Author Archives: Graham

About Graham

I take photos when I'm out and about, recording life on the Big Island of Hawaii.

KO Pizza

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fun with Photo Editing.’ See more responses here.

I don’t tend to monkey around with photos much, outside the usual cropping, and adjusting color and the like. Still, I had several ideas for this challenge, none of which I liked when push came to shove.

Instead, I settled for these photos, a day and night view of the excellent KO Pizza food truck. The truck operates two days a week in Hawi, but they’re in the process of opening a permanent location in town. Menu planning is about to get much easier!

The KO PIzza Food truck in Hawaii at night

Goats on the 1871 Trail

I was hiking the 1871 trail, south of Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, when I saw these goats scrambling down a rocky slope. I thought they matched the terrain well.

The light at the end of the rainbow

A rainbow and Mahukona Lighthouse seen from the water.

Ring-billed Gull

I was walking the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (often known as A Bay, for obvious reasons) when I noticed this bird walking in the same direction as me. I was idly wondering what kind of gull it was, when I suddenly realized, ‘it’s a gull.’

Unlike most places, a gull sighting in Hawaii is a rarity. I know people who’ve never seen one here. Gulls prefer shallow tidal areas and tropical islands don’t have those, so they’re not gull-friendly. But a few get blown in every year and some arrive as stowaways on ships

This one is a Ring-billed Gull, and it’s the second I’ve seen in my time here. The first, I saw catching a fish (here). I rather liked how this one was strutting its stuff on the beach.

Also posted for Bird of the Week LII. See more responses here.

The Numbers Game #9

A Black-Crowned Night Heron juvenile in Hawaii — A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron on alert.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 130. You can see more responses here.

A passion vine butterfly lays an egg. — A Passion Vine Butterfly lays an egg.

Webs on the ground catch the early morning sunlight. — A Passion Vine Butterfly lays an egg.

A V22 Osprey aircraft at Upolu Airport, Hawaii — A V22 Osprey aircraft…and how it works!

A V22 Osprey aircraft at Upolu Airport, Hawaii showing how it is operated — A V22 Osprey aircraft…and how it works!

It’s a miracle

The flowers of a miracle fruit plant in Hawaii.

Every time I visit Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve and Garden, I see something new. On my last visit, one of new things I saw was this Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum). The plant hails from tropical Africa. It gets its name from its berry. Without getting into too much chemistry, if this berry is eaten, sour foods eaten after it will taste sweet!

There were no berries on this plant, but perhaps I’ll see them next time I visit. Perhaps I’ll nick one and see how this works!

Convict Tangs

A school of Convict Tangs grazes on algae on the rocks.

Hawaiʻi on Fire

Daybreak reveals the onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point. — Daybreak reveals onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point in April 2016 (Original post here).

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Iconic Places and Spaces.’ See more responses here.

I wasn’t sure what to post for this, but Kilauea is about as iconic as anything on the island, so I thought I’d post some photos from volcanic activity that I’ve seen since I moved here. Captions on the photos with a link to the original post.

Kilauea lava pours into ocean as people watch from the cliff — Lava from the Pu’u O’o vent reaches the ocean in July 2016 (Original Post here).

A lava breakout from the Kilauea lava flow. — A hike to the July 2016 flow revealed surreal scenes like this one (Original post here).

Lava from Kilauea Volcano’s Pu’u O’o vent enters the ocean as if from a firehose. — This fire hose of lava was a short-lived feature of the 2016 flow (original post here).

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii