, married right out of high school, had my only child a year later. It was during my pregnancy that a thought started to worm its way into my brain - is this it? This is all I am going to be doing for the rest of my life? Staying home, cleaning endlessly, cooking for the husband and child, staring at the walls after mindlessly watching the soap operas on T.V. - I thought, there has to be something more.

With great determination, I struggled to find myself and figure out what else I could do, wanting to keep expanding and be more than just a mother and wife. After seven years of marriage, I divorced and became a single parent with a young daughter to raise. I had to scramble to figure out what I wanted to "be".

I knew of a young woman who owned her own photography studio and pitched to her the idea of hiring me and teaching me everything she could about photography. She agreed and that became the turning point for me. I was finally learning something that stirred feelings deep inside. I had found my passion.

The gratitude I have for that woman, Diana, will be forever. I gratefully took all I had learned while working with her and kept adding to it with every roll of film I shot. Over the years, shooting portraits of women has been my favorite of all, especially black and white.

Highlighting the lives of women I have encountered over the years is my way of paying to tribute to all that they are - Fabulous!