Muhe'e

Better known as "calamari" in the restaurants.

I'll have you know that I made a big sacrifice for the blog. I bought a new diving mask this year with built in bi-focal lenses so I could see the settings on my camera while in the water but it leaked around my mustache. I had to shave so that I could get all of these underwater photos. I haven't shaved my beard and mustache for ten years. The things I do to get photos!

Tex will be happy to know that over the last two days I have taken just about 2500 more underwater photos. Lots of fish to see! LOL

A shot looking out to sea.

The old logging trestle revisited

Went out yesterday and took some more pictures of the old trestle. I had planned to bring a ladder to photograph from so I could get pictures from up above all the bushes growing there. But this is a difficult place to get to so I improvised... I attached the camera to the monopod, set the timer for 10 seconds and held the monopod and camera up over my head as far as I could reach.

Moa

Pronounced Mo-Ah or in english, the spotted box fish. This is a female Moa, the male is more colorful, kind of like the photographers on this blog. LOL

This was taken along one of the reefs in front of our condo on Maui. It was shot with a Nikon D300 using a Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens set at 2.8 with an ISO of 1000 and no flash. I was in about 3 feet of water at the time.

Dancing On The Dash

Found this little Wahine swaying her hips to the rythmn of the road!

Eagles calling

I was out taking pictures of the sunset this evening when I heard the funniest thing from quite a ways down the beach. I heard voices calling "Parker, Aaron, Q, Ron, come take our pictures" over and over again! Naturally I went to investigate but only found these two sitting on a rock.

Waterfalls on the Road to Hana

Just one of the many waterfalls we came across on the road to Hana. We had to sit and wait for it to stop raining so we could get out and take photos during a lot of trip this time.

Burrrr!

The cold clear weather of the past couple of days over here on the West Coast made for some good frost pictures this morning. Both pictures are at f16 with the new lens at around 200mm. I used the flash for the bottom picture.

Good Morning From Broken Bow, OK.

Sometime you need to get yourself lost on purpose so you can explore the hidden beautiful scenery.

Nikon P7700 in Hawaii

As you know, I bought the P7700 so I would have a small, light camera to carry around on the days I didn't feel like carrying the bigger and heavier D700 but since we've been in Hawaii the P7700 has changed hands.

Cheryl has been using the P7700 since the second day and she now refers to it as "her" camera. I may never get it back.

All three of these images were shot with the P7700 set on "automatic" with the camera making all of the setting decisions.

7:20 AM



 

Good Morning from Oklahoma!

 

 

A nice start to the day!

 

This is how to do it!

I'm not sure I have post these Humming bird pictures before, but this time I want to include some of the instructions how to get these shots.  The equipment is quite simple, it just seems a lot because I use what I got. In reality, you just need a good, reliable bird and spike the flower with sugar water. I put the flower right into the feeder at times and you need about 3,4 flashes at lower power @ 1/16 power or less. Even a cheapy camera will get this image since you can only shoot 1 shot at a time(flashes won't recycle fast enough) at slow shutter speed and small f-stop because there are so many flashes. The low power flashes is what freeze the bird because it flashes at faster speed at low power.

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

HUH?

We spent a little time in the water yesterday and ended up seeing several of the Hawaiian trigger fish or as they are called here, humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

These little f... uh, um, fellas are fast! I'm working on getting better photos of these fish but they don't like to pose for me. LOL

These were shot using the Nikon D300 with a Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens set at 2.8 with the ISO at 1600 and no flash.

Rainforest waterfall

Had fun trying to get a good picture of this forest waterfall without a tripod. It was quite dark under the trees and I wanted to do a long exposure shot to give the water that silky look.
For the top shot I held the camera up against a tree to keep it steady for the couple of seconds the shutter was open and for the bottom shot I set the camera on a log.
Took both pictures with the Sigma 10-20mm ultra wide lens.

Sunrise on the Seaside

We were having coffee yesterday on the lanai and this is the view we were greeted with as the sun came up.

Hmm... Portrait or landscape?

Found this twisted tree on the beach a couple of days ago and took several pictures of it but I can't decide which I like better the portrait or landscape orientation so I'm just going to post them both and everyone else can decide.

A Room With A View

I'm not rubbing it in, I'm sharing! LOL

This is the actual view from the lanai of our condo. Yea, I know, it sucks to be me.

Inadvertent camera and lens abuse test...

Another capture from the new 18-300. Took this one handheld from about 100 feet away. Normally Herons fly away when you start showing any interest in them but I guess this one felt safe perched in the top of a tree.

On another note... While out hiking and taking pictures this weekend I slipped on the beach and landed in a shallow puddle on top of my camera and new lens. I got wet and the camera and lens got splashed. Fortunately it was fresh water. I did a quick in field dry off with a paper towel and continued taking pictures, no harm done. Later when I got home I took a closer look at everything and found that I had slightly bent the outer threads of the 77mm uv filter I bought to protect the lens. The lens it's self was untouched. Moral of the story... UV filters are a good addition to lenses you plan on hiking with!

Pele Smiles on the Sunset Wizard

There are several traditional legends associated with Pele (PAY-lay) in Hawaiian mythology. In addition to being recognized as the goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes Pele is also known for her creative power, passion, purpose, and profound love.

Pele smiled on us this day and gave us a great sunset. She may have been a little pissed about something though because she was hitting us with the big winds. LOL

That is the island of Lana'i in the background that the sun is setting behind.

It's too cold for birds photography, so I'm posting these old photos.  

Just like Hawaii...

Over here on the West Coast is just like Hawaii. 

Warm tropical breezes, white sand beaches, fun in the sun... 

NOT!

UGH! I think it's just about time for a holiday. Blame it on Ron!

Wind, Wind and More Wind

As I said in my last post, it's been just a "little" windy here the last few days. We've had sustained winds of 20-30 mph and gusts of 50mph until last night. The winds hit 65mph last night and knocked out the power. Luckily for us the condo has a back up generator that kicks in automatically so we were only without power for about 45 seconds.

All is well this morning. The regular power has been restored and the winds are supposed to die off today.

We were out taking some sunset photos yesterday and some of the 50mph gusts came through. The first one almost pushed me off my perch and into the ocean. Cheryl was hugging a big palm tree and trying not to get pelted with the sand and leaves that were flying by. We even had a 55 gallon steel drum roll past us at a pretty good clip. It was a trash can for the park that was above us and the wind just pushed it along until it hit the rocks at the edge of the shore.

This photo shows a dust storm that was kicked up by one of the big gusts. If you remember the cemetery photos I posted a few weeks back you will recognize the color of the dirt. The area where the dust is in the photo is the spot where that cemetery lays.

The dark spots you see in the photo aren't dirt on my sensor, that's stuff flying through the air as I was taking the photo.

Self Portrait

An old man, as in; "man, I look old", by the sea and his pretty wife.

I finally figured out how to use the timer on my camera! I thought the wind was going to blow the tripod down though. We've been having gusts up to 50mph the last two days so we've been getting sand blasted when taking photos on the beach.

It Was a Rainbow Day

Yesterday turned out to be a banner day for rainbows. We had a heavy mist/light rain off and on all day long and it made the conditions perfect for rainbows. You litterally couldn't go any where on the west side of the island without seeing a rainbow throughout the day. I could have spent the whole day just shooting rainbows.

The wait is over!

Aloha from paradise! We woke up this morning to the sound of ocean waves, a cool tropical breeze and a rainbow across the ocean. It doesn't get much better than that!

More to come as the days go by and for Tex, I will have photos of paradise for months and months. LOL

Waiting for Ron...

Here are a couple more bird pictures to look at while we wait for Ron to get to Maui and start posting Hawaii pictures because that's what we really want to see!

Found these Sanderlings hanging out near the Coast Guard Base in Port Hardy. Getting some nice results with the new Nikon 18-300 lens.

Fly like an Eagle

Here are a couple of recent shots of Eagles in flight... Still huge room for improvement on my part as I continue trying to figure out the best settings (shutter speed, iso, aperture etc.) for capturing moving subjects like this. One consolation is that there are many willing subjects to practice on!

Q any advice on how to get an f 5.3 18-300mm zoom lens to perform like an f 2 300mm prime lens would be much appreciated!

A-LO-HA!

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Here Today...

I wasn't too subtle, was I? LOL

We'll be leaving bright and early in the morning and by tomorrow afternoon I will be in the pacific ocean swimming with the turtles. We'll be in the Land of Aloha for two weeks but I will be posting photos while we are there.

Aloha!

Winter Wonderland Part II

I took this photo this morning once the sun came up and the temps rose to a balmy 20 degrees. I had to use a 4ND filter just to get the shot since the snow was so bright from the sun.

I did a little post processing in the NIK software to give it an old timey look. Kind of like me! LOL

2013?

I thought the world was supposed to end last month? LOL

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! (Happy New Year!)

We woke up to about 4 inches of snow on the ground this morning and a grandson raring to hit the hills with his sled. Grandpa on the other hand, was interested in packing his suitcase for a much warmer spot! LOL