Camera Fun in Hawaii

During the second half of our vacation, on the Poipu side, I decided to try out some new techniques with the camera.  I wanted to capture the waves as more of a rolling mist.  To do this I needed a longer shutter speed which meant a lower light atmosphere.  I could only take these at dawn or dusk; I was awake for both but I worked at dusk because I enjoyed reading in the early morning.  Here are some of my favorites that I took.

A silhouetted sunset.

In this one I was trying something on the camera where it overlaps
two pictures.  I liked the idea of a sailboat with the 'foggy' waves.

I tried to get artistic with these.  The lighting was getting pretty pour by this time and it was the last night so I couldn't experiment as much I wanted.

And to end with, my favorite shots to take- waves crashing on rocks.

4th of July Part II

After our waterfall adventures we finally arrived in Poipu.  Elise and I went immediately to the "Spouting Horn".  The Spouting Horn is a little tourist rocky beach; the incoming waves crash into the rocks and have carved their way under.  The water then spouts up from holes a few feet in from the water line creating blowhole like springs.  They also have a place for boutique shops there but these were already closed.  And as any good American's Independence Day should, our 4th of July ended with fireworks that we lit off from the beach.  First the ones from the Spouting Horn

This was the biggest blowhole there.  Our timing was impeccable;
we got there a little before high tide when the spouts are highest.

A more dispersed spout generated a good sized rainbow.

In the lower middle is a junior spout.

Besides the spouting, the beach had a great view.

Apparently it became to risky to actually go on the rocks so
they (those un-liked powers to be) put a fence in.

These next few are from our back lawn.

Looking northwards.

The sun setting behind a building.

Some surfers savoring a sunset surf.

Some family fun before fireworks.

I found some games in a closet.  I decided to bust out twister while
we waited for the dusk to fade before lighting fireworks.

Alex Pfotenhauer: Twister Champion Extraordinaire.

Finally to the fireworks.  Since I was show master, most of these were taken by Elise's sister.  As fire master, I managed to walk away with only three small burns despite the severe wind.

Elise doing a local, time-honored dance with fireworks.

Backing away after lighting one off.

Lorrie dancing with sparklers.

The Grand Finale.

Princeville Sunset

After relaxing and recuperating from our Tuesday morning boat outing, we got drinks Tuesday evening at a tavern.  I say a tavern because it was called "The Tavern", but it was the bar at a local golf club.  And it wasn't just a golf club it was Prince Course, part of "America's Top 100" (which I know nothing about, but they seem to think it's a prestigious title).  The Tavern was up on top of a hill looking and was situated nicely for what turned out to be a beautiful sunset.  While my father-in-law finished golfing I was able to get some pictures of the scenery.  The sunset occurred while we were inside, but I opened the windows and got some nice shots.  I should note here that we forgot to bring our tripod along with us to Hawaii and I should have really liked it here.

I decided to mess around with some floral close ups while waiting.
This was the best from that lot or I just liked the yellow over the pink ones.

Kevin with his last shot of the day.  I would have had a nice one of
his chip right before this but his partner blocked the picture.

I was quite pleased that I managed to capture the sun rays
through the clouds.

Panorama of the view (click to enlarge).

Hawaii

The past 10 days we took a family vacation with Elise's family to the Hawaiian island of Kauai.  We took over 2500 pictures (I have no idea how many we took but that seems like a good napkin estimate).  Over the next week or so we will be uploading different posts chronicling the different adventures we had there.

After a flight delay due to adverse weather conditions in Chicago (we flew out of LAX), we got to Lihue just after sunset.  I had a window seat and snapped a few pictures of said sunset from the plane; as a bonus we all saw the mythical 'green flash'.  Between getting people's luggage (I always carry-on), getting the rental car and driving it was pretty late by the time we got to our destination in Hanalei.  Since it was dark during the drive I did not get to see much of 'The Garden Isle' that night.  I woke up the next morning, and the entire week, around 6-630 am local time.  Elise got up with me the first morning and we took some pictures of our view.

If you click to enlarge the pictures you can see part of the flash.

I thought these birds were beautiful; these hung around everywhere in  Hanalei.
I gave a few nicknames, this one is chubs.

View from the balcony at 630.

One of Kauai's many waterfalls.

Enjoying breakfast with a view.

My new favorite past time- morning coffee with a view.

Many, many more to come!!  Feel free to comment below about your favorite ones or memories from the different locales on Kauai.

Day around the Bay

On Saturday April 14th we got the chance to hang out with our friends the Spoons. We met up with them at a marine mammal center and watched the volunteers feed the sea lions that were there rehabilitating. We also spent some time at the beach, and a discovery play center. As we were driving around we were also able to see some amazing views. Here are some pictures from our day with the Spoons:

Like we said before, the weather was beautiful all weekend.

Sea Lion's lounging at the mammal rescue center.

Ducks enjoying the cool lagoon.

View of the Golden Gate from outside the harbor; San Francisco is in the background.

We barely managed to get set up in time to catch the sunset.

It was so windy on the point that we could not leave our camera on the tripod to shoot both of us.

Enjoying the beauty.