Free to Military as thanks for their service.

This was the last light on the furthest west state in the United States of America. Millions of Americans are able to enjoy moments like this free and safe thanks to the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. I went over to Oahu on Memorial day weekend and decided to spend my Memorial day trying to capture the best image that I could for the conditions of the day. It was fitting to capture a Memorial day photo here because so many members of our military are stationed here. My goal was to capture a Memorial day photo that was not of a memorial to those that have died (this would have been easy with all the memorials here in the state, but that has been done before). Rather I wanted to capture a image of what they have died for. I hope that we not only remember their service and sacrifice on a few days a year like Memorial day and Veterans day. I hope we remember their service in every beautiful moment that we are free to experience in this great country. So on this day I decided to spend my day capturing an image to give back to our service members. What I am doing is for any service member who emails me at: cjkale@lavalightgalleries.com and puts Memorial in the subject line I will email them back a full resolution file of the image un-watermarked and a photo release to print it at any lab of their choice in any size. Also I can be contacted by Facebook-  CJ Kale or Lava Light Galleries or our website www.lavalightgalleries.com . Just my way of giving back for all that has been done for us. Never in my photographic career have I given out a digital file of one of my fine art photos to be printed at will. I would be happy to send this image out to every member of the military. I hope that it is shared around service members either through me our through even just sharing the file and release by forwarding the email I send them to their friends in the service.

Now here is where I need everyones help to get this started. Please share this blog with anyone you know in the service. Or just share it on Facebook even just Passing the email on to service members will help me to get this image out to them. The image name is Last Light on a Free Country and is only available to service members. Lastly for any service members here in Hawaii if you stop in my gallery in Kailua Kona on Alii drive I can give you the file there or have it printed for you at cost on any of the mediums that I print on for the gallery. Aloha and thank you for your service and for all the free and safe sunsets I get to enjoy in this great nation.
                                                           Aloha CJ Kale

Long time no Blog

I have not blogged for a while but I have been busy. I have done a few private photo workshops in the last 2 months. In fact the photo above is from one of them. I have made many new friends on these workshops and I look forward to shooting with them again. From the time of my last post I have only been in the surf a few times our season has been a little dry in Kona but below are a few images from my time in the water.

I have been underwater quite a bit with the lack of surf. 

I have even spent a few days out on the water looking for whales and dolphins with amazing results. 

I even got my first whale breach of the year off a private charter on Marlin grand o. By far the most luxurious boat I have ever photographed whales from and I look forward to getting out with captain Brian again soon.

We saw over 14 whales on this trip but only one breach it was still a blast.

The last shot looks like it was taken by moon light but it was just getting very dark out. I kinda liked the effect. Below was a double rainbow that greeted my group to the Kohala mountains.

This is shaping up to be a very diverse post as I even spent time in the botanical gardens shooting these beautiful orchids.

What would a diverse post be without a few turtles, and sunset photos. I was stoked to see this many turtles here with such an amazing sunset.

The last photo was taken just the other day at A-Bay. There was lots of V.O.G turning the sky orange as the sun went down to balance this light and capture the detail in the foreground I needed to stack a hard and a soft grad and give a lot of exposure time. Luckily it was the calmest that I have ever seen it here. I cracked a few ribs attempting to get out to the ocean entry by boat so I've been recovering a bit. And Nick and I are getting ready to do a winter trip here at the end of the month.

Weak Weekend Saved by Sharks

This is why we came to Oahu!! Unfortunately the conditions for waves were poor. High winds knocked most of them over before a shot could be taken. We spent many days in the water with few successful wave photos taken.

We even tried to shoot multiple locations each day. I was lucky and able to pull a few shots from pounders in between wind gusts and clouds.

Saving the whole trip was our buddy Juan Oliphant, who had inited us to shoot sharks with him. We were stoked as long as we didn't have to be in a cage. Juan did not disappoint we got some great shots, no cage involved. Juan has an amazing portfolio and has shot sharks for years. I would love to have been in the water with half as many sharks as him. Check his site here: www.waterinspired.com. Juan is an amazing photographer and doesn't truly know it yet. He shoots for the love of it and does weddings to pay the bills.

Below you will see the empty cage and a few images of us photographing. We were in the water with upwards of 20 Galapagos sharks, one silky shark and a rare pelagic black tip shark.

It was a fantastic time in the water the only thing that could have made it better would have been a tiger shark. I  put together a short video of our hour or so in the water. The video was from my go-pro mounted on top of Nicks camera. Due to the number of sharks we were constantly spinning circles to see what was coming up behind us. The uncut video was dizzying I spent hours on the computer making a 15 minute video. I know now why I shoot stills I hate being in front of a computer for that long. You can watch the video here:

The number of sharks made for great shooting. Many of them would come within inches of me, making for amazing shots.

So yes our photographic weekend was saved by sharks. My thanks go out to Juan for the invite and hook up. It was a pleasure shooting with him and I can't wait to do it again.