There are so many spectacular hikes in Hawaii. The Awa’awapuhi Trail in Kauai is probably my favorite BIG payoff. The hike itself if moderate and the scenery along the way is a bit…well meh, but the end of the trail will make your jaw fall to the ground. It is a truly breathtaking sight.
An interesting thing happened the last two weeks that I didn’t entirely intend. Perhaps you can see it too, but the last two Monday’s photos were my more modern post processing technique. The last two Thursday’s were a mismatch of old and new. Today’s photo and In the Garden of St Elizabeth’s were photos I had processed long ago and felt were unfinished, something was missing. I found these years later like little gifts in a Lightroom folder marked Needs More Work. Combining the old and the new made for something that felt more complete. Maybe that is what I am always doing here. Exploring, learning, testing my limits.
This beautiful little scene was waiting quietly for us one hot May afternoon. It was a welcome respite from the blazing sun and a serene spot to sit and contemplate. When you find spots that seem like a gift, this can be a great time to stop, and smell the proverbial roses, metaphorically or in this case the real thing!
There are so many wonderful works of art that function as every day objects. This handrail support on the back stairs of the U.S. Capitol Building is a great example. It just there to support people, but it has a stateliness, something that reminds me of an abstract eagle soaring above the swirls below. It shows us the ebb, the balance of moderate discourse. It’s just some old thing, that some designer thought long about. Some old thing that some craftsman poured sweat and life into. It spends its days in the elements largely unnoticed, but there some will see and be in awe of its functional beauty.
I took this photo of the grandiose skylight at the U.S. Library of Congress years ago, but because of the difficult lighting conditions, its been in a folder on my computer called “Needs More Work”. Inside and outside color temperature ends up with a mess of tones, so as I was looking around this weekend I finally figured I should do what I almost always do in these situations and work in black and white! Amazing!
I have been experimenting again. I almost didn’t share this photo. It seemed too extreme to me when I processes it. I have been playing with some of Trey’s Lightroom Presets. They are surprisingly fun and I love deconstructing them to find new techniques in Lightroom!
Pro Tip…never use any preset on its default values, but rather as a starting point (wedding photographers, feel free to ignore that completely).
There are places in this world that have taken by breath from me. Na Pali coast is one. I started as I often do with a great hiking guide on the Awa’awapuhi Trail from Unreal Hawaii (I can’t tell you how much I appreciate these guys). The trail was a bit wet (expected) and slightly uneventful, but fantastic exercise.
I can’t describe how high I am taking this photo, or how close to the edge I was hiking out on the ridge line. The photo does no justice to nature’s splendor, but I wanted you to see what I can convey.
As a side bit of trivia, this photo is the 400th I have processes for the blog!
Merry Christmas Eve to be exact. I just visited NYC a few weeks ago for business and I had never been at Christmas time. I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and walked down the east side of the Park by Bergdorf Goodman’s Window Displays, but one stop was really in my head…The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree! I of course have mixed feelings about this New York tradition. I hate to see such an old being killed, but perhaps as my wife said, its purpose is to bring millions of people joy this season.
The crowd was maddening, but not as bad as I had expected, and truth be told…you can’t help but smile. It’s raw size makes you feel like a tiny child staring up in awe of perhaps the biggest and brightest tree you will ever in your life see. Not because of its size, but because of your smallness in a crazy big world. You are again a child standing under an enormous beautiful and bright beacon of hope, brought to life by sacrifice. Merry Christmas everyone!
I visited New York last week for work and had a bit of time one day to go into the city to see a few sights. I have been to NYC a number of times in the past, but this was my first visit during the Christmas season. I have long known large city’s stores, New York City’s in particular, have HUGE competition in window displays…I grew up watching Mannequin after all! I was ill prepared for what that really meant.
This was but one of the super elaborate crystal encrusted window displays at Bergdorf Goodman. The first one I gaped at was a monkey fortune teller in a swami wrap, gazing into his crystal ball to foretell some damsel’s future! If you are in Midtown Manhattan before the end of the year, do yourself a favor and stop by to see the window art these fantastic sculptors have created this year!
On my most recent trip to Maui I decided to try an “easy” hike I had never attempted before, the Pipiwai Trail on the Eastern side of Haleakala. It’s not a particularly difficult trail. The ascent is easy, with only around 600 feet of elevation gain. As always the fantastic hikers at Unreal Hawaii wrote a detailed guide to the Pipiwai Trail, but please be forewarned, you will sweat and take some bug repellent. I forgot and ended up with a number of bites. Today’s photo is just a random shot I took along the trail.
