Three more Kauai albums
Over the past week I've updated three more galleries from my trip to Kauai last February.
The first new gallery is Kauai Waterfalls, which holds 10 images of a few of the waterfalls on the island.
Next comes the Kauai Landscapes gallery, with 25 images. The island's landscapes are varied, from deep valleys to high mountains, to rolling vistas of wild forests. This gallery holds the landscapes shot with standard lenses and aspect ratios. I will also have some more landscapes to share which are shot as panoramic vistas, as well as subjects shot with my Edge 80 optic.
The final update came this morning, my gallery of 15 "waterscape" photos... images which prominently feature the ocean or the shorelines.
Thank you for stopping by, comments are always welcome and appreciated!
Three gallery updates
Over the weekend I published three additional smaller galleries to the site; Seals and Lizards, Trees, and Sunrises from Kauai in February 2015.
The monk seals are endemic to the island, and endangered - I had the great luck of seeing three on our trip (one was at night and it was too dark to photograph) There is a federal law prohibiting getting too close and/or harassing these seals, who need to come on land and sleep without being disturbed throughout the day and night in order to recover energy from their hunting efforts. There is an island-wide team of volunteers who track these seals. They set up barriers to protect the animals, track their sleep and travel habits, and answer questions about the seals and their conservation program. One volunteer saw me taking photos of a nearby tide pool and invited me over to see the seal sleeping on the rocks (from a safe distance of course) and she gave my daughter a packet of information about the seals.
I spotted one lizard on a display of ginger root at a fruit stand in Hanalei, the others were all scurrying around alongside the ridge trail we hiked on towards the end of our trip.
I was very enamored with the exposed roots of the ironwood trees on Ke'e Beach, towards the north end of the island of Kauai. Over time the wind and water have exposed the roots, unveiling their intricate and abstract details.
Our condo sits on the eastern shores of the island of Kauai, just steps from the beach. Most mornings I woke before sunrise, made a pot of coffee, and wandered down to the beach with my camera gear to watch the sunrise.
Kauai Birds from February 2015
My first new gallery from the photos I shot while visiting Kauai in February 2015, this gallery features birds of the island. The highlight of my birding experience on the island was to have found the Nene, the Hawaiian Goose, which is the state bird and endemic to the islands. That bird was the goal of my drive to the Kilauea Lighthouse Wildlife Refuge, and happened to be the first bird I spotted upon exiting the car. I hadn't walked more than 5 feet before the Nene appeared on the edge of the parking lot, waddling among the parked cars.
Two updates: birds and scenery from Jamaica 2014
Last night I updated my gallery of other misc. birds from my Jamaica 2014 trip. This gallery contains all the rest of the bird photos which were not numerous enough to turn into galleries of their own.
Today will be my last update for some time... a collection of various scenery shots from Jamaica 2014. I actively tried to avoid sunset photos on this trip (because I've done so many in the past) and also tried to avoid too many foliage closeups (for the same reason) The way we travel in Jamaica does not usually offer the opportunity to stop and take wide landscape images... mostly our driving is from the resort to the destination, and some destinations (like walking up a river, or ziplining down a mountain) are a leave-the-big-camera-at-home type trips. On this trip, however, I had the opportunity to spend some time in a different area of the cliffs, where the resort was set on an outcropping affording a different view of the cliffs north and south. We also took a trip inland to a retreat set in the jungle with views looking out to the jungle below and mountains beyond. This gave me the opportunity to break out the wide angle and my Edge 80 Optic, and I was very pleased with the results.
Crocodiles and Crabs of Jamaica 2014
If it scurries, creeps, crawls, or flies... chances are I want to get a picture of it. This gallery contains my photos of crocodiles and crabs from my trip to Jamaica in 2014. The crocodiles were all found during my guided boat trip up the Black River. The crabs were mostly around the cliffs at our resort, save for one I found hiding under the deck of the Pelican Bar off of Treasure Beach, and one I found further up the cliffs on an outing we took when the seas were too rough for swimming. I had been shooting landscapes of the rolling waves with my Lensbaby Edge 80 optic combo when I spotted a crab sitting still. The lens is difficult to focus sometimes, which is why I rarely use it for wildlife shots, but the crab was patient (perhaps because I wasn't trying to get close) and I was able to get him in focus and create the miniaturizing effect that the lens provides.