Travel - David Mathre Photography

Wednesday (21-November-2007) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 4: Kona and Volcano National Park.

I woke up early, and walked to the harbor where I saw a group rowing a Hawaiian outrigger canoe with a cruise ship in the background. I liked the juxtaposition of historical and modern. We then checked out of the hotel and traveled to Volcano National Park. After checking into the lodge, we went for a photo-walk down a tropical rain forest trail. The lessons here included using a flash, how to manually focus a macro lens, how to adjust the focus for camera viewfinder, and always thinking about the composition.

Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe and Cruise Liner Early Morning on Kona Bay. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 12-24 mm f/4 lens (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)

Tuesday (20-November-2007) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 3: Beach at Waipi’o Valley.

Waipi’o Valley is located along the Hamakua Coast on the northeastern coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. We hiked down to the beach, and Thom spent time with each of us working on technique and composition. One lesson was that images with wide-angle lenses should have close, middle, and distant subject. Also, having a human figure in the image helps the viewer get an idea of scale.

Monday (19-November-2007) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 2: Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park.

We spent the afternoon through sunset at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park. I’ve included several Ki’i (Tiki, wooden images) in this blog.

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Monday (19-November-2007) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 2: Morning Session.

We were brought out to a lava field and told at mid-morning and told to find something interesting to photograph. The lighting was very bright and harsh. My initial subject was a spider on its spider web. There were many problems including a slight breeze moving the web in and out of focus (I was using a macro lens with a very narrow field in focus) and the background being too bright and distracting for the image. Thom helped by holding a space blanket to provide some shadow for the background. Unfortunately, by this time the spider got tired of being the subject and left. After the spider web, I took an image of a lava bomb and a Hawaiian flower. As we were walking back to the van, I saw this post along the parking lot where the rope or chain had been removed. To me it looked like a horse head with a green eye. This was my best image from the morning session.

Monday (19-November-2007) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 2: Wildlife at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park.

We spent the afternoon through sunset at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park. There were some Hawaiian Green sea turtles resting on the beach at Keoneele Cove. When I was supposed to be working on a composition of one of the temples, I found this bright green gecko with blue eyes that kept posing for my macro lens.

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