Hawaiian Islands

  • Beautiful photograph of a Hawaiian sunset viewed through the back lit leaves of a tree.
    Aug
    2022
    19
    2022 / Aug / 19

    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.

  • Dense forest of Eucalyptus trees
    Jan
    2016
    23
    2016 / Jan / 23

    Eucalyptus Forest

    Large Eucalyptus trees along the Hamakua coast on the Big Island.

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    I have been meaning to stop and take the time to venture into these trees for a very long time, but every time I drove by I was either in a hurry or the lighting wasn’t right. This time, however, was perfect. The sun was setting making the harsh highlights from the sun non-existent, but instead offered a soft even glow around each tree.

    Entering the forest was a challenge since the grassy trail was taller than me.  As I made my way through the grass and spider webs 🙁 …. and the deeper I went into the forest, the grass was a lot shorter and more manageable to photograph.  With the light quickly fleeting I was able to shoot a handful of images. Two of which are what I set out to capture.

    © Christopher Johnson

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