Hawaii

  • Mauna Loa Volcanic Eruption of 2022

    After 38 years of inactivity, Mauna Loa is now erupting on the Big Island of Hawaii.

    This is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Due to the massive size of Mauna Loa and the number of people that live on its slopes, it is fantastic that the flow isn’t devastating the island. Instead, we are witnessing a very beautiful event and one that is drawing a lot of attention.

    Without looking into it I would guess that hundreds of thousands of people have ventured out to see the lava. I’ve taken 4 trips up the mountain and every time there are hoards of people. What is normally a 45-minute drive is now over 1.5 hours. There is a steady line of traffic both ways from Saddle Road to Kona and until the lava severs the road I don’t think this will stop.

    Here are a few of the images I took while viewing from Mauna Kea. Enjoy!

    Prints are available on my Fine Art America store.

  • Spinner Dolphins

    A collection of aerial photographs of spinner dolphins

    A pod of dolphins swimming just off the Kona shoreline in the morning. The ocean was clear, made up of beautiful shades of blue. This was a perfect setup for photographing these majestic animals.

    It didn’t come without difficulty. I made 7 separate trips. Most of the time the dolphins were nowhere to be seen and I discovered that the presence of tiger sharks scared them off. Other times they were around, but my shutter settings were too slow. I walked away with a lot of blurry images. Nothing more frustrating. This last trip was a huge success.

    I hope you enjoy the images.

    Fine art prints are available at YellowKorner Galleries.

    Check out another Pod of Dolphins post taken in 2019.

  • Pu’u Poa Beach Sunset

    The Beautiful Pu’u Poa Beach in Princeville Kauai

    August, 8th 2022

    The first time I visited this beach a year ago I came without my camera and was kicking myself for not being prepared. Not a total loss as I did have my drone and got some killer aerial shots around the bay, however, I talked myself out of taking additional gear. I learned my lesson and packed my camera, lenses, and dismantled my tripod into several pieces in-order to fit in my carry on. The tripod is a huge waste of space. This is when I discovered that Peak Designs makes an amazing travel tripod that has the smallest profile of any tripod I have ever seen. More on this after my review in a few weeks.

    Pu’u Poa beach is beautiful. A great place to relax and enjoy the day with the ability to sunbathe or seek shelter under the natural overhanging canopy of the tropical almond trees. The golden sand meets the warm shallow water while the canopy of leaves kiss the ocean a couple feet away from the shoreline. A few openings in the leaves reveal the distant mountains and open waters of Hanalei Bay. It’s at one of these openings that I am setup and waiting for the light to be perfect.

    Summer time is difficult to photograph due to the tropical storms and hurricanes. Extra humidity fills the air and clouds form just over the horizon making the colors die quickly. That was the case during this shoot. This is why I always begin shooting early to capture the light that is just a little warmer, but in a lot of cases too bright for slow shutter effects. My focus is on the backlit leaves and to make them fairly sharp and to frame the distant mountains. Lucky enough the sun gave me a little bit of color just before it faded. This is the resulting image. I plan to return for another attempt.

    Thank you for reading.

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    Beautiful photograph of a Hawaiian sunset viewed through the back lit leaves of a tree.
    Sunset through overhanging Tropical Almond Tree leaves on the beautiful sandy Pu’u Poa beach on Kauai.
    Additional images taken while waiting for the sun to start setting.
    Under the canopy of tropical almond tree branches at the Pu'u Poa beach in Princeville, Kauai
    Footprints in the sandy beach of Pu’u Poa beach
    Soft light filters through the canopy of tree branches along Pu'u Poa beach
    Sunlight filters through the overhanging tree branches along the Pu’u Poa coastline
    Sunstar seem through the tropical almond branches of Pu'u Poa beach
    Sunstar shining through the tropical almond tree branches
    Mountains of Haena seen through the tree branches from Princeville
    The distant mountains of Haena seen through the tropical almond tree branches of Pu’u Poa beach

     

    For more images of Kauai please view my Kauai Aerial Images post.

  • Mother and Baby Humpback Whales

    A beautiful adventure.

    I was waiting for the moment to photograph and video Humpback whales through the eyes of a drone. I kept a close eye to the ocean along the Big Island but didn’t have much luck scouting any whales. It wasn’t until I had an opportunity to visit with my parents on Maui that I saw an abundance of spouts and splashes peppering the ocean. A very exciting moment for me. What I didn’t expect was how difficult it was to find the whales from the air.

    Along the cliffs on the west side of Maui we stood looking for some whales close by. We were extremely lucky to find a couple whales within 400 yards from us. Now all I needed to do was get to them.

    From 400 feet in the air, you would think finding a 50-foot, 30-ton mammal would be easy to find, but it’s definitely not. Thinking you out far enough is a huge challenge. Often times I was way too close and had to go out way further, however, once I determined I wasn’t far enough the whales had either swam away or drifted. By the time I was 500 yards away I couldn’t find the drone in the sky to determine if I was nearby, so I had to fly back until I spotted it and adjusted and began the search.

    My heart raced the moment I finally spotted the whales and then I had a huge smile on my face when I noticed what I was looking at was a mother and her baby. It was so peaceful watching the baby coming up for air, swimming around, and twirling before diving back down to mamma. Super amazing moment that I felt very privileged to be watching.

    After this first trip we made several attempts to capture more amazing moments and with patience we were lucky to find another mother and her baby close to the first location. These photographs are a collection of the two successful flights.

    Photographs were taken with a DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone and Smart Controller.

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    Humpback Whales
    Mother and baby humpback whales in the blue Maui ocean
    Humpback whales
    Mother and baby humpback whales swimming side by side.
    Humpback Whales
    Mother and baby humpback whales
    Humpback Whales
    Mother and baby humpback whales together in the beautiful blue Maui waters
    Humpback Whales
    A humpback whale tail seen before the final decent.
    Humpback Whales breathe a rainbow in the mist with their spout
    A mother Humpback whale and her baby breathe a rainbow with mist as they take their breaths

    View more aerial images I took on trips to other islands like in my Aerial Views from Princeville to Haena post.

  • Kiholo Bay Aerial 2021

    First flight of 2021 over Kiholo Bay with a Mavic 2 Pro drone

    It was morning before any wind or people showed up. The sun had been up for an hour. Kiholo Bay was perfect. I couldn’t wait to fly the drone and capture the beauty of this magical place.

    Immediately I noticed two black figures in the water from 100ft in the air and came down lower to check them out. A pair of Eagle Rays were playing in the turquoise waters. I followed them for a bit and then took off to explore other parts of the coastline. Schools of fish, turtles, and unique designs of the lava rock shoreline captured my attention for a while. At the end of the flight I noticed a family of five Eagle Rays swimming together.

    I am always amazed at the beauty of Kiholo Bay.

    Prints are available on my FineArtAmerica store.

     

    Marine life in Kiholo Bay
    Five Eagle Rays swimming in turquoise waters
    Aerial view of a section of Kiholo bay matched up to a section of the ocean
    The turquoise blue of Kiholo Bay contrasted with the blues of the ocean
    Aerial view of three eagle rays swimming in the turquoise waters of Kiholo Bay
    Three Eagle Rays swimming together in the beautiful turquoise waters of Kiholo bay
    Aerial view of Kiholo Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii
    An aerial view of Kiholo Bay

    If you like areal images of marine animals check out this Humpback whale post.

  • Coastline Reflections

    Coastline reflections of a beautiful Hawaiian sunset by Christopher Johnson.

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    A different perspective of the same coastline. With the high surf pounding the Kailua Kona coastline the water found its way to the grassy patch well behind the surf. Instead of positioning myself of the edge of a blowhole I chose to work with this grassy reflective scene. This was my second attempt when I wasn’t thrilled with my first composition from the previous day. Lucky for me the sunset and water waited for me to return.

    © Christopher Johnson

     

    Hawaii sunset reflected in the coastline tide pool.

  • 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

     

  • 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

  • Surfer Girl Sunset

    Silhouette of surfer girls walking toward a Hawaiian sunset.

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    I wanted to get a little creative with this image. I had the panned sunset image that I wanted to add more interest to after getting inspiration from other artists on FineArtAmerica. I combined a silhouette of surfer girls walking in a sunset from an image I took in 2012 and a more recent image of birds in front of the sunset. Without much editing I had the scene I envisioned.

    Surfer girls silhouetted against a beautiful Hawaii sunset

  • 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

  • Clouds Mimic the Earth

    A beautiful sunset from the OTEC coastline on the Big Island of Hawaii

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    This sunset was one for the books. I had a suspicion that the sunset might be good, but as the light began to fizzle I became skeptical. Just as the sun moved under the distant clouds it began to highlight the underside of the lower clouds to gift me a beautiful shot. I was completely blown away that the shape of the clouds mimicked the shape of the landscape I was shooting, which gave me some interest in the sky.

    See this location from the air. A photo and video of this amazing location. “Keahole Coastline Aerial

    A beautiful sunset from the Hawaii coastline.

  • Yellow Hibiscus

    A beautiful yellow Hibiscus flower found on the Big Island of Hawaii.

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    Picked from one of the Hibiscus bushes we have out in our front yard. I selected this flower because of how the style curved right at the end so that I could photograph the profile of the flower and have all of the 5 stigma balls visual instead of overlapping each other.

    I don’t have much of a studio, so I have to improvise. I was able to float the flower away from its background by pinning it to the bottom of my kitchen cabinets with a safety pin. With natural light I needed a longer than desired shutter speed, so I had to close all windows and stop the fans to keep the flower from wavering. Then with a timer set to 2 seconds on the camera I quickly and carefully pressed the shutter and gently fluttered a white towel in the background to blur any shadow or detail that might be picked up by the camera. The depth of field wasn’t enough to pick up all the details of the flower, so I focus stacked 2 images for the final piece.

    Yellow Hibiscus flower against a white background

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Lava River Texture

    Aerial photograph of the lava river in Pahoa Hawaii.

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    A section of the lava river from a Paradise Helicopter tour over the fissure 8 eruption of 2018 in Pahoa. I wanted to focus on the patterns the lava was making as it flowed to Kapoho, so I used a 70-300 telephoto lens to tightly frame in the lava with the dark surrounding areas. What I wasn’t expecting was how amazing the patterns are within the lava itself.

    Check out this post next, Fissure 8 and the Lava River

  • South Swell

    A beautiful sunset from along the Kona coastline during a large swell.

    I went to this familiar location to shoot from the same spot I usually do, right at the mouth of the hole in the reef. This usually puts me right in line looking at the sun setting with a dramatic foreground of the water draining back to sea. Fortunately there was a large south swell that had forced me to find a new perspective because standing where I usually do would be dangerous as the water will pull my photography gear or me into the hole that is 10 to 15 feet deep if not careful. Some of these waves will catch me off guard and it is not easy to escape and in the past I have had to thrust my camera way up in the air by grabbing the tripod legs so a wave didn’t kill it, but would leave me drenched. You might wonder why I say fortunately instead of unfortunately. Why would it be fortunate to be forced into something I wasn’t planning on. Well, I say fortunately because I love it when I am forced to try something new. When there is a spectacular sunset I always go to my comfort zone with a perspective and composition I have photographed before so I don’t screw it up. Where I usually come home with some great shots, I am still longing for a new perspective. I don’t want to have a portfolio of the same shots when there are so many great views along this coastline. At least this time I was forced.
    This is not the most amazing photograph, but it was very complicated both with composition and technicality. I really had to work for this shot. The foreground rocks aren’t very large, so in order to trick the eye I had to crouch down into the small crevice and straddle the river of rushing water about 2 feet off the ground. In that position it is really hard to setup and look through the view finder… especially when you are as out of shape and stiff like I am.   🙁   I had to fold myself while moving around so my shadow wasn’t visible on the left rock face. It’s hard to explain how weird I felt, but I’m sure I looked like a crazy person on the coastline waiting until the right moment, which never ever comes immediately. I have to begin cramping up before I can begin to shoot and create.
    After all that I waited on developing these images until 3 months later because of the volcano eruption that stole my attention. It wasn’t until I was tired of not seeing a sunset because of all the VOG that I went back through my images to find this awesome day.
    This image is a mesh of 2 images at different focal points. One for the foreground rocks and the other for the rest of the scene. The final image was edited several times over, over a couple days to get the look I was going for.
    © Christopher Johnson
  • Clouds

    Rain clouds over the Pacific ocean between Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii.

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    On a Mokulele flight from Hawaii to Maui, the view of the stormy clouds were amazing. A lightning storm was moving across the islands creating some amazing cloud formations. I sat on the rear bench seat of the small airplane and photographed these clouds through the rear window. This image is 3 stitched images to create the panorama.

    © Christopher Johnson