Sunset, The Seven Sacred Pools, Hana

On April 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th of the United States. I knew very little about this state when we began planning a trip there. More or less, I knew of Hawaii as a place where it is warm, a home to lots of surfers, and of course, Pearl Harbor. I have seen many photographs of beautiful sunsets, with billowing color saturated clouds hovering above the horizon as the sun set from an amazingly rich orange sand beach. I heard about the aloha spirit, although, to be honest, I wasn’t really sure what that meant, aside from everyone was happy.

Well, the date finally came and we set off on the two flights to Maui, stopping in LAX. Arriving in Maui at dusk offered us the first sight of the Aloha state as we caught the tail end of the sunset from the air; a truly amazing sight. Over the next few days, we explored the island, and I tried to find subjects and scenes to photograph that reflected what I saw, while also scenes that were not the typical sunset / sunrise. Near the end of our stay on Maui, we drove the “Road to Hana”. It was a beautiful road, mostly single lane, with many one lane bridges that wound along the coast of Maui, up and down over hills and mountains, in and out of rain, clouds and sunshine. There were numerous waterfalls and scenic lookouts all throughout, begging you to stop every 100 feet or so.

Finally, with only about an hour of sunlight left, we arrived at the Seven Sacred Pools. We quickly parked and followed a trail down to where the pools feed into the ocean. There were several groups of people that were walking out already having spent time jumping from the cliffs into one of the pools or walking the many trails there. Unfortunately, because of the time we got there, all of these sights were not an option. Arriving at the end of the trail, it was a scene to behold. I absolutely love rock cliffs that meet the ocean…..and that is what we found. It seemed each way I turned, there was a new and equally impressive scene in front of me.

I set up my camera on the tripod, selected the lowest ISO film speed and focused the Zeiss 25 mm lens. I chose the lowest film speed because I wanted the finest possible image, and lower ISO tend to produce less noise, all other variables equal. The sun was getting lower now and started to hide behind the mountain west of us. In doing so, it began to softly paint the clouds out over the water, and the whole scene came to life for me. The amazing greens that I saw everywhere in Hawaii, the blue ocean, soft clouds and the cliffs that met the ocean. In choosing a low ISO, I also accepted that the exposure would be longer and this was welcomed. The scene to me was extremely peaceful and relaxing; I felt a fast shutter would render the waves with less motion calling attention to their power, and I was looking for something a little softer. By making the decision on a longer exposure, I was able to make the water look like stretched cotton. There really wasn’t much wind and this kept the clouds fairly sharp, instead of blurring them like would have been the case if the wind was more active.

I have now added almost all of my prints that were in my December solo show, “The Beauty That Surrounds Us” to my website, www.colinseitzphotography.com, and I have also added a few others. I will continue to update it with my recent work. I have not been on top of this for the past few months and it has taken me a bit of time to update it. As promised in my prior article, I will be adding short how to articles on using a camera also in the coming weeks. For those looking to see some amazing photography from local artists, the annual “Eyesights” show is still up at the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury, NJ, which includes three of my prints, including the one that won their landscape award. Lastly, I just received notice that I was selected to be one of the exhibiting artists at the Spring Arts Festival at Thompson Park, part of the Monmouth County Park System. The festival will be May 2nd and 3rd, and I will have a good sampling of my work, to include notecards and canvas prints there for sale.

I hope everyone has a great week,

Colin