Known in Hawaii as ‘ilima, and popularly used to make lei, this is a beautiful flower:
This is one of a handful of native species surviving on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Sida Fallax
Category Archives: Flora
Protea
Seen at the Ali’i Gardens in Maui, Hawaii:
My apologies for the dearth of posts lately, but my computer’s hard drive has been getting flaky (bad enough to cause issues, but not bad enough to make the source of the problem obvious), and finally died yesterday. Its replacement should be online within a few days.
Hosting a photowalk — my experiences
About two weeks back, I hosted a local photowalk — as part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk for 2012. I’d never done it before, so just wanted to pass along a few of my experiences (bottom line: I dramatically overthought things going into it, but everybody had a good time).
The basic idea is to just spend a couple of hours as a group, walking (2 miles or less) through some photogenic sights. As is my usual tendency, I did all sorts of research in advance (even though I’ve lived in this town for 22+ years now), and collected a pile of trivia about various places along our route.
In retrospect, this was largely a waste of time, since walking 24 people along sidewalks means only a handful will be in earshot at any time — and even then, leading photographers is a whole lot like herding cats. Within a few blocks, your group will be spread over a large swath of terrain.
So my main bit of advise is to not overdo your research — pick a route with good sights and concentrate on getting your group through it safely (we had traffic to contend with).
One thing I did right was to make a detailed map, and give everybody a print-out of it at the start of the walk. This way, those that aren’t familiar with the area you’re walking in will be able to get back to the group if they get… distracted.
What I wasn’t expecting to be so challenging is that in the Kelby system, the leader of a local photowalk chooses the “best” image that his / her walkers took on the walk. I’ve never played judge before, so had to learn how to deal with the apples-and-oranges nature of this task. There’s a really good street photograph, and a really good nature photograph, and a couple of excellent environmental / detail shots — which one is “best?” You’ll have to go to the photowalk page to see what I mean.
In any event, the weather cooperated, the walkers all seemed to enjoy the tour, and I know I enjoyed showing them around my home turf — so definitely, I’d recommend this to anybody! And as you can see, I had fun playing with my (still-)new 60mm lens.
Sievers Mountain South
Captured from the trail to / around Maroon Lake — near Aspen, Colorado:
On our “fall colors” road trip through the mountains, we only made it to Aspen in the late afternoon — so the lighting was much better for shots on this side of the lake (vs. the more traditional / popular shot of the Maroon Bells themselves). I just love all the color in this frame!
Fall colors
A little scene, captured along highway 82 in Colorado, west of Twin Lakes on the road to Aspen:
A fun little story goes along with this shot. The landowner where I spotted this scene has the cleared part of his / her land set up picture-perfect, almost as if to invite photography. Old barn, old windmill, old tractor — it’s all there just waiting for a “calendar shot.” When we slowed down so I could grab a few shots, someone was already parked in the driveway. I pulled alongside him, and he left — to be replaced about 30 seconds later by another visitor. After I was done shooting, yet another photog took my place.
If the landowner set out a tip jar, they could collect some serious cash (more if they had pre-signed property release forms)!
Pink on green
Seen on the slopes of Mt. Rainier in Washington state:
I spotted this along the side of a trail in the “Grove of the Patriarchs”…
Curiously yellow
Seen in Pioneer Park, at the base of San Francisco’s Coit Tower:
Blue and green
Some tiny little flowers I spotted during Doors Open Denver 2012, at the Governor’s Residence:
These were tiny little things (maybe 1/4″ across) and were located just off the side of a pathway — glad I spotted them!
Floating
Another shot from the incomparable Filoli Gardens in the San Francisco bay area:
I don’t know just who left the blooms in the birdbath, but it was a nice touch. On a rainy day, it was a welcome spot of color in the shade…
The fungus among us…
Seen on a walk in California’s Muir Woods:
OK, so fungus likely isn’t what most folks look for in nature photographs — but I thought this line of them with their distinct colors made for an interesting composition.