In May 2013 I traveled to Hawaii visiting Maui, Molokai and Kauai.

We’ve been going to Hawaii for almost ten years.  I try to treat our Hawaiian trip as a vacation from photography, but I’m never very successful. It’s pretty darn difficult to be in such a glorious place and not photograph everything I see.  I really wanted to relax and vacation from early morning sunrise and late evening sunset shoots. Why is it that those intentions seem always to fall by the wayside?

We visited Maui first for a week and stayed at the Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club in Lahaina on the west side of the island. A beach walk ran outside all the hotels for about 2 miles both ways. I quickly learned the time to enjoy the beautiful scenery from this path was at sunrise until about 8 AM.  All the restaurants, shops and hotels were just beyond the path. Ka'anapali Beach was in front of our hotel, a pretty beach, protected from threatening tides, perfect for swimming.

We decided to take a quick day ferry from Lahaina Harbor to Molokai. We had never been to Molokai and knew this would be more of a fact finding trip than a photo adventure. Molokai is 38 by 10 miles long and has 7,400 people living on it. It has a sad and fascinating history and is home to the highest sea cliffs in the world - in excess of 3,000 feet. The interesting thing about the sea cliffs is you really can’t see them except by helicopter.  Not very many boat charters will venture into the rough waters near the cliffs, if they do they only do so in the summer. The best place to see the cliffs is down below them on a peninsula where a leper colony used to be.  You can ride mules down the cliff side, to the peninsula and learn about the colony which is now a state park.  Here is a link to everything Molokai including information about the leper colony and Father Damien.  http://visitmolokai.com/history.php  We only had four hours before the ferry would depart for Maui, so we decided to tour the eastern beaches and view the peninsula from the top of the highest sea cliff - 4,000 ft.

Sandy Beach, Molokai

Tangled jungle on Molokai.

We spent our last two weeks on Kauai and stayed at the Marriott Kauai Lagoons-Kalanipu’u on the eastern side of Kauai, near Lihue.  Our lanai overlooked Nawiliwili Bay and its lighthouse. It was a very beautiful and peaceful location.  

A cell phone photo from our lanai.

A couple of years ago I was told about a little beach below the Marriott Lagoons that was popular with locals and barely visited by tourists. I asked the hotel staff how to reach the beach, but they weren’t very forthcoming. They didn’t recommend the beach for tourists, because the tide was very dangerous.  One afternoon from our lanai, I watched locals with boogie boards cross the golf course, cut through some tall grass, then disappear down a path.

Later that day I followed the path the locals had taken.  As I emerged from the tall grass, I could see the most beautiful and picturesque beach.  I walked along the path and stopped at the first sandy little cove.  As I walked to a second small cove, I passed by a memorial cross built by locals in memory of another local who died swimming there just weeks before.

During that weekend, Kauai was experiencing the largest swells and wave breaks of the season. With big waves pounding the little beach and its reputation for having very dangerous tides, I knew I wouldn’t be swimming there.  I’m sure the size of the beach and the dangerous tides had everything to do with so few tourists visiting it.  The locals who boogie board there, are taught early on about swimming in dangerous waters.

If you look closely in this shot, you can see two guys trying to keep away from the rocks while waiting to catch a wave from around the corner

Regardless of my plan to sleep in and relax, I got up almost every morning at 5:15 and looked out the window to see what sunrise looked like. Each morning, I ran down to the beach to photograph, having the entire place to myself to watch the sunrise and the day unfold.  I just couldn’t believe with so many tourists on the island I was alone on that little piece of sand.

The weather in May can offer some nice dramatic transitional skies as the seasons change. I saw some very impressive sunrises on “my” little beach. Ranging from full on glowing color, to diffused light and color followed by rain showers or big storm cells coming in across the water.

Creatively, when I’m photographing seascapes, I use a long exposure and slow shutter speed. Sometimes crashing water appears a little to chaotic to suit my vision. There are times that showing the power of water is important, but I wanted to communicate a more serene seascape.  I used a polarizer to remove reflections from the rocks. To get a longer exposure, I used a 4 stop solid ND filter to reduce the amount of light that would reach my sensor.  At times I needed to use a 2 or 3 stop graduated ND (grad) filter as well, but quickly found problems using it. The grad held over the sky and down across black lava rocks caused the rocks to lose detail in the shadows and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to retrieve that detail in post processing. Consequently, I used my grad thoughtfully.  My Nikon 14-24mm lens with a Fotodiox filter adapter kit were my two workhorses on this trip. I rarely photographed without either.

Here are some images of “my” new favorite little secret Hawaiian beach.

In addition to photographing “my” new favorite little beach, I photographed a few others on Maui, Molakai and around Kauai.

Ka'anapali Beach, Maui

Murphy Beach, Molokai

Ka'anapali Beach, Maui

Waianapanapa Beach, Maui

Hamoa Beach, Maui

Maha'ulepu Beach, Kauai

Anini Beach, Kauai

This specific beach is located on the south side near Poipu.  I’ve photographed it a few times, but with the big swells and waves over the weekend, I’d never seen so much water in its little cove. Wave after wave kept crashing over the rocks.

I also revisited some locations. I always seem to think of new ways to photograph places I’ve photographed before.

Tourist and locals alike celebrated Kilauea lighthouse’s centennial anniversary in May 2013 and the completion of a $25,000 renovation that began in 2008. Kilauea lighthouse is one of my favorites and is a gorgeous site to see, so perfectly placed high on a bluff.  In my photograph the cliffs on the right are part of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge and is home to Red-Footed Boobies, Laysan Albatrosses and Wedge-Tailed Shearwaters in their natural habitat. Here’s a link to read about the restoration and the guy who funded it.  http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/6/prweb10843541.htm

Tom and I……

also took our first Zodiac raft trip, with Captain Andy’s up the Napali Coast.  We left from the west side of the island on a beautiful morning with perfect conditions for a raft tour. The Pacific can be unforgiving along the Napali, but summer was just around the corner offering calmer waters.  Aside from the bumpy ride, we saw nature at its very best.  Natural beauty that surpassed anything we’d ever seen. We went into caves, out of caves and under waterfalls. We landed on a beach only accessible by water in the summer and we watched spinner dolphins swim around our raft.  It was an amazing experience. One we will never forget.  Here’s a link to Captain Andy’s wonderful tours sure to suit any adventurer.  http://www.napali.com/

While visiting Spouting Horn and the south side of the island I photographed two kids standing between the ocean and Spouting Horn. This is not an advisable place to stand. The ocean can easily throw a huge wave at you, knock you over into the water and suck you under the lava shelf into the spout.  It’s so dangerous; I could barely watch them and I half expected them to disappear from their perch. Tourists have been killed doing this very thing. I guess it just boils down to how lucky you are, or aren’t in that moment while you’re standing there. Here’s a photo of one them standing directly over the blow hole.

The long and short of it is I did relax quite a bit, but I wasn’t able to ignore the photography completely.  I’m adventurous by nature and it’s a challenge for me to sit still for very long.

Thanks for reading my blog and see you soon!

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