John Penisten is an independent writer and photojournalist based in Hilo, Hawaii. His photo agency, Pacific Pictures, specializes in images of Hawaii and the Asia/Pacific Rim region. He is the author of Hawaii-The Big Island: Making the Most of Your Family Vacation, 7th. ed. 1999, Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA, and Adventure Guide to Hawaii, 1999, Hunter Publishing, Edison, NJ. His work also appears in national and international publications.

He has traveled throughout the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, U.S. and the Far East, enjoying the discovery of cultures, peoples and lifestyles far from his native Iowa. He's also on the faculty of Hawaii Community College in Hilo where he enjoys terrorizing students in freshman English while teaching them college survival skills. He has a thing about islands.

Fresh out of college in 1967, he served in the Peace Corps for two years, living on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji. He has lived on the Big Island of Hawaii for 25 years and shares his travel adventures with his wife, Susan, and daughters, Janelle and Joelle. And even though Hilo has a reputation as one of Hawaii's wettest places (the town gets 130 inches of rain annually) he wouldn't live anywhere else. One of his favorite travel adventures is savoring the exotic cusines of the Asia/Pacific Rim region.