Category Archives: Photo Challenges

Black Triggerfish

A view from the air of La Pelouse Bay in Maui Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Black or Metallic.’ See more responses here.

I’m going with the Black Triggerfish for this one. This fish is very black except for distinctive light blue lines at the base of the dorsal and anal fins. Even the eyes are black and very difficult to distinguish in the water or in photos.

The exception to this is when the fish is aroused. Then, blue lines radiate from around the eyes. The more agitated the fish is, the more color is displayed until the fish is entirely blue, yellow and green, except for the fins and tail outline.

These fish often gather in large numbers high in the water, feeding on plankton and drifting algae. But they also feed lower in the water, especially when sergeant fish eggs are on the menu.

Black Triggerfish in the waters off Hawaii

Abstracts: Textures

A section of burned wood — Burned bark on a tree

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Textures.’ See more responses here. There are captions on the photos, but see if you can figure out what they are first!

Reflections on the water of a pond in Hawaii — Lampshade

A shadow on the siding of a house in Hawaii — Shadow on house siding

Getting the look

A Great Barracuda in the waters off Hawaii

My regular swim these days, passes through the territory of the local Great Barracuda ohana. It’s quite common for them to gather in the wake of swimmers, mostly I think, in case the swimmers are spear fishing and might snag something they can steal.

Last week, this barracuda approached me from the front and gave me quite the look, but since it was no more than a foot long, I wasn’t too concerned.

A couple of days ago, I had a similar encounter with a similar-sized fish. This time the barracuda approached from dead ahead and only turned away at the last minute.

Had either of these been one of the giants, which can be three or four feet long and much bigger around, I’d probably have been wetting myself!

The second photo is posted for Bushboy’s Last on the Card photo challenge. See more responses here.

In need of repair

A damaged chainlink fence around Upolu Airport in Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Fences.’ See more responses here.

Here on the Big Island, fences tend to be of two kinds – chainlink and painted wood. Walls and hedges are possibly more popular. Walls don’t need as much maintenance and hedges fill in easily all by themselves, though they do require trimming if they’re not to take over.

These fences are ones that have seen hard times. The top photo is the chainlink fence around Upolu Airport. Someone managed to take out a section of this recently. Not sure whether they got distracted or were going too fast and lost control, but several sections of fence got destroyed. Judging from the trail of damage, the vehicle can’t have fared well either.

Damaged fences around Kohala Ranch, on the Big Island Hawaii, following a brush fire

The other two photos are of fences around Kohala Ranch, a subdivision in Kawaihae. These photos were taken after August’s big brush fire. The tidy white fences surrounding the property have been rather battered. Fixing the damage will be a significant task, though I think most of the folks living there were probably happy to have been spared more than this largely aesthetical issue.

A bevy of bridges

A bridge over an inlet on the coast in Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Bridges.’ See more responses here.

The top image is an elegant bridge on the coast, in the Hilton Resort at Waikoloa. It spans an inlet from the ocean into a lagoon. This bridge is part of the coast path, which is open for anyone to walk.

A bridge over a gulch in North Kohala, Hawaii

The Big Island’s main use of bridges is to span the numerous gullies that run from the mountains down to the ocean. On the east side, some of these bridges are quite long and high, with vertigo-inducing views over the edge. These three bridges cross gullies in North Kohala on the winding road from Kapaau to Pololu. The third has several houses nearby, so a walkway has been added. This is surely safer than walking on the road, though not by much judging from its appearance!

Finally, bridges of a different kind. Anoles and geckos use lines, attached to the house, to get around. Sometimes these one-lane bridges lead to encounters with fellow travelers. In this case the smaller anole leapt off into the cane grass, but that was its intended destination anyway. In the second photo, this anole was using the washing line to bridge the space from the house to a hedge.

Orange kayak

I was going through photos, sorting out what to post this week, when I came across this one. My immediate thought was that this should definitely have been included in yesterday’s Sunday Stills post, and its theme of Orange. Well, it’s a day late, but not a dollar short, so here it is. See more responses here.

Orange is the new theme

A Passion vine butterfly spreads its wings

This month’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Orange and Gold.’ See more responses here. First up is a very orange Passion Vine Butterfly taking a break.

Next, orange is the official color of the island of Lanai, represented here at this year’s Kamehameha Day celebrations.

A rider at the Kamehameha Day parade in Kapaau, Hawaii

Fish swim in one of the golden pools at Keawaiki, Hawaii — A spot of gold at Keawaiki.

An orange Bitter Melon fruit in Hawaii — A spot of gold at Keawaiki.

When I was putting this post together a few days ago, I thought a sunset photo would be a nice way to wrap it up. I trolled through my files before picking a suitable one out, and was on the verge of processing it, when I happened to glance out of the window and saw this developing. Another reminder to live in the present and not the past!

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii