Just moved to Hawaii. Completely new subject matter!

So these are not the best pictures I've ever taken and I know that, but I'm going to be here for 6-10 months and want to utilize my time here to get some great shots so I want to put up what I did this morning for feedback so I can do better. I spent a week packing my stuff, traveled for 25 hours yesterday to get here, got about 6 hours of sleep last night, 5 the night before that, and am now exhausted, a little delirious, and completely stunned to be living in a tropical paradise. That said when my friend got home this morning (he works night shift and got off work at 8am) and said "do you want to go to the North Shore?" I said "YES let me get my camera!" and off we went! We took an hour long hike along the North Shore and I took 143 pictures. Most were pretty terrible, but I got a few that I think are worth sharing and learning from and so I present to you.... the best I did given my exhaustion, excitement, and the complete spontaneity of this adventure...

First, I know an old rusted barrel isn't exactly indicative of "Hawaii" but I like taking pictures of old ruined things (I don't know why) so I just had to do it. My friend was confused when I stopped to take a picture of an old rusted barrel when there's all this gorgeous scenery all around me but eh, I like what I like!

I present two versions of this picture: the uncropped version and the cropped and slightly color adjusted version. This type of shot can be taken anywhere, so any feedback on this is appreciated







Second, this is a piece of subject matter I'd like to improve on in the next 6-10 months... waves! I've posted my water shots before. I really love playing around with shutterspeed with water. I feel like I maybe could have set the shutter speed higher on this shot and gotten better results, but... again, exhaustion... I'm not really happy with this shot, but I'd like to try this again and I certainly have PLENTY of opportunity to reshoot this type of thing and get the type of shot that I'm going for here. What can I do better next time?





I was just playing around with this one. I usually do landscape shots for, well, landscapes, but I just liked the cloud and the volcanic rock and figured it'd be interesting to flip it into portrait for this. Not sure if I succeded, but I think it's interesting at least. Thoughts?




I can't wait to go on another adventure after I've had some rest and have time to think my shots through a little better. For the record I'm on Oahu but I do plan on going to the Big Island before I leave. If you know of any great spots to go let me know!

Beautiful pix and congratulations on Hawaii... I'd love to spend some photo time there now that I have good glass and camera to match

Aloha

-Al

I like the last one (wave /w vertical framing) best. Alas, it could use some heavy duty post processing to perk up those clouds.

Kelly Cook

Those would all benefit from a change in time of day. Dawn or dusk maybe?

effron wrote: Those would all benefit from a change in time of day. Dawn or dusk maybe?

+1. Not an ideal hour for photography, at least not for those shots.

All of us want to be there!

Thanks! And yeah good point about the time of day. It was a very spur of the moment trip. I'd been here about 12 hours, just woken up and had some coffee and got dragged out the door. But I've got plenty of time to plan a morning or evening shoot so I'll work that in next time.

KCook wrote: I like the last one (wave /w vertical framing) best. Alas, it could use some heavy duty post processing to perk up those clouds.

Kelly Cook

Thanks for the tip. What would you do in post to perk up the clouds? Color adjusting? Sharpness? I'm glad you like that one. I was trying something a bit different and I'm happy it worked.

Spur of the moment trip, must be nice!

StephanieW wrote: Thanks! And yeah good point about the time of day. It was a very spur of the moment trip. I'd been here about 12 hours, just woken up and had some coffee and got dragged out the door. But I've got plenty of time to plan a morning or evening shoot so I'll work that in next time.

KCook wrote: I like the last one (wave /w vertical framing) best. Alas, it could use some heavy duty post processing to perk up those clouds.

Kelly Cook

Thanks for the tip. What would you do in post to perk up the clouds? Color adjusting? Sharpness? I'm glad you like that one. I was trying something a bit different and I'm happy it worked.

I'm not really sure, except a mask would be needed so that the changes are only above the horizon. Once the mask is in place you could play with contrast, levels input, gradients, etc.

no help Kelly

Congrats on being in such a wonderful place. All the shots are nice. The last is my favorite.

KCook wrote:

StephanieW wrote: Thanks! And yeah good point about the time of day. It was a very spur of the moment trip. I'd been here about 12 hours, just woken up and had some coffee and got dragged out the door. But I've got plenty of time to plan a morning or evening shoot so I'll work that in next time.

KCook wrote: I like the last one (wave /w vertical framing) best. Alas, it could use some heavy duty post processing to perk up those clouds.

Kelly Cook

Thanks for the tip. What would you do in post to perk up the clouds? Color adjusting? Sharpness? I'm glad you like that one. I was trying something a bit different and I'm happy it worked.

I'm not really sure, except a mask would be needed so that the changes are only above the horizon. Once the mask is in place you could play with contrast, levels input, gradients, etc.

no help Kelly

Highlight/shadows, use the highlights slider. Should bring back clouds. Also doing a gradient and blending would be desirable.

Messed around with highlights and shadows a bit. I may have gone too extreme lol but I was just playing around and experimenting. I still need to invest in better post processing software. Still using Picasa! Still intimidated by Photoshop! But I will make that step towards better software soon now that I have a ton of photography opportunities available all of a sudden.

Here's me playing around with it a bit:

North shore meaning the famous North Shore of Oahu? Or are you on a different island?

If you're looking for inspiration or locations, check out some of Clark Little 's work. He shoots in a lot of great spots on Oahu.

Also, if you're on Oahu and looking for a great beach to visit, make sure to check out Lanikai on the Windward (east) side of the island. Or a little bit north of there, Kailua is also nice. That part of the island is away from the touristy areas, and a great place to get sunrise shots. For sunsets, I recommend the North Shore, and Ko Olina beach park on the west side of the island. Be careful going other places further up the coast on the west side though, some of those areas are great places to get robbed...

Make sure to also drive Pali highway, the scenic route to the Windward side. Stop at the scenic lookout - it's well worth it. Expect a lot of wind there! And if you like a good, relatively short hike, Diamond Head is awesome as well. You get a spectacular view of the island and the coast from there.

Enjoy paradise and post lots of photos!

Oh, forgot to mention, if you'd like to rent any gear, check out www.hawaiicamera.com/ in Honolulu. Pretty decent prices for just about anything you might want to rent. The owner is a really nice, helpful guy too.

Thanks so much for all those tips! Yes, North Shore of Oahu. These were at Ka'ena point technically so I guess that's more northwest but my friend kept saying "North Shore." Not sure where the division is for that. We're going to go out tonight down in Honolulu. Probably won't have a lot of photo opportunities on this trip, but I've got plenty of time and I'm learning how to ride a moped so I can go off on my own little adventures. Thank you SO MUCH for the locations and the links. I'm so excited

Also wow there are a lot of rainbows. I've never taken pictures of rainbows with my nice camera before (always only have my cell phone with me) but there are huge vibrant double rainbows almost every other day right outside my window so that's another thing I'm looking forward to experimenting with.