Muddy Reward

Whenever I tell someone that Im going to the beautiful island of Kauai they usually ask me Are you hiking the Na Pali coast On my first trip to Kauai I ran out of time and never got to do the hike along the Na Pali coast. Going back a second time, I made sure to do all the things I didnt have time for before, and hiking to Hanakapiai Falls was towards the top of the list

The Kalalau Trail starts at the end of the road at Kee Beach and goes up-hill and then down hill for 2 miles until you hit Hanakapiai Beach. This is the point at which if you want to keep hiking the Na Pali coast you need to get a permit and backpacking is recommended. From the beach its 2 miles inland to the waterfalls. Once you hit the falls, you turn back and retrace your steps until you get back to Kee Beach.

Originally we wanted to plan our hike along the Kalalau Trail so that it would coincide with a dry day before, giving enough time for the wet trail to dry out a bit. Unfortunately we packed to much in and had to do the hike on a specific day. We set out early and immediately began wondering what we were getting ourselves into: the very beginning of the hike was already slippery. About a mile into the hike it started to POUR on us. Luckily my ClikElite camera bag had a rain cover or my gear might have been completely soaked/ruined. For a couple minutes we thought about taking cover under some trees but realized quickly it was useless and we kept hiking in the rain. In typical Hawaii fashion the rain stopped about 15 minutes later and eventually we made our way across the river and down to Hanakapiai Beach. After a short break we started the 2 mile trek inland.

We hadnt gone more than 200 feet when the trail turned from hard packed dirt to wet slushy mud. At one point we gave up trying to find dry land and just started trudging through the mud. The rest of the trail includes crossing a stream another half a dozen times and eventually my friends gave up completely on trying to keep their feet dry and just trudged through everything (I might add that my feet stayed completely dry on this hike)

Tired, wet, cold, and frustrated we finally made it to Hanakapiai Falls And man is it a beauty The waterfall drops 300 feet down, and bounced off numerous cliff rocks as it falls — some of which you can see here. I took a few quick photos, took a group shot of us, and then scarfed down some lunch before we hit the trail to return home.

Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
70mm, f/20, 0.4 sec, ISO 100
BW Circular Polarizer

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HorseFAIL

Although Galen Rowell first photographed the Horsetail Falls ”Fire Falls” in 1973 it was only until recently, with the popularity of the internet and social media, that this became a popular scene. During 2 weeks in February the sun sets at just the right angle that the orange glow reflects off the water and granite wall giving it the appearance of fire. Thousands of photographers flock to Yosemite National Park each winter to photograph this. In order for the Fire Falls effect to happen there needs to be plenty of water in the waterfall, the angle of the sun has to be just right, and the sky needs to be clear enough not to block the light from the sun.

There are 2 main locations to photograph the Horsetail Falls Fire Falls: one by the El Capitan picnic grounds (on Northside Drive) and the other along the river bank further south (on Southside Drive). Having photographed this event from the Southside Drive location in 2011 I decided to photograph from Northside Drive this year. Willie, Alan, and I drove down to Yosemite National Park on Friday afternoon and spent the entire weekend in Yosemite. My cousin and his friend also joined us.

As most people have pointed out the water level this year has been awful. A few giant storms in December gave way to an extremely dry January and February. When we arrived on Friday afternoon we could barely even find the waterfall, which is supplied by snowmelt from the top of El Capitan. Although several inches of snow fell a few days earlier the water level was looking pretty abysmal. On top of that, clouds kept rolling in. Luckily the clouds disappeared an hour or so before sunset and the only issue we had to tackle was water level. Not enough snow melted and we ended up disappointed with a mostly wet wall and not much waterfall.

Willie, Alan, and I spent the rest of the weekend freezing our tuchases off as we drove around the park trying to find other things to photograph. We also ran into a number of other photographers that we have exchanged emails, comments, and conversations with: Jean Day, Matt Granz, Michael Bonocore, Joe Azure, and Chung Hu to name a few. We also spent almost the entire day with Jeff Lewis, which was great after failing to meet up with him on past trips and exchanging perhaps a bazillion emails with him. On Saturday we also had dinner with Kristal Leonard.

We decided to cut our trip short and leave the park early on Sunday morning. Just as we drove out of the park at 9:30am we noticed that Horsetail Falls was *gushing* with water. We could see it with our naked eye! Scratch the plan to leave — we turned around and went to the lodge to get some grub. Unfortunately when we returned at the waterfall a couple hours later the waterfall was completely gone again! Oh well, next year!

A little timelapse and some other photos in the comments below…

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED:
200mm, f/11, 1/50 sec, ISO 100

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Narrow Beauty

One of the most amazing hikes in Zion National Park is The Narrows. Once Willie, Yan and I donned on our drysuit pants, neoprene socks and canyoneering shoes we trudged 9 miles up and down the Virgin River through this beautiful slot canyon. In the morning the suns rays bounce off the red rock walls, causing them to glow with beautiful color.

One of the first spots we found with glowing walls was here in the middle of Wall Street. This is only a small section of the rock wall that was lit with a beautiful orange and yellow but I really loved how the water was also reflecting the color. I decided to use a less traditional landscape (horizontal) orientation so that I could include the glow of the water in this photo.

We set out fairly early in the morning with the goal of being at the end of Wall Street by 10:30am. We stopped a couple times along the way and made it to Wall Street around that time but apparently missed the light show at one of the more popular spots. We back-tracked to find the light and stopped here around 10:45am with the light just blazing! Such an awesome place!

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
24mm, f/11, 1.3 sec, ISO 320
B+W Circular Polarizer

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Winter’s Mark

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Winter's View

One photo that has been high on my bucket list was a snowy Yosemite photo. Willie and I have been keeping an eye on the recent storms in the Eastern Sierras and a huge one hit over Christmas weekend, dropping over 7 feet of snow in one day in some areas I rented a 4 wheel drive vehicle and Willie, Alan, my girlfriend and I drove into Yosemite just as the storm cleared.

We arrived at Yosemite to see the entire place covered in white It was insanely gorgeous. The storm had moved out a bit quicker than we had hoped and we arrived late, to clear skies. As we looked west we saw another set of clouds coming in and we hoped we might be in luck After scouting several locations we decided that Ansel Adams had it right and we found our way over to Tunnel View for sunset. We were not disappointed Some low fog rolled into the valley, the trees stayed covered in white, and a slit of light made its way onto El Capitan for a beautiful view

To my surprise, my favorite image from the day happened to be one I had not expected at all. An almost full-moon rose just after the sun set, right during blue hour, and everyone raced around to capture the moon rising over Half Dome. I threw on my 80-200mm lens until Alan mentioned, hey, try going wide. By this point I was cold, tired, and ready to get home before the roads turned awful so I fired 1 quick shot, packed up my bags and went to warm up in the car. When I got home I realized how right Alan was I liked this shot more than all my others

In the end we spent twice as much time driving as we did in Yosemite but it was well worth it

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
55mm, f/11, 30 sec, ISO 200
No Filters

Indecision

Before I left for my week of vacation in Kauai I looked at the weather forecast and it said Partially Cloudy or Rain pretty much every day while we were there. Although I was bummed that it might ruin my plans for lying on the beach, I got excited because that meant I might be in luck for catching a killer sunset. Of course once we arrived at Kauai the weather changed completely and it was mostly beautiful days with hardly a cloud in the sky at sunset.

There was one exception: sunset on the first full day we were on the island. After making our way down a steep trail we arrived at Hideaways beach and to my delight I noticed lava rock all over the beach. Do you ever have one of those days where theres so many composition possibilities that you become overloaded and dont even know where to begin Even though we arrived super early, I kept going from spot to spot, back and forth, up and down the beach, unable to decide which lava rocks I wanted to shoot Oh, I liked that spot, but the clouds just moved. Ok, over here, the clouds are better here now. I spent so much time moving my tripod all around that I almost missed the sunset

I originally setup in this location because the waves were creating some beautiful water motion in this little channel and the clouds had been positioned perfectly for the sunset. Unfortunately, when the sun got low enough to begin the light show, the clouds picked up and started high-tailing it out of my composition (moving to the left). From this spot I was able to setup my tripod on a couple rocks and avoided getting sand in my tripod (sand is about the worst thing for a nice tripod), and the rocks were high enough to keep me mostly dry when the waves came in here I waited until the wave started retreating from the little channel to open the shutter. To my delight, the exiting wave hit some rocks in the middle of the channel and splashed up, catching some of the beautiful setting sunlight.

Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S
17mm, f/14, 1/6 sec, ISO 160
Lee Filter Holder 0.9 HiTech Soft ND Grad

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