Tag: Hookipa Beach

Monday (16-December-2024) — New Jersey

Fifteen-Years Ago Today. Surfer Girl at Hookipa Beach Park. (16-Dec-2009, Maui)

Image of the Day.

For the image of the day, I select an image from the past taken on this day of the year. I now have over a million digital images going back to 2006 when I got my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D200 for a cross-country road trip. I have a few other digital images from a Polaroid PDC 700 point and shoot from before 2006.

The “Surfer Girl” image was taken while in Hawaii for a Pacific Chemistry scientific meeting. I had the morning off and went for a drive along the coast. I stopped at Ho’okipa Beach Park and went to a section overlooking the beach. It was windy and there were some big waves. I could see some folks surfing the waves at a distance of 300-400 feet. For the trip, my travel camera was a Nikon D3x with a 70-300 mm zoom lens. At that time the 24-megapixel sensor was state of the art — great for landscapes or portraits with a steady tripod. But it was slow, not really suited for fast moving sports. Maybe 2 shots/second burst rate that quickly filled the buffer. I took a number of shots of the surfers out on the big waves.

It wasn’t till I downloaded the images later that evening that I realized I captured this great shot out of a 15-shot sequence taken over 8 seconds. Having a 24-megapixel image allowed me crop and zoom in on the surfer. I posted a cropped image on my photoblog and on Google+. A print of the image won an award at a Photography Show in Florida. I posted it on my photoblog and on Google+. Later, I found out it ended up in some surfer sites and it had been used in time-share and condo rental advertisements. Probably, my most stolen image.

Below, I show the original image sequence along with reprocessed versions of the sequence with currently available tools. DxO Pure Raw (Camera/Lens correction), Capture One Pro (Levels and High-Dynamic Range), and Topaz AI (sharpening).

Original RAW Image Sequence (2009, NEF)
Image Sequence Processed with Capture One (2024, TIF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw (2024, TIF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw and Capture One (2024, TIF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw, Capture One, and Topaz AI (2o24, TIFF)
Image Sequence Processed with DxO Pure Raw, Capture One, and Topaz AI (2o24, JPEG)

Saturday (19-December-2009) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii, Maui Day 4: Hookipa Beach and Iao State Park.

I drove back in the afternoon to Hookipa beach to see if there would be any surfing. Unfortunately, the waves were not good and there were red flags at the beach warning surfers and swimmers to stay out of the water. The only one in the water was a parasurfer — way out. Took some images of the waves going over the volcanic rocks below the overlook, and another photographer taking pictures of the rough waves. Since conditions were not good here, I drove to Iao Valley state park. By the time I got there the rain was starting to get heavy so didn’t go for a hike up the valley, but did get a picture of the Iao needle in the clouds. The next day I heard that there was hail with this rain storm (unusual for Hawaii).

Lone parasurfer at Hookipa Beach. Image taken from the overlook. On the North Shore of Maui. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec) (David J Mathre)
Lone parasurfer at Hookipa Beach. Image taken from the overlook. On the North Shore of Maui. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec) (David J Mathre)

Tourists watching waves crashing over volcanic rocks at Hookipa Beach Park. From the beach overlook on the North Shore of Maui. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 220 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec) (David J Mathre)
Tourists watching waves crashing over volcanic rocks at Hookipa Beach Park. From the beach overlook on the North Shore of Maui. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 220 mm, f/9, 1/320 sec) (David J Mathre)

Photographer at Hookipa Beach Park overlook. On the North Shore of Maui. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec) (David J Mathre)
Photographer at Hookipa Beach Park overlook. On the North Shore of Maui. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 300 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec) (David J Mathre)

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Wednesday (16-December-2009) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii, Maui Day 1: Surfer Girl at Hookipa Beach.

This was the only day while in Maui that the surf was good. After coming down from Haleakala National Park, I spent a the later part of the afternoon at the Hookipa beach overlook watching and taking images. This image was taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec). This is a significant crop (1873 x 1249 from the original 6048 x 4032) as the action was quite a distance from the overlook. I was very impressed with sharpness the 70-300 mm lens.

Surfer Girl at Hookipa Beach Park. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec) (David J Mathre)
Surfer Girl at Hookipa Beach Park. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec) (David J Mathre)

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