A Quantum Leap

Maui has recently been visited by a "drifter". On Thursday night a 48 foot sailboat named "Quantum Leap" drifted onto the reef at Baby Beach in Spreckelsville, after drifting on the open ocean for a couple of weeks.
Friday morning my good friend Suzie called me to tell me I should come down and take some pictures.

Apparently the crew had to be rescued due to generator problems, rough seas and an injured captain. It is amazing to me that you can just let a boat of that size drift along until it finds something to crash into.

Thursday morning. It still had a sail, a dirt bike, an outboard motor
and whatever was on the inside.

Can't help getting "artsy". Slow shutter speed and zooming in.

By Saturday morning, the tide and swell had pushed it into the bay where people like to swim and exercise and it had also been pretty striped of anything that could be removed including the dirt bike. Not sure how they took that off but where there is a will, there is a way I suppose.

No pot of gold under this rainbow!

I used 3 neutral density filters on this image to get a slow enough shutter
speed to slow the water down.

Quantum Leap has run its course.

A little pile of trash that people have collected.

Party Barge!
Looks like an accident waiting to happen to me.

At the end of the day, it makes for a nice subject matter.

For more information on this unfortunate journey, click on this link.
Watch the video on youtube:

Camp out on Haleakala, photos from the crater.

I was on a recent camp out on Haleakala, Maui's eastern volcano, to partake in Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk. Spending the night at Hosmer Grove, I was able to drive to the top of Haleakala and capture the sunset. The temps were about 40-50 degree F. with some windchill factor. One really needs to dress accordingly! Gloves, beanie, jacket, long pants and shoes. There are lots of other people up there doing the same thing, as well as sipping wine and eating cheese.
A tripod is a must, along with a cable release. Your hands get so cold, its hard not to shake the camera! Also a head lamp comes in handy to see your camera setting in the dark. It gets dark pretty fast here on maui.

Above the clouds, sunset at the top of Haleakala.

The moon over the observatory.

My friend Angela took this shot of me taking pictures.

Camping consisted of the back of my car, a sleeping bag, a log for the marshmallows and warm clothing.

Oh and maybe a little tequila to keep warmer. This was my first overnight excursion in my car and learned a few things such as: don't park at an angle! My sleeping bag and mattress were both nylon making me on a slippery slope! Mummy bags are not that great! Although I was plenty warm. I think I slept just enough to have a strange dream about strange people wanting to harm me. Must be because I kept the back doors open. 

 The alarm went off at 4:45am, although I was already awake! There seemed to be a steady stream of cars that drives up around 3 or 4 am to get to the top and grab a good spot to watch from. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, but the fingerless gloves I bought at Ross the day before came in really handy.

There were some pretty spectacular views from the look out.

Sunrise, looking towards the Big Island of Hawaii.

House of the rising sun.

As the sun rose, lighting up the valley below.
 I used a little HDR processing on some of these to get all the detail my eyes saw.

I was reluctant to try HDR because a lot of the images I had seen looked so fake and surreal so I was pleasantly surprised at how natural my images looked after I processed them with Photomatix. They looked just as I saw them that morning.

A black and white conversion.

Morning light hitting the shrub where I was standing.

It was cold up there!

Some of the people in our group minus Angela who was taking the picture.

Making my beach inspired jewelry

The process involved for making my puka shell necklaces involves a bit of time, from collecting them on the beach which just so happens to be a favorite pastime and is also very therapeutic and relaxing.  I have been collecting these shells for 17 years on and off and it does seem like they are getting harder to find. Certain times of year seem to be better than others and low tide is best.
When I get them home, I first have to clean them which means flicking the sand out of the hole if there is a hole. If there is no hole they go in a pile of "need to drill" pukas. Then I sort them into size groups and also quality groups.

Getting my toes in the sand.

It takes years for a puka shell to become what it is.
Puka is a hawaiian word for hole.

This small amount of treasures probably took weeks to find.

Once I have enough shells to make a necklace, the design process begins. Sometimes I like to put a different kind of shell in the center to keep things interesting.

My newest design has a beautiful smooth brown striped
cone shell in the center

A tapered necklace with larger shells in the center
 to smaller ones in the back.

I also like to make jewelry with shell charms and sparkly beads or stones.

Natural shells and purchased pearls or recycled findings
like the piece of coral, is from an old necklace
found at a yard sale.

Beach glass is also a favorite thing to use in my jewelry.
What people discard in the ocean often washes up as my treasures.
It takes years for glass to become nice and polished from the surf. 

When I have a few pieces made, I have to take pictures of them so I can list them on my jewelry website, Etsy. This involves setting up my photo studio of lights, camera, tripod and some props.

I use a picture that I took at the beach as my back drop for some of the shots.

And it will look something like this.

Click on this link to get more info on puka shells from wikpedia. You can also see my jewelry on Etsy by clicking on the link above, "my jewelry".

Aloha!

Surf photography, Maui 1990s

When I moved to Maui in 1993, I continued my surf photography at places like Jaws, Hookipa, and south shores. It was great to watch people like Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama riding huge waves and trying new things like straps on surfboards. It is very exciting to watch a place like Jaws breaking with its rugged coastline, high cliffs, plus it is not that easy to get to. Back then the surfers didn't wear PFDs (personal floatation device).
Wind is always a factor on Maui, so naturally I shot a little bit of windsurfing.
A lot of my shots are posted on flickr.
Here are some of my favorite shots from the 90s on Maui.

Archie Kalepa at Honolua Bay 1990s

Charlie Solario at Maalaea 1990s

Dave Kalama testing footstraps at Hookipa 1990s

Ever style master Laird Hamilton at Hookipa. Blame Laird!

Thanksgiving Day, Dave Kalama at Jaws 1990s

Casual style at Jaws, not sure who this is. 1990s

Mike Waltze at Jaws 1990s

Josh Angulo at Hookipa, 1990s

Surf photography retro 80s by simone reddingius

My surf photography started in 1976, when I moved to Santa Barbara and lived near Rincon beach (the quality of the images was pretty bad so I won't post them). I loved to surf there, so after surfing or if it was too big for me, I would set up my tripod near the rocks and shoot whoever looked good on a wave.
In the early 80s, I started working at camera stores so I was able to buy better equipment. I even bought a used Scott Preiss water housing from a friend and experimented with water shots. One of them was eventually published in Surfing Magazine.
I would take pictures of my favorite surfers, they included Tommy Curren, Kim Mearig, Shaun Tomson and Andy Neumann.

I will never forget this wave, Tommy Curren got covered up on the take-off and he just wiggled out of it and did a big bottom turn and then hit the lip. 

Andy Neumann was (and still is) the stylemaster on a longboard. This was taken during a Surf 'N' Wear  Rincon Classic surf contest.

Shaun Tomson. This was black and white film that got damaged over the years of storage. Taken with the Scott Preiss waterhousing on a gray day.

Kim Mearig was always fun to shoot and watch. She was the most stylish woman surfer anywhere.

This is one of my favorite shots and it got published in Surfing Magazine, almost a center spread.
This is Tim Smally who was one of the hot young rippers at Rincon. 

A Painted Sunset

A Painted Sunset in Maui

After shooting about 250 shots, I only came up with one good photo I liked. This was taken on Maui using my Canon 40D with a slow shutter speed and "painting" with the camera.

Painting with my camera

I am starting a new series of photographs that look a little bit like impressionism paintings. I have dabbled a little bit in watercolors, but I have not pursued it much further.
It has been fun looking for subjects that will work. All I need is my camera, a dark neutral density filter, a very slow shutter speed and an interesting subject. I move the camera while the shutter is open, sort of like brush strokes.

This was one of my first attempts and I hate to say what it really is because it may loose its mystique. But I like it as an abstract.

Since the beginning of the camera and photography, people have been experimenting with new tricks and techniques. It is really amazing how much photography has evolved since the early 1600s.

Hookipa Beach, Maui

We don't get a lot of colorful sunsets on the north shore due to clouds and mountains blocking the sun, so I try to do something creative like long exposures to make the moving water look silky. But that means I have to be there past dark and it usually starts raining. 

Rainbow Eucalyptus

When I first started this technique I immediately thought of these trees and how neat they would look. I went to the bamboo forest and took a bunch of pictures there and I was right. These trees are absolutely stunning. 

Rainbow Eucalyptus abstract

One thing you have to be careful of are bright lights or high lights, as they can be distracting yet they can also be interesting.

A lit up pavilion at dusk with a water reflection below. 

I love waves and surfing so this will also be included in my art. I just love how the waves look like they have brush strokes and at dusk you can get a lot of different colors.

A Painted Wave

Ghost Rider

Girls at the beach

The image above I made like in the old days with film a "double exposure" but now a days you do it in Photoshop as "layers" I'm still new at layers and this one I did rather quickly. In the first shot, the tree and people were not distinguishable so I took a second shot of the same scene and cut the tree and people out and put them on top of the new picture. Then I wanted to "Van Gogh" the tree for something different and to cover up my lack of "blending" skills.

I dreamt I was at the beach...

This last shot I got a little carried away with a photoshop tool called "smudge tool" but I really like the things you can do with it.
More of these images can be seen on my flickr website, and also on my Etsy website.