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.

Day with Aussies

What a fantastic day!! Had a photography workshop of the underwater kind. It's not to often that I get do underwater photography work shops. Not too many people travel here with a full underwater photography set up. Leave it to the Aussies! David and Melanie did travel all the way from Australia packing gear. After a disappointing few days in the water they met up with me and we changed all that.

First we got in with this amazing spotted eagle ray. Trying to see dolphins at this spot didn't go to plan but we were rewarded with this ray and our next spot was the winner for dolphins.

I'm sure David got some great shots. The dolphins were totally checking him out.

After dolphins we headed to see turtles. The turtles were amazing as usual. David and Melanie Both were great in the water and were greeted by many turtles. Many opportunities to take epic turtle photos.

I even got a few gems. 

Finally a quick check to see turtles on the beach and we called it a day. What a fantastic workshop. Anytime I get great photos on a workshop it a good one. I had a lot of fun with David and Melanie and hope to see them again soon.