I spent the last week on the island of Kauai to try and relax and enjoy the sun a little. If you know me, you know that I don't relax very well. I am not the type of person who lays on a beach or sits by the pool for hours at a time. I like to get out and explore, and that is what we mostly did on our vacation to this quiet Hawaiian island.
On our first full day, we did a pretty challenging hike to get a nice view of Hanalei Bay. As you can see, the weather was really good, with clear skies and temperatures in the low 80s. I decided to hike up with my
Canon R5 Mark II camera and the
RF 24-105mm lens. I also used a
Tiffen Circular Polarizing filter to accentuate the color of the water and sky.
We also hiked along some of the rivers, enjoying the lush greenery and serene scenes.
If you have ever been lucky enough to visit Kauai, you know that there are wild chickens everywhere on the island. Most of the t-shirts and other souvenirs have pictures of the chickens since they are unofficially the mascots of the island. I used the
Canon R5 Mark II and the
RF 100-500mm lens to grab this shot. Yeah, it is a chicken, but I love the colors of this bird.
On the southern coast of the island (near Poipu Beach) is the Spouting Horn, which is a natural blowhole through the lava rock. Using the same camera with the
RF 24-105mm lens, I took numerous slow shutter photos of the water blowing up. This photo was taken at 1/13th second.
After visiting the Spouting Horn, we made the drive up to get a view of the Waimea Canyon. It was really beautiful to see all the different colors in the mountains, as well as the shadows from the clouds, which created constantly changing scenes.
I used the
RF 100-500mm lens for this photo, to isolate the one peak which was lit nicely.
After photographing the canyon, it was time to drive back down towards the coastline. Since we were driving right by the Spouting Horn once again, it seemed like a great spot to stop and watch the sunset. I took another photo, this time with the last bit of sunlight on the water. This exposure was at 1/6 sec.
This is the view to the right of the Spouting Horn. The setting sun was mostly behind a tree, but the low light let me slow the shutter speed down to half a second to show more of the motion of the water. I saw the small blowhole to the right and noticed the rainbow effect on the spray. So pretty!
On our second to last day on Kauai, we took a boat ride to see the amazing Na Pali Coast. Before getting on the boat, we made a quick visit to Glass Beach. There used to be a ton of polished glass here, but now it is all gone. All was not lost as this seal decided to give me a subject for a photo.
The boat trip was 5 hours (which was a bit long) but on the way out we saw some Humpback whales breaching. Using the long lens, I was able to capture this image of a whale jumping above the surface of the water. I was happy to have the
Canon R5 Mark II since the higher megapixels gave me room to crop and get this shot.
The Na Pali Coast is incredibly beautiful with the layers of color and interesting terrain.
Right before we turned around and left the Na Pali Coast, we past this small archway in the rock. At first I was going to zoom in and try and take a close shot of the arch, and then I saw the beautiful "gods rays" coming over the rocks. I zoomed out and took this wide shot instead, and I am glad that I did.
On our way back, we came across some spotted dolphins that were jumping out of the water. I was super excited to photograph these dolphins, since they are my favorite animals.
I burst off numerous photos of this particular dolphin as it jumped and spun before re-entering the water.
We also had some birds flying near the boat and I photographed them in the clouds...
...and flying lower so that I could include the Hawaiian shoreline in the photo.
Now I am back home and back to the rat race. I miss Hawaii already and look forward to the next trip there.
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