Iao Valley is an iconic location in Maui, and one of my favorite places to teach landscape photography. Several van and bus tours bring undress of people each day and for good reason – it is beautiful. While there are clearly marked walking trails, I like to forge my own trail and look for areas along the stream in order to use motion as one of my compositional elements. I want to use neutral density filters to allow me to slow the shutter long enough that the water flattens, swirls, and becomes a bit misty. As the water level and speed of flow of water differs each day, I rarely go to the same place. Instead I look for what rock formations are visible and if there lines of repetition or geographic shapes in the scene. In the image below I was able to use a 2 second shutter speed. The result is the water being smooth rather than rough. The rocks add some nice lines that draw the eyes into and out of the stream.
Iconic location in Maui – the Iao Vally. The streams are a perfect place to use Neutral Density filters to slow down water and create artistic affects.