beach

  • Panoramic aerial view of Hanalei Bay on Kauai
    Jul
    2022
    02
    2022 / Jul / 02

    Aerial views from Princeville to Haena

    A collection of aerial photographs I captured from Princeville to Haena on the beautiful garden island of Kauai.

    It is always a pleasure to be able to visit another island. The Big Island is beautiful and has a lot of very unique qualities, but it is a young island. Erosion hasn’t taken place like it has on the other islands. Kauai is the oldest island of the Hawaiian island chain with an estimated 5 million years. Stepping from a landscape of lava rock and gentle sloping mountain to a lush green landscape with towering chiseled mountains and waterfalls is exciting for me.

    With the Mavic 2 Pro drone I went exploring. I took advantage of the early morning and late afternoon’s warm light which accented the tropical landscapes. This is a collection of the images I created from the beautiful sandy beaches of Hideaways and Pu’u Poa as well as along the coastline to Haena.

    I look forward to returning to Kauai so that I can continue to explore this magical island.

    Additional non-drone images check out the Pu’u Poa Beach Sunset post.

    Sunset reflected in the Hanalei river on the beautiful island of Kauai
    The Hanalei river reflecting the surrounding mountains during sunset.
    Hideaway Beach Sand Design
    Shoreline designs of Hideaways Beach in Princeville
    Aerial panorama of the mountains surrounding the small town of Haena
    Panorama of the mountains surrounding the small town of Haena
    Shoreline design of Haena beach
    Haena beach on the island of Kauai
    The Lamaha'i river meets the Lumaha'i beach
    The point where the Lumaha’i river meets the Lumaha’i beach.
    Hideaways beach in Princeville on the island of Kauai
    Beautiful Hideaways Beach in Princeville Kauai
    Panoramic aerial view of Hanalei Bay on Kauai
    A panorama of the beautiful Hanalei bay in Kauai.

    Purchase prints of the above images by visiting Fine Art America or by contacting me through my Contact Page.

  • Waves flow around the amazing volcanic rocks along the Pololu Valley black sand beach
    Jan
    2019
    28
    2019 / Jan / 28

    Pololu Valley Stones

    Slow shutter of water flowing around the embedded colorful stones on the black sand beach of Pololu Valley.

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    Beautiful stones line the black sand beach of Pololu Valley giving the ocean waves something to play with as it rushes on and off the sand. 

    © Christopher Johnson

    Waves flow around the amazing volcanic rocks along the Pololu Valley black sand beach

     

  • aerial of the Kaiminani beach during sunrise
    Nov
    2018
    10
    2018 / Nov / 10

    Pine Trees Morning Surf

    Aerial photograph of a popular surf spot during sunrise in Kailua Kona.

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    My daughter wanted to meet some friend to surf dawn patrol at Pine Trees beach. Usually this means I have to sluggishly get out of bed, drive her down half asleep, and hurry home to drink more coffee, but not this time. For my birthday I got a DJI Spark drone and look for any opportunity to fly it. This was my opportunity to get out at sunrise and practice getting beach pictures while my daughter happily surfed with friends. Best of both worlds.

    8/22/2022 Update

    I am not sure how I was able to fly the drone during this morning at this spot. I have returned multiple times and have been restricted due to the proximity to the airport. The flight path extends past where I was standing. It’s a shame since now I have upgraded the drone to a Mavic 2 Pro and would love to recreate the beauty this surf spot has to offer.

    Aerial photograph of Pine Trees beach at sunrise

    aerial of the Kaiminani beach during sunrise
    Aerial of Pine Trees beach on the Big Island of Hawaii

  • Panoramic view of Hualalai Mountain in the sunset
    Oct
    2018
    23
    2018 / Oct / 23

    Hualalai Sunset

    Hualalai mountain shrouded by sunset lit clouds from the Kailua Kona shoreline

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    Standing on the coastline waiting for the sun to get into position to photograph the rocky shoreline swallowing the waves during sunset, I looked behind me at the mountain. This was too good to pass up and immediately shifted focus from the ocean to the land. My single wide lens couldn’t capture the entire scene that I was witnessing, so I needed to shoot a panorama.

    This image is a combination of 9 images. I first panned the landscape and then the sky to create the largest single image I have ever worked on. 20 hours of warping, masking, blending, and enhancing as well as another 3 to polish the shot to how I saw this amazing sunset.

    Panoramic view of Hualalai Mountain in the sunset

  • Sand floats underwater after being kicked yup by a passing wave
    Jun
    2018
    05
    2018 / Jun / 05

    Floating Sand

    Image of sand floating underwater after a passing wave.

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    Messing around in the waves of Kua Bay while trying to capture the backside of a wave, I wasn’t having much luck. The water was flat and there were tons of people around. Every once in a while a large set would come in and energize everyone in the water as they all setup to body surf the wave. With all the commotion a lot of sand kicked up and then as the wave passed more sand would kick up, but I tried to photograph the wave anyway. What I found was a lot of out of focus images. I left the beach thinking it was a loss, however, it is always nice to get in the water.

    When I loaded the images into Photoshop Bridge I found a lot of beautiful images of sand with amazing streaks of sunlight beaming through the water. I edited this image with an abstract/design quality in mind and accented the colors and light values. In the end I think this would be a very cool accent image on a wall blown up really big.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Photograph of a single stone on the black sand beach of Pololu Valley
    Dec
    2017
    03
    2017 / Dec / 03

    Single Stone on a Black Sand Beach

    Photograph of a stone nestled in the black sand beach of Pololu Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii.

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    After the waves wash over the stones along the black sand they recess into the sand and leave a beautiful golden silky trail that contrasts with the black sand. I don’t know what the golden sand is or where it comes from, but it seems to only occur when a wave violently crashes across the stones and recedes back with the same ferocity. However, the golden color doesn’t develop immediately. The sand needs to dry a little for the golden color to present itself. With this said, I had to wait for quite a while before I was able to capture an image that would accent this occurrence. Needless to say this is one of the reasons I love photography.

    If I were to hike into Pololu Valley without a camera I wouldn’t catch the subtleties of the valley. I am not knocking anyone that just wants to enjoy the beauty of the Hawaiian Islands without a camera because I would be fascinated with the enormous cliffs, the amazing trees, the beautiful reflection on the river, and the enjoyment of the awesome hike. Photography makes me concentrate on the subtleties in order to capture a piece of art that I would be proud to hang on my wall.

    With that said… I took a photograph a while ago in Pololu Valley of the same nature; stones with the golden sand streaking off them, but the only thing was most of the image was out of focus. When I took the photo I didn’t bring a tripod and was just taking snap shots. Mainly because I was learning the new Sony camera I had just purchased. It wasn’t from that moment, but a year later when I was reviewing images taken from then, that I wanted to return to capture this image properly. This time I had my tripod and a few extra lenses to choose from to get the image. It was then that I realized how difficult it was to capture the golden streaking sand which made me slow down to realized when it occurs. Without my camera I would never even care to know about it.

    Then we come to processing the image.

    Originally I overlooked this image because there wasn’t much going on with it. A single stone with a washed out golden streak… great… I had more interesting images that I shot that day. So I thought. I started to process images with multiple stones that had a lot going on. They looked nice, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I few days later I selected this image to work on and was immediately satisfied. This is the shot I came back for. It took a while to process. I darkened the edges to give more focus to the stone and trail and to create a lot more drama while maintaining the stones character. After I completed the image it seemed almost celestial with the small highlighted specks in the dark shining through while the stone felt like a meteorite flying through space.  It took a while, but I finally have the image I set out for.

    © Christopher Johnson

    If you would like to buy a print I have this available on my FineArtAmerica page.

  • Rocks are nestled in the black sand of the Pololu Valley beach
    Nov
    2017
    21
    2017 / Nov / 21

    Pololu Black Sand Beach Rocks

    Dramatic photograph of a cluster of stones found along the black sand beach of Pololu Valley.

    I needed to drop off some metal prints at the Ackerman Galleries in Hawi and decided to make a day out of the long drive. Hiking into Pololu Valley is one of my favorite things to do on the island… not to mention I needed the exercise. Without the push to get out of the house I may have just stayed home all day to later form into a slug.

    During the past several weeks I have been reviewing a lot of older images that I wanted to re-work with new techniques I have learned over the last few years. One of the images I stumbled upon was a composition of 2 stones on the black sand beach of Pololu with the green sand trail left behind it from the surf. The only issue was the upper portion of the image was out of focus. At that moment I wanted to get back down to the valley to study the stones and sand as it mingled with the surf in-order to correct the oversight in the older image.

    Down in the valley the stones were dispersed across the beach in hundreds of different patterns and I was studying them for the perfect composition. It took me a while before I settled on this cluster of stones, but then I suddenly realized that they dramatically shift after every wave that passes by when one stones I was looking at suddenly dissapeared. I placed my tripod over the stones and aimed the camera nearly straight down and exposed for a few seconds at 22 aperture. Then a wave came in and my tripod sunk into the sand, stones moved around, and the sand texture shifted making me reset focus and composition. It was a quick complicated dance I learned after a few steps that lasted nearly an hour.

    The trip was relaxing, fun, and memorable.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Split view photograph of the fish underwater and the palm trees above.
    Jul
    2017
    16
    2017 / Jul / 16

    Split View

    Photograph of an underwater-land split view from the shoreline of Hawaii’s Mahaiula beach.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • photo of a green sea turtle while snorkeling at Mahaiula beach in Hawaii
    Jul
    2017
    06
    2017 / Jul / 06

    Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle

    Photograph of a Hawaiian green sea turtle as it swims off the shoreline of Mahaiula beach.

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    © Christopher Johnson

  • A second photographic look at the June Blow Hole
    Jun
    2017
    14
    2017 / Jun / 14

    Take Two

    Beautiful Hawaiian landscape photograph of the energy surrounding an awesome Big Island blow hole at sunset.

     

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    Take Two is a second photographic look at the blow hole I posted earlier. Instead of the calming reflected water there is a more energetic rush of water.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Photograph of a beautiful sunset along the Big Island coastline.
    Jun
    2017
    14
    2017 / Jun / 14

    June Blow Hole Sunset

    Sunset photograph from the rugged coastline of the Big Island of Hawaii

    This sunset shot is from a favorite location that I have photographed many times before. On returning here I didn’t want to repeat the same composition, so I spent a good amount of time scoping out a location. Then when I thought I was ready my tripod began acting up. I cleaned out the legs and didn’t seat one of them back in properly forcing me to quickly fix it on the rocks while waves came crashing in. Clumsily I nearly dropped a piece into the water, but I was able to fix the problem and was back in business.

    I liked how the water was reflecting the clouds while it gently flowed back into the blow hole, so I set up in the pool of water directly behind the opening. At times I was nearly waist deep in the inrush of flowing water. It was a beautiful sunset.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • A beautiful scenic photograph of the back sand beach of Pololu Valley
    May
    2017
    28
    2017 / May / 28

    Pololu Valley

    A view of the amazingly beautiful Pololu Valley from the beach

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    Southern cliffs lit up and reflected in the black sand beach of Pololu Valley as water streaks through the shoreline rocks.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Turtle reflected in the underside of the water
    Mar
    2017
    13
    2017 / Mar / 13

    Hawaiian Turtle

    Hawaiian green sea turtle swims near the surface of the water.

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    Every time I go to photograph underwater I realize how difficult it is. Everything is moving constantly, the light is always changing and not as bright, and whatever you swim towards swims away. Not to mention how hard it is to see the camera screen because of the reflection of the sun creating a mirror over the screen. Most of the time I find myself aiming in the direction of what I want to photograph and most of the time I either miss or crop the object in half. Then there are the times I get lucky.

    I was swimming around looking for turtles, but couldn’t find one. Instead I though to capture some patterns and sun rays when this turtle swam under me as if to say hello. The spot I was wasn’t very deep. I could stand up and have my head out of the water, so it was that much more exciting to have that close of a visitor. I followed her around for a little bit and then as sudden as she arrived, she was gone.

    The photograph I came away with is one where she came up for air a was slowly beginning to dive back down to feed. I love how the shell is reflected in the underside of the waves as they pass by.

    © Christopher Johnson

    www.fromhereonin.com

    Purchase a print by visiting my RedBubble page.

     

  • Sun Light shining throughout the ocean water
    Jun
    2014
    28
    2014 / Jun / 28

    Bending Light

    Photograph of sun rays shining through the murky turbulent ocean water.

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    An underwater photograph shot toward the surface of the water as the sun shines through the ocean water makes for dramatic image. Photographed at Mahaiula beach just north of Kailua Kona, Hawaii.

  • Ripples dance over the water surface distorting the boulders below at Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe
    Mar
    2012
    03
    2012 / Mar / 03

    Underwater Boulders At Sand Harbor

    I felt like a kid again while climbing all around the large boulders that makes up the unique landscape of Sand Harbor. I noticed the shapes of large boulders underwater that were distorted by the ripples on the waters surface. I climbed to the highest point I could find to get an angle where I was shooting nearly straight down. This eliminated any unwanted reflections so that I could capture these abstract images.

    Prints are available on my FineArtAmerica store.

    Ripples across the water distort the rocks below the surface at Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe Ripples dance over the water surface distorting the boulders below at Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe boulders underwater at Sand Harbor

    Check out another Lake Tahoe post titled Snow Covered Forest.