Water sluices over a rock on the North Kohala coast. The dark circles on the rock are helmet urchins, showing they have very good adhesive qualities.
Tag Archives: Kohala
Islet and tropicbird
A tropicbird wheels over an islet, and its lone, tenacious tree, off the North Kohala coast.
Abstracts: Sunset
This week’s posts are in response to the WordPress photo challenge on the theme of ‘evanescent.’
Sunsets are an evanescent event. They’re all different, depending on the clouds and the atmosphere and the weather. And where the sun goes down changes from day to day depending on the time of year. And to top it off, the colors, the composition, change from moment to moment as the sun sinks and the clouds move. There’s no ‘OK, it’ll be like this for the next 15 minutes.’ Instead it might vanish in a moment, diffusing into a previously unnoticed layer of haze on the horizon.
I like that unpredictability. I’ve driven down to a good viewing spot, lured there by promising weather and cloud formations, only to have the sunset be a damp squib. And then there have been other times when I’ve gone with low expectations and been treated to a cascade of color.
This photo was taken from the comfort of my lanai and I like the striking contrast of the bright and the dark at that moment in time. A few minutes later, it was all gone.
Goldilocks’ breaking wave
This week’s posts are in response to the WordPress photo challenge on the theme of ‘evanescent.’
In a previous photo challenge, I posted a photo of a ‘mountain of water.’ I’d been trying to capture waves breaking toward me and though that one didn’t break, it provided a surprising photo.
I mention this because a couple of days ago I was snorkeling and the surf was higher than I expected with visibility in the water consequently poor. I figured I wasn’t going to get any decent fish photos, but I thought I might get a nice surf shot. So I headed toward a deep spot close to shore where I could see the waves breaking toward me. I got to the spot and popped my head out of the water just in time to see a large breaking wave racing my way. It was probably the perfect shot, but sad to say, I lost my nerve. This was a big wave. I swam away, too late of course, and ended up in a froth of whitewater, pushing into my mask and up my nose. And then it was past.
I had to laugh. Truth is, I was never in danger. There’s enough space where I was that even this bigger wave wasn’t going to trouble me. But for that fleeting moment, I had serious doubts.
And this photo? Well, if the ‘mountain of water’ was too small, and my recent encounter too big, this wave was just right.
Storm in the channel
Heavy rain in the Alenuihaha Channel, between Maui and the Big Island, rumbles towards shore. Those cows are going to get a dousing.
Balanced rock
I just liked how this rock was balanced when I was out walking along the coast.
The view from from Pu’u Ahumoa
Maui and Kohala Mountain as seen from Pu’u Ahumoa on the lower slopes of Mauna Kea. The structure on the left is what remains of an old beacon for low-flying aircraft.
Mountain of water
Sometimes I get caught up taking a set of photos of certain things. Lately, I’ve been trying to capture waves breaking toward me. On this day the water looked promising, but mostly the waves refused to break.
However, it was a pleasant surprise to find that I’d managed to capture this image. The water has lumped into a pleasing mountain shape and the coral below looks like aspects of its rocky face.
Graham's Island 