Category: Landscape

Halemaʻumaʻu Crater Twilight 1

Halemaʻumaʻu Crater Twilight 1

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I recently spent two nights photographing the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater in Volcanoes National Park. It had been several years since I last photographed lava, so it was like visiting an old friend. The first night, I was happy to share some conversation in the dark with my buddy CJ Kale, who also allowed me to borrow his Canon 24mm f1.4 lens. This image was from my second night shooting solo. It was amazing to observe the crater and the steam plume begin to glow red after the sun went down. I framed the crater with this ohia tree located near the Jaggar Museum.

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Green Sand Beach Sunset 4

Green Sand Beach Sunset 4

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Lately, I have been rediscovering my passion for landscape photography. It’s not that I ever stopped shooting landscapes, it’s just that I have too many different types of images that I like to shoot in a wide variety of environments. This image of Green Sand Beach located near South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii is a perfect example of my recent focus on dramatic landscapes. The last time that I visited this location was close to 10 years ago with my medium format film camera. Since then, I like to think that I have grown as a photographer, plus camera technology has evolved so that it allows me to better photograph dramatic scenes like this. If this storm front had rolled across the sky 15 minutes earlier, I would have missed my opportunity to photograph the colors in the clouds.

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Kona Coast Sunset 3

Kona Coast Sunset 3

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While visiting the Big Island of Hawaii, I experienced a lot of crummy, winter weather, but these conditions allowed me to photograph a variety dramatic sunsets. This area of lava ledges and blowholes along the Kona shoreline has always been one of my favorite locations. I composed this scene while standing very close to this series of lava tubes that would flood with the incoming waves and then suddenly drain to expose these dramatic waterfalls. On this particular night, the setting sun flooded the sky with golden light and turned the clouds neon red. This entire composition briefly came together for 1 second in time.

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Kona Coast Spectacular Sunset 1

Kona Coast Spectacular Sunset 1

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This spectacular sunset took place during my recent visit to the Big Island of Hawaii. The weather that day was miserable, but like any dedicated landscape photographer, I kept hopefully checking the satellite view of the islands. I could see that there was a cloudless sky just beyond the horizon. It was pouring rain all day, so when I finally announced to my brother and sister-in-law that it was time to go shoot the sunset, my optimism must have made me sound like a deranged prophet. I rushed down to the shoreline just as the sun started to poke beneath the clouds and a dramatic double rainbow appeared behind me, but my real prize was the heavy low hanging clouds out over the ocean. I originally found a scene that I liked and set up my camera while trying to keep it dry with my under performing umbrella, but the clouds were moving so fast and the light so dynamic, that I quickly had to reposition my gear and settled upon this nearby composition. The entire light show lasted less than 10 minutes, but it allowed me to produce a number of dramatic photos during this orgy of light.

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Kapoho Tidepools Aerial 1

Kapoho Tidepools Aerial 1

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I just got back from another amazing trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. I was planning to spend most of my trip photographing humpback whales and also flying my remote controlled hexacopter. The whales and the weather mostly conspired against me, but my trip was long enough that I was able to take advantage of a few good days of weather between storms in order to fly my copter. This aerial image of the Kapoho tidepools is a beautiful example of the kind of abstract image that I have envisioned ever since I started flying copters. This intricate lava and coral reef system is located on the south end of the island in the Puna District. The interesting thing about an aerial image like this is that the scene looks better once the sun gets high enough in the sky to flood the terrain in high contrast light. I’m talking about the kind of light that would send a landscape photographer into a long diatribe about it being too harsh and unshootable.

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Kee Beach Sunset 1

Kee Beach Sunset 1

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Over the years, I have photographed a few epic sunsets while on our family vacations, which in some instances have paid for the entire trip. I do occasionally get some push back from my girls for getting up too early or disappearing in the afternoon, but it’s the price I pay for being a husband and father that makes his living by selling pretty pictures. During our recent trip to Kauai, I returned to Kee Beach seven days in a row to shoot sunset. Wouldn’t you know it, but my best image was photographed on my first attempt. I guess I should have stayed at the beach more with my girls. Oh, well. While setting up for this dramatic scene, I got hit by a few waves and right at the critical moment as the sun was touching the horizon a large wave washed completely over me and almost swept me out to sea. Yikes!

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Wailua Falls Aerial 1

Wailua Falls Aerial 1

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My regular readers, fans, and friends are probably already familiar with my remote control aerial photography ambitions of the last 1/2 year. I’ve had some ups and downs, but if someone would have told me when I started this endeavour that it would require $15,000 and 1000 hours of my time, I would have told them that it was nuts! However, that is exactly what flying has required. At this point, I am fairly confident that my equipment is reliable, so I’ve been flying a lot over the water and treacherous terrain, as this aerial image of Wailua Falls on Kauai can attest. I knew that if I could get my hexacopter up and over to the other side from the tourist viewpoint, that I would be able to photograph this rainbow in the mist at the base of the falls. This was also among the first uses of my new camera gimbal. This still blows my mind every time that I fly my copter and watch how stable my camera’s live view feed is on my video monitor.

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Kiholo Bay Aerial 1

Kiholo Bay Aerial 1 & Drone Photography

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In the last 6 months, I have spent a lot of time reconsidering my overall photography ambitions while also healing my back injury. It has not been my most productive 6 months, but I have also been doing this full-time for 13 years now, so I can live with a little bit of ebb and flow to my ambitions. During this downtime, I have invested way too much time and money learning to build and fly remote controlled hexacopters. Call it a drone if you must, but I find this word leads to negative connotations due to the media’s overemphasis on scaring people. I find the new technology fascinating and am excited to explore an entirely new world of possibilities creating images that no one has ever seen before.

This is a recent aerial photo that I created of Kiholo Bay located on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. I have previously visited this location to create a traditional landscape photo using a tripod, but been unsuccessful. The biggest limitation has been that it just doesn’t look that interesting from shore. So, I decided to explore this beautiful bay from the air. The photo that I envisioned was to show the beautiful turquoise color of the water and the coral reef surrounding the lava island.

My hexacopter is only capable of flying my camera for about 15 minutes at a time, so I used my early flights to scout for a composition. I did this by using the first person view (fpv) offered by using my camera’s Live View and video transmission system which sends the signal down to my remote monitor. Eventually, I determined that I needed to hover in this location about 20m up in the air. I found the color of the water mesmerizing and the shape of the lava island compelling. When I zoom in at 100% resolution, I can also see several sea turtles resting along the shoreline.

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Puu Pehe Sunrise 1

Puu Pehe Sunrise 1

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I photographed this dramatic scene while camping with my family last December in Hawaii. Puu Pehe, or Sweetheart Rock, rises from the ocean between Hulopoe Bay and Manele Bay on Lanai‘s south shore. Hawaiian legend tells a tragedy of two lovers. Makakehau took Pehe from her home near Lahaina back to Lanai and hid her in a sea cave at the base of these cliffs. One day while gathering supplies, he noticed a storm brewing and started back, only to find Pehe drowned by the waves. Stricken with grief, he gathered her in his arms and cried out to the gods and his ancestors to help him climb the steep rock where he buried her. He then jumped from the 80’ summit to his death.

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Secret Beach Sunrise 1

Secret Beach Sunrise 1

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I have visited this iconic beach located south of Makena on Maui several times over the years. Last January, I got lucky with this dramatic light during one of the mornings that I photographed it. There was a lot of rain the night before, which meant that there were still a lot of clouds in the sky at sunrise. As the sun rose in the east, this spectacular lightshow briefly lasted for only a few minutes as it stretched across the horizon over Kahoolawe. Anyone who has ever visited this picturesque spot knows that at sunset it is usually overrun by wedding photographers, but thankfully, I had the beach all to myself so I did not have to digitally remove a wedding party from the scene.

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