Photography by Randy Hanna

A visit to Kauai is not really a complete visit unless you see the Na Pali coast.  From air or water, the views of this coastline are simply breath taking.  In all of my trips to Kauai, including numerous trips out the the Na Pali coast, I have always been greeted with fog and low clouds.  My recent trip was the exception with high clouds and near perfect lighting early in the morning.

Fingers of the Na Pali Coast

Coast Line Close-Up

Stacked Coast Line

If you get a chance, visit Kauai.  You might just fall in love with all that it has to offer, just as I have.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Randy

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There are basically two roads to take up to the Waimea Canyon, the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”.  I prefer the Waimea Canyon Drive on the way down, but you should always look in your rear-view mirror or you will miss photo opportunities such as this one below.  Be cautious on your selection of pull-outs, as traffic seems to come out of nowhere on this road.

Our attempt to visit the Kalalau Lookout at Kokee to get a clear view of the Na Pali’s Kalalau Valley was unsuccessful due to land fog.  This fog is formed not long after sunrise when the sun starts heating up the ground surface near the ocean.  The warming along with the cool moist conditions at altitude, generates a moving bank of fog that gently rises and falls up and down the valley.  Best times for clear viewing are first thing in the morning, and late afternoon.  In our case, all I photographed was fog.  Next year…..

At the bottom of the lookout, assuming you can see through the fog, you would see just beyond the very end of the bluff below, the true beginning of the Na Pali Coast.  Park your car, kick off your shoes and go for a stroll along the seldom populated Barking Sands beach.  Once of the longest stretches of  beach in Hawaii, be sure to bring plenty of sunscreen – it’s hot and totally exposed.

Walking to to the end of the beach, you will soon see a mariners cross which serves as a reminder that the loss of life is often just a wave away.  Please note,  Barking Sands is frequent to serious undertows.  Please proceed with caution when playing in the water.

Barking Sands, End of the Beach

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After a late night in Seattle visiting some friends that reside on Maui and were in town on the ship World, I found a message in my email stating that two out of my four submitted images had made it to the Semi-Final level of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition.  These two images were taken from my 2008 and 2009 safaris to Tanzania and are presented below:

Nikon D300, 200-400VR @400, March 2009

Nikon D300, 500mm+1.4 TC, Feb 2008

As a final note, the email stated that there were some 93,000 entries for the 2009 competition.  I am happy!

BTW, there is still room for the 2010 safari adventure to Tanzania.

Enjoy and happy Photo’ing.

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Below are the final photos in the beach series of Coogan and Paul shot in the Poupou Beach area near the Beach House Restaurant.  All images were shot with a Nikon D300 with a 17-55mm or a 70-200mm lens and a Nikon SB900 mounted in a Lastolite 24×24 EZbox off camera left.  Basic exposure was a -1/3  to  -2/3 EV in the camera to increase background saturation with a +2 to +2.5 EV push in the strobe to offset the daylight, all controlled with the Nikon CLS from the camera.  Lastolite Trigrip was camera right and low bouncing upward to fill shadows underneath the eyes.  Limited processing was done in Lightroom including grayscale conversion. Once I got through the craziness with Coogan and Paul (they sort of had enough of the photo stuff early on), they were a blast to work with.  I certainly hope they enjoy these photos as much as I had producing them.

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There is no finer tropical place on earth than Kauai.  I have been coming to Kauai for the past 18 years.  Each year is not without a special discovery.  Although this year will be a short visit, I still intend  to explore and photograph a few streams and waterfalls with the huge mountain ranges in background.  Of course, no visit to Kauai could be complete without a visit to Barking Sands and the Napali Coast.  At the end of the road behind a gated entrance is one of the best beaches on the island.  Taken during the early morning hours of golden light, I had the beach to myself for hours, or at least is seemed like.

Golden light on a secluded Kauai Island beach

Nikon D300, 17-55mm

Cheers and happy photo’ing

Randy

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Hey folks, I wanted to share with you a nice web site I found some time ago focused on Hawaii.  I have been following these guys for several months and have concluded that they are NOT jaded by the commercial travel industry.  They continue to be a great source for outstanding airfares and other solid values in the islands that are often over looked or simply not published.  They have become my one stop shopping for Hawaiian travel.  So hike over to their site and give it a look.  As they put it ‘We’re Hawaii Based, Irreverently Not Commercial, and All Travel‘. Want to keep up with them?  Simply grab their feed and put it in your favorite reader and off you go.

Yes you guessed it, I will be heading to Hawaii for a little fun and some serious work.  While there, I hope to put to use some new lighting equipment that should be arriving shortly.  Specifically, I’ll be using some Lastolite light shaping tools and the new Nikon SB900 coupled with two or more SB800’s.  My goal is to better harness the fading ambient light with balanced fill flash.  I’ll be using a rear curtain drag for scene motion as well.  As you can tell, I already have some shots in mind.  Keep posted for the images and let’s see if I can get all of the calculations to yield a decent photograph. Look out beach folks, I’m looking for a cute couple with a surfboard.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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The journey homeward started with a four hour flight from Serra Cafema to a dirt strip outside of Sossuvlei.  During a three day lay over at Sossuvlei area, we took advantage of shooting Deadvlei.  Four brave soles hit the dunes beyond Deadvlei for a long and strenuous hike deep into the dunes.  This last hike of the trip took a serious toll on my Nikon gear causing failure of the playback and AF buttons in both D300 cameras. This was in addition to my lenses sounding like pepper grinders.   Just my luck, the playback button failed in the depressed position which locked out all button functions to the left of the view screen.  With the histogram no longer available, I was on my own for exposure management.  Thankfully I had been shooting in the desert for almost a week and was well aware of the ‘plus’ exposure compensation when shooting bright subjects such as sand.  What was more challenging was preventing clipping of the blue and red channels during exposure and managing the shadow details with nothing but my shooting experience to rely on.  So why did my Nikons fail?  Simple, I used them unprotected in a 30-35 knot sustained wind in the middle of sand dunes.  Needless to say, sand was getting into everything.  Look out Nikon – all of my gear is heading your way for repairs.

With both cameras down and one more day of shooting, I decided to take a big risk and result to using a safety pin and Eclipse Sensor Solution.  I used one drop of solution (like I would if I had WD40 or a silicon lubricant) around the edges of both buttons and pried them up using the end of safety pin.  After repeating this procedure several times, I had most of my controls back, at least enough to shoot Dune 47 in the late afternoon – at least I thought so.  When taking the classic post card shots of the red Dune from the road, the controls failed again, this time in the RGB histogram mode.  I could not have ask for a better failure, as I was able to adjust the exposure compensation to prevent clipping with an automatic display after each shot.  The following day, was another bush plane ride to Windhoek, then on to Johannesburg, connecting to New York and LA with the final push to Seattle.  Total flight time I would estimate at something like 23 hours from Johannesburg to Seattle, each way (not including some 10 hours in bush planes).   Total air time – my guess is something just short of 56 hours.  This trip was painful, exhausting, challenging, and professionally rewarding as my photography skills were pushed to a new level.  Thanks to my photography, once again I was able to see another corner of the world that is seldom seen and yet most of all – I met some wonderful people that will likely influence my personal and professional life for a long time to come.  Special thanks to my truck buddies, Paul T, Sylvia, Justin, Larry, JP, and of course Andy for the invitation of a lifetime.  I never thought I would be standing on the side of a river looking at the border of Angola.

After South African Airlines lost my checked bag, I treated myself to a business class upgrade.  So here I sit in the LAX Red Carpet Club after a wonderful United meal of smoked salmon, fresh greens, stir-fried shrimp, chocolate and grand vanilla ice cream followed up by a warm chocolate chip cookie. Oh yes,  I almost forgot the raspberry mojito (always thinking of you, Coogan).  Home for two weeks then it’s off to Hawaii for a week of photography and fun in the sun.  I will be processing most of images from Tanzania and Namibia in the weeks to come, so enjoy these few images until the next posting.  Just a warning, if the colors are a bit off it is because I am using a non-color managed netbook that I bought just for this trip so I will have to fix them after I get home.

Star Trails

Nikon D300, 17-55 @23mm, f5.6, 2918 seconds exposure

Sand Storm Over Dunes

Nikon D300, 17-55mm @55mm, ISO 250, f11, 1/2oo sec

Sand As Far As One Can See

Nikon D300, 17-55mm @40mm, ISO 250, f10, 1/200 sec

Golden Light on Dunes of Namibia

Nikon D300, 17-55mm @ 28mm, ISO 250, f16, 1/125 sec

Black & White II Dunes

BTW, there are only four slots open for my Tanzania Feb 2010 trip.  If Africa is on your bucket list, then what are you waiting for?  Come join me for an adventure that will stir your soul and warm your heart.

Cheers and happy photo’ing.

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After flying for nearly 18 hours, I finally arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa.  In the beginning of the flight, I thought I had really scored big time by landing a seat in the exit row with nearly five feet of foot room.  What I soon learned was that the exit row seats were somewhat smaller than normal (width wise) and had a special air bag thing embedded in the waste belt.  Together, I had to wedge myself into the seat.  I guess I need to shed a few more pounds before the return trip.  Overnighted at the InterContinental next to the airport in JB.  This am, I am off the Windhoek, Namibia where I will do some exploration of the city and try to link up with a friend of mine that I served with in Iraq.  The one day layover in Namibia is a safety stop to ensure that our bags reach us before me move on into the outback of Namibia.  The following morning, I board a charter flight for the Skeleton Coast. I can hardly wait to start shooting.  Here is a larger map of the area.

The photo below demonstrates what happens when you shoot through the polarized plastic window of the aircraft with a polarizer on the lens of the camera.  Only in very special conditions can these two polarizers work together.  As you can see in the photograph, they are not working together.  This is largely due to the distance between the camera lens and the window as well as the differing types of material.  In special cases, where two polarizers are sandwiched together (machined glass to work together), they will work as a variable density filter (VND).  VNDs are often used by landscape photographers to slow the shutter speeds down.  The most common use of slower shutter speeds using VND is to  create motion in water falls or wave action while still being able to manage your exposure.

What I like about this shot is the reflection of the wing art .

Till the next internet connection……..

Randy

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I’m off for a couple of weeks to photograph a wonderful and inhospitable place known as the Namib and Kalahari Deserts.  Namibia has been on my bucket list for several years and only recently have I been afforded the opportunity to take this journey.  During this trip I will be visiting such places as the great Skeleton Coast,  Serra Cafema, and Sossusvlei – home to the highest sand dune in the world.  The hike along the knife-edge rim to the top is strenuous, requiring 60-90 minutes of taking two steps up and sliding one step down nonetheless, I’m going to get to the top.  I have been told that the view from the top of this dune into other valleys and of the mountains beyond is simply marvelous and I can’t wait to photograph this landscape.  Due to no internet connections in the middle of nowhere, I will not be posting until my return.  So for now, take a look at the maps below to see where I am headed.

From Seattle, I’ll fly into Dulles then onto Johannesburg, South Africa.  After a 16 hour flight, I will overnight in Joburg in prep for my flight to Windhoek the following day.  From Windhoek, I’ll be flying into the northern area of Namibia along the Skeleton Coast.  Several days in this region, then onward to Sossusvlei.

The Sossusvlei, Namibia’s famous highlight in the heart of the Namib Desert, is a huge clay pan, enclosed by giant sand dunes. Some of the spectacular hills of sand are, at a height of 300 meters, the highest in the world. The dunes of the Namib Desert have developed over a period of many millions of years. It is thought that the vast quantities of sand were deposited into the Alantic Ocean by the Orange River. This material was subsequently moved northwards by the Benguela current to be dumped back onto the land by the surf.

The coastal dunes developed as a result of this and were shifted further and further inland by the wind. Wind continuously reshapes the patterns of the huge dunes of the Namib Desert. It timelessly forces the grains of sand on the flat windward slope upwards to the crest of the dune. Here they fall down in the wind shade. The leeward slope is therefore always considerably steeper than the windward side.

While I am excited about photographing some of the oldest deserts in the world and the indigenous people that inhabit them, I am not looking forward to the very lengthy plane rides to and from.  Cheers and until I return, do some research on the areas that I have mentioned in this posting.

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After a brief lull in my photography, I’m back at posting some of the shots from my Feb 2009 Safari to Tanzania.  The Ngorongoro Crater is always a magical place for me.  With the rich diversity of wildlife confined to an area about 10 miles square, I am always surprised as to what I will see and the animal interactions.  So before moving on to the Serengeti, here are a few additional images from the crater and our camp site.  Photo credits:  Larry B – photos 1 & 5;   DeAnne B – photo 6;  Katherine H – photos 9 & 10.

After all day in the crater, we are treated to a wonderful sunset from our camp site.

Noon at our camp site

Kelio, our expert guide, was always checking on something for me.

Hippo pool

Flamingo lift-off

Yellow bark acacia tree close up

Running wildebeest

Mother's first kiss

When not shooting, eating or sleeping, we were in the camera tent.

Many photographers, like Larry, tried hard to escape the camera tent.

As we depart the crater, I treat you to the often-seen tourist view of zebras.

After 1 1/2 days in the crater, we say so long to the 8th wonder of the world. and begin our trek to the Serengeti

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