Jacaranda time!

The jacaranda trees are in bloom this month so I headed upcountry to take a few shots. A friend of mine and I decided to see who could get the best shots.

I'm going to tell you I won, no matter what she says!!

Daniel and the Cat

This morning on the Coal Harbour waterfront I came across Daniel firing up Joey's old D6 Cat.

I think it's been at least a year since the last time it's run...

I see in my Crystal Ball...

I finally got a chance to go out and play around with some crystal ball photography. After some trial and error I was able to get some interesting captures. The first three of these are as shot, no post processing except to turn the middle photo right side around.

The bottom picture I worked over in Photoshop before posting it.

Ron you need one of these, the shots you could get with one of these in Maui would be awesome!

Just splashing around

I was at the luau the other night and while the tourists were having dinner I stepped out to the beach to take a few shots. Who new goofing off at work could be so much fun!

Iao Valley

This is Iao Valley here on Maui. The Iao Needle that you see protruding into the sky used to be a look out point for the Hawaiians so they could see invaders coming. How they ever got up there is beyond me. I certainly wouldn't want to climb it!

The season is almost over

The whales are starting to thin out and will be gone by the end of next month. I'm already looking forward to next whale season to see what kind of photos I will be lucky enough to capture then.

I guess it's back to the water for fish and turtle shots now.

Looking down

This photo is not upside down, it's just a reflection I came across that I thought needed to be photographed.

There are things here I find new every day and I look forward to getting out and finding everything on the island that I can. Life is good!

Things are looking up

I always find it interesting to point my camera up in the air and then watch the people around me do the same thing trying to figure out what I'm taking a photo of!

Pals!

It's all in the details

Just an abstract shot I took as a peacock walked by me one day.

Yeti !!

I encountered this fierce snow creature on my way to work this morning and managed to get a couple of good shots before it was gone again. Don't know where my dog was at the time but he showed up soon after...

Sunrise, barely...

I took this picture within a week or two of the shortest day of the year. Usually the Sun is way high over this particular hill but on this day it barely came above the trees...

Less than a month until Spring!

A really big fish!

I was cruising down the highway on my way to an art show one day and looked out at the ocean to see this nuclear submarine slowly moving along in the channel.

The navy routinely runs training missions in the channel but you never, ever see a submarine surfaced in the channel. At least I never have in the 13 years I've been coming to Maui. I watched the submarine for over an hour cruise through the channel and out to sea. It almost seemed as if they were making sure some one, some where, new they were there. Kind of a "hey look, we're here" type of thing.

Normally I would think they were just doing something benign however the week before this I watched as two large military aircraft (they looked like C-130s) flew in the channel in a formation and only about 500 feet off the deck. The week after I saw the submarine I was on a whale tour and got buzzed by two military Huey helicopters. These three different encounters all happened about two weeks after the "accidental" nuclear missile warning scare we had here. Hmmmm....

Of course when I saw the rain showers in the background on Lana'i behind the submarine all those conspiracies thoughts went away. I just wanted to get a photo!!

Crazy skies!

This was the scene a few weeks ago in Coal Harbour... Crazy skies!

Don't feel bad Paul...

.... it snowed here too!

Yep, we actually got snow! We had a big storm front move through yesterday that dumped inches of rain on the island and dropped the temperatures down quite a bit. 

I woke up this morning to snow on the top of Haleakala. I tried to get up to the top to get some photos but by the time I was finished with work and headed that way the snow had pretty much melted away.

Mossy Oasis...

A few years ago when digging up some pipes in Coal Harbour I came across an old piece of Whale bone which isn't that uncommon around here as the old RCAF Coal Harbour seaplane base was sold and turned into a Whaling Station after WWII was over.

Anyway back to my story... I found this old piece of Whale Bone and set it on a nearby electrical enclosure and promptly forgot about it. Well several days ago I saw this mossy thing and on closer examination realised it was the whale bone I had found and placed there several years earlier. Now turned into a beautiful little Mossy Oasis complements of Mother Nature!

Birds on the wires

Another foggy morning scene from Coal Harbour. The birds on the wires made for an interesting silhouette shot.

As big as a school bus

Hey, Paul started it!

And yes, they really are the size of a school bus and weigh even more!

Tall as a six story building...

It's difficult to fathom just how large one of these Coast Guard ships is until you start counting how many deck levels there are, then comparing that to a building of similar height! (And that's just the part you see above the water...)

Ahhh...

There they are, the first two flowers of the year...

Definately a soothing sight for winter weary eyes!

Morning reflections...

Sunrise and fog this morning made for some interesting silhouettes and reflections.

It's another lucky day whale watching!

This one just had to pose for me to get the perfect shot!

Purebred Meltie...

I wasn't real sure what breed "Sunny" was until I saw him in the rain.

Pretty obvious he's Purebred Meltie!

Sticks and Stones...

Make for a great splash!

I took another trip along the Road to Hana about two weeks ago and this is one of the better shots I ended up with. This was taken at Ke'anae Peninsula, about 18 miles from the town of Hana.

Being a little artsy

I thought I would give Paul a break from all of the sunny beach photos and do something a little different.

I saw this bamboo stand along the road to Hana and I liked all of the colors in it so I took a shot.

Rainy day pictures...

It didn't stop raining all day but we still got out and took a few pictures down at the Port Hardy waterfront. 

Then as a bonus got a shot of this fighter jet buzzing the airport! Not sure what model it is but it sure was loud as it flew over! Hopefully it's an F- something not a я истребитель- or 歼击轰炸机- something!

Stephan's Bay, another day...

So yesterday's picture of Stephen's Bay sunrise was pretty much as shot, no modifications to the color or anything.

That is definitely not the case with this picture. Using Photoshop I worked and reworked a rather bland looking sunrise and embellished the heck out of it until I finally came up with this!

We're not in Kansas anymore!

They are growing sunflowers here on the island. I've been told it's some kind of test plot for creating a bio-diesel fuel. It's definitely a very strange sight to see the mountains and ocean and a field of sunflowers!

Stephen's Bay Sunrise

This short but spectacular sunrise over Stephen's Bay lasted less than ten minutes start to finish.

Fortunately I was able to get a few pictures before it faded back to a regular old grey overcast morning.

And before you ask, no I didn't up the saturation at all, that's how deep red it really was, but only for a minute or two.

Tag team!

I got out of MY CHAIR for two lousy minutes and come back to find this! Normally these two can't stand each other and won't cooperate on anything, this time they tag teamed me!

Finally...

I finally "got my ducks in a row" and posted a pictue!

The Curve

I know, it's a little weird but then so am I!

When I saw this palm curling up to the sky something made me want to take a photo.

Another day at the office

I love working outside!

Gran's Place...

Even though Gran passed on a while back this old WWII era beach house on Coal Harbour's waterfront is still known to the locals as Gran's Place.

Double Take

Whale season is in full swing here on Maui. It's my favorite time of the year!

The whales should be in high numbers and extremely active until the middle of March now. I'm trying to get out on a boat as often as I can to get photos this year. I took this shot this past Wednesday. I have about 1000 more photos to look through and I'm hoping for one or two more good ones out of the bunch.

Tails from the Sea

I just love this time of year!!

Although it looks like I was far away with this shot I was actually only about 4 feet away. I took this using a fisheye lens, that's why the surface of the water is curved, but it allowed me to get the whole whale in the shot.

I'm headed back out in a couple of days to see what else I can get.

Meanwhile behind me...

This was the scene behind me as I was taking pictues of the full moon in Coal Harbour last night, I snapped a couple of quick shots of the old WWII RCAF Seaplane Hanger before I headed home...

I can see I'm going to have to get out night shooting more often, totally different light to work with!

New Year's Moon

Almost too hazy to take pictures of the Full Moon tonight but I managed to get this underexposed shot with some trees in the foreground.

Happy New Year every one!