Iao Valley in Maui, offers unlimited photographic opportunities

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…

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Wave Action creates powerful images that evoke emotion

  Water and motion can be used to evoke an emotional response and sense of wonder.  Slowing the shutter speed allows the waves to blend and in the process smooths out the scene and adds a cool frothy affect. Combining compositional elements like diagonal lines, or lines that repeat with motion enables the photographer to…

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Slow shutter speeds allow artistic composition

Iao valley is one of my favorite locations to lead photography workshops on Maui.  defending in to the valley is like going to another time and place.   Perhaps that is why movie makes used the Valley in the opening sequence to the move Jurassic Park.  I don’t hike to far into the valley but…

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Motion adds excitement

  In this image I want to slow the wave as it met the beach.  I used a 1/15th of a second shutter speed to accomplish this.  The low camera angle adds an extra bit of interest.   The sun had just risen and the light was changing fast.  This is why landscape photographers always…

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Landscape Photography Presentation

On January 25th, 2014, I am doing a presentation on landscape photography at the Maui Art Expo located in the shops at Maalaea Harbor Maui.   Its in the ocean center past the aquarium and next to the Pacific Whale Foundation. The time is 5-7 PM.  The event is free, parking is free. Composition techniques…

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Stellar Sunset in Maui

    Every once in a while the sunset in Maui is just spectacular.  The sky becomes vibrant and dramatic, and a few minutes later its gone.  So glad I was on the beach to capture this sunset.  Its a keeper.  

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Creating photographs from a low position creates a pleasing composition

  One of the things I stress when teaching photography is never put the horizon in the middle of the frame unless you have a good reason.   The reason is it breaks the image into half.   It is much more desirable to put the horizon on the bottom or top third of the…

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Seldom visited Maui location

This beautiful Maui location is seldom visited because it is well off the beaten path.  I lived here for 20 years before I found it.  Truth be told I found it by accident.  We were driving back from Hana around the back side when the dogs started making sounds like they needed to pee.  So…

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Gecko Power

While walking through the trials along the beach or forrest it is a good idea to look around.  You never know when you will find a great subject for a portrait.  I have trained myself to sense movement, and when the gecko jumped onto this leaf I saw it from the corner of my eye.…

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portrait photography tip – avoid putting peoples head in the horizon line.

One of the most important rules of portrait photography is never have the horizon line cutting through some ones head. Instead create the image from a higher point of view so that the head is under the horizon.  In this image below I used a step ladder so that I could put the subjects head…

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