So I think  a lot of people would love to have their pictures taken on a Hawaiian beach. This bride wanted it and that’s what she got.

Even as a very subtle sunset it was still good enough for some pretty cool pictures and perhaps because it was more subtle we were able to focus on some other locations and poses.

More pictures here

I had a ton of fun photographing for this couple, both of their families were awesome and their love of photography made it a wonderful experience for me.

That makes 2 terrifically awesome weddings in a row in Hawaii! Let’s not slow down or break the streak yet!

By the time it posts these two will be married in the LDS temple in Kona Hawaii.

Last night we took the chance to walk the beach and take some pictures. No wedding dress as he hasn’t seen her in the dress yet. But they got some more great pictures to show off at their reception in Utah in one month’s time.

Now it’s time to get ready and head out to do the wedding. Since it’s only close family everyone is going in the temple and Scott is left to play babysitter for the one baby that made the trip.

We had a shortened day of shooting.
But we made sure to get out and do a sunset.

We ended up in the southest part of the southest island.
In other words the southest part of the 50 states.

We enjoyed a big hole in the ground with mesmerizing water

And a fun spotted horse

And of course a favorite in Hawaii… more moving water.

As a note… at the end of this evening we got caught in a HUGE rain burst.
In the minute or two it took to run back to the jeep we were drenched… not a spot dry.

So here we are at day 2

And we begin the post with a nice end of the day shot.
These types of trips you plan on picking a great spot for sunrise and sunset.
Well I think we got ourselves a nice sunset location.

There are a lot of rocky beaches, but this one was a nice sandy beach and I made it work.

Here’s some more stuff from the story of the second day.

Check out the full gallery of 28 pictures from the day 2 recap go here

This was only a few of the 1200+ pictures taken on day 2 (yesterday)

Cresting over the mountain, the unofficial west island sunrise.
Sunrise on the west side has some nice light but no color like I suppose you’d see if you were actually seeing the sunrise earlier in the morning.

Mid-morning holds some surprises on secluded beaches you get to with your 4wd vehicle

Mid-afternoon can be fun when clouds start participating a bit more.

Clouds block the sun but they’re just about to release their captive prisoner the sun, for that little gap between heaven and earth.
Can you spot where the sun is about to drop down below the cloud level?

Get your butt down in that water, get the camera low, not for the faint of heart, but it’ll make the great pictures.

Ahh the reflections!

Dang it people don’t even think of walking in the path of my picture…
…oh wait… now that I think about it… walk right in front of me.
That’s right, hold hands,… that’s cute!
Thanks for playing.

Foregrounds and fancy skies.

Why get out of your car when you can take fun pictures like this from the comfort of the seat of your car.

Bet you didn’t think I was a “Birder” (Bird photographer) – well I’m not, but if the bird is posing, then you shoot it… in it’s face.

This isn’t a bird… but he’s pretty cool none-the-less
This is my first experience snorkeling.
It was a traumatic experience, learning to get comfortable breathing with a snorkel, being in an unknown area, not having fins, being whipped around by the current, but the turtle made it all worth while.
Hopefully more to come.

Lot of these dudes just chilling.

Here’s the fine cast of characters.
This handsome stud is pretty cool!

This is Dustin just hanging loose on the see shore.

Thought i’d share a funky edit. Almost desaturated with funky white balance.

And the last picture of the day deserves to be the last picture of the post.

I titled this recap post “Just across the street”
Because that’s where these pictures were taken.

By the time I flew in, rented the car, went to the condo, went and got some late lunch/dinner and bought some groceries It was now to late to travel somewhere to do sunset pictures… so I went accross the street!
What I’m trying to say is for less than the cost of a hotel room there are nice condos for rent in super nice locations.
The search for a good place paid off.

But I thought about calling it “Be ready and Wait for it” because that’s what happened.

To see all the pictures from the small Day 1 Recap go here

I had a great moment when with about 30 seconds notice I noticed something that was going to happen.
I quickly got ready and waited for it. When it happened it happened fast and there were no do-overs.
In those 5 seconds you had to hope all those years of learning how your camera functions best pays off.

The thing is you fire off a dozen or more pictures and then you can’t really decide which one is the best, because the subtle differences offer something good for each.

But when this moment is happening in a flash (pardon the pun) it’s this weird rush of excitement.
Subdued and peaceful, you feel like you want to shout out Yes! but no one is around, and well you don’t want to jinx the pictures anyway.
So it’s a quite victory. Plus you know you didn’t make the event happen, you just happened to be there.

Yes indeed Thanksgiving Day is already upon us in Hawaii!

As the sun disappears.

Looking back I wouldn’t have minded if the boat had passed about 30-70 seconds later when the sun was just dipping.
I wouldn’t have minded a nice 400mm lens to zoom in a bit more and make that sun bigger in comparison.
Getting down a bit lower to bring them right in front of the sun.

Just goes to show that there’s usually always something you can do

I’m sure these pictures will be very representative of many pictures I’ll be working on.

Beach scapes – wide angles showing the shoreline.
And then the lower shutter speeds (under 1/30th of a second like this 1/20th to get the motion of the water coming in.

So I’m glad I had some practice on day 1

A couple of other sunset attractions… Almost anything as a silohuette. And then a post sunset silohuette of someone off in the distance.

This is how the night ended a good 20 minutes after sunset. Taken at 3200 ISO with rather low settings 1/50 2.8
I didn’t bother with the tripod tonight.

As for the weather, this is what I wrote:

When i say the weather is perfect, I don’t mean it’s hot, that’s not perfect for me.
It means I can wear shorts and have the window down in the car and not want to use AC or the Heater.
So yeah… not to shabby so far!

I look forward to not only having the windows down… but taking the top off this nice Jeep

Oh yeah and this is the house and accross the street is the beach where the pics were.

To see all the pictures from the small Day 1 Recap go here