Up and Over

It’s been awhile since I created a sequence image.  I saw the possibility as he was going into the maneuver. It would’ve been a more complete image, if I’d seen it a little sooner.

 

Rain Behind Olomana

I took a series of portrait shots almost a year ago to create this panorama.  They’ve been dormant on my hard drive, waiting for me to rediscover them.

 

HDR

I’ve been using the Sony a77 M2 for over a month.  With many new features compared to the a700, I’m still in the learning mode.  Occasionally, I’ve tried the in camera HDR feature. Strictly speaking it isn’t a new feature. My Konica Minolta 7D had a similar option. Yesterday, I was taking pics of my paragliding friends launching from a spot above Makapuu Beach.  It was late in the day and the launch was in shadow.  I decided to try HDR to see how it balances the shadow side with the brighter side of the scene compared to a RAW image.  The shot below is the result.

 

 

Here, as in other HDR images I’ve made, the colors are stronger. The greens are more intense than the RAW version. The blues are deeper.  Plus, the image is sharper without being over sharpened.  Below, is a pic taken in RAW and exported as a JPEG from a moment before.  While it did a good job handling the shadows, the colors are muted.(Or more realistic.)

 

 

The only adjustments I’ve made to the pics was standard sharpening upon import to Lightroom.  I also used a graduated filter in the sky to bring out the clouds.

Wide or Less Wide

Here’s a recent image of a vista I see regularly.  It’s the landing zone for the hang gliding pilots. I get to see it under many different conditions from early morning to late afternoon. I tend to prefer wide shots.  I find they express my impression of a location better.  Here, I wanted to capture the expanse of clouds moving over the land and the rain at Waimanalo Beach.

That doesn’t mean I don’t work the area looking for other possibilities.

 

Summer Squall

Talk about take it and forget it.   I grabbed a series of shots for a panorama of this rain squall over Kaneohe on a July day in 2011.

Overdevelopment

This isn’t a complaint about construction.   In this case it refers to what happens when trades are light and the land in central Oahu heats up during the day.  Clouds build up and heavy downpours can occur.  Hang gliders and paragilders avoid these conditions. Updrafts under these clouds can ruin their day.

Practice

An essential aspect of paragliding is handling your wing during your launch. A good pilot never misses the opportunity to spend a few minutes ground handling the wing.

 

Ready to go

Beach Day

This is a pic I got almost three years ago.  As you can see it was a beautiful day.  We’d recently gotten a lot of rain.  You can see the effects of the runoff with the slightly discolored water along the beach in the lower left.  The trade shower is about to drop its water on the Marine Corps Base.  Last Tuesday the Base got pummeled with an intense Lightning storm that dropped hail on the base and on Kailua.  A funnel cloud formed just about where this trade shower is in the pic.  It came ashore at Lanikai and voila it becomes a 25 yard wide tornado and went inland a couple of miles before falling apart in Kailua.

Surf with a view