Oh what a month it has been!

I have been lucky enough to travel from Parker Ranch on the Big Island to Kalalau Valley on Kauai, with several stops in between. I am tired and satisfied because I have learned so much this month.

I was asked to travel to Kamuela (Waimea) on the Big Island to photograph the incredible Lim family hula halau practicing and performing in the historic old theater there. The show was incredible! I loved to work with so many friends like Lokelani Hurwitz,  Ka’ea Alapa’i, Nani Lim, Mary Lim, Bubba Lim, Lorna Lim….

Naturally the Big Island was sold out of rental cars, and so I rented a moving van. My other choice was a dump truck. My mother traveled with me — poor woman.

After getting back to Maui I arranged to spend a week with my friend Russell. “Dr. Russell Brown” is Adobe’s irector of Creativity, and is the “face of Adobe”. We planned to spend the week in my kayak photographing whales. Well, the weather was horrendous that week, Then my kayak broke. No whales. Well, actually there was one close encounter with a pod of whales, but the timing was off, as we happened to be taking a little bladder-break at that exact moment and the cameras were not in our hands!

We took a helicopter tour with Alex Air after giving up on the kayak. Naturally we asked for a “door-off” flight because we wanted to lean WAAAAYYY out over the skids to get the right shot!

I ended up spending a second week with Russell as he taught a PS4 “Magic of Masking” seminar on Oahu, at the University of Hawaii. I taught a mini class on HDR Panoramics during a lunch break. Portrait artist Joanne Barratt, of Sunset Beach hosted us for a cook-out beach her mansion, allowing us to get out and shoot some cool surfing images after hours.

Changing topics really fast, please mark your calendars for the Maui Photo Festival in September! This is the first year of an annual event that is sure to grow with the recovering economy. This year will offer an intimate experience with several top digital photography experts and the price is fantastic! Check it out on-line at www.mauiphotofestival.com. I am planning to teach 3-4 classes myself. Additionally, I am considering taking a small group of interested campers on an excursion for the next couple of days following this event.

Rachael and Jasmine have held their own in the gallery — actually they are flourishing in my absence! Thank you to all of our loyal customers whom make the trek up the mountain to see what is new and exciting in our gallery.

This man is nuts. Perhaps is is not so obvious for our mainland tourists to realize the dangers of large surf. All it would take is for a few tons of water to smash this man into the razor-sharp lava, for him to understand that he is standing too close to the waves.

While I was on Oahu recently I realized how photography had changed so quickly during the past 5 years. Everybody jumped out of their rental car, or tour bus with some sort of imaging device. Cell phones, pocket cameras, 35mm cameras, video cameras, disposable cameras, iPhones….  I was amazed. Age didn’t matter, either. Even the older folks were holding their cameras out toward the waves for a quick snapshot.

Where do all of these images go? This is the big question? What does the future hold for photographic printing? Scrapbooks? How will we view these images? …Just a few things that I am pondering these days.

Sometimes a good storm is just the right “kick in the pants” for a photographer.

I had a good storm. As luck would have it, I took my first voyage on the Hawaii Superferry, with my car, to O’ahu last week. Right after I got there all of the government warnings started popping up all over the news. “extreme wind, thirty foot surf, all schools closed!” I suppose Iit was exciting, but I was on O’ahu to photograph tranquile scenes in paradise.  Oh well.

So, I went with the flow and headed straight to the very famous North Shore! Waimea Bay! Sunset, Log Cabins, Back Yards, Pipeline! I spent three days there hoping for the wind to die, and for the waves to become surfable.  They called for the Eddie Aikau Big Wave contest to be ready!  It never happened, the waves were too dis-organized.

I waited in my car (completely covered with a salt layer) for the sun to peep through the clouds. I, and waited longer than the herd od other amature and pro shooters. THEN! THere it was, for thirty minutes the sun lit up the North Shore, illuminating the exploding tons of water! The noise was thunderous. The croud was cheering as though each monster wave was a firework creating a blinding and overwhelming display of light!

Was it worth my wait in my van? You betcha! Can’t wait to return!