Unending Rainbow

This is the last day of August so time for me to pick a new them, but first to finish the month. During our daytime sightseeing flight We managed to catch a rare phenomenon - a circular rainbow. Unfortunately I didn't catch a picture of the complete circle. I think I could have if the pilot had tried a little longer to maintain the cirlce, unfortunately the steep banking required did not sit well with all passengers.
For a moment we even had a double circular rainbow happening. In order to create a circular rainbow, you have to be between the water droplets and the sun.



1/1000 f/3.3 ISO 80 @ 4.9 mm DMC-TS1
North west corner of the Big Island,Hawaii

Zooming in tighter you can see a more intense band of colour.



1/4000 f/3.2 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70 mm Canon EOS 40D
North west corner of the Big Island,Hawaii

I have enjoyed sifting through my many images to pick the few to share with you. Mahalo.

Kona Coffee

I didn't know that coffee was such an important crop in Hawaii before I got there. I certainly had heard of Kona coffee, but never associated it with the Kona in Hawaii.

In order to be called 'Kona' it has to grow in a 2 by 20 mile strip along the Kona coast at a certain altitude. We visited two coffee farms while there and learned quite a bit about the growing process. When the 'cherries' are a dark red then they are ready to be picked, dried, and roasted.

One fact to highlight a dark roast coffee has less caffine than does a medium roast. If you want to try some Kona for yourself, you can order it online.

• http://www.konajoe.com/
• http://www.royalkonacoffee.com
  

1/250 f/5 ISO 200 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 73 mm Canon EOS 40D
Kailua-Kona,Hawaii

The reds and greens make for a nice colour contrast. The f/2.8 aperture is what creates the blurred background. Also note the repetition of lines the lead from the lower-left to the upper-right corner? This helps to lead the viewer through the image.

Hula Girls

[Second edition: Thanks to my wife for editing my writing - I should have her do that in the first place.]

I am sure that the title of today's post will drive my web traffic through the roof. Instead  of my typical single picture, I have fourteen. The month is just too short to show all of what Hawaii has to offer.

I honestly didn't know much about the Hula before arriving, Pretty much a Hollywood education on the topic. There are certainly pretty girls, grass skirts and lots of flowers - all of which make for beautiful images. It is a dance, of course, with flowing motions and music. Some Hula are slow and meditative, others are quite frenetic. Hulas originate from many different parts of the Pacific, each with their own particular style. Regardless of where they come from they all tell a story using the whole body as a visual language. A technical purist might claim that Hulas only come from Hawaii and other similar dances are something else. It does seem common practice to call them all Hulas regardless of origin.

Let me first introduce you to Joy. She was the recreation coordinator at the Wyndam Kona Hawaiian resort where we spent a lovely week. She always wore a smile as big as the island and she made us feel very much at home. She also is a talented Hula dancer. At this resort they put on a welcome reception for the guests with live local music and Hulas. In this picture, Joy is doing a welcome dance and is about to give all of the guests a Lei made of Orchids.



1/200 f/5.6 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 110 mm Canon EOS 40D



1/160 f/5.6 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70 mm Canon EOS 40D

Another dancer was Heidi, Joy's friend. They entertained us for an hour with many different dances and costume changes.Here is the photo tip for today. You may have heard that you should try to take pictures in both portrait (tall) and landscape (wide) orientations. In both cases one usually keeps the horizon  flat across the image. This picture of Hedi shows another option; it actually has a name - dutch or 'dutch tilt'. Like most techniques it should not be overused, but it does add a dynamic feel to an image. [After viewing this post my wife claims she took this picture. She is probably right. I think I had the other camera.]



1/100 f/5.6 ISO 500 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 100 mm Canon EOS 40D

As I said at the top, Hula is a language danced with the whole body. As I recall, Joy is inviting people to come to something.


1/200 f/5.6 ISO 500 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 190 mm Canon EOS 40D

Although many of Joy and Heidi's costumes where traditional, some of them where not without modern influences. This blue tinsel skirt was a good choice for 'Blue Hawaii'.  Thank you, thank you very much.


1/160 f/5.6 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70 mm Canon EOS 40D

Heidi picks up the pace with a hip shaking Hula that would rival any belly dance. In case you are wondering, yes, those are coconut shells.


1/200 f/4.5 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 73 mm Canon EOS 40D

Here, Joy is telling us something about the mountain. High places are very important, sacred spots for the ancient Hawaiians.


1/500 f/5 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70 mm Canon EOS 40D

The images of Joy and Heidi were challenging because their dances were done in a visually busy space under a tent. It was during the mid day so outside the tent was very bright. But several days latter we went to a luau production at the King Kamehameha Hotel. The food buffet was great and so was the entertainment. This particular show was supposed to be one of the more authentic commercial luaus. It featured Hulas from not only Hawaii, but Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and New Zealand. The costume were all very vibrant and the dances each had a definite distinct style.

This environment was a completely different photographic challenge. Most of the dancing was during or after sunset. So light was very precious. Slow shutter speeds, wide open apertures and fast moving dancers made for a lot of out-of-focus and blurry images. I had a lot of memory so I could snap often. The production company did use some theater lights to illuminate the scene. They liked red lights a lot which tended to produce a very saturated red image. Fortunately I shot in RAW which gave me lots of control in Lightroom to bring the reds back to more normal and realistic levels.


1/30 f/3.3 ISO 640 @ 4.9 mm DMC-TS1
 
Many of the Hula feature percussion instruments that are used by the dances as well. Here the dancer has a decorated shaker. I believe it to be a gourd with feathers.


1/100 f/2.8 ISO 3200 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 73 mm Canon EOS 40D

Unfortunately for many of these, I can't tell you the origin of each dance and the costume. Except for this one. A Hawaiian cowboy Hula.


1/100 f/4.5 ISO 3200 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70 mm Canon EOS 40D

These girls were quite talented with these 'props'. Sorry, but I don't know what they are called.


1/60 f/2.8 ISO 3200 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 73 mm Canon EOS 40D



1/320 f/2.8 ISO 1000 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 73 mm Canon EOS 40D




1/60 f/2.8 ISO 1000 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 145 mm Canon EOS 40D



1/320 f/2.8 ISO 1000 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70 mm Canon EOS 40D

If you got this far down. Thanks for reading. Or as they say on the island, "Mahalo".

Yellow Billed Cardinal

Another colourful bird that caught my eye was these red-headed ones. At first I thought they might be Red-crested cardinals, but it turns out that they are actually the closely related Yellow-billed Cardinal. What is the difference? Their haircut. The yellow-billed bird does not have the crest at the back of the head.

I like the composition here, but it is not as sharp as it could have been. It is the price I pay for hand-holding. I suppose getting the reflection of all three in the water would have been additional icing. The grass along the bottom I am not so sure what to do with. On one hand it provides some fore ground interest, but would have been better if it had been sharp as well.

Now you might think that my tip is to use a tripod and if you are on a photo expedition that would be a good thing to do. But I was on vacation with my wife, pictures are secondary. Sure I would have loved to put a 16x20 of these birds on my wall, but I was happy to have been there with her. A 4x6 in a scrap book will do just fine.

1/200 f/3.2 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 200 mm Canon EOS 40D

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park,Hawaii

Saffron Finch

Shortly after arriving on the island we saw these delightful little birds. As you can see from the photo, bright yellow with a dusting of red on the head. Saffron Finches apparently originally came to Hawaii from South America.

1/320 f/5.6 ISO 320 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +2.0x @ 385 mm Canon EOS 40D

Keahou,Hawaii

I made about 30 attempts to get an image I was happy with but too often I was ending up with a snapshot-like result. For our second week we stayed at a different location which had a second floor balcony surrounded with gardens and palms. There was a palm growing right next to our balcony and a saffron had a nest in the crown. I could see her (or him?) while in the nest but most just the eyeball. They would often rest on a frond across the way and that is where I caught this image. I used my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS with the Canon 2X Extender. This allowed a good side-on view with a background I really like.

Welcome to the new layout

You may have noticed that my posted pictures have been rather small. That is because the template I used before was somewhat challenged to display an image larger than 400 pixels. With this new layout I can post much larger images, but other interesting material has now been moved to the bottom. Since most of my visitors are here just for the pictures, this should be an improvement.

Horse Power

At the times we were there the south point area of Hawaii always had a good breeze. On our way back from the green sand beach we came across this windmill installation. I guess the wind blows pretty good a lot of the time.

I like the composition of this image. I played around with several variations - horse in the middle, horse on the right. But horse on the left seem to click for me. The windmills form a regular pattern with the horse taking the 'place' as the first windmill. For many centuries horses were mans primary source of power but now we have move on, this composition tells that story for me.

If I could change a few things, I'd like to ge rid of the fence. I think that would give it more of a free spirit feel, although there might be an argument that the fence captures the horse. What do you think? Also it would have been better early in the morning with some golden light from the side.

1/800 f/7.1 ISO 400 EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 95 mm Canon EOS 40D

South point,Hawaii

Not The Dark Side of the Moon

Unlike yesterday's astrophoto which was shot through a telescope, this image was done with a 70-200 and a 2x multiplier. with a shutter speed of 1/500th. The ISO was moved up to 1600 - better a little noise than a little camera shake.

The lens combo is a pretty heft rig to hold steady but it seemed to work ok. What would make it better? A tripod with mirror lockup. This image is also cropped considerably to fill the frame. You are only seeing 1/25th of the original pixels. Good thing I had 10 million to start with, eh?

1/500 f/5.6 ISO 1600 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +2.0x @ 385 mm Canon EOS 40D

Mauan Kea,Hawaii

Here Comes the Sun

I've always wanted to try telescope-based astrophotography. I have resisted because I know that to get the kinds of results I want will require a lot of practice, travel and money. Not that those things are a particular barrier it is just that I have too man things all competing for the same resources.
I did get my chance while we were at the Mauna Kea visitor centre. They had a large telescope set up and fitted with filters for solar viewing. I grabbed my point-and-shoot, went into macro mode and grabbed this solar portrait. Admittedly it is not a great picture. There is only so much I am willing to do with a line of people behind me. If it is your own gear you can get adapters that allow you to fit some point and shoot cameras to a telescope. You can do the same thing with a SLR camera using a T-adapter in place of your lens and the telescopes eyepiece.

P.S. Thanks for the post yesterday from my guest blogger, Ashok. I will have to add the NY botanical garden to my places to see in New York.

1/8 f/3.3 ISO 400 @ 4.9 mm DMC-TS1

Mauan Kea,Hawaii

Flowers at NY Botanical Garden

As Terry's computer is getting an upgrade, I wanted to publish a couple of photos from my recent trip to the New York Botanical Garden. The Wall Street Journal termed this garden covering over 250 acres and over 50 curated gardens as a garden of earthly delights. The Botanical Garden is a welcome and much needed green spot in the otherwise hustle and bustle of the megalopolis.

Flora and Fauna is my favorite subject for Photography. Both the photos were taken with Nikon D60 and my 18-200mm. The first photo is of a Sunflower cropped to fill the frame.




The second pick is due to the patterns of bright orange and crimson on the petals on a background on a wash of greens. I would be interested in knowing the name of this flower, can anyone help?

Offline Saturday

Long story short. My photo editing pc is offline this weekend for an upgrade. So mo access to my lightroom catalog. Tomorrow, guest blogger ashok returns to share some thoughts and images from his recent New York trip. I look forward to what he has to offer.

I should be back to normal on Monday. Thinking I might show some astrophotgraphy done while on Mauna Kea.

Mountain Top Perspective

Yesterday's focus was the sunset but today I'll show you the 180 degree (or so) vista. This really was a beautiful place to visit and I'd highly (pun intended) recommend it. Of course, I have only been there once, but it was indicative where the park ranger and the tour guide - who are there every day - got out their cameras. So this day was a little unusual. Do you see the dark blue triangle extending upwards from the sun? That is not a stitching artifact, it looked that way.

This small image does not do a panorama like this justice, so I encourage you to take a look at this larger version. The image stitch was accomplished using Microsoft's Image Composite Editor, which continually seems to do a better job than Photoshop Cs4. Very impressive since the Microsoft program is free.

One little quibble with MS ICE. My workflow for an image composite starts with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I select the images and then use my export preset for ICE. It does a basic JPG export and then runs ICE on the result folder. This pops me into the ICE dialogue allows me to fine tune the cropping and export options and complete the process. I did drop the finished pano back into Lightroom and stack the result with the source images.

When I went through this process I was really disappointed with the colours. They came out very cold and not at all like the real scene. I tried to fix it by adjusting the colour balance in Lightroom, but I couldn't get them right. Then it struck me - sure enough I had done the export to jpg with the colour space set as ProPhoto. ICE obviously stripped out the colour space information for the stitch so the default of sRGB was taken by Lightroom on re-import which is just wrong. When I repeated it with sRGB export it worked great.

ISO400 24-105mm @ 24mm canon 40D.

Shutter speed ranged from 1/800 to 1/60.

9 image stitch.

Mauna Kea,Hawaii

Sunset from Mauna Kea

Sunset from the world's tallest mountain - Mauna Kea! Yes, you read that right, not Everest. Everest is the world's highest, but not tallest - or biggest either.Let me explain. If I were 5 feet tall standing at the top of a staircase and you were 6 feet tall but at the bottom of the same staircase? Who would be taller? You would. But I would be higher. The same goes for Everest and Mauna Kea. Everest sits on a continental shelf, but Mauna Kea sits on the Pacific Ocean floor. Most of it is underwater.
The dark shapes in the foreground are three of the observatories that are up there.

1/800 f/4 ISO 400 EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 24 mm Canon EOS 40D

Mauna Kea,Hawaii

Sunset over Kailua

As I said before one of the images I really wanted to capture was sunsets. But our excursion schedules didn't always line up with the perfect sunset opportunities.
On this day, we didn't get to the lookout until after the sun had set. Many people go home as soon as the sun has disappeared. Photographers should stick around and catch the colour show that happens next. The images you capture won't be 'what you saw' because the camera and our eyes work differently. The camera can see the subtle and muted colours much better than we can. This photo was taken about 40 minutes after sunset with a 10 second exposure.

10" f/3.5 ISO 250 EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18 mm Canon EOS 40D

Kailua-Kona,Hawaii

As it gets dark you need to increase your shutter time. You can increase your ISO to reduce the effect of cloud movements and such but no need to go into high ISO modes. Open up your aperture as well.

I like to use wide angle lenses. Since the colour tends to get sprayed over a larger area of sky.

Don't forget to position yourself to have something of interest in the foreground. Grab a flashlight and try light-painting some foreground elements.

Use a tripod or find someplace solid where you can rest your camera.

Does your camera have mirror-lockup? Read the manual and find out. If it does, learn how to use it. It is a good tool to improve sharpness.

Finally, the photographers spouse should bring a book.

The Day of the Gecko

The Gold Dust Gecko apparently comes from Madagascar among other places but has somehow also managed to make the trip to Hawaii. These discrete little creatures often visited us as I drank my coffee (Kona of course) on the Lanai in the morning in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Many times I tired to sneak up on them with a macro lens to grab a portrait, but more often than not they would scurry away. Having now read up on them a bit, I found that there vision is quite good. Although they were found in many different places, they were often found the massive beds of snake plant around our building.

So for today I will share with you a few of my successes. The macro shots would all have been done with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS with the Canon 500D Close Up Lens. If the caption includes the text "+2.0x" that indicates the I also used the Canon 2X Extender .


These eight different images show differing perspectives.

1/125 f/5.6 ISO 800 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +2.0x @ 375 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/200 f/5.6 ISO 800 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +2.0x @ 385 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/160 f/5.6 ISO 800 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM +2.0x @ 375 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/320 f/8 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 185 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/125 f/5.9 ISO 400 @ 22.8 mm DMC-TS1

1/800 f/2.8 ISO 200 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 185 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/640 f/2.8 ISO 200 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 185 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/40 f/3.3 ISO 80 @ 4.9 mm DMC-TS1

Ranching on Hawaii

Prior to arriving on Hawaii I only had a vague recollection about their being cattle ranching on the island - likely the result of some long forgotten National Geographic edition. But we were presented with an excursion to a Hawaiian cattle ranch for dinner, sunset and star gazing. We went for it.

Kahua ranch, located near Kamuela (Waimea), is about 8500 acres where they raise cattle, and sheep. As well as sell Kawasaki ATVs and catering to tourists. We arrived as the sun was beginning to get low in the sky. It was looking to be a picture perfect sunset. Lots of cloud to give character and catch colour, and up high to provide a different point of view with some interesting foreground features as well.

1/5000 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 73 mm Canon EOS 40D

Unfortunately a fog started to roll-in. The sunset would have to wait, but there was still some interesting light and subjects.

1/400 f/4 ISO 400 EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 28 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/1000 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 185 mm Canon EOS 40D

The cattle were a little to far away for close-ups but there still provided some distant point of interest. I really like the layering we get from the trees, and then the hills behind them, and the ocean in the distance.

1/800 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 190 mm Canon EOS 40D

Of course being a ranch, there were horses. They were nice and close.

1/500 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 73 mm Canon EOS 40D

The fog is starting to roll in thicker.

1/500 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 70 mm Canon EOS 40D

Time to get personal with a horse.

1/500 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 195 mm Canon EOS 40D

1/250 f/4 ISO 200 EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 105 mm Canon EOS 40D

I always like fences. Not because I like to sit on them, although some of my co-workers might think so at times. I just find them interesting, especially old ones.

1/1000 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 185 mm Canon EOS 40D

You never know what you might find on an old fence post.

1/500 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 185 mm Canon EOS 40D

And fences oft make great lines within a photo.

1/800 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 180 mm Canon EOS 40D

The grass was very lush. The greens had a very natural vibrance to them. The rust of this water tank made for a nice contrast.

1/500 f/4 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 185 mm Canon EOS 40D

One of the other guests at the ranch. Too cute to ignore.

1/640 f/2.8 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 195 mm Canon EOS 40D

I normally stay away from tourist 'snapshots' on this blog but and exception or two. Here I am trying to rope a 'cow' . Fortunately this one doesn't move.

1/60 f/4 ISO 1600 EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 28 mm Canon EOS 40D

My wife trying her hand at branding. Fortunately her roping skills were worse than mine, so I managed to escape the iron. Whew. That thing was hot.

1/60 f/4 ISO 1600 EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 24 mm Canon EOS 40D

Here is a real Hawaiian cowboy. He had no trouble roping and was a great host for the night.

1/1600 f/2.8 ISO 400 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM @ 80 mm Canon EOS 40D

Unfortunately the fog became very heavy by sunset so thick that we couldn't see 100m. So much for my sunset pictures and the cloud cover persisted so we missed out on the star-gazing as well. I think we made up for both of those we made the trip to the top of Mauna Kea. But that will be a topic for another day.