Category Archives: photo

Mama’s Fish House

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Upon our arrival on Maui, our first mission was to get lunch.  Nancy had planned ahead and chosen a location not too far from the airport and with a beachfront location that was supposed to be very picturesque.  It was called Mama’s Fish House.  We got there a little ahead of the time of our reservation so parked the car and took a look around.  This place is about as gorgeous as you could imagine a Hawaiian beach to be.  There is a small cove with the waves washing by and making the whole thing look like it was created by a movie set designer.

We sat and enjoyed the place for a while until it was time to eat.  When we did go inside, the welcome was warm and the table was by the windows so we couldn’t have been better off.  One look at the menu tells you that this place is not cheap.  My first instinct was to assume that we were paying for the location.  However, when the food arrived, it was absolutely excellent.  The combination of great food and and outstanding view meant the meal was worth every penny.

Auto ISO

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There is a function built in to my cameras that, until recently, I had never bothered to use.  It hadn’t been something that immediately grabbed my interest and so I had forgotten about it to some extent.  Therefore, when it could have been useful to me, I had not thought about how to make good use of it.  This is Automatic ISO.  This is an interesting idea when you start to think about it in more detail and one that might cause some to react in strange ways.

Many photographers will react poorly to the camera doing anything automatically.  They will say how they like to have control.  Then they will totally contradict themselves by telling you that they always shoot in aperture priority mode, totally ignoring the fact that the camera set the shutter speed for them in this mode “automatically”!  Therefore, for anyone reading (is anyone reading?) who jumps to the “I am against automatic anything” approach, why don’t you go and analyze exactly how your camera works and you use it.  If you are totally manual in everything you set, congratulations.  You obviously don’t need to read this anyway.

For anyone else who is a little more open-minded and who hasn’t played with this capability, let me explain why I tried it.  Plenty of times I have the camera in aperture priority in a situation where it is quite dark.  I know this is not clever of me but I often notice that the shutter speed is low because I can hear that it is!  In situations like this I might then tweak the ISO setting to try and bring things back into a range I am comfortable with.  My technique for this is rolling the dial a bit and seeing what I get.  Not clever analysis by any stretch.

Recently I was shooting a job in natural light (or lack thereof) that started long before the sun came up.  I knew I was going to be using some pretty high ISO settings to get useable shots and this is when the auto ISO function came to mind.  I went to manual mode, set the aperture and shutter speed I wanted and switched ISO to A.  Now, it worked out what was needed to get the exposure right.  As the light conditions improved, the ISO got dialed down but I didn’t have to do anything other than find what I wanted to shoot, compose and get on with it.  The only limitation I had was that I don’t know how (or even if) you can add exposure compensation in this situation.  Something for me to research – maybe even take the dreaded step of reading the manual!

The results were very satisfactory.  I got the images I wanted and didn’t have to constantly wonder about whether my ISO setting was right.  Obviously, this is not a solution for every situation but it does provide a good approach in some conditions.  Maybe you will have a time when it is worth a go to.

Waimea Canyon

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During our last trip to Kauai, I wrote about visiting Waimea Canyon, some of which you can find in the previous posts including here.  This year we went back.  We weren’t looking to do much hiking this time but instead just wanted to take in the lovely scenery.  It is certainly a dramatic enough spot that you can get plenty of good stuff to see.

I did manage to get an aviation theme to this post though.  We got to one of the overlook locations looking into the canyon and one of the tour helicopters was coming towards us.  I grabbed a quick shot of the EC130 as it turned away.  Plenty of other helicopters came by – a steady stream really – but they all took different routes.  I guess it depends on your pilot as to what you get.

We got to the top of the canyon road and the overlook that gives views of the north coast of the island – normally.  Not this day.  The clouds were rolling in and obscuring the view to the north.  Since we were right at the summit, the clouds bubbled up to the top and then dissipated almost immediately.  You had cloud on one side and nothing on the other.  Very cool!

Little Birds

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There are plenty of interesting birds when you visit Hawaii.  The large birds that live on the cliffs like the frigates and boobies are cool as are the Nene, the state bird of Hawaii which is a rare type of goose.  However, there are a few other birds that are plentiful to see and, where we stayed, it wasn’t difficult to find a lot of them coming to visit.  Some were even rather brave about landing on the balcony while we were sitting there.

Two types of bird caught my eye on a regular basis.  One was the red-crested cardinal and the other was a mynah bird.  The cardinals showed up pretty regularly.  According to a friend of mine, they have a duller color to the crest when they are immature and then it becomes fully red when they are adults.  We saw plenty of the immature birds and a reasonable number of those that don’t make fart jokes!

The mynahs are less dramatic but, with the right light on them, they still look pretty good.  They certainly made for something to keep an eye on while we were otherwise taking it easy!

Onset of Fall Colors

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When talking about fall, the most obvious photography option is foliage.  A favorite spot to go to see the fall colors is the Morton Arboretum out at Lisle.  The full colors had not come into their own but, with a number of trips coming up for work and pleasure, I wasn’t going to have a chance to get out there before it was all likely to be over.  When it is done, it is done very quickly.  Therefore, an early visit seemed worth a shot.

We were certainly too early.  However, there was still some interesting color developing with some of the trees.  You could see what was going to look very good before too long so, while the conditions this year might not have been ideal for fall color, I suspect the large number of visitors they get at this time of year won’t be too disappointed.  We got there later in the day to make the most of the nicer light and had a wander amongst some of the trees.  Irrespective of the color or time of year, the arboretum is one of the more pleasant places to be.

I also wanted to play around with the fish-eye amongst the trees.  This was something I had been thinking about for a while so had a quick roam amongst some of the stands.   However, it was getting a little late so I had to get some quick shots.  This is something I will come back to try again and spend more time finding the sort of trees that might suit what I have in mind.

Hanalei

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The place we stay on Kauai is a short journey from the lovely town of Hanalei.  You drop down the side of the hill and cross the river to get to the town which is beside a lovely bay.  It certainly isn’t a large town – this is Kauai after all – but it has a few nice shops and some good places to eat.  However, the best feature is the bay.  (No sign of Puff the Magic Dragon though!)

As the sun goes down, the light on the beach is really attractive.  Not only is it a beautifully curved beach but the mountains in the background make the whole place feel even more special.  I really could stay there for a very long time.  It is an attractive spot to others as well.  If you have seen the Descendents, this is the beach they walked along and the house that the other family were renting.  Here it is below for those movie buffs amongst you.

The Boats Return

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The return of fall also means the return of some boats.  The boats that live out in the lakeside marinas during the summer start their migration back to the boat yards for the winter.  For those with masts that don’t fit under the bridge, there are but two options.  Wednesday or Saturday.  Okay, it is one option but it happens twice a week.  These are the days that the bridges along the Chicago River are opened to allow the boats to make their way back inland.

I wanted to grab some shots of the returning boats on one of the Saturday runs.  The weather was looking promising so I decided to head out.  It is not the best time to shoot since the light is a bit in front of you and behind the boats but it is worth a look.  What is trickier is that the buildings are casting some strong shadows which make for a very contrasty scene.  However, that’s what RAW is for!

As it turned out, the run was not trouble free.  I will save that for an upcoming post and just share a view of the bridges doing what they were designed to do.

Reno Air Races

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This year I made my first trip to the Reno Air Races.  I have no clear explanation why I haven’t been before.  It has been in my calendar for many years but other things always seemed to conspire to stop me from making the trip.  This year, I finally made it.  I could almost have never made it.  With the accident at last year’s races that killed a number of spectators, there were plenty of questions about whether the event would go ahead.  Fortunately it did.

I was covering it for Global Aviation Resource.  My article will shortly be published in their monthly digital magazine so, if you want to get the full story (and the better pictures) pop along to www.globalaviationresource.com to buy the magazine.  I will not reprint anything here that is in the piece for obvious reasons.  However, to tempt you a little, here are some other shots from the event that will hopefully give you a feel for what went on.

It was quite a learning experience for me.  Fortunately, I had a number of friends their to give me guidance on what to do, where to go and what to look out for.   The bus trips to the pylons were a great experience (if a little odd sometimes when we were shuttled about between heats) but getting so close to the aircraft as they turn was something special.

Planning became a real priority.  Each race is relatively short with most being six laps.  In that time you have to get all of the shots you want.  Tight crops, loose views, pylon in the shot, video, slow shutter speeds and there you have used up your race!  Getting into my stride took a little time but I soon got a feel for what I wanted.  This does mean there aren’t many opportunities for a second chance so you have to shoot a lot quickly to make sure you get enough to work with.

This does result in shooting a lot of images over the time there.  All of these have to be downloaded and checked.  I won’t say exactly how many I shot but it was a very large number and culling the crap out was a time consuming business.  I am still weeding out some now!

The media relations team at RARA are unbelievably helpful.  They have a lot of people covering the event yet handle it all with a friendly approach and they really do make your life genuinely easier – not always the case!  I planned out my time at the event to get me to the pylons at some points, in the pits and the flightline at others and the final day was mainly spent in the stands.  My friend Paul had traveled up for that day so it was nice to have someone to chat with while watching the racing from the spectators’ viewpoint – even if I did have to leave that for a while to cover part of the ceremonies.

A great experience all round.  I hope to be back again next year.  In the mean time, please do head over the GAR’s site and pick up a copy of the magazine!

National Tropical Botanic Garden

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The climate on Kauai varies depending on which part of the island you are on.  It can be tropical or almost desert like.  Some places are drenched with rain almost continuously.  The tropical area makes a great place for a tropical botanic garden so that is exactly what is there.  The garden is located inland from the entrance so you need to take a shuttle to get into it.  Once there, you are free to wander around.

There are some really interesting plant types and the landscaping of the place is very attractive.  There were a few other visitors when we were there but it certainly wasn’t busy and we could be pretty much alone as we wandered around.  It did rain a little while we were there.  This is supposed to be the drier side of the island but I guess we brought the rain with us from the north side of the island.  However, the showers were only occasional and we had borrowed umbrellas from the office so we were fine.

Not only were there great trees and plants to check out but we also got to feel what it was like to be surrounded by a plant.  Check out this battle between nature and the road!