photowalking in the rain

The alarm went off at 6:15am and I slowly got my stuff together and headed to the bayfront area of Hilo, to Liliuokalani Gardens to meet up with other bleary eyed photographers (pros, aspiring and snappers alike) that morning. And because of our position on the globe, Hilo and another 3 Hawaiian cities (Honolulu, Huelo and Paia) would be one of the last (if not the last) cities in the world to embark on the 2nd annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. Over 400 cites around the world and more than 27,000 32,000 photographers were taking part this year. Wow! And all within the same 24-hour period known to us all as July 18, 2009.

But it was raining. It had been raining all night, and as I awoke with the alarm buzzin’-n-beepin’ on my bedside table, it was still raining. But as I drove out of the house it stopped. With an inspirational photography podcast playing on the car radio, I began to plan in my head what I might shoot that morning. But, as they say about the ‘best laid schemes of mice and men…’, as soon as we were ready to start the photowalk at 7am, it started to rain.

The conditions made it really difficult and, personally, I found it a struggle to get inspired – to get “in the zone”. I would see something that I thought was an interesting composition and set up the tripod and then struggle to balance the umbrella over me and the equipment (well, mostly the equipment) while trying to set up the camera, thinking about focal point, zoom, crop, apertures and shutter speeds all the while. That’s hard in the best of conditions, but in the pouring rain….aaargh! Typically, this was my first view through the viewfinder as I crouched down (soaking my okole in the process!):

Despite these conditions, some 25 people from the East Hawaii area did turn up and venture into the Liliuokalani Gardens and Coconut Island area, in search of that perfect shot which might just win them some great prizes. In retrospect it was fun, and I am eager to see what images others managed to capture in those difficult conditions.

Ironically, as I write this up the following morning – it is a sunny and most beautiful day here in Hilo. Absolutely no regrets, I love Hilo whatever the weather!

pre-visualising a fallen leaf

We’re told by the best photographer that pre-visualisation is a key technique to make good photographs. You are supposed to look at a scene or subject and try and imagine what the final result will look like before you press the shutter. And by ‘final’ what is meant is after all the post-processing is complete and you’ve printed your image or published it to your blog.

hdr sunset

This is the first time that I have tried to do a HDR on a sunset scene. The light is changing so fast in this situation I didn’t know what to expect. Still, I like experimenting and so I gave it a try. I worked as fast as I could to get the shots (8 images in all – each 1 stop apart – were required to cover the extreme contrast range between the setting sun and the rocks in the foreground). At the time I didn’t know how it was going to turn out, but I like the result.

This was shot at a small beach in Maui where we have just spent 10 days of vacation. Just above and to the right of this scene is a deck where we would sit in the evening, eat our freshly BBQued meal and enjoy the sun setting behind Molokai (which you can see in the distance).