I am exploring the Lake Tahoe area and practicing my photography while trying to relax a bit, as well. Tahoe is a magical place — as is my home on Maui.

Sadly, my new Nikon D700 has a serious electrical malfunction and so I am using a much lower model camera as a backup during this photo excursion. I am really missing the D700!

It looks like a thunderstorm is moving in again this afternoon. Perhaps I’ll find a location to capture the ominous-looking clouds over the lake. Also, this afternoon, I plan to visit one of my all-time favorite photographers, Elizabeth Carmel, in her new Carmel Gallery in Truckee, California.

A hui hou!

Kumu hula Napua Greig married her lon-time boyfriend Andy Makua on the Forth of July. This was not a typical wedding by any means. The pa’ina finally ended at about 2am — which is understandable because it seemed as though nearly guest in attendance had won a Grammy, or Hokuhanahano music award!

Changing the topic…. our gallery packing and shipping department will take its annual haiatus for the next two weeks. Web and gallery orders will not ship within our usual 48 hour time frame. If you have any questions, please call Rachael at the gallery at 1-800-967-HULA for her legendary customer service.

Okay. I have to admit. I get ZERO credit for any Tako caught today. Zero. Zilch. Nada. (note Bamboo the dog eagerly hoping I will drop one of these…)

My son Jay gets partial credit for “tickling” one of these octopus out of it’s home by massaging it with his spear, and then grabbing on to it as it tried to escape in an ink-spewing, suction-cup-clinging battle.

Our mentor, Brady Borge bagged a total of 5 tako, all keepers. Brady has the eye to see these creatures a mile away, while one might be suctioned to my bald head and I’d never even know it. Brady can sense a “tako house” in his sleep. I am so thankful for the time he has spent teaching us.

For dinner tonight I made two styles of Tako poke — one is my new secret recipe.  It is killer.

Oh, geeze, I have plenty of work to do….  More soon, I hope.

Aloha from the most beautiful Island on Earth.

~r

I love summer in Hawaii. Maui becomes a giant playground. My teenaged kids are finally starting to see what the surrounding ocean has to offer, rather than viewing it at an obstical to traveling. Yesterday both kids learned how to stand-up paddleboard. They got to ride a jetski with a lifeguard a couple days back. Last week Jay and I went fishing with spears under the guidance of an experienced local, and brought home three Tako (Octopus) which we promptly ate as poke salad using a Sam Choy  recipe.

I saw some nice moist clouds setting up for a good sunset recently, and ran out the door with my camera to re-shoot a favorite location UpCountry. Love these summer sunsets!

Next Friday is known as “Lahaina Sun” in the Hawaiian calendar. It is the one day where a person in Lahaina at noon will have no shadow because the sun is exactly overhead. This happens a day earlier in Kahului, Maui. This is the tidbit of the day.

The Maui Photo festival is in September. Check out www.MauiPhotoFestival.com. I’ll be offering an HDR class on how to make an image like this one.

Appropriately, I selected a photo of one of America’s heros to post for this Independence Day. I have followed Willie Nelson for about 30 years now.

I tell my kids that I have been in professional baseball and football stadiums - sold out - in major cities, just to hear his message and his sweet voice. My kids don’t believe me.  He lives more than half the year on Maui, so Willie has become a familiar sight to local folks, who treat and trust him as a friend. Because he is a neighbor to all Mauians, I have had the pleasure, in recent years, of witnessing live concerts in tiny gatherings, and seeing him in restaurants, and on the golf course. Last week at the Maui FIlm Festival I thanked him for all he has done for America, looking him straight in the eye. Then I had a few minutes to photograph him up close and personal. It was one of the greatest moments in my life.

Willie Nelson is not a “pop culture” icon. He is so much more for the good people of this great country.

Happy Independence Day. Relax, Enjoy.

(more…)

Yesterday I was in Lahaina making my normal rounds of deliveries to the Front Street retail stores. There is a stand of coconut trees which have alwave captured my curiosity over the years, but I never really took the time to get my camera out and make an effort to photograph them.  Typically, Lahaina is too hot and sticky for me to actually walk with my camera bag, and set up a tripod. Yesterday I made the time and, yes, ended up sweating profusely. The image is cool, though. Sort of avant garde. Any thoughts?
~r