Water Rocks Sand

Vog and Clouds

This is from April 2008  when days of Kona Trades brought Vog from the volcano activity on the Big Island.  Between the Vog and the overdevelopment of the clouds over Waimanalo the air was thick on this afternoon.

Ready to go

Moon Glider

From a few years back I got this shot of a friend of mine flying his hang glider past the moon

 

How they do that

If you’re a fan of Hawaii Five-O in it’s current form you’ve seen those flyover sequences of Oahu.  Several times I’ve seen the helicopter flying over Oahu that films them.  I was at Makapuu in January when the Paradise helicopter flew past.  This shot  shows the helicopter moving around the Makapuu Lighthouse.  Just under the nose is the housing containing the camera

Flaming Circles

I was treated to an impromptu fire dance with Poi Balls.  It was near dark and with no tripod at hand I hand held with a long shutter speed to catch the movement of the flame.  In Lightroom I desaturated everything but the flame.  Then I reduced the clarity for a softer look.  To add a little more interest to the photo I also split toned the image.

 

 

A Challenge

Outdoor photography can be challenging more so when subjects aren’t static.  You’ll find plenty of advice for landscape photography.  It assumes you’re deciding where and when you point your lens at a subject.  You also have the luxury of manually setting your aperture and shutter.  Even some outdoor activities operate in a “controlled” environment.  Activities like baseball and soccer take place within a defined area where the light doesn’t change to a significant degree over the course of a game. Then there are activities like hang gliding and paragliding where the conditions can change as the wings move across a sky that is rarely static.  Ideally a blue sky with some puffy white clouds is the best condition.  That’s when the automatic focus works to perfection and noise is nonexistent. The less than ideal is when you really have to work at it.  This image is an example of that.  The paraglider has landed with me looking into the sun. That is a problem under these conditions because the ridge is in deep shadow Since I’m  on shutter priority my aperture sets itself in kind. But the aperture on my zoom lens opens only so wide.  Fortunately, the sun over the wing gives a nice sunburst effect along with the lens flare which leads the eye down to the paraglider pilot.  I could have cropped out hang glider wing at the bottom but I like the added dimension and context it gives the scene.  The image out of the camera had a much darker foreground because my aperture could only open so much.  However with the help of Lightroom and the Graduated Filter Tool I could lighten the foreground as you see it without noise becoming an issue.   

May 30 2011 (set 1)

Memorial Day Flight-23

Molokai Channel Rainbow

 

Da Leap