Ok ok so it’s not exactly molten lava coming down a mountain… but it was once upon a time.

You should just be happy I wasn’t cheesy enough to title it “Whole Lava Love” – (Though I wanted to)

Anyway… expect a few more posts on this wedding. We did wedding pictures at the Kona LDS Temple and on the way to the resort we stopped in the middle of no where and took some fun pictures. It was like going to the salt flats for something totally unique, but obviously it’s not salt and we weren’t there at sunset, but where we were at sunset was pretty amazing and those will be coming… when I get back to Utah.  I leave Hawaii tonight and will be back in utah tomorrow. I have 3 weddings next week, so it’ll be busy.

Dustin wanted some pictures while we were traveling around in Hawaii.
One evening after sunset (twilight) I decided I could take a break and do some.

I laid the flash on a few rocks pointed it in a direction and told him to stand in front of it.

I walked around him shooting pictures and doing some different poses.

After a while I realized I didn’t have move at all… he stood in the same spot the whole time and I just moved around and adjusted my settings.
In fact the flash stayed in the same spot on the same settings the whole time.
I did have him jump in that spot so at the end he did move a little.

Just goes to show what you can do.
Here are some examples

To change it up I shot through things.

Shooting away from the sunset/twilight made things much darker background obviously.

Able to get even some nice landscape pictures.

In editing you can obviously change things up a bit as well… like these B&W

And the subject has a lot to do with it… smiles and scary… heh it all works.
Doesn’t if all you take is smiles that’s all you have to choose from… but if you do both you can choose.

This day we took it easy only leaving later in the day to pick up two more photographers from the airport and then shooting in two locations in town (Kailua Kona)

You can see the full gallery (of the recap) on SmugMug

Oh how I enjoy Wide angle (14-24 2.8) and having a flash to illuminate both spots was fun.

I have forgotten the name of this.

I did go snorkeling for about an hour earlier in the day.

The plan was go up the mountain… but they didn’t let us… so we went around.

They closed the mountain because of snow and ice, so we decided to take a small dirt road accessible by 4wd only.
This is the same road we played on, on a previous day. So thus we were back on the road.

Probably one of my favorite places on the island and for sure one of the least traveled areas of the island.

You’ll also see some pictures of the north east coast of the island where we went later in the day.
You’ll recognize it as the places with water, ocean, waterfalls etc.

Full gallery of this recap is available here

yes that’s snow… yes it’s hawaii

Let’s just say that a rental jeep can go more places than a regular jeep can go.

So what’s the deal with the loner cow?

This is the Nene, the state bird of Hawaii.
They don’t fly, well at least they didn’t feel like flying away from me.

Look at this feller just posing for me!

Up on the road

Your’s truly

Waipio valley is spectacular. It’s a gorgeous area and I’m sure there is so much to be seen and discovered there.
A 4wd is a must.
Oh did I mention that the people that claimed the land after a tidal wave took out the previous residents are not nice people.
In fact they really don’t want people there.

It really should be a national park kick out all those people that squatted on the land and are jerks to all the visitors.

This day seemed like several days all rolled up into one!

I guess that happens when you get up at 4am to go shoot sunrise a ways away and then shoot all the way until sunset.

When you are taking pictures and think back to that previous day when you were shooting near the lighthouse… oh wait that was earlier today.
Or when at the end of the day you can barely remember the beginning of the day because it seems like you’ve done sooo much since then.

That’s when you know you were pretty effective with the scheduling of your day.

The First “day”

Sunrise on the north point.
It included quite few miles of driving along along the coast line on fun dirt roads.
This was the longest day and we were in a bunch of different towns all along the northern coast.

“Day” 2

This day came in two distinct parts, but felt like they should be combined.
We went snorkeling in a bay and then met up with the wedding family and friends for some lunch and fun on the beach.

Using my little G11 to take some fun underwater shots.

The final “day”

We scouted out the location for the wedding and did sunset shots.

I don’t usually go visit the location before hand to figure things out, but we usually look for a place to do sunset and this was a phenomenal location.
I enjoyed being able to spot the possible locations and possible routes for the sunset since it comes and goes quite suddenly.
Turns out that info came in very handy for the wedding day and being overly prepared helped move things along smoothly.
I was also glad the element of spontaneity was still very much there and the pre-visit didn’t spoil it at all.

Sunset at this beach is pretty crazy awesome, but I thought i’d highlight some late twilight pictures taken a while after sunset.
Tripod required for this long exposure.

Look at the bunch of other “Day 3″ sunset pictures later in this post.

See all the Recap pictures after the jump

DAY 1 – Extra Pics

A Bay where we sat and watched a bunch of surfers (only ones I’ve seen so far)

A drive by of a random building

Yes we painted the jeep a very beautiful color, it was a site to admire
…up until the rain washed it away

Since I wasn’t driving at this moment I had the 70-200 on and grabbing some close ups while I sat on top of the jeep.

DAY 2

This is the first time I met the bride and her family.
It was great to meet them on a previous day so that they were all very comfortable around us on the following day.

Brides sisters.

DAY 3

When that sun gets low it gets BIG.
Using a long lens can help it along.

This was very late and I spent a while and many repetitions to paint in the light with many strokes of the flash.
Fun and informative experiment.
How many flashes did it take to paint this?

This is the Marriot where the banquet/reception took place

I’m gonna go ahead and make a guess that this is one of the more popular locations on the island to take pictures.

With good reason!!

(Above) Documenting the second half of thanksgiving day here are some Thanksgiving sunset pictures
As a sidenote this picture was a 10 second picture and to get low enough I took it off the tripod and propped it on the ground resting on my foot. 2.8 aperture. 250ISO
TIP: Wait about 15 minutes after sunset for the real lights show of twilight.

This thanksgiving I can be specially greatful to have the oportunity to spend 2 full weeks in Hawaii.

I’m also thankful to be able to have the ability to travel all around 2 islands with expensive camera equipment.

I’m thankful to have a Jeep… I would suggest to anyone coming to Kona (the big island) to rent a 4wd vehicle, unless you just plan on going to beaches.
If you plan on exploring at all… consider it a Must.

I’m thankful for sunsets, because they make everything look so much better.

I’m thankful for good company. It really has been very helpful, imagine getting up at 4am to go out to a sunset, one could be very tempted to keep sleeping but knowing I can’t let someone else down and knowing that I get to watch someone else suffer makes it so much easier.

I’m thankful for a great family that took us in for thanksgiving and fed us as much as we could fit.

Above – Guava Cheesecake

I’m thankful for the wonderful bride that decided it was better to have me fly from Utah to do the wedding pictures. I charged less for my travel fee than some Hawaiin photographers from her Island (oahu)

I’m thankful that even though I fell in the Ocean my camera did not go in with about 2-3 inches to spare.
I’m thankful that even though the GPS went in it worked again.

I’m thankful I have a nice computer to do these blog posts even with the very little time that I’m back at the condo and awake.

(More pictures after the jump – or see all the recap pictures on SmugMug)

(BELOW) Of course some more Sunset pictures to end with.

Having just a bit of time to pump this out I’ve opted to split the posts.
It’ll work out great because this day was naturally divided because it felt like 2-3 days in one.

The second half was comprised of thanksgiving.

But for the first half we wondered on a dirt road for hours going partially around the big mountain on the big island.
We could have gone all the way around but it would have taken most of the day and we needed to be back at noon for thanksgiving meal.

I loved loved this road. I want to go back.
So in the middle of no where far from anywhere, and yet you’re on an island, so how far can you really be.

I was so happy to shoot turkeys on thanksgiving day.
These wild ones are too skinny to make us want to pull out real guns.
A camera will do.

(Above) We did some time lapse with the tripod sticking through the top of the roof aimed at the road ahead.
We were very crafty on the setup. (Tip superclamps don’t really fit anywhere on the jeep, need something with a bigger clamper)

In reality the passenger will often sit in this position as we drive the back roads.

see more after the jump

(Below)Besides the road I’ve added some of the macro shots I did later that day from the house where we had thanksgiving meal.

Notice more wild turkeys! FTW

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