Driving around Makapu’u Point on Oahu you might notice Paragliders and or Hanggliders flying above the beach. The Landing Zone at Kaupo Beach will have a gaggle of just landed PG or HG pilots swapping stories about how great the flying was.
This time of year another group of flyers will be taking to the air from the same place. This group doesn’t need flying harness, variometer, or parachute. They use what God gave em. Feathers. They are racing pigeons getting in their preseason workouts. In August their owners will send them over to Molokai or Maui or the Big Island and have them released to fly back to Oahu. The fastest ones will be high on the pecking order.
I didn’t realize how popular pigeon racing was until I talked to the breeders while they released their pigeons. For instance, South Africa is the home of the richest One-Loft Race in the world, the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race. The Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race pits 4,300 birds from 25 countries against each other for a share of $1.3m in prize money. The runners-up win cars and smaller monetary prizes, while the overall winner can expect to pocket $200,000. Sun City’s "one-loft" race, sees birds from across the world air-freighted to South Africa as squabs, months before the race, and trained to orientate to a single loft. On race day, after being released 550 km (330 Miles) out on the South African veldt, the birds all race back to the same destination.
The next time you see a flock of pigeons beating wing from Makapuu you’re watching athletes in training.
Morning view of Makapu'u Point
There are several expressions you’ll hear in Hawaii. Lucky you live in Hawaii is repeated when we see people struggling in hip deep snow in the midwest or sliding down an icy street in the southwest. Plus we’ve been fortunate not to get pummeled by hurricanes like the Gulf Coast and eastern seaboard. Sitting above Makapuu Lookout waiting for my hang gliding friends to fly by I considered myself lucky indeed
Taking a picture is a matter of finding the right balance of elements. The right balance of light/dark, highlight/shadow, balancing complimentary colors. The composition of the picture is a matter of balance. Finding the most important part and placing it in the most effective place within the picture. It’s an AHA! moment when you get them all right.
When I took up photography, beyond point and shoot, in the days of film. The photography books I read provided advice for balancing. Using the right film speed, using neutral density and/or color filters, and bracketing. While I never developed my own film. I’m sure that required a balance of chemicals, paper and time.
Digital cameras make balancing “easier”. With HDR “High Dynamic Range”, bracketing an image with multiple exposures and then blending them together on a computer creates a better balanced image.
My Sony a700 comes with a feature called DRO (D-Range Optimizer) which tries to do the same thing within the camera. It won’t be long before camera sensors will be capturing in image without the need for bracketing. They will reproduce how our eyes “see”. “WYSIWYG” will come to photography.
At that point we’ll start using all those filter to create images we don’t normally see!
Hang Glider flying above Makapuu Beach
Saw this as a query on my stats page. The answer is there’s more than one. The limiter is how the wind is blowing. Here’s a fuzzy picture of a PG launching from tomato juice on Fathers day. It’s just above Sea Life Park. Also Makapu’u is spelled with two U’s and a glottal stop.
If you want to see more launches just click over to the paraglider galleries at my smugmug site.
May 12th marked my one year association with the Hang Glider pilots on Oahu. I was at Makapuu Lookout taking pictures when a voice behind me asked if I’d like to take some pictures from a better spot. Turning around I saw a group of guys with hopeful looks on their faces. They were looking for someone to drive the car back down from the launch point to the landing zone. Having a driver means they can all fly.
I had a good time. Got some great pics. I’ve been helping out ever since. So far this year I’ve got over six thousand pics of them hang gliding and another 2500 of the paragliders. The number on my Smugmug site is considerably less than that.
I know what you’re probably thinking. Have I gone for a flight? WHAT!? Are you insane!? Why should I jump off a perfectly good cliff? I’ll help them do it instead.
