Hawaii

Winter Camera Hiatus is Broken

I used to love being out with the cameras on "mild" winter days. That came to a quick, unplanned end a couple years ago when a devastating injury from a fall on the ice took me completely off my feet for close to six months. Many of you know that story so I won't bore you with that again. It has created an ongoing fear of outdoor winter excursions.

This and several following posts will briefly break that cycle. It's not so bad when there is snow around...deep, deep snow. We donned the snow shoes and headed to one of many of our beautiful county parks. Great trails take you through a winter wonderland. In addition, we just got home from a mid-winter warmup in Hawaii. When I say we just got home, I mean JUST! We arrived home as the snow flurries began which then became over 20" of snow over the next 18 hours.  Snowfall and Hawaii.  Stay tuned.

The Pacific Whale Foundation

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We went whale watching with the Pacific Whale Foundation. This is a wonderful organization. All profits support Pacific Whale Foundation’s research, education and conservation programs to save whales, dolphins and our oceans. Every trip is led by certified Marine Naturalists who provide a truly unique, educational and fun adventure at sea. It was a spectacular adventure! We were there right in the peak of whale season. Whales in every direction. It was an amazing experience that we'd do again and again. 

I have learned over the years not to let my cameras spoil the experience. I am not the kind of photographer who spends the whole day looking through their camera. It's fine if you do that, it's just not my style. As a result I miss getting images of some things. By that I mean I miss catching it on camera. I'm OK with that when I have experienced it with my own eyes. I prefer that to constantly waiting for the perfect shot while missing the total experience. We did see the iconic whale breeches. Several of them. I'm glad I didn't miss seeing them because I was waiting for them to breech exactly when my camera was aimed. Someday I'll go back and approach it differently now that I've experienced it. Maybe I'll get lucky and catch a breech with my toys. 

PS: Why the moon with the whales? We left the dock before sunrise. We arrived early. I grabbed a shot of the moon while were waiting.

Winter Warmup

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Since I rarely post when we're traveling it's gonna take several days to get caught up so stay tuned.

We spent several days in Honolulu and then on to Maui for 5 days. We have friends in both places so it's difficult to take a 9 hour airplane ride and not try to see friends in both places. While on Ohau we spent one day exploring the island and one whole day at Pearl Harbor. Stay tuned for more Pearl Harbor images of the inside the Missouri battleship and the Bowfin submarine.