10.29:
Ho'opi'i Falls, Kaua'i - Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo, Singh-Ray 2-stop GND, f/18, 1/3 sec. ISO 200
It’s snowing like crazy in Colorado right now, so I thought I’d post a Hawaii image. This is Ho’opi’i Falls on Kaua’i…or is it? There is debate as to whether these falls go by that name, or the next falls up-stream. In either case, it’s a beautiful hike to get in there. This location claimed the life of my brother’s Manfrotto tripod and almost took his D700 with 24-70mm lens too!
10.07:
Rocky Mountain National Park - Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue Polarizer, Singh-Ray 3-stop GND, f/16, 2.5 sec.
09.20:
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo, Singh-Ray 3-stop Reverse GND, f/16, 30 sec., ISO 200
Imagine for a moment if you were to go on a photographic expedition to Hawaii. The scene that probably unfolds in your head is a very pleasant one… you casually setting up your tripod on the beach with a warm tropical breeze at your back. It’s hard to imagine worrying about anything more than maybe getting a sunburn or missing first light because you had too many Mai Tais the night before.
You can probably guess by the title of this post that my brother and I had a somewhat different experience when we recently spent 5 days on Kauai and 3 days on the Big Island taking photos. In reality, it was a humbling experience because we had greatly underestimated the extreme nature of the Hawaiian landscape. Like any place, it has it’s dangers and those dangers often become worse when you’re setting up sensitive photo gear in precarious places to get the shot of your dreams.
Our overall experience on this trip is perfectly illustrated by our very first morning photographing the sunrise from the Mokolea Lava Pools on the eastern shore of Kauai. We had scoped out the location the previous evening and figured out that we would have to drive to a small beach about a mile away and hike in. With our 30 pound packs of camera gear, we hiked across the sand in the dark until we came to a large river that separated us from the lava pools. No problem. We found the narrowest part of the river and waded across, being careful not to fall because of the soft sand under our feet. After a little bush-whacking we made it to the lava bench and began looking for the famous maelstrom that fills with seawater when the waves hit it and then empties out like a toilet flushing as the waves recede. Immediately, we noticed the lava bench we were walking on was covered with algae making it extremely slippery. It took us several minutes to locate the lava formation (still in the dark at this point) and we proceeded to get inspired and find locations to set up our cameras.
Because landscape shots are often more interesting when there are extreme foreground elements to complement the middle and background, you have to use a wide angle lens and get very close to the ground. This was precisely my strategy for the Mokolea Lava Pools except that getting close to the ground meant getting close to the crashing waves on the lava bench…and when I mean crashing, I mean CRASHING. I literally got into the water with my camera and tripod, screwed on my brand new Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo filter and started setting up my composition. I noticed the image in my viewfinder getting progressively hazier as I adjusted the tripod. Sea spray was the culprit. Knowing that salt water is the kiss of death for digital cameras, I quickly ran back onshore (being careful to not slip on the algae) to get my rain cover out of my pack so I could protect my camera while I waited for the sun. No sooner than I got back to my camera, a huge wave hit me, grabbed the rain cover and started to wash it out to sea. A quick poke with my tripod leg saved the rain cover, but now it was soaking wet…with sea water. It was useless to me now.
My Camera in Peril on the Mokolea Lava Bench
While dealing with that and trying to stretch my thin t-shirt over my camera to protect it, I didn’t even notice the storm that was brewing just off shore. With no warning whatsoever, it started pouring rain. It was like someone just turned a dial to “torrential” and flipped the switch to “ON”. My pack on shore with all my camera lenses was getting soaked. So were all my Singh-Ray filters that I had set out on a rock. But I was in triage mode…save the most expensive gear first which, of course, was the camera I was using. The rain turned off and on a few times and during the breaks, I would wipe off the lens and make a few exposures and then switch back to protecting the camera from more rain…though it got soaking wet anyway. I have a new appreciation for Nikon’s weather sealing!
Fortunately, the only equipment casualty of the morning was my brother’s GPS geo-tagging device which stopped working after a suspected dunk in the water. In all the chaos I did manage to come away with an image that I’m pretty excited about (see above). But just about every other worthwhile image from the trip had some similar adventure associated with it. It is fair to say that Hawaii is a very challenging environment for serious landscape photography. But I honestly had a great time and would do it all again in an instant.
On the hike back to the car, there were a few more instant-on hurricanes and I tripped and fell face-first on the rocks (damn algae). Welcome to Kauai!
07.19:
Dream Lake Reflection - Nikon D300, 18-200mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo, f/16, 2 sec, ISO 200
I got up at 2:30 AM yesterday, drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park and met my brother at the Bear Lake trailhead. We hiked up to Dream Lake in the dark and proceeded to find a good location to capture the sunrise on Hallet Peak. The traditional vantage point from which Dream Lake is photographed had so many photographers packed into it that it looked like a presidential press corps. I was looking, however, for as much of an untraditional way to capture Dream Lake as I could find. I saw this very artsy looking log along the shore and decided it looked great with the reflection behind it.
Early morning up in RMNP is a beautiful experience. It’s painful to get yourself up for it, but I highly recommend hiking up there for dawn, whether you’re a photographer or not. After I was done taking pictures, I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting on the shore of the lake and observing the start of a new day (while swatting mosquitos, of course).
06.23:
Mt. St. Helens - Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo, f/22, 1/5
Just returned from a great trip to Portland, OR. This shot is one of those that surprises you after being discouraged by weather/light conditions. We had been told by the rangers that the mountain was obscured by clouds and not worth going out of our way to see. Well, good thing we pressed on because this beautiful field of wild flowers was one of the most spectacular I’ve seen. And I kinda like the fact that part of Mt. St. Helens is covered in clouds in this photo…it gives it a more mysterious quality.
05.28:
Bryce Canyon - Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo, f/18, 1/20, ISO 200
My brother and I just returned from a Memorial Day weekend photo outing in Southern Utah. From past trips around this time of year, we were expecting the usual weather…hot, dry and sunny during the day and cool at night. Instead, we experienced gray, stormy skies and near constant rain. The sun was seen for only a few rare and fleeting moments during the trip and on each occasion my brother and I scrambled to grab our cameras and capture whatever was being bathed in light. Most of the time, though, the sun was well behind a thunderstorm that was either raining on or threatening to rain on us. It was challenging to find creative ways of capturing the iconic Utah landscape without the low angle sunrise/sunset light that makes it look so stunning. I think I’m glad for the weather we had because we came home with some images that are probably more unique than the many other Utah photos out there. The photo above, however, was taken in one of those few moments where the sun broke through. Stay tuned for more images…
03.22:
Nikon D300, 18-200mm, f/16, 0.6 sec, ISO 200
01.01:
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16mm, Singh-Ray Color Combo + 3 stop GND, f/22, 3s, ISO 100
Upon browsing through my Aperture library of all my photos, I ran across this image from this past fall. It jumped out at me, which is odd since I obviously didn’t think much of it back when I took it because I didn’t even bother giving it a star rating when I was downloading all the images from the hike. Usually I immediately identify the images I like and process them to completion.
There are compositional things I don’t like about this photo, and there are plenty of technical things wrong with it, but I have decided that for some reason it’s a keeper. It’s funny what a fresh perspective can do. This makes me excited to continue digging through my old images so see if there are any other forgotten gems.
