Month: August 2011

My travel opportunities have been great.  I am so blessed by God to visit these various places.  My company sent me to Hawaii for nearly a week.  I was on the island of Oahu at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa.  A resort of twin towers shaped like the Pringles chip can, it’s located across the street from the beach.

I knew I wouldn’t have the opportunity to travel as if I were on vacation.  Therefore, I walked around and made the most of my opportunity with the sights around me.

Diamond Head is one of the most famous landmarks in Hawaii.  It is a crater looming in the background of many images from this island.  I created an HDR image that would display the colors of the sky, crater, trees, and beach.  It required multiple images to do this.

Two types of images you’ll always see during my travels are panning or pattern shots.  I saw the colorful surfboards lined up and it appealed to my love of patterns.

I’m working to improve my images of people.  People are the most interesting subjects in photography.  The range of emotions they can display on their face or by body language always makes photographing them challenging and rewarding.  A grand vista of mountains, streams, and valleys cannot conjure the emotions brought by a well-taken photo of someone.  With that said, sometimes you don’t need their face or body language.  It can be the relationship understood by the grasp of a hand.  If you add a sunset in the background, you can get a wonderful image.

During my last night in Hawaii, I went to grab a bite to eat and debated whether or not to take my camera–actually it wasn’t much of a debate.  I take it wherever I go!  As I walked back to the hotel, I saw this performance.  The performers were sharing the cultural history of Hawaii through dance and music.  The sun already dipped below the horizon, but the sky displayed beautiful sunset colors.  Initially, I wanted to capture the performance from the front of the stage.  If I had moved to the front, the photo would’ve been cluttered with people and buildings of downtown Waikiki.  From the back of the stage, I captured these wonderful colors with the crowd silhouette instead.

My brief time in the Aloha state allowed me to grab a few photos.  I look forward to returning and having another opportunity to see more of the islands.  Also, I want to go on a shark tour with Jordyn!