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.

Ke'e Beach - Swimming with Turtles

Before I went to Hawaii the one thing that I knew I wanted to do there was swim with sea turtles.  I got to do it twice!  The first time was at Ke'e Beach located in Haena Park.  Haena is a beautiful park on the northwest side of Kauai.  It is at the end of the highway coming from the north side of the island.  There is 20 or so miles of unsettled land afterwards along the Na Pali coast.  At Ke'e beach there is a coral reef that makes great snorkeling.

I snorkeled by myself for an hour or so.  After 15 or 20 minutes I came across sea turtles and was able to observe, photograph and video them all alone.  They were grazing on coral in water that was <1' to 2' deep.  After awhile I brought back Elise and her sisters to see the turtles as well.  All of these pictures were taken with our underwater camera; it was definitely worth purchasing for this experience.  The settings are much more restricted on this camera and I had no idea how any came out until I got home.

School of fish I came across before the turtles.

I got lucky and managed to get four of the five turtles in this shot
(and some other fish photobombing).

The turtle in action.

Caught one in eating.

Elise and her sister observing my new friend turtles.
The turtles were hanging next to me, which made it easy to snag this picture.

Special bonus in this post - our first ever video!  I was even more skeptical at how these would come out, but again they were great.  I was being tossed about in the waves so it is a little jolty.  I spliced together several different clips that I took, including one with Elise examining the turtle.

n.b. the video can be enlarged to full screen by clicking the lower right.

Waterfall and Beach

After Queen's Bath we hiked back and went to Hanalei Beach.  It poured on the drive but was sunny by the time we set up on the beach.  Here are some pictures next to a waterfall on the hike and some fun ones from the beach.

Kirsten managed to photobomb perfectly.

Trying to pose and riding the wave didn't work out so well for me.

Lorrie wanted to play ring-around-the-rosie...
this is us all falling down.

Mother's Day 5/13/2012

We have not posted in awhile and have a lot of blogging to catch up on. On Mother's day (May 13th) we celebrated my (Elise's) mom's birthday as well as mother's day by going up to Venice Beach, hanging out, walking around, and eating dinner at C&O Trattoria. C&O's is a great family style Italian restaurant that Alex discovered while at UCLA. We had so much fun hanging out and celebrating my mom. Here are some fun moments from the day: 

View of some of the boats from the pier

Me and Kiri on the pier

My mom and Kiri on the beach

Mom and Dad

Alex kite flying

Dad assisting

Mom taking her turn with the kite

Kiri the pro kite flier

These are some of my favorites of my mom

At dinner

It was so yummy and so much fun!