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August 30, 2019 Crater Nights

I took two of my good friends to see and photograph the Milky Way. We set up camp, ate dinner, then started the hike up the peak as the sun went down. The darker the sky turned, the more stars started to appear. By the time we got to the top, we could already see the Milky Way span across the lake. It was brightest and more prominent near the horizon. I want to thank one of my co-workers for letting me borrow his lens, which had a much larger maximum aperture than mine allowing more light to enter the sensor. See the slight purple/magenta glow? My eyes lit up as I saw that on the back of my camera.

January 17, 2019

My first time shooting Sandys beach was back in 2015. I was wearing booties so my fins would stay on my feet, but with the sand flushing in, it was no longer tolerable. While rinsing off in the parking lot, Marcus came up and said hi. He saw the sand pouring out of my booties and said “oh yeah, you don’t want to do that, the sand will grind up your feet”. I asked him where I can get some new DaFins, and he happily pointed me to a shop just a few minutes away. I was able to get a new better fitting pair of fins and go out the next day. Little did I know he was a local bodysurfing legend, I got a few sequences and shared it with him. I keep looking forward to the next time I go back to the island, already knowing I’ll run into him again. It’s easy to notice how he was always looking out for others and sharing nothing but good vibes in and out of the lineup. It is with a heavy heart, to know he caught his final wave this morning. Aloha, my friend, we’ll all miss you.

September 5, 2018 Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway

Just 24 hours earlier, it was smoke-free. It was the third trip for me this summer, the smoke cleared a week earlier, we had our boat tickets reserved, everything was going according to plan, until the day before we were suppose to be there. A weather system near the coast was forecasted to push heavy smoke in overnight. Fearing our boat tour was going to be cancelled again, we decided to shoot Milky Way into the night so we didn’t go home with nothing. I was restless the entire night, not knowing the fate of the next day, and contemplating backup plans. When dawn arose, it was as I expected, a bland white sky with the smell of smoke in the air, I was certain we were going to have to cut our trip short. Arriving at the rim of the lake, the smoke did not seem as dense as the previous month; there was a small slither of hope. We were lucky to have gotten on the last boat tour to Wizard Island before the head park ranger ordered all boats to be off the water. Even with the encompassing smoke getting thicker and thicker, the color of the water was still amazing. We spent over two hours of our three on the island pursuing an emerald pool on the western edge, painstakingly making our way through rocky volcanic geology and a seemingly infinite amount of ridge lines. As I made the long drive home, I could only think about when I was going to go back or if I will ever get to experience it on a sunny day.