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 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.
Mother and baby humpback whales in the blue Maui oceanMother and baby humpback whales swimming side by side.Mother and baby humpback whalesMother and baby humpback whales together in the beautiful blue Maui watersA humpback whale tail seen before the final decent.A mother Humpback whale and her baby breathe a rainbow with mist as they take their breaths
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 Pine Trees beach on the Big Island of Hawaii
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”
I set out when I saw low lying clouds underneath the upper clouds along with a clear horizon. Usually the sun will begin to illuminate the lower clouds with color and slowly hit the upper clouds to create an amazing glow of color, but when I got to the coastline I had second thoughts. The sky was gray and dismal. It didn’t change much as the sunset came near so I thought the hazy on the horizon would stop the color and fizzle into nothing.
I setup to capture a totally different scene and was facing south when the explosion of color began. As fast as I could along the treacherous jagged and slippery rocks I moved to this location, looking through the large holes in the reef, to compose for the colors in the sky. I threw caution to the wind as I precariously setup on some small boulders and watched the large waves flood in toward me. I was rusty because I hadn’t been out in a while, but I’m happy that I walked away with some usable images to work with.
The winter months in Hawaii are the busiest as people that live in cold climates seek an escape to warm beautiful tropical weather. With the increase in people finding wide open unobstructed landscape photo opportunities decrease.
I went out to photograph this sunset off of the sandy beach of Ka’anapali. Instead of getting a wide angle shot close to the water I decided on capturing a fresh perspective. I have always loved the look of the trees that lined the beach along with the broad leaved vines that grow along the ground, so this time I setup back away from the ocean. After composing and setting up for the shot I started to realize the traffic of all the people coming out to enjoy the sunset. Some people stopped to take a quick picture while others rested on the trees within my field of view. The last interruption came as a family posed to take a family photo on the tree with the sunset to their backs. Luckily I had a few open opportunities to get the shots I needed to work with. The rest of the time was spent enjoying the sunset and the way people reacted once they saw me crouched on the ground taking their photo.
I stood precariously close to the edge of this Big Island blow hole in order to capture the details of water flowing through the seaweed and into the large hole. Luckily the tide and swells were low so that I could do this without too much worry or trouble. Like always there is the rogue wave that helps me to not get too comfortable and to always be prepared. I was pleasantly surprised there was a golden sunset to accent the golden foreground of the seaweed.
The sunset wasn’t progressing like I had hoped it would on my re-visit to this familiar blow hole. I setup further away from the blow hole in order to capture the water streaking back towards the hole with the sun setting just beyond. With the storm clouds stretching toward to horizon I had to wait for the small window where the sun peaked out and casted its beautiful orange sunset color over the coastline surface and underbelly of the clouds. Unfortunately once the sun disappeared the colors went as well, but I waited for the hope of a surprise that didn’t come. 🙁
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.
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.
