52 Weeks of Nature – Week 10 | Hawaii Landscape Photographer

Posted on March 8, 2010

I have been wanting to take a walk

around Mokapu Point

for a couple of months now.

I finally did this week.

The ocean has been a bit stormy

the past few weeks.

High winds, cloudy days,

passing rain showers…

I know what you are thinking!

Poor Thereasa!  Living in Hawaii!

Brings to mind Conan O'Brian's Sketch

with Triumph the Dog.

"Oh!  Poor Hawaii, a little cloud!"

Well, I happen to like the stormy seas.

They have a beauty and majesty of their own.

It boggles the mind with how strong the waves are

and all the different directions the water can move at once.

I am in awe.

This crab was being battered by wave after wave

and yet was never washed away!

Talk about strength!

On my way back to the car,

I saw this post

and it made me chuckle!

I had to share. :D

Isn't it amazing where trees and plants

choose to live?

This one has been here

for quite a while

judging by it's size!

Edited to add new versions of the above images

after playing with some different processing.

I like the images above,

but for me

they just did not "wow" me

and so I was a little disappointed in myself.

I kept coming back to them,

trying to figure out

just what they needed.

They needed to look like what I see

when I look at the scene

in real life.

These are MUCH closer

and I am much happier with them.

I hope you are, too.

52 Weeks in Nature – Week 9 | Hawaii Landscape Photographer

Posted on February 27, 2010

This week I bring you a little bit of our backyard!  

This morning while waiting out the Tsunami Warning,

I let the girls outside to play

since I didn't know how long they'd be allowed to be out there

before having to possibly stay inside and safe.

Next thing I know, my eldest is running inside with a slug on a stick!

I told her to take it back outside but that I'd come take pictures of it

IF they would leave the poor thing alone!

Here he is with his entourage.

Anyone who lives on MCBH and in Hawaii knows these birds! 

I was out mowing the lawn (finally) yesterday afternoon

and, of course, these guys show up.

They like to pick off the bugs that are kicked up by the mower.

They are Cattle Egrets but we like to call them "Lawn Mower Birds."

I guess this guy didn't like me stalking him!

Talk about "ruffled feathers!"

I was so stoked to have caught this picture!

I just wish it had more pixels to be enjoyed large.  

This is cropped out of a 300mm image.

But, it's so nice for me to look at. :)

Don't forget that,

to find nature,

you don't have to look farther

than your own backyard!

52 Weeks of Nature – Week 7| Hawaii Landscape Photographer

Posted on February 14, 2010

My daughters and I were invited to visit

Ulupo Heiau

and what a wonderful experience it was!

The Heiau is a sacred site to the Hawaiian people.

It has been used an Agricultural Heiau

to honor the Gods and insure fertility of the crops of

Kalo, Sugar Cane, Sweet Potato, and Bananas.

Here you can see the Kalo Lo'i that have been recently re-cultivated

through the efforts of Hanaloa Helela (pictured below) and many students and schools.

In later times, this Heiau may have been used as a luakini heiau dedicated to success in war.  

This massive stone platform was built by the people

and stones were probably passed by hand from as far away as Kualoa (10 miles away!)

Structures such as an altar, thatched hale(meeting houses), and an oracle tower

were then built on top of the platform

The rocks used to be terraced but

in the early 1900's a Cattle Pen was built atop the heiau

and that probably hastened the collapse of those terraces.

Below, you can see the massive stone structure, the children playing in the a'wai

and the students working to build a new lo'i as it's being flooded.

I couldn't resist posting this of my daughter.

She is so drawn to the water wherever we go!

This is the poor little frog that the children were chasing around the grounds.

While walking around the grounds,

Mother Earth wanted to remind me that

she shows her love for us

everyday.

The offering we left in thanks to the 

Spirit of the Spring

after washing the mud off the kids' shoes.

 

If you visit Ulupo Heiau,

Please remember that it is a sacred site 

and show respect for the Aina and the Spirit of the Sacred Spring.

52 Weeks of Nature – Week 6 | Hawaii Landscape Photographer

Posted on February 8, 2010

Notice anything different?

 Yes, I am changing my name from

At Last Photography

to

Thereasa Gwinn Photography! 

 I really wanted At Last to work for me,

but after watching my Google Alerts,

realized that there are way too many At Last Photography's out there. 

 No one else has my name with my spelling.

I now have

http://www.thereasagwinn.com 

pointing to this site.

Please bear with me while I make the adjustments to accommodate this change.

 

On to this weeks post:
 

This week, with the adjustment of becoming a single parent again,

I've pulled a few of my old pictures out of my archives and re-processed them.

 

This image I actually never processed because I just didn't see it's beauty before.

 It amazes me how my eye changes with time.

This is one of absolute favourite images that I've ever taken.

 You can almost feel the wind blowing the sea spray through the surfer's hair.

Doesn't this remind you of the dancing flowers in Fantasia?

This orchid image has been one of my favourites since I took it 2 years ago.

 I ruined it with a horrible crop then.

 It's much better now!


52 Weeks in Nature – Week 5 | Hawaii Landscape Photographer

Posted on January 31, 2010

Not much from this week as it was a little busy with getting my husband ready for deployment and sending him off.  We had a bit of rain over the weekend and I thought I'd take the girls out for a drive after the rain stopped to chase some waterfalls.  Didn't catch those waterfalls as I had waited too long after the rain stopped but I did get this pretty flower that Elizabeth wanted to take home with us.  I told her we'd take a picture of it instead.  She was happy with that solution.

I was told to take a picture of this guy by both girls.  One thing you will notice if you ever visit the Hawaiian Islands, is that there are TONS of wild chickens everywhere.

And here is my attempt at capturing those gorgeous mountains covered by clouds. This is a stitch of 4 images.

52 Weeks of Nature – Week 4 | Hawaii Landscape Photographer

Posted on January 24, 2010

This week has a lot of images.  The first are from sunrise on Ft. Hase beach here on the Marine Corps Base Hawaii.  It was a gorgeous morning.  This image is a long exposure of 150 seconds long (2 1/2 minutes!)  Not sure I really am happy with it because the effect of the light through the waves in the middle ground.  It's interesting though.

I really enjoy the colors in this image of the sun rising over the ocean.

The spotlight effect from this one was really interesting to me.  I like the effect in the sun rays, as well.

These next images were actually taken with my Olympus Stylus Tough 8000.  In other words, a little point and shoot.  These are from a popular hike to the top of the Ko'olau Mountains.  This hike kicked my bootie, but I made it to the top in time to see the gorgeous light on the mountains.

This is by far the best view of Pearl Harbor I have ever seen!

More beautiful sun on the Ko'olau Mountains.  

Sunrise over the Windward side of Oahu.  See that penninsula over in the left side?  That is the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, aka my home.

This is a panoramic of 4 images stitched together.  Not sure how I'd get this printed as it's a 50×10, but I'd love to have it!

So, don't discount your little Point and Shoot.  It can take some pretty good pictures!

52 Weeks of Nature – Week 3 | Hawaii Nature Landscape Photographer

Posted on January 18, 2010

Another week on North Beach.  This week I decided to concentrate on the detail instead of the big picture.  It's not always easy to see the small things when confronted with the awesome gorgeousness of Hawaii's seascapes and I felt the need to practice.  

These tide pools are gorgeous!  I had a hard time figuring out how to capture them.  I ended up climbing on top of some rocks and shooting down on them.  Works for me!

This coconut kept getting tossed around the beach in the surf.  I really liked the lines in the sand from the water running down, as well.

As we were leaving the beach, these crabs scuttered under a huge boulder.  I chased them down.  I'm not so sure that they really enjoyed it, but I did!  This was shot through a 2 inch crack under the boulder.

So, when you are out enjoying God's beautiful handiwork, don't forget to look at the little details he throws into the big picture!

52 Weeks of Nature-Week 2 | Hawaii Landscape Nature Photographer

Posted on January 14, 2010

This week was just a quick trip down to the beach.  I was hoping to catch some whales, but I still have no luck in that department.  My interpretation of Nature this week is "People Enjoying Nature".  What better way to enjoy the ocean than to attempt to master the waves and ride them out?!

It was such a beautiful day that I couldn't go without doing a Panoramic shot of North Beach.  

I'm so happy to be doing a lot of Landscape/Nature images again.  This is my first love in Photography and try to incorporate it into my portrait sessions if I can.

52 Weeks of Nature-Week 1 | Hawaii Landscape Photographer

Posted on January 7, 2010

Last year I participated in a 365 Project. That is taking one picture each day for a year.  I had a very hard time making it only one picture and so the project ended up consuming loads of my time.  By the last few months of the project, I was so burned out that I just sludged it out to the end.  I was proud of myself for sticking it out, but not really proud of the quality of pictures I was posting.  So, this year I've only committed myself to a weekly post.  More than likely, it'll still contain more than one picture, but I vow that they will of a quality worthy of this site.  I know that by me posting here on my professional blog instead of my personal one I will be forced to keep myself held to a higher quality.  I have decided I'll stick to a main theme of Nature.  To me that means Landscape, Flora, Fauna, Seascape and any interpretation thereof.  I hope that I grow as much in this next year of photography as I did in the last.  Thank you for joining me in this journey.

 

I read about the New Year's Eve Blue Moon a few days before it occurred and felt that this was something I really wanted to capture.  I knew that the Blue Moon only occurs about once every two years but did not realize that a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve only occurs every 19 years or so!  Now, I know that the moon isn't really blue, and there really isn't anything VISUALLY different about the moon but just that knowledge made a difference to me.  So off I went with my tripod in hand to scout out a spot on the world famous Lanikai Beach directly across from the Mokulua Islands.  It was a beautiful moonrise shared by quite a few couples and families.  I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one awed by the beauty and elegance of such a simple thing.  

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