What an exciting way to end the year; and begin the new one. I was asked by Keali’i Reichel to assist him with some photography. This will be my last portrait of the year, and again, I will shoot more (of his entire hula halau, as my first portrait of 2009.)

It was a good year; and a hard year.

Next year will be incredibly productive. I wrote a few goals out on paper: including re-building our blogs for the umteenth-time.

Happy new year.

Christmas Eve on Maui…..

This afternoon was fantastic. I found my creative “zone” for a good hour, or more. Christmas Eve afternoon is sort of like the 2 hours before Thanksgiving dinner. There is anticipation, relaxation, and a sense of care-free-ness.

Today the wind was strong and steadily blowing the north shore mist around the mountains to the leeward side. From 7am till 6pm there was a rainbow; not just a rainbow, but a rainbow of legendary brilliance. It was there like a rock, all day long.

So at 4pm i finally heard the voice in my mind to out and shoot photos! I hiked up into the cow pasture behind my house and filled a 4 gig card completely.

As a professional, I need to grab my camera and got shoot as much as I can. But to tell your family that you are heading out to go “look for rainbows” sounds lame. Chasing rainbows for a living?

It works for me! Merry Christmas!

I drove to Hana yesterday afternoon, and pitched a tent for the night at Seven Pools (Kipahulu). I threw my standard camp grub (a can of beef stew) on my mini burner and ate in my tent as the rain fell. It was actually quite nice.

My tent was 50 feet from the crashing waves, and out of sight from any civilization.  I fell asleep to the sound of the rain mixed with ocean. I slept well, and when it finally stopped raining in the morning i walked to the Seven Pools to see some of the highest water levels I had ever seen there!

Hana Coast Gallery is one of my favorite galleries in the world. I popped in there to chat with Evelina for an hour. If you get to Hana, that place is a must-see!

Can’t believe Christmas is in 5 days. Hmmm. Wow.

The Moon last night was reported to appear 14% larger than normal due to it’s closer proximity to the Earth. I have to admit, there was a great moonrise at 7pm as it came up behind Haleakala. Naturally, I was camera-less at that moment.

But this morning I shot several clean images of the moon using a 400mm lens. I like having moonimages on hand just in case I decide to spruce-up an otherwise “blah” photo. I made the image below with my little Canon Rebel XTi. I’ve printed it as a 5 foot long canvas, and it rocks!

Moral: Keep a full moon handy just in case.

http://www.technorati.com/account/verify?username=RandyBraun&key=354e188b9e9d888b0f45f6f0e9bbdcfb

<a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/6f3k4y3ttm” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>

Help! How on Earth do I install the Technorati button????

So, there are some jobs that are just cool. My friend Dr. Russell Brown has a cool job. He has worked for Adobe since Photoshop was created. He is a 3-D Guru who travels around the world dreaming up new uses for 3-D imaging.

The other day Dr Russell called me and asked for some background images for his dinosaur project. I emailed him a stack of stuff, and he sends this back. I have personally seen his finished images in 3-D and it is way cool. The images have incredible depth.

Incidentally, the ground was from an image I made in the Grand Canyon. The cloud-shrouded mountain is an image from inside Haleakala crater. Not sure where the gekko came from.

Dr Russell Brown may be back in Hawai’i this winter for more “hard work” (yeah, right) on his creative projects.

Oh, by the way! Santa made his way throught makawao town this weekend. The town was mobbed with shoppers. Makawao is such a cool boutique town. Even Opra herself is known to wander about through the shops under heavy disguise…..  no need to disguise in Makawao though, we’re not known to make a big fuss over our celebrity visitors.

…and a Sunday afternoon, to boot. And I am still trying to configure my blog so that it is a bit more user friendly. Rachael is still cranking at the gallery as we approach the Christmas shipping cut-off date. FYI, this year’s Post Office shipping cut-off from Maui is the 15th of December. Any orders places later my require FedEx Express for guaranateed Santa Claus delivery.

So….. after a gagillion hours fighting with my computer and also with the internet, my new website is up. It was also up a week ago, but then down, and then up again, then down, up, down…. The dang site was re-directing into an infinite loop. I’m sure a few of you have been there; done that.

I had planned for the new site to be up in August, and here it is December; six months late. Still, I feel like it is only halfway done. Geeeze, I have learned a ton along the way.  I bought a stack of “Dummies” books along the way, Dummies Dreamweaver, Dummies HTML, Dummies Blogging, Dummies Website Design — boy do I feel like a dummy at this point.

So I hope to add a bit more style to the site, and finish a few loose ends. My goal is to make this site easy for you to see what’s new, from my camera. I have soooo many new images that I have not even seen in detail. I also am looking to expant beyond my established list of clients. So please forward this website to friends, and family, and other lovers of Hawai’i.

Rachael’s blog came up this morning also. Still, I am in awe at the number of daily readers she has! She is the queen of the aloha spirit, isn’t she?

I have not been blogging on my old site for a couple of months, in anticipation of this easier-to-use page. I’m back, and I hope to make it interseting!

from paradise,

~r