Existential Opportunities

Hawaii presents itself as a paradise, and aptly so, since one can fashion his/her ideas around what they consider to be paradise wherever they find themselves: namely, there is something about an: island-an almost perfect climate-and the isolation/uniqueness of terrain— which lends itself to believe fantasy-can-come-true (“Fantasy Island”, if you will).

Such thinking can become dangerous to a photographer since they are supposed to be there to catch the shot. Is it the shot of their fantasy or is it the shot of what is. To be truthfully honest with you, I believe it is a combination of both, which in and of itself even poses more complexity onto the existential moment.  Such is the excitement of photography.

And that is what my photographic journey in Hawaii was about: namely, a myriad of possible shots around a single event; trying to get the most of that time slot and location, and understanding how to best capture the scene visually onto a two dimensional medium.  This may be a clinical and sterile description, but technically that is all the camera really cares about, since it is not a thinking and feeling entity.

The time in Hawaii was divided into two parts: my photographic workshop and my personal vacation time. In the former part I was exposed to optimal light shooting conditions, namely soft light in early morning and evening. In the latter part, I was at the whims of when it was convenient for me to be at various sites to actually fit the sites into my time stay in Hawaii (generally at mid-day time of lighting conditions).

How to adjust to the above very different ways of taking photographs? I did my best, meaning I tried to focus on certain elements of the shot, even though the light was not the best.

The currently posted shot is of a beach on the eastern shore of Oahu, around the Makapu’u Beach, where the sun was in and out of the clouds, with even rain clouds threatening every minute (such is Hawaii). The wind and wave action were dynamic, at least for an Eastern Coast Mainlander. The light was not perfect but the wave motion was. This is what I tried to capture.

The shot was taken with a Canon 5 DS, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM, @ 93mm, f/22, 1/8″, ISO 50. I may have had a 3-stop neutral density filter on, but I am not sure about this.