Category Archives: Photo Challenges

Uplifting moments from 2020

  • A pueo or Hawaiian short-eared owl sits on a post
    A pueo turns its wide-eyed stare on me. (Link)
  • Colorful lava on a hike in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. (Link)
  • Meeting a manta ray is always a thrill. (Link)
  • A pod of spinner dolphins stopped by my local snorkeling spot. (Link, link)
  • Lāhainā Noon, when shadows disappear in Hawaii. (Link)
  • Shoals of Hawaiian silversides were abundant in the summer. (Link)
  • With no tourists here, Anaeho’omalu Bay was a sea of tranquility. (Link)
  • Some clumpy nudibranchs spent a few weeks in a local bay. (Link)
  • The year ended with a bang when Kilauea Volcano erupted again. (Link)

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Your 2020 Retrospective.’ See more responses here. Also posted in response to Becky’s January Squares challenge theme of ‘Up.’ See more responses here.

In this retrospective I’ve focused on events and photos that were uplifting for me during the difficult year that was. Most of these photos haven’t run before, but were taken at the same time as those in posts that ran in 2020. Links to the original posts are at the end of the captions.

Whitemouth moray eel looking up

One thing I can rely on when I’m snorkeling is that when I’m looking down into the water there’s a very good chance something will be looking up at me. Most creatures in the water are constantly scanning for predators, or prey.

In this case, this whitemouth moray eel was in a typical position, wedged into a crack, and keeping a watchful eye on my movements.

Posted in response to Becky’s January Squares challenge theme of ‘Up.’ See more responses here.

Christmas lights

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

I ventured out into the chill Hawaiian night to see what kind of displays the area had to offer. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, despite the difficult circumstances, many people had hauled their lights out and illuminated their properties.

In the end though, I was taken by the window display at the Old Hawaiian Trading Company in Kapaau. I mean, who doesn’t like lights that flash on and off in different colors? People susceptible to seizures perhaps, but let’s not dwell on that. They worked for me. I’m a sucker for shiny things and blinking lights.

Hapuna Beach

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

We do get snow here on the Big Island, on the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, but there’s none up there right now. However, for those knee deep in snow, shrouded in freezing fog, or sliding on icy sidewalks, I thought these photos might seem like something of a winter wonderland.

Hapuna beach (officially Hapuna Beach State Recreation Area) regularly features on lists of the world’s best beaches. It’s a long stretch of golden sand across the head of a wide bay with fairly protected waters. Swimming is good, but when waves do roll in, surfers take over.

The top two photos show the view from the south end of the beach. In the second photo, the line of greenery jutting into the beach represents the edge of the State Recreation Area. North of there is Hapuna Resort, which is private, but the beach is still open to the public. The bottom photo shows the view from the north, looking south. The tracks in the sand are from vehicles used in beach maintenance or by the lifeguards who patrol the beach.

Sidewalks these days

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘City Sidewalks.’ See more responses here. The Big Island is a bit short on cities, but we do have a few sidewalks, even up here in North Kohala.

For many years, Hawi had a Saturday farmers’ market, which was held on a green space, under the banyan trees, near the heart of the community. The Covid virus shut that down and after a while, it was announced that the market wouldn’t return. Instead, once restrictions were eased, a Saturday morning market appeared on the sidewalks downtown. This wasn’t a problem since pretty much all the businesses were closed.

Yesterday’s market was quite busy, with the added boost of the approaching Christmas season. In the top photo, the Kohala Coffee Mill was open for business but still had room for a couple of vendors out front. In the second photo, the space in front of the Bamboo Restaurant is fully occupied. The restaurant has been closed since March, and while limited seating and take out is allowed now, the restaurant has not reopened. A lot of their trade was from tourists so I suspect they’re waiting to see how that develops. They do, however, appear to be planning on reopening.

The third photo, taken farther down the street, was taken a few days earlier and reflects how things are without an event like the market. This building, at street level, was occupied by a gallery and a popular restaurant. Both have not only closed, but aren’t going to reopen. The spaces appear to be in the process of gaining new tenants, though I doubt they’ll open soon since there are still relatively few tourists visiting the island, at least compared to previous years.

The bottom photo shows a covered sidewalk, which complements the street sidewalk. There are several active businesses in this building, but it’s still much quieter than it used to be. I suspect that this year might have reminded old timers of how this part of the island used to be in the days before the tourist boom happened.

The bottom photo is also posted in response to Bushboy’s Last on the Card photo challenge for November. See more responses here.

Poinsettia

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Red and Green.’ See more responses here.

Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) have been associated with Christmas for centuries in Mexico and Central America, where the plant hails from. The plant was introduced to the United States in the 1800s, but it wasn’t until the last century that the Christmas link really took off. This was mostly due to savvy marketing tactics by the Ecke family, which had a monopoly on the poinsettia market thanks to their discovery of a secret grafting method which produced a denser plant and wasn’t duplicated until the 1990s.

The red ‘flowers’ are actually bracts, which hold the fairly insignificant flowers. On the Big Island, their brilliant displays are quite common on the west side of the island, where they can be seen as bushes and trees.

Mud bath

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

We had a lot of rain here last week, not tropical downpours, but steady, continuous rain. Along the coast, this turned parts of the dirt road into mud baths. Areas to be avoided, right? Not if you’re a mudder, someone for whom heavy rain is an excuse, a calling even, to drive their 4×4 trucks to the area and carve figure eights into the morass.

The top photo shows an area where this activity is particularly popular. The original grassless patch was about half the size of that in the photo. For walkers, it’s not quite so inviting. It’s easy to lose footing in the slick, squishy mud. And if the rain continues, this mud will wash down into the ocean affecting coastal habitat for fish and other marine life.

Fast forward past a couple of days of sunnier weather and the ground is very different. Most of the mud has dried. Those spatters sprayed around the edges of the mud bath are now nubbly, crunchy lumps in the grass. Anyone driving or walking in this area will crush those lumps into dust and when the wind blows, as it does here most of the time, that dust will blow into the ocean, etc., etc..

But it might rain again before it all blows away, except … well, you get the picture.