The Battle Between Light and Darkness
The amazing colors of Hawaii. This evening in Hawaii, after walking forever along the shore, I came across some interesting rocks with some brightly colored lichen growing on it. I decided to make my stand here, and glad I did. The tide was just right to get some nice movement in the water as it surged up to my little rock perch. The sky exploded with the most beautiful sunset. I took a few shots to capture various water movements and blended that foreground shot in with my sky exposure taken a few seconds later.

Hanalei
Nice sunset silhouettes the pier and people in Hanalei Bay, Kauai.

Synapse

Wai'anapanapa
An early morning shot from Wai'anapanapa State Park on the eastern shores of Maui. These spider lilies got my attention as I made my way back from shooting another section of the park. This place has it all, black sand beaches, interesting lava rock formations, blue waters and lush plant life. I came here three separate times on my trip.

Fishing For A Dream
North Shore Kauai: Perched on this rock ledge over the ocean was an one of my favorite experiences shooting in Hawaii. It was a show. The waves were crushing the rocks and dousing everything in their path—including me. The water flowing off of the rocks was a long-exposure dream scenario—not to mention the nuclear bomb of a sky. Now I know there is a lot going on here—sun-bomb atmosphere, Bali Hai in the distance, crashing waves, warm and cool tones, water movement overload in the rocks and why not a fisherman. Hey, hopefully it keeps the eye involved in the scene. But I think the overall composition does work, although weighted on the left, the wave to the right helps hold it all together. In post I carefully blended my sky exposure and focus on the distance with my favorite foreground shot of the rocks and water. This was a 1.3 second exposure at f/14, ISO 100.

Endure
Gorgeous sunset color on the west cost of Maui, Hawaii. This majestic tree stands alone overlooking the ocean with the north west coast of Maui in the backdrop, cloaked in clouds.

What Lies Beneath
Hawaii—Land of unbelievable sunrises and sunsets. However, I was consistently finding no interesting light at these times due to the cloud layer on the horizon. It blocked any intense color from coming through. This morning I woke up for a sunrise on the northernmost point of Kauai, Kilauea. I was actually one peninsula over above Rock Quarry beach. Got out there before sunrise and again, it was totally blocked in. I waited and enjoyed the crashing waves. I found a series of tide pools with some nice marine life like this one that were still as glass. After waiting an hour the light started breaking through the clouds creating some really nice atmosphere. I was pretty close to the water here, trying to see if I could catch some of the fish and rock detail in the tide pool. I fired multiple shots to get the right exposure in the sky and freeze some nice wave movement.