Tag Archives: Sunsets and Sunrises

Sun through the blinds

Early morning sun shines through window blinds

Early morning sun illuminates some still unopened blinds.

Mauna Kea in red

Returning from a recent hike, I drove round a corner and saw Mauna Kea looking completely red in the setting sun. I pulled over and grabbed my camera, but by the time I took photos, a matter of a couple of minutes, only the top half of the volcano was still illuminated.

This though was my last photo from September, posted here for Bushboy’s Last on the Card challenge (see more responses here).

I took the photo with a view to making a few adjustments, which I’ve done in the bottom photo. The main thing was to crop some of the sky, which I had to include in the photo to get the full volcano. The other thing, which is a bit of an oddity with my camera, is that in certain lighting conditions it will produce a somewhat dull and hazy image. But adjusting the Lighten Shadows feature from zero to one makes the difference seen here.

Kohala sunset

I was on my way home from work recently, watching the sun going down as I drove, and wondering whether I should stop and take photos. I’d decided not to when I came to a spot where the sun was about to set and the clouds were starting to put on a show. So I pulled over and took a couple of photos. This is one of them.

After the sunset

Shortly after the sun dipped below the horizon, the sky appeared to catch fire.

Sunset splash

Sunset at Kaloko Honokohau park in Hawaii

The setting sun illuminates a splash of water off a wave.

Will someone please turn it on

A bird sits atop a shower at Spencer Beach Park, Hawaii

This bird looked a bit forlorn when it landed on an outdoor shower at Spencer Beach Park. I think it was just looking for a drink of water, though there were alternatives not far away.

Old Saddle Road

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Road Trippin’.’ See more responses here. Since there aren’t any road trips, in the usual sense of the expression, here on the island, I thought I’d focus on a stretch of road that is one of my favorite drives here.

Old Saddle Road is an 11 mile stretch of the old highway that connected the west side of the island to the east side, through the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. These days, people take the new road, which is wide and smooth and allows drivers to zip along at 80 mph even though the speed limit is 60 mph. I like this highway, too, but the best part of any cross-island trip is always the old highway, which is up and down, winding, and dotted with one lane narrows where culverts pass under the highway (they’re not bridges) to channel the copious amounts of rain away from the road.

This stretch of road is bordered by ranch land, with horses, cattle, and sheep to the fore. There’s also a good variety of wildlife that can be seen in this area. And the weather can be anything from stunning to biblically awful, sometimes within the hour. So here are a few scenes that give an idea of that short, but special drive.