Sunsets, Snapshots, & Lu'au

Being sick on vacation sucks...  I already said that didn't I?  Well it does.  So I don't have much in the way of nice photos.  What I do have are some nice snaps.

This shot is not too bad.  I might be able to clean it up a bit more in post.  And of course the crop works. :-D

With Lorrie as an assistant I got a pretty good shot of my parents.

These shots could have worked better with a little planing.  But as the title of this post says...

Last night my moms friend Yuki Lei treated us to a Lu'au.

Quick snap of the sunset.

Opening the Imu.

Our table and view.


Another snap.

And what Lu'au would be complete without dancing!

Back to the water fun!

Trilogy trip -- Molokini & Turtle Town

More underwater sights aboard the Trilogy II with Trilogy Tours!!!  This was a great trip.  Trilogy boat tours has been in business for over 30 years and they really know how to make you feel at home.


The Trilogy II is their 7th boat in the fleet (I believe it replaces an older boat by the same name).  It is brand new having been delivered in September.




The trip was full of beautiful sights above water as well as below...

Maui storms stayed away from us for most of the day.  This is looking East toward Haleakala crater.

Captain Bret made my Mom feel at home.  :-D

We only got a bit of sun during the day mostly overcast with no rain to speak of.  Here Lorrie enjoys the sun on the trip out.

First snorkling was at Molokini.  Crew member Caleb played life guard on his surfboard, seen here with Molokai in the back ground.

I personally saw, Longnose Butterfly, Racoon Butterfly, Rectangular Triggerfish ( Humu Humu Nuku Nuku Apua' a; state fish of Hawaii, as I now know), Orange-spined Tang, Moorish Idol, Saddle Warse, Pinktail Triggerfish, Yellow Tang, Unicornfish, Achilles Tang, Needle Fish, Blue Crevalle, White-spotted Puffer, Lemon Butterfly, a Moray Eel, and some turtles on this trip!  In addition plenty of Slate Pencil Sea Urchin and Cauliflower Coral.

Unfortunately, most of these fish are pretty shy and I only got the following shots...  :-(   hehehe...

I am not sure what kind of fish this is but they were pretty friendly.

Orange-spined Tang with some Yellow Tangs in the background:

Morish Idol are actually quite easy to approach and are very pretty.  So here is another shot of one.

The Slate-Pencil Sea Urchin's were all over.

During this trip my Dad used a simple point and shoot film camera to capture me taking some shots...  Here he is in the standard "me taking a picture of him, taking a picture of me, taking a picture of...."  You get the idea!  ;-)

So here I am in action, no laughing at the pale slug-like body...  His point and shoot did a pretty good job all in all:

My dad is no stranger to free diving either.

Here is a shot of the Moray Eel.  I did not get a really good shot of him as I did not want to get too close!!!  ;-)

Then on to Turtle Town:

Lemon Butterfly?  I swear these guys were going to mob me when I first got in the water.  It is hard to believe they have never seen a tourist with a snorkel and a camera before!  ;-)

The turtles were big and gentle.

Another shot trying to show the size of the turtles.  They would come right up to you if you were still.  Some people would swim toward them.  They were quick to move away if this happened.

2 times I was surprised by how close the turtles came to me when I was just floating.  The second time I was more prepared with the camera.  I actually had to zoom out he was so close!!!

My parents and I took a trip with Trilogy tours some 28 years ago.  I am happy to say this trip was every bit as good as that one was.  Thanks to our crew, Bret, Caleb, Jenny, and Shigeki.

We ended the day with some shopping and dinner in Lahaina.  A cruise ship was anchored off shore and made for a pretty evening shot.  As I love night shots I could not resist!

Lu'au Time!

Maui -- finally!

Wow, first off I have to say...  being sick is a real bummer...  I got sick a couple of weeks before our trip and the flight here turned out to be hard.  I landed sick and slept for almost a day here...  But things are looking up...  Without further ado here are some highlights...


Maui in the fall is full of Rainbows!  The new wide angle came in handy for this shot!

The windsurfers were sailing in paradise!

The waves and wind were not bad either...  ;-)

A bike ride down the mountain was adorned with rainbows as well!  ;-)

Early morning sun over Haleakala volcano.  The 2 peaks off in the distance are on the big island of Hawaii.  It was VERY cold at the top and we were shed'ing clothes all the way down.

Haleakala crater...

Today we finally got wet!!!

Unfortunately, these are not really great shots.  But we did get to see a lot of colorful fish.

Rectangular Triggerfish:

I think this is a Teardrop Butterfly:

Moorish Idol:

And another angle.

Lorrie was cold and wet.  But happy!

Tomorrow I hope to get the camera working better.  We are heading out for some more snorkeling at Molokini which is supposed to be a great place for fish, turtles, and perhaps some dolfins!


Next Stop -- Turtle Town

Getting ready for Maui

I'm not really much for words, but I am excited enough about this I will write a bit...

I spent some time researching what underwater set up to get for our upcoming trip to Maui.  In the end I made a trip to Backscatter in Monterey.  I went there intending to get a Canon G12 set up but they set me up with a much better camera and housing.  I got the Olympus Pen E-PL1 with the Olympus underwater housing.  This set up was not too expensive and works quite well.  This is a micro 4/3rds camera.  Some of the down sides are the controls are a bit clumsy to use.  I shoot in aperture mode 90% of the time and setting the aperture is so easy on my D300.  This camera takes a couple of button presses to do so.  But it works well for most point and shoot situations.

I don't have much in the way of test time so I took a dip in the spa tonight...  (Thank god our water chemistry is good and the water is clear!)

Not much in the way of art...  Except for the noise the first shot might pass for the manufacturers brochure.  But that was not really the point of this.  The point was to verify that this equipment works as I expected or worse yet finding out something is broken...  Never go on a trip with new equipment that you just bought.  If you want to get the most out of fancy gear you need to know how to use it.

For example, I have a lot to learn about this flash set up.  I am going to have to read the manual and do some testing.  I could not get the ratio of ambient to flash correct.  It is supposed to do TTL flash which it seemed to be doing but I could not dial the flash down.

Also ISO 400 is fine, 800 is ok, 1600...  Not so much.  So shooting in the dark was kind of pushing the limits of the camera.

Post if you have questions...  I can't wait to get this in the water in Hawaii...

Light Cipher

Busy days

Wow have I been busy the last few months. Lorrie and I have been gearing up for our first art festival in September. I think all the pieces are falling into place. I don't think I realized how hard this was going to be when I started all this!!!

Just for kicks here is a quick look at my work area.




I will try to get some "actual" photography posted here soon.

Till then,
Light Cipher

Galileo's Moon

I have to say I feel somewhat special when I think of what it must have been like for Galileo to have first seen the craters on the moon. I felt like that last night when I first pointed my scope at the moon. I could not believe how clear the craters were. The next step was of course to put the camera on!!! :-D

I found out pretty quick that the moon moves pretty fast! Without tracking on I was having a hard time keeping the moon in the viewfinder. Also I think it was moving fast enough to make many of my shots blurred!

I finally aligned the scope and set it to track and got something decent.

It is interesting how spectacular it felt to get this shot! I only wish I could have controlled the vibration just a bit better. I decided it would be nice to try something with a bit more in it and threw on the focal reducer to get the full Moon.

I really like this shot. I took some creative liberty with the white balance and color, because, you know, that is what an artist does!  After all I am not working for NASA out of my backyard!  ;-)

Again, I can only imagine what Galileo must have thought when he first peered through a telescope at the moon.  It really was such a thrill even though I know what I am looking at!  This Astrophotography thing is way cool!

Light Cipher

Sirius

The sky was clear tonight so I decided to try the telescope.  I have been reading up on Astrophotography and although I don't think I am proficient yet I was able to get the telescope focused and an image which is at least pleasing to look at...

Sirius

There are so many problems with this image it is not even funny.  However, I am just so excited about this new form of Photography I had to post something!

Here is another shot...  Our dog, Tessa, got in on the action here.  Perhaps because Sirius is part of the Dog constellation?  No, actually it is because I did not lock her in the house!  She barely brushed the tripod during the shot...  It is kind of pretty in it's own right but it really shows how stable you have to have the equipment to get a good shot.

Oh well, I had a lot of fun.

Till next time,
Light Cipher