Maui Sunsets

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The hotel we were staying in on Maui faced west so each evening was a chance for a sunset. Our first evening was quite a good one with some very pleasant skies. The final evening was okay with something nice but not really the sort of thing that would provide a great image. I went out with the camera for both of them.

The middle evening we went out for dinner and I didn’t take my camera with me. Guess what, the sky was amazing. Everyone at dinner was getting up to go and take pictures. I did have my phone with me so that was the solution. I grabbed a shot just to remember it by. Could have predicted this couldn’t you?

On Top of the City

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I have been very fortunate to be on top of some of the largest buildings in the city of Chicago in recent years. Helicopter lifting operations take me to places that are off limits to many and that provide a great perspective on the city. However, until recently, the highest point in the city was not one I had been to. The top of the Sears Tower (I don’t know many that use its other name) had eluded me. The Skydeck doesn’t count of course!

This changed with the installation of the new TV antenna for ABC on top of the building. The good team at Construction Helicopters had been contracted to install the new antenna having helped removing the old one. We gathered early one Sunday morning for the job to commence. This is a location that is unmatched unless you are actually airborne. I will post some views from on high in upcoming posts. However, the first post is an aviation themed one – no great surprise for this blog!

The aircraft used was a Sikorsky S-61N. The aircraft was leased from a Canadian company and was actually on its last job with Construction before being returned. They have acquired a Super Puma which I hope to see in action at some point. The S-61N is an old design but regular upgrades have kept it as a very capable machine. It staged out of Midway and picked the loads from down at the bottom of the tower. The vertical climb is quite a long one but they did well, not only in placing the loads, but holding them for some time while they were secured. Good job to everyone involved.

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!

Bear Play

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I did something that must have caught Nancy by surprise recently. We were going to take a trip to the zoo to see what was happening since this is a good time of year for the animals to be a bit more active before it gets too cold and they are likely to be kept indoors. The oddity was that I left the cameras at home. We discussed whether this would result in a lot of wildlife in very photogenic situations.

On the whole, I got away with it. There were some shots to be had but it was fun (and a lot easier on the back) to walk around sans gear. However, one resident did perform. One of the polar bears was playing with a ball in the pool which has a glass side to it. A large crowd was having a great time watching this. We were no exception. This was time to grab the phone and get a bit of video. Enjoy a bear enjoying himself!

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.

Underwater Shooting

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Something I have never done before is snorkeling. Having grown up by the sea, I am not sure why this would be but perhaps it is down to the lack of reefs with plenty to see. Snorkeling is very popular on Kauai and I figured I should really try it out. I grabbed a mask and snorkel at a store in Hanalei and headed out to the reef at Tunnels. Having never used a snorkel in anger, I was a little unsure of how I would get on. After a bit of practice breathing while having my face underwater, I started drifting around the reef.

At first there was nothing special to see but suddenly I found myself surrounded by tropical fish. They were everywhere and seemed not terribly perplexed by my presence. It was like being in a documentary except it was right in front of me. Time went by very quickly without me realizing it.

I decided to take along the GoPro with me while I was swimming about. With so much activity in front of you, it is something that you really want to be able to share. The GoPro is a great little device but it is not the perfect solution for underwater filming. Basically, filming underwater is not straightforward and requires good planning and the right equipment. The light is flat and the colors muted. I was chatting with a a pro underwater photographer and we compared notes about what we need for our respective areas.

Having said all of that, I did get some footage so here you go with a sample of what I saw.

Boat Time Lapse

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I mentioned previously that I was out shooting the bridges opening for the returning boats. What I didn’t mention then was that I was primarily looking to shoot a time lapse piece. With the movement of the bridges and the boats progressing along the river, I thought that this might make for an interesting time lapse. It wouldn’t be a lengthy piece but it might be a useful addition to the library for a larger piece about Chicago if I were to do it at some point in the future.

The schedule of the lifts of the bridges is always a bit flexible. How quickly the openings take place, how fast the boats are getting through, how many of them there are and how quickly the crews can move from bridge to bridge. Coming this way, though, they are only at the third bridge so they are usually quite predictable.

I got myself in position, had the camera set up on a mount and the remote timer configured for what I was looking for. I saw the previous bridge open and close so knew it wouldn’t be too long. Sure enough, a short while later, the bells started to ring for the bridge closing. I started my sequence of shots so I would have a run in along with the actual movement of the bridge. Then I waited – and waited – and waited. There were some unfortunate sounds coming from the bridge but nothing was moving. After a while, the bells stopped and people started to cross again.

A crew got to work on the lower level trying to fix whatever was not playing ball. The bridge had opened the previous Wednesday so it wasn’t lack of use that was the issue. My decision was how long would I wait before giving up and going home – an easier option than for the boat crews that were stuck between Columbus and Michigan! Finally they fixed it and the bells started again. I got the sequence restarted and everything then happened as planned. It is a short clip but below is the resulting sequence. Now to find something in which to use it.