The Bitter Cold

Went down to the harbor with Rain to try and catch the sunset as I usually do on Sunday afternoons.  I was not prepared for the near freezing temperatures that greeted me near the water.  Three layers of clothes and the wind still ripped through my skin.  I felt like my fingers were going to fall off.   I only shot six pictures before deciding that I would rather maintain the use of all my appendages than stay out any longer.  The pictures I took turned out like crap.  I miss the summer.  I'll have to prep myself if I plan on shooting for the next several months.  Note to self: buy a ski mask, hand warmers, and better gloves.  

On a warmer note, here are two more pics from Hawai'i.  Probably two of my best thus far, in my opinion.

 This was taken near Makapu'u Lighthouse.  It was near sunset and my younger brother and I were about headed back to the car, but I decided I wanted to try one last image.  The ocean was actually quite rough and I was in a somewhat precarious position.  One good wave and it would have been goodbye to my camera.  Nonetheless, I took a few shots, and this is what came out of it!  I kind of forgot the settings on this, probably f16ish and 3-5 seconds.  In photoshop I used fill light to bring out the definition in the rocks, and also boosted the orange/yellow from the sunset and the turquoise in the ocean..

This was a sunrise shot at Yokohama Bay.  There is this really awesome rock formation that the waves break on.  Sometimes it even shoots water through a large hole in the reef (which you can see in the top left of the rocks).  I had to take two exposures for this shot as the sky and the ground was quite contrasted.  The sky was probably 1/15 of a second or so, while the water was about 3-4 seconds.  I wanted the time to be long enough to catch the movement of the whitewater but slow enough to get the hint of a wave.  The two exposures were then combined in photoshop where I increased the strength of the yellow/orange from the sunrise.

Thanksgiving Back Home

The past week and a half was spent back home.  Family, food and photography.  Hard to beat that combo.  The only thing that was missing was Rain.  Hawaii has pretty strict policies about animals flying in, so she stayed with her mom and dad.  I missed that dog like she was family because, well, she is family.

I took a good number of pictures back home.  I really am loving photography more and more.  And I dare say that I am improving bit by bit.  It really is all about getting out and using your camera.  No substitute for personal experience.  Not just in terms of learning how to use a camera, but also being able to get to a point where the camera is no longer there, and you can connect to the subject in front of you, whatever it may be.  Still working to get there.  But part of the fun is in the process.

Been contemplating getting more into dog photography...

Now that I'm back in Utah, I have a pile of pictures to go through and edit.  I'll post them as I go along, but here are a few.

Lanikai Beach.  All my years living in Hawaii, and can you believe I've never been here till now?  Thanks to Tyler and Alana Yates for taking me here.  Awesome little piece of paradise, and this canoe just happened to be at the waters edge at sunrise.  How lucky can you get.  This picture was about a 2-3 second shutter at f16(ish).  It was about 7am just as the sun was coming up.  I had to boost the colors in post.  The lighting was actually a bit dull, but there were hints of color that I was able to utilize.  I also cropped out some of the sky to make the composition a little more tight.  The pano-ish feel works with the long canoe, IMO.  I do wish there was some point of interest on the left hand side though.  Maybe Rain.  Overall, I'd give it maybe a 6/10.