ocean

  • Green Sea Turtle doing a hand stand underwater
    Mar
    2017
    23
    2017 / Mar / 23

    The Show Off

    Turtle doing a hand stand while eating.

    There were a lot of turtles around Mahaiula bay this past Sunday when arriving early morning to relax on the beach. The water was beautiful. Several shades of blue decorated the bay. And then there were the dark figures of turtles swimming around and feeding. I went to join them.

    Immediately I found a large turtle that didn’t seem to mind that I was around. For over an hour I watched and photographed, looking for different perspectives and a way to capture the character of this amazingly delicate yet rugged animal. We were battling the increasingly building waves that would push us around, more me than the turtle, and at times I would find myself floating away; fighting to return. This forced me into a new approach. Instead of hovering around at a short distance, I needed to swim further away and allow the distance to buffer me into a better position for focus and composition while the current pushed me toward the turtle. That is when I started to notice the struggle the turtle faced as well. With every passing wave I noticed it gripping to the rocks, swaying and twisting around. Nearly flipping over with a couple larger swells… and thats when I took this image. Even though the turtle struggled to stay put to eat, the still photograph contrasted its determination with more of a playful and comical look. As if the turtle was showing off by doing some hand stands.

    It is moments like these that I think about what it would be like if humans had to endure the elements and forces of nature that animals do. If while we sat to eat at the table we needed to grip tight to the table or we would suddenly be pushed aside. Our food was constantly swaying as we picked at it with our faces because our hands were busy holding us still… all while holding our breath. Not to mention the threat of being attacked by a predator.

    © Christopher Johnson

     

  • Turtle reflected in the underside of the water
    Mar
    2017
    13
    2017 / Mar / 13

    Hawaiian Turtle

    Hawaiian green sea turtle swims near the surface of the water.

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    Every time I go to photograph underwater I realize how difficult it is. Everything is moving constantly, the light is always changing and not as bright, and whatever you swim towards swims away. Not to mention how hard it is to see the camera screen because of the reflection of the sun creating a mirror over the screen. Most of the time I find myself aiming in the direction of what I want to photograph and most of the time I either miss or crop the object in half. Then there are the times I get lucky.

    I was swimming around looking for turtles, but couldn’t find one. Instead I though to capture some patterns and sun rays when this turtle swam under me as if to say hello. The spot I was wasn’t very deep. I could stand up and have my head out of the water, so it was that much more exciting to have that close of a visitor. I followed her around for a little bit and then as sudden as she arrived, she was gone.

    The photograph I came away with is one where she came up for air a was slowly beginning to dive back down to feed. I love how the shell is reflected in the underside of the waves as they pass by.

    © Christopher Johnson

    www.fromhereonin.com

    Purchase a print by visiting my RedBubble page.

     

  • The stars above the Kamokuna coastline with the 61G lava flowing into the ocean.
    Jan
    2017
    28
    2017 / Jan / 28

    Kamokuna At Night

    Photographing the Kamokuna Lava Ocean Entry at Night

     

    On December 31st there was a drastic change to the shoreline at the Kamokuna ocean entry. The lower shelf that the lava once gradually flowed over before entering into the ocean as well as part of an old lookout point fell into the ocean. Somewhere around 17 acres of land suddenly disappeared. I had to go see it and so as a last minute plan we headed over. I couldn’t believe the amount of roadblocks we encountered on the way. Dead car battery, flat bike tires, missing headlamps, and an accident that closed the road for 30min. While sitting in traffic I turned to my wife and said. “I don’t think we’re gonna make it in time.” At that point we considered abandoning the mission, but to our surprise the road opened up and we were on our way. Lucky it did because I don’t know when we would be able to get back over there.

    The trail was light with people, so we were able to ride with ease without having to worry about everyone and made it with plenty of daylight to spare. When we came prior to the collapse, in August of 2016, the road went on further and we were able to get close to the lava. Close enough where we were able to see a lot of action with our naked eyes. Now the new lookout puts us several hundreds of yards away. The action is harder to see without binoculars or zoom lenses. With the amount of smoke billowing off of the entry even seeing the lava is difficult. A gust of wind would swoop in and push the smoke where we would get a glimpse of the large lava river draining into the ocean. It was impressive to see even with the great distance.

    My family walked around and explored all the viewing areas while I found a spot I liked and didn’t move from that spot the entire time we were there. With the small crowds of people I wanted to make sure that I had a front row spot where I didn’t need to worry about someone moving in front of me. Even still I had the occasional tourist think I was their husband and stand next to me while telling me about how they nearly fell down in the dark. I would slowly look up and watch them get flustered with embarrassment and walk away. Strangely enough it happened more than once.

    My lens of choice was the 300mm telephoto for the distance. It was windy, so I needed to weigh the tripod down with my bag and crank down all the setting nobs. I also used a cable release and waited for the wind to die down before taking the shots in order to reduce camera shake. Any slight movement while fully zoomed in will move the composition a couple feet.

    It was at night that the lava glowed and showed life with a lot of small explosions. I decided to capture the night sky with my wide angle before leaving. I took 8 to 10 – 30 second shots while my kids grew impatient. They were definitely ready to start the long bike ride back and get something to eat.

    As I stepped off my bike at the car I was relieved the bike ride was over. Any longer and the extra hard, value engineered, cheap ass seat would have to be surgically removed from me. It has been a couple weeks since then, but I swear I walk differently now. We had fun.

    © Christopher Johnson

     

    View more lava images - http://www.fromhereonin.com/volcanic-activity/

  • Smoke plumes from the lava entering the ocean at Kamokuna.
    Oct
    2016
    09
    2016 / Oct / 09

    Kilauea From Above

    Celebrating our 16th anniversary, my wife and I went on an amazing helicopter tour around the Big Island with Blue Hawaiian. We began towards the volcano, then made our way north along the Hamakua coastline to the amazing valleys north of Waipio. This is one of the coolest, most breathtaking Hawaiian adventures I have ever taken. I strongly recommend going.

    This post is mainly to show images of the smoke that is coming out of the volcano. I will be showing the valleys in a later post.

    Enjoy!

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Tropical scene from the Big Island of Hawaii
    Jul
    2016
    24
    2016 / Jul / 24

    Hawaii

    Golden sunset shines through the beautiful silhouetted palm trees during sunset

     

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    On my way down to the shoreline of Kailua Kona to view the sunset I was taken back by the beauty of the palm trees silhouetted against the vibrant Hawaiian sunset.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • A large sea arch off Noio Point on the Big Island of Hawaii
    Jun
    2016
    08
    2016 / Jun / 08

    Noio Point Arch

    Photograph of a sea arch along the western Hawaii coastline during sunset

    Sunlight streams through the large opening of a sea arch off of Noio Point along the Kailua Kona coastline.

    See the aerial version I shot with a DJI Spark drone, ‘Sea Arch Aerial‘.

    © Christopher Johnson

    Available backlit from Big Naked Wall. Check out the website and see the cool things they are doing for artwork with their interchangeable prints on backlit frames.

  • Waves rush around a large hole in the reef during a golden Hawaiian sunset
    Feb
    2016
    17
    2016 / Feb / 17

    Two Fifteen

    I visited this location two days in a row when the sunset had some promise. The first day was disappointing when the sun popped under the clouds as a dull glowing ball surrounded by the colorless grey haze, blocking any chance of color and light. I was successful when I shot while the sun was high, but during the finale the absence of light pushed my shutter speed too slow. While I wan’t going to compromise any more on aperture and ISO I packed up. However, the next day I was graced with the appearance of the sun. Again I watched as the sun faded behind the low lying haze that trapped the sunlight from under lighting the belly of the clouds, but I was happy to witness some color on the horizon.
    My goal with this shot, against this sunset, was to capture the color and texture of the seaweed with a 1 second shutter. The surf was high and I didn’t want to risk a tight ground shot, so instead, I framed a glimpse of the foreground.
    Enjoy…
    © Christopher Johnson

  • Waves raging under a sea arch
    Dec
    2015
    13
    2015 / Dec / 13

    Shoot RAW

    Shoot Raw … a Rude Reminder

     

    Long breaks from shooting have proved to be bad for me. This is following my Failure To Focus post from last month. This next lesson came from an entire shoot that was mostly of un-useable images. Such a drag since the location I walked to was a couple miles along a treacherous terrain. Hopefully I won’t make the same mistake again.

    12 years ago I made the change from shooting all JPEG to shooting all RAW images. It didn’t really matter if the subject I was shooting needed to be RAW because it was going to be shot RAW anyway. Well now I have become so custom to developing RAW images that I forgot what the difference really was. Well I learned the difference today.

    My camera is getting old. The last photo shoot I had was underwater at Mahaiula beach. Unfortunately the housing leaked and when I removed the camera, although the camera worked fine, the settings began to change on their own. ISO, focus, white balance, and PASM; I just didn’t realize the RAW capture settings changed as well. I had thought something was different when I noticed the 1250 number on the screen, but it didn’t dawn on me what that number actually represented. The 1250 was the available images I could shoot on the memory card, where that number usually is around 200. Thinking it was the ISO I went to adjust the settings, but it was already at 100. It was at this moment I should have stopped to figure it out, but of course I didn’t and proceeded to shoot the new location.

    I left thinking I may have gotten some great shots… I was wrong. Once I saw the JPEG at the end of the files while loading them on my hard drive I was mortified. “Maybe they will be fine” I thought to myself. That was until I began to work on the images.

    The first thing I began to notice was the amount of artifacts in under exposed areas. Then the minor adjustments in the highlights and shadows really started to make the images look fake. Instead of having the ability to fine tune these areas, small adjustments would completely blow them out or flatten the image. Then there was a lot of blotchy areas where the pixels try to make up the detail in dark and highlighted areas. Followed by the objects in the distance at the far end of focus had a weird sharpening look to them. Almost like the objects were wrapped in plastic. These camera compressed images were total crap. All flexibility for development is gone. The only way this JPEG setting worked is if the image shot was technically perfect and in a tight focal range.

    The shot I posted needed very little development and for the most part worked. With a little bit of loss in the shadowy areas I am fairly happy with it, but as for the rest, it was a sad night.

     

  • Waves rush through the blooming seaweed along the terrain of the Keahole coastline
    May
    2015
    05
    2015 / May / 05

    Keahole Sunset

    A wide photograph to show the character of the Keahole shoreline.

     

    Being too busy to go out and shoot is no fun and that is where I have been for most of 2015. Today I was able to retreat to the beach and noticed the calm ocean. It was then I slated a time to shoot the sunset. When the ocean is calm and the tide is low, the seaweed is more prevalent and I knew exactly where to go. A spot I haven’t been to in a while just north of Kailua Kona where the shoreline has a unique character to what we think Hawaii should look like.

    This location, unlike the others, is more violent when the waves surge in and out of the large holes in the rocky shoreline. Extra caution is needed when setting up. I setup low and close to the opening in-order to capture the water flowing through the seaweed. Because the surf was calm I felt safe from being pulled into the opening.

    I was lucky that the sunset came together at the right moment. I shot several frames, but this is the one that brought the entire scene together… Enjoy!

    © Christopher Johnson

    Waves rush through the blooming seaweed along the terrain of the Keahole coastline

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  • Reflection of a palm tree in the clear water of Kiholo Bay
    Sep
    2014
    28
    2014 / Sep / 28

    Kiholo Bay Sunrise

    The long trek in the dark was totally worth the soothing morning I had at Kiholo Bay this morning. I finally got myself to get up early enough to do this photo trip. Walking through a Kiave forest in pitch black darkness wasn’t the scariest part of the trip, nor was walking on the dangerous terrain of lava rock. It was the 4 goats I happened upon. I had my head down to watch where I was stepping when I briefly looked up. In the darkness I saw what appeared at first to be people looking down from above me. A second later I realized it was a family of goats, but for that initial second, my heart jumped.
    The sun was beginning to glow over Mauna Kea when I finally found my spot at the end of Kiholo Bay looking back toward Hualalai. It was then I felt a much needed calming quietness come over me. Such a beautiful and amazing place to be.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Aug
    2014
    11
    2014 / Aug / 11

    Tropical Storm

    The days following hurricane Iselle have made for some beautiful sunsets. Long stretches of low lying clouds with amazing formations that the light paints a surprising random pattern of color across the sky. It was the next night after the hurricane first hit land and quickly turned into a tropical storm that I ventured out to enjoy the sunset. My first thought was to go to Kohanaiki, with the white coral sand against the deep blues and purples would make for a pleasing shot, but the gates were still closed. Instead, a few miles down the road, Wawaloli beach park. There is one spot that is always crowded, but was left empty due to the storm. A small stretch of black sand that leads to another stretch of large rounded boulders. I have been wanting to revisit this spot for some time.

    My shots began on the smooth sand, but I eventually found myself clumsily making my way over the slippery boulders. Careful to setup in a location where I wouldn’t get too drenched by unsuspecting, unpredictable waves, I setup to capture both the water movement and clouds in one frame. This shot I feel I captured to moment. With the slow shutter, the incoming waves smoothed out and caressed the dark boulders in a milky white while the stormy clouds are decorated by the colors of the setting sun.

    © Christopher Johnson

  • Sun Light shining throughout the ocean water
    Jun
    2014
    28
    2014 / Jun / 28

    Bending Light

    Photograph of sun rays shining through the murky turbulent ocean water.

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    An underwater photograph shot toward the surface of the water as the sun shines through the ocean water makes for dramatic image. Photographed at Mahaiula beach just north of Kailua Kona, Hawaii.