Hawaii

Kona Coast, Hawaii – Volcanic Rocks and Ocean

 Hawaii, Heliopan Filters, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lava, Nikon D3x, Pacific Ocean, Photography Technique, sunset, Volcano, Water  5 Responses »
Sep 122010
 

Volcanic Rocks and Ocean, Kona Coast, big island of Hawaii. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 24mm PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 4 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am heading out to Philadelphia for the next four days and will be “out of pocket” as the saying goes. So until my next post here is another image shot along the Kona Coast on the big island of Hawaii. I found this grouping of colorful rocks jutting out into the ocean. They were at the end of a finger of black volcanic flow and were more than likely carried there during the last eruption. The image was made in the late evening after the sun had set but with enough ambient light to bring out the colors of the rocks and swirling ocean. The subtle, complementary colors were beautiful and in my mind could only be conceived by nature. Water washing over the rocks brought out the iridescent blues and purples which complemented the aqua tones of the shallow shoreline.

To capture this shot I used a Heliopan Warming Circular Polarizer and a 3-stop Singh-Ray Split Neutral Density filter. The polarizer allowed me to dial in some of the rich tones and helped to slow down the shutter speed for motion blur. The neutral density filter allowed me to balance the bright sky with the foreground. RAW processing was through Adobe Lightroom 3.2 with final finishing in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will be back in about a week with a new post.

Bob

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Kona Coast and Clouds

 Black and White, Hawaii, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Nikon D3x, Pacific Ocean, Photography Technique, Singh-Ray Filters, sunset, Water  2 Responses »
Sep 102010
 

Kona Coast and Clouds, big island of Hawaii. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 24mm PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 4 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This image is another shot from the Kona Coastline on the big island of Hawaii. Shot after the sun had set the clouds began to open up and created a subtle mirroring of the lava rocks below. I played with several camera positions until I got the composition to line up. This implied symmetry is a photographic concept I like to work with in my images. If anyone had watched me that night they would have seen me hopping from rock to rock and looking through the viewfinder of the camera. I did not go to the tripod until I was satisfied with the position of the elements. All to ofter we leave our cameras attached to the tripod which can lead to some lazy compositions. To get the creative flow going get the camera off the tripod and do some digital sketching. Shoot quickly from a variety of positions. Don’t worry about exact exposure. Just fire through a series of frames and then go back and look at your shots. When you allow yourself to be free to look you will discover things you did not see while tethered to the tripod. Once you get a composition, or two or three, you like then you can go back to the tripod and refine your shot.

The image was shot with a Singh-Ray 3-stop Soft Split Neutral Density Filter to help balance the foreground and rock exposure. The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and black and white conversion and final finishing was done in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Tidal Pool – Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park

 Hawaii, Heliopan Filters, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lava, National Parks, Nikon D3x, Pacific Ocean, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters, sunset  No Responses »
Sep 102010
 

Tidal Pool, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 24mm PC lens. Image shot at ISO 100 at f13 for 2 seconds.

Hi everyone. Welcome to today’s post. I have been away for a few weeks on several assignments and have quite  few images to go through. This post is an image shot along the Kona Coast at Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park on the big island of Hawaii. Kaloko is the site of a Hawaiian settlement before the arrival of European explorers. It includes coastal areas, three large fish ponds, a house site, and other archeological remnants. The site sits in the shadow of Mauna Loa, a dormant volcano. Along the coastline fingers of ancient volcanic flow extend into the ocean. I had the opportunity to photograph the sunset within the park and spent some time exploring the tidal pools that are tucked into recesses within the lava. This pool contained several beautiful coral formations.

Hawaiian cultural is full on many myths and many gods. I told an Hawaiian friend of mine about spending time at Kaloko. He asked me if the ocean spoke to me. I related to him that as I was shooting the tide began to come in and would send foamy fingers of water up to my feet and tripod legs. It would flow in and just touch my feet, fill small holes in the lava, and then recede. My friend said the ocean was checking me out-just seeing who was walking upon the lava. I allowed myself to imagine what life must have been like on this site. Hawaiian culture has a strong connection to the ocean. For a brief moment in time I tapped into that power and just listened quietly to the oceans song. The water roared in with a thunderous voice which dissipated into hundreds of soft melodic voices as the waves lapped through the volcanic fissures. As night fell I was absorbed into blackness, unable to see the lava field static at my feet. But the ocean continued to sing. For hours afterward I could hear the ocean in my head and feel the vibrations. My friend said the ocean had indeed spoken to me. And he said it was a good thing.

To capture the tidal pool I used a Heliopan Warming Circular Polarizer dialed in to reveal the coral in the water. In addition I used a Singh-Ray 3-stop Soft Split Neutral Density to hold back the sky. RAW processing was done in Lightroom and final work in Photoshop CS4.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Byodo-In Temple, Garden Buddha

 Architecture, Buddhism, Byodo-In Temple, Hawaii, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Sony α900, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Mar 212010
 

Garden Buddha, Byodo-In Temple, Oahu. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-700mm lens at 30mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/6 of a second.

Hi everyone. I was revisiting some files I shot earlier this year and found myself back in the gardens of the Byodo-In Temple on Oahu’s windward side. This is the garden Buddha that greets visitors just after crossing the bridge from the parking area. It is a perfect place to stop and reflect for a moment before continuing along the path to the temple. It is a beautiful view of the main temple and the Ko’olau Mountains.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Lava Dome – Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

 Hawaii, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lava, National Parks, Singh-Ray Filters  No Responses »
Mar 212010
 

Pahoehoe lava dome, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Shot with a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 12-24mm lens at 18mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/8 of a second.

Hi everyone. This image is a giant lava dome of pahoehoe lava taken at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Pahoehoe is from the Hawaiian and means smooth, unbroken lava. It is lava that typically has a smooth, billowy, undulating or ropy surface texture. This dome exhibits all of these characteristics. The dome split during the cooling process leaving the giant cleft. I had some interesting clouds this day which somewhat resembled lava patterns in the dome. I used a Sing-Ray split neutral density to balance the lighter clouds with the dome.

RAW processing was done in Adobe Lightroom with final finishing in Photoshop. Several curve layers were created to accentuate the textures in the dome and bring out the clouds details.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bob

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Waikiki Twilight Redux-Photoshop Layer Blend

 Architecture, City Photography, Hawaii, Photography Technique, Photoshop Technique  No Responses »
Feb 052010
 

Image 3: Waikiki Twilight Redux. Photoshop blend technique of two exposures.

A few days ago I posted a twilight image shot in Waikiki Beach in downtown Honolulu. You can refer back to that image which was posted on January 29th for comparison to todays post. The January post was quickly processed in Lightroom and Photoshop on my laptop and posted for the blog. Todays post takes the same image and shows a simple and quick method to extend the image dynamic range. Image 1 shows the original Sony RAW file. This image was exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 60 seconds. In Lightroom I made a virtual copy of this file. In the original file I opened up the image by +.50 of a stop an used the fill and recover sliders to slightly open up the image. It also received a bit of capture sharpening. In the Virtual image I opened up the exposure by +1.80 stops and used the fill and recover sliders. The goal here was to bring out more detail in the buildings and the trees surrounding the hotels. Image 1 shows the original RAW file and Image 2 shows the Virtual copy after Lightroom processing. Each file was then exported to Photoshop. The Original was named with “D” for dark and the Virtual was named with an “L” for light. The next steps are performed in Photoshop.

Image 1: Original RAW file processed in Lightroom.

Image 2: Virtual Light image processed in Lightroom.

Step 1: Open the Virtual Light copy in Photoshop. Duplicate the Background and name it Light Layer.

Step 2: Open the Original Dark copy. Select the image and hit Command C to copy it to the paste board.

Step 3: Go back to the Virtual Light copy, make sure the Light Layer is selected and hit Command V to paste the Dark copy into the layer stack. Rename this as Dark Layer. Make sure the Dark Layer is on top of the layer stack.

Step 4: Now comes the mysterious magic of Photoshop. Make sure you select the Dark Layer and hit Option-Command 2. In a few moments you will see the Marching Ants. With the Marching Ants active select Add Layer Mask. Photoshop will create a perfectly blended Black and White Mask linked to the Dark Layer. Select the mask and go to Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the amount to between 3.0 and 6.0 for high res images. For this file I set it to 5.0. Note: You must do the Gaussian Blur otherwise the effect will appear overdone.

Step 5: Make sure the Mask is selected. Go to the Brush and set it for soft edge, around 200 is good, and the amount to 10 to 15%. Select the background color as White. You can now paint on the mask. Remember that when painting into layers that white reveals and black hides. Painting in White on the black and white mask will reveal the Dark Layer. You want to keep the Brush amount low so you can build up the darkening effect. If you go overboard you can select Black and paint back into the mask. If you look at the original post from January 29 you will see the trees are very dark and the buildings did not quite have the sparkle I was looking for. Though not bad for a quick post it certainly was not what the image could be. The final result achieved through the layer blend really increases the dynamic range of the image.

Step 6: Once you are satisfied with the blending flatten the image and from there you can go through your normal Photoshop editing and processing routines. In this case I performed a high pass, edge mask sharpen, several curves adjustments and a mid-tone contrast layer for some added pop.

The end result shows a marked improvement in the image. There is detail in the trees surrounding the hotels and the buildings are more luminous. The HDR folks out there may of course scoff at this technique but I am not a fan of some of the over processed HDR images I see and prefer this simple method for blending. You can use this technique to process and blend two bracketed exposures or in this case process a single exposure. Many thanks to all who are visiting these posts and providing comments. Together we can advance our skills and find support for this great and all consuming passion.

Bob

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Byodo-In Buddhist Temple

 Architecture, Buddhism, Hawaii, Landscape, Religion  No Responses »
Feb 012010
 

Image 1: Byodo-In Temple. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 30mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/6 of a second.

Image 2: Bridge leading to the Byodo-In Temple. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/10 of a second.

Image 3: Peace Bell Pavilion. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 28mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 3 seconds.

At the base of the Ko’olau Mountains, on Ohau’s windward side, lies the Byodo-In Temple. Built in the 1960′s, this replica of the 950 year old Byodoin Buddhist Temple in Uji, Japan, was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. The temple is located in the Valley of Temples, a cemetery located in Ohau’s Kaneohe Region. To cross the bridge is to enter a peaceful and tranquil world. I just wanted to linger there for the rest of the day. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and feature a 2-acre Koi pond. The best time to photograph the temple is in the morning light. In the afternoon the sun will set behind the Ko’olau Range and the temple will be cast in shadow. For more information on the temple please visit their website at http://www.byodo-in.com/

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Waikiki Beach Twilight

 Architecture, City Photography, Hawaii, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900  No Responses »
Jan 292010
 

Image 1: Waikiki Beach and downtown Honolulu. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony SAL 20mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 60 seconds.

Clouds drift over Waikiki Beach and downtown Honolulu. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony SAL 20mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/6 of a second. Lenswas fitted with a Singh-Ray 2-stop split neutral density.

This is one of my favorite views of Waikiki Beach. The image was shot at twilight about 30 minutes after the sun had set. This is the optimum time to get this kind of exposure where the sky is a deep, beautiful blue that compliments the city lights. In order to get a shot like this there are a few rules to follow:

1. Scout the Shot: This is something you hear a lot from photographers but its true. I have been to this location before and pre-visualized this exposure.

2. Know your Astronomy: What I mean here is know where the sun rises and sets and at what time.

3. Set up Early: Get to your location ahead of time. This gives you time to set up, compose, figure out what filters you might need, watch the light, and take test exposures.

4. Be There: Shots like this happen everyday but you have to be there. Galen Rowell said there are only so many sun rises and sunsets. Get out and shoot.

To capture this kind of shot you need to wait till the sky and cityscape reach an equal EV, generally around 5. This means if you took a spotmeter reading on the sky and the city and the reading was approximately 5 you are ready to go. This generally occurs approximately 30 minutes after sunset. The exposure will typically be 45 seconds to a minute. The result is a beautiful cerulean sky complimenting the orange lights. I also set the color balance to about 4800 to 4900.

Image 2 was shot approximately 50 minutes before the twilight shot. This is why you get to your location early so you can capture the light on your subject as it changes.

Mahalo from Hawaii.

Bob

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Diamond Head Sunset

 Hawaii, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters  No Responses »
Jan 282010
 

Storm clouds clear over the ocean. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 2 seconds. Image shot with a Heliopan Polarizer and a 3-stop Singh-Ray split neutral density.

So you are probably wondering about all these Diamond Head shots. Well its very picturesque and it happens to be the view from my room. This shot was made at sunset. The light was pretty flat and blocked by the expansive cloud cover but a small hole opened up for about a minute spreading light into the landscape.

I used a Singh-Ray 3-stop split neutral density filter to account for the difference in contrast between the sky and landscape. Additionally I used a Heliopan warming polarizer to accentuate the clouds. The light was beautiful.

Unfortunatley I made a major mistake in that I forgot to reset my camera from the days shooting and shot this as a high res JPEG. Not an end of the world mistake but one that does not leave me a lot of headroom to manipulate the file. The JPEG rendering from the Sony proved to be quite good though so all is not lost. So this is just a reminder to all to make sure you check your camera settings prior to a shoot.

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Diamond Head Sunrise

 Hawaii, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900  No Responses »
Jan 272010
 

Sunrise over Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens at f16 for 30 seconds.

This is an early morning view of Diamond Head, as a band of dark clouds moves over Oahu. To capture this shot I used a Singh-Ray 3-stop Reverse, Split Neutral Density. This is a more specialized neutral density where the darker portion of the filter is in the middle and fades upward. It is very useful in situations like this where the brightest contrast is in the middle portion of the shot.

Bob

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