Ryan approached me the day after we shot Melanie and Rick’s wedding, and asked if I wanted to go camping in Hawaii for a few days. When someone says “Hawaii”, I basically get a huge grin on my face. I love Hawaii, it’s one of my most favorite places on the planet. I have been fortunate enough to have gone there twice now, and this will be trip number 3. Ryan on the other hand has been there so many times he can’t remember how many. It’s his favorite place on the planet as well. We had a week to prepare for our trip but since we were going to camp it, I knew I would need to pack minimally. Our goal was to go there and photograph some landscapes and see what we can come back with. My goal was always to compile my own book of Hawaii. This trip would really help me add to that since this was the whole reason for going. But of course not the only reason. We flew West Jet from Calgary to Vancouver then straight on to Honolulu. While we were flying over the Pacific Ocean, there was this interesting cloud formation.
We arrived pretty late in Honolulu. We drove to the North Shore and when we got there we found our campground but it was way too dark to try and pitch a tent. We decided to stay at the Laie Inn for a night. In the morning we headed to our campground which was about 5 minutes from the motel. While we were checking into the Malaekahana campground, we asked about the little huts we that were around the area. The lady at the counter said there were huts available for $15/night. Right away, we both knew we’d rather sleep in one of those rather than pitch a tent. Plus, it was $15 bucks! We asked for one closest to the beach, and we scored one literally 10 steps to the beach.
Even though this was my 3rd trip to Hawaii, I still have never been surfing. I have always wanted to learn. That morning there was an instructor who gave surfing lessons at our beach. I asked him if he did private lessons and he said of course. We got to hang out with Ash and surf with him for a few hours. After talking to him for a while he told us he was on an episode of Lost. He was on season 2 episode one. He was the Moroccan whole sold “Eko” the drugs which the plane eventually crashes on the island. That was cool!! His awesome lessons helped me stand up on the very first ever wave I had caught. I was so excited. I couldn’t believe I was surfing!! Ash graciously let me borrow one of his boards until the next day. I asked Ryan to try and get some shots of me riding a wave… and he did!!
After surfing and relaxing on the beach, it was time to get some work done. We wanted to get out to the most western point on Oahu called Ka’ena Point. From there we would be able to capture the sunset. On the way to the point right on the highway was the “Others” village on the TV shot Lost. Lost is one of my top 5 favorite shows and is also Ryan’s as well. So off course I had to stop and shoot some photos of the village. It is actually a YMCA and not a TV show set.
To get to Ka’ena Point we had to off road it after the highway ends. We rented a Ford Edge, which was a SUV type vehicle, but it wasn’t a 4×4. It was an extremely treacherous drive. So many times we thought we would get stuck. It took some serious driving skills to get through this crazy maze. I totally forgot to shoot us driving out to the point. But boy was it worth it when we finally got there!!!
That evening we had a little of fun painting our little hut with light. Painting with light is a photographic technique where you use a slow shutter speed and then light the objects you want lit with a flashlight or a flash. In this shot below, I used a 30 sec exposure, standing behind the camera I used my little flashlight and “painted” the hut and the ground in front of me. I had Ryan stand behind the hut and had him pop the flash on the tree on the right. If you look at the stars really carefully, you will see that they moved during that 30 sec exposure.
On the last day, we headed out to Haleiwa to find the Lost beach. Ash pointed us to where the main set was but we didn’t go too deep inside because there were “no trespassing” signs every where. We were still able go to the beach where they filmed most of the scenes. It totally looked like it too, so it was pretty cool to be there. But there was a wonderful surprise that we didn’t expect. There were TONS of turtles every where!!! Most of them were just riding the shore break and we could see turtles under the water as far as the eye could see. There were even a few sunbathing on the beach. I was able to get really close to them and a few even posed for pictures. After a while they got fed up with me they headed back in the water.
This trip was so awesome, even though it was way too short. It’s ok though, because I would have missed Michelle and Jonas too much if I had stayed any longer. I want them there with me. The good news is, I’ll be back there with family and some friends for 3-4week in Oct/Nov. Man, I love Hawaii! Thanks for looking.
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