Is it August yet?

The latest promotional video for this year’s Maui Photo Festival has been posted on their website and on Facebook, and in the mix of all the photos from the great photographers I met at last year’s event are two of my own.

• Aerial view of Honolua Bay
• My Haleakala sunrise self-portrait

As if you really need any further convincing that Maui is a perfect destination for a photography workshop like this, check out my ‘09 festival review on Maui by Photo and my enlightening experience during the sunset hula photoshoot.

Hopefully we’ll see you out there for this year’s event.

Mahalo,
– Kris

Photo: The very top of the Cana Island lighthouse looking over trees as seen from across a nearby bay.

Another, more closer to Earth view of the Cana Island lighthouse that was featured last week in the Before and After series. I grabbed this shot with my point and shoot after seeing the view from the road on the way back to our hotel.  Didn’t even get out of the car, just opened the window and snap.

I brought out more of the trees and surface of the water with Topaz Detail and the Feature Enhancement preset.

Follow-up to Yesterday

In yesterday’s post I posed the question of which whether the use of Topaz Adjust or Topaz Detail worked better with that particular image. I had a few comments on Flickr with some good feedback, and if you’d like to weigh in, please do.

– Kris

Photo: Series of waves washing on the shores of Wailea Beach, with clouds over West Maui near the horizon.

Now that I’m sort of back in business with my laptop situation, I wanted to throw in a few paradise shots before getting back into all the hockey images from the last two Chicago Wolves games I shot.

First, The Composition

Before I get into the detail conundrum I’m in, I wanted to say I really liked how this composition came out. Not just with the waves and the trees, but the clouds over the mountain as well.

Contrast that with this similar shot that has a more wider feel to it, and you’ll see what I mean.

Now, The Conundrum

This image made its way through my workflow with a stop in Topaz Adjust, the new Version 4.0.  I’ve been using TA for a few months, and this one is with one of the new presets named “Detail – Strong”.

Now, I also did this same image with Topaz Detail, which I’m just starting to experiment with.  You can view those results on Flickr here.

The Vote

Which one do you prefer?  I’ve added a call for input on both images on Flickr, but if you’re not part of the Flickrverse, please leave your thoughts here or on Facebook when the post is published there shortly.

Many thanks in advance,
- Kris

While my main darkroom laptop is awaiting repairs, I felt another entry in the Before and After Series was in order. The image from this post is an aerial shot I took while doing a photo shoot over the Door County peninsula in Wisconsin last October.

After two incredible helicopter tours over Maui, this shot was from my first aerial shoot from a two-seater airplane. To say I learned a lot would be an understatement, and if you’d like to read more, checkout my Above Door County post.

Now, onto the photos!

The Before Image

Not the most technically sound image I’ve captured from the air, but given the conditions, I was happy with it. I really liked the composition, so I felt it was worth saving.

The After Image

Not too drastically different at this size, but there are more subtle things to discover when viewing them at the next size up – which you can do by clicking each photo to view on Flickr.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the color is different, which I took care of by altering the White Balance. My original intent of the entire flight was to capture the autumn colors from the air, but the first pass was just too yellowish/orange for my taste. I decided to tone it down.

The other main difference in the after shot is the additional detail I recovered using Topaz Detail. That’s another plug-in I’m still learning my way around, but I’ve been happy with my first few experiments.  In this case, I used the Micro Contrast Enhancement preset with a few minor tweaks around the detail levels.

When looking at the larger version of the image, you’ll see more definition in the lighthouse itself and the trees behind it. I tried to suppress the additional noise the best I could, but given the rewards I saw in the main subject of the photo, it was worth it.

Thoughts?

As always, let me know what you think about this latest entry in the series. Also, if you’ve played around with Topaz Detail or similar tools before, please share your experiences there as well.

Thanks,
– Kris

Well, as much as we rely on technology and our gadgets these days, we must endure the delays that occur when we have to go without.

What started as a little scare last week with display on my primary development/darkroom laptop turned into an inevitable hardware failure, so I’m getting it ready for a visit to the service department next week. Of course, it has to happen two weeks after my warranty expired. D’oh!

I can still use the laptop, but I have to use a remote connection from my Mac Mini to get to it. Not exactly ideal for working with Photoshop on my gorgeous 24” monitor, not is it?

I have a temporary replacement machine coming this week, so I’ll either set that one up this weekend to do some interim photo work, or I may just break down and download the 30-day Photoshop CS4 trial for my Mac.  Playing by ear and how I’m feeling about the situation later this week.

Off Topic

So I decided to use another one of my bunny photos for this post, because every post should have a photo, right?

The last gratuitous bunny pic I had was back in November when I switched to WordPress, so I think that officially makes it a pattern for these random site updates, issues, etc. I’m thinking my little friend here may become my own version of the well-known Twitter Fail Whale, watcha think?

In lieu of new photos this week, I’ll still try and stay on top of things with posts in the Before and After and Facebook series, and maybe even a book review or two. I guess that’s another sticking point is that there’s a lot for me to do than just taking and editing photos. My work is never done.

– Kris

Photo: Up close and personal with a body check less than 15 feet from our seats.

Sure, fighting gets a lot of attention in hockey, especially in the AHL, but as a former defenseman, I’d have to say the real action is along the boards when you’re defending your own zone.

Call it chance or just an unspoken rivalry, we experienced quite a few more crashing body checks right in front of us in the 2nd row than the previous games. One woman in front of us even received a little snow shower as a stick blade made it higher than the glass and sprinkled the wet snow down on her. Just a little, though.

The Shot

I’ve been working on a shot like this for a few games now, but this is only as close as I’ve come so far. Having the ability to shoot f/2.8 with my rental lens was a big help, but a minimal focal length on the heavy Canon 70-200mm was a little hard to position with. Plus, I was shooting in Full Manual mode, so my shutter speed was one notch too fast to get enough light here.

Timing is pretty key here, too, since these plays develop rather quickly. I think it will be a matter of time and some more luck to get where I want this to be.

And unlike my playing days, this type of practice I sure don’t mind.

– Kris

More Bonus Links

Well, yesterday I shared the Flickr Group links for both these two teams, so today I thought I’d pass on their respective Facebook pages.  Checkout the Chicago Wolves and the San Antonio Rampage on Facebook for fun and fans of the American Hockey League. And while you’re there, don’t forgot to visit my Facebook Page, too.

The edition of the Before and After series is an anniversary of sorts. It was exactly one year ago today that I took the before image that you see below, and it was during our overnight stay in the heavenly town of Hana along Maui’s east coast.

Being able to view the sunrise in Hana was a special moment for me personally, so now that I look back one year later and relive those moments, I wanted to make this image a little more special.

The Before Image

This image does a pretty fair job as-is for taking me back to that moment. There were a few things I wish I had done differently back then, and here’s a short list.

• Scout out a location the day before – it was a pretty long day driving all the way to Hana, but I still could have taken 15 minutes to find a spot before we went to dinner that night.
• Remember the tripod – left it in our cottage, and by the time I realized that I needed it (because of the low light), going back to get it would have meant missing the moment.
• Shot bracketed exposures – I wasn’t shooting HDR at the time, and I’m not necessarily saying it was a strong HDR candidate. If I had bracketed shots – and that tripod – I could have used a few other multi-RAW techniques in post.

Okay, enough with what didn’t happen and onto the after image.

The After Image

Although I may still go back and try to recover some of that orange glow around the sun, this image is where I’m leaving it for now. Wanting to make this one special, I played around with a few tricks to get to this look.

• First up was a little cropping. It ended up putting the sun closer to the middle than I prefer, but there was too many distractions in the foreground otherwise.
• Next was multi-RAW processing in ACR using a gradient layer mask to blend separate exposure adjustments for the sky and the foreground.
• To bring in more detail, I used two different tools from Topaz Labs. The first of which was Topaz Adjust by applying the Clarity preset and tweaking the Noise tab to clean up the clouds a little bit.
• Topaz Detail was then used by applying the Feature Enhancement preset to add just a little more definition to the clouds and the surface of the water.

Thoughts?

Let me know what you think or if you have any other suggestions of things I should try differently. I like the after image being a little brighter, but tried to avoid getting to bright so that it didn’t feel like dawn anymore.

– Kris

Photo: A Rampage defender has a wolf in his sights.

Enough with the cute stuff, let’s get to the action!

With our seats so close to the ice and to the net, I was working on a few shots in the near corner as the puck made its way from behind the cage towards us.

Part of me wishes I had the depth of field wide enough to get both players in focus together, but the other half likes the focus on the “hunter” which slightly de-emphasizes the “prey”. Definitely more intensity in the look of the defender.

Let me know what you think.

– Kris

Bonus Links

If you’re a fan of Flickr and want to see more hockey action, check out the groups for both the Chicago Wolves and the San Antonio Rampage.

Photo: A rather odd illustration made on the side of Drew MacIntyre’s goalie mask.

Okay, just this one last almost hockey photo from Sunday’s game before I get into the action shots.  Something about that potato head guy/girl on Drew’s goalie helmet really creeps me out. Of course, I had to snap a shot of it, otherwise no one would believe me.

Remember, I warned you that goaltenders a not like other hockey players.  This is just more proof of that, I believe.

– Kris

P.S.: Sorry for the bad play on words in the photo’s title. If you’re not sure what I’m referring to, say the title again but slow down for each syllable.

Photo: Chicago Wolves mascot Skates lets off the fireworks during the pre-game festivities.

Man was it a great day to be a hockey fan on Sunday. I shot my first of two Chicago Wolves games for this month, and the new lens I rented was a huge advantage over my previous games. Plus our seats were incredible again, with only 1 row separating me from the glass. It’s going to take a few days to get through most of the keepers, but I’m excited.

Go Team USA!

The other reason it was great day to follow hockey was the result of the much anticipated Olympic showdown between Team USA and Team Canada, with the Americans coming out on top for the first time in the last 50 years of Winter Olympic competition. That gives the good guys a bye in the next round, and they’ll be waiting for the winner of Switzerland and Belarus I believe.

As you can guess, the blog posts this week will be hockey oriented, so stay tuned for more action this week – and likely next week as well.

– Kris

Taken by Kris Nelson on February 21st, 2009
Location: Whale Day Parade down South Kihei Road, Kihei, Maui

March of the Whales

Yesterday was the 30th annual Whale Day celebration at Kalama Park in Kihei, and although we couldn’t be there again this year, a lot of my Maui Tweeps and a few new friends had another great #MauiTweetup.

For more details about the entire Maui Whale Festival, visit http://www.mauiwhalefestival.org, and for more details about the #MauiTweetup, head over to A Maui Blog or check out @AMauiBlog’s new Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/amauiblog.

Mahalo,
– Kris

Taken by Kris Nelson on Septmember 19th, 2009
Location: Honolua Bay near Kapalua, Maui

For this week’s Sunday Photo I wanted to share the latest panoramic image I’ve worked with from our trip last September. This one is from down by the water of Honolua Bay, and if haven’t seen the bay from this level, you really should make the trip down there.

For those you that might have seen Honolua Bay from the lookout point above, that boat there out on the water is the one you usually see from the top.  If you haven’t seen Honolua Bay at all, here’s a different view, too.

View Larger

I know it’s kind of hard to see all the details in the version above, so if you want to see more, check out the Large and Original views over on Flickr.

Aloha,
– Kris

Browse more Sunday Photos

Taken by Kris Nelson on September 18th, 2009.
Location: High Above D.T. Fleming Beach Park via helicopter

Right up the coast from last week’s photo, this one is of nearby D.T. Fleming Beach. As I go back through more of my photos from this aerial shoot during the Maui Photo Festival last year, I continue to countdown to this year’s workshops in August. Maybe we’ll see you there this time?

More Photos on Facebook

Over the summer, I shared a list of my favorite Maui themed Facebook pages, including the one I created for my other site, Maui by Photo.

Well, as my addiction to intrigue with photography has flourished in the past year, I ended up creating another Facebook page for my photography work.  Take a look at Kris Nelson Photography on Facebook if you’d like to see more of my favorite images. There are more than just Maui images there, but if you’re so inclined, feel free to become a fan and leave a note on my wall asking that Maui be shown front and center.

Mahalo,
– Kris

Browse more Sunday Photos.

Taken by Kris Nelson on September 18th, 2009.
Location: High Above Kapalua Beach via helicopter

Looking down at Kapalua Beach and the Ritz Carlton Kapalua Bay Residences to the left.

For a closer look of Kapalua Beach from the ground, check out this previous entry in the Sunday Photo series.

Taken by Kris Nelson on Friday, September 17, 2007
Location: D.T. Fleming Beach, Kapalua, Maui

A warm beach scene for those of us living in the deep freeze of winter on the mainland, dreaming of our next visit to Maui.

Maui Christmas Everyone!

It’s hard to believe there’s only a week left in ‘09 already. Cindy and I would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday and a happy and healthy new year ahead.

Island Christmas Posts

While we have yet to celebrate Christmas and New Years on the Valley Isle, it is still near the top of our list. Until then, I wanted to share some holiday posts from a few of my favorite Hawaii bloggers.

• A Maui Blog – A Merry Maui Christmas to All
• A Maui Blog – The Night Before Christmas Pidgin Kind
• Go Visit Hawaii – Twelve Days of Christmas (Hawaii-Style)
• Hawaii Vacation Blog – Christmas in Hawaii

I could list dozens of reasons why it would be so cool to spend the holidays on Maui someday. Rather than ramble on about that, I’ll just throw one out there. The Whales!

Wishing everyone peace and love,
 - Kris and Cindy

Aloha Friday Everyone!

The last Friday before Xmas, and for me at least, before a full week off for the holiday. Sweet!

Back to task, I reluctantly woke up from a very vivid dream about Maui this morning, and it was too unreal. I know it’s been a long while since our last post here, but it certainly isn’t because our Aloha for Maui has faded. The holidays, among other things, have been monopolizing much of our time lately, but that’s not what you want to read about, you’re here to Talk Story about Maui.

Our Next Trip(s)?

Perhaps one of the reasons gorgeous visions of Maui popped into my dreams last night is that we’re thinking about fitting in our next trip early in ‘10. Originally, we wanted to return in February for a week as we did this year, as that seemed to be an amazing time to see the whales. Unfortunately, our budget window for that trip sort of came and passed, so now we’re thinking of something in March.

We’re almost certainly going ahead with our plans to return in August for the Maui Photo Festival after such an amazing time in September, so that throws our annual trip budget a little curveball. Originally, the plan was to spend the entire month of August on Maui (2 weeks vacation, 2 works telecommuting) as an initial test to see if the island lifestyle was indeed for us. That is certainly something we still want to do, but planning two trips for consecutive years is forcing us to consider additional sacrifices and savings on top of what we already do each year.

Change of Venue

While we are evaluating a trip in March, we’ve committed to mixing it up from what we’ve done in the past. As you’re able to tell, our previous trips have all been focused out of West Maui, more precisely our absolute favorite Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali. No question that is an amazing home base for two weeks in paradise, but the accommodations we indulge in there, while well worth it, aren’t the most budget friendly.

So, in order for us to squeeze in two trips (a total of 5 weeks, actually) this year, mix things up a little bit and get a different sense of the island, and be closer to some of our cool friends in South Maui, we’re going to be looking at condo rentals in Kihei this time around. We’re not entirely strangers to the condo rental idea ourselves, since that’s what we do when make our seasonal visits up to Door County, WI. It’s just that we haven’t done so yet on the Valley Isle up to this point, and as I’m just starting to scratch the surface, there are a ton of options out there.

When talking about an early trip in ‘10, I had initially wanted to return to Hana and spend at least one night there as we did in ‘09, but that might have to wait until August.   The good news is there is still so much exploring (and photos) that we have on our list just around South Maui itself that it would more than fill up an entire week. Take La Perouse Bay, for example, which my friend and Maui photographer Peter Liu (@PeterLiu47) has captured so beautifully at sunset on his blog.

Stay Tuned

Although we still haven’t finalized whether our March trip to Maui will happen or not, I still hope to have more details soon and maybe even an update to the site here and there depending on how ambitious I get next week. To say I’ve been spreading myself thin would be an understatement (just ask my wife), but just because I can’t update this blog as much as I’d like to doesn’t mean the Aloha spirit in my heart is not always with me.

Wishing for the best, I can’t wait to see all my awesome Maui friends in person again real soon.

Mahalo,
– Kris

Taken by Kris Nelson on Monday, September 14th, 2009.
Location: Along Honoapiilani Highway in northwest Maui

This is a shot from our first day on Maui during our trip for the Maui Photo Festival back in September. It was one of the places along the end of Honoapiilani Hwy (just before the Kahekili Hwy starts) that we pulled over to enjoy the view.

Slow Going
You can probably tell that the updates and posts here at our blog have been pretty scarce lately. Well, after the Maui Photo Festival much of my free time has been behind the camera and in the digital darkroom as I feed my renewed shutterbug addiction. If you’re interested in seeing more of what I’ve been up to lately, head over to my photography site.

Never fear, though, our love for Maui is still as strong as ever. We’re excited to hear that the whales have arrived for their winter visit, and we’re targeting the end of November to lock down plans for our next one-week trip in February to see them again for ourselves.

Other Posts
Since there hasn’t been much here to read, I thought I’d add a few links that might help with your Maui fix.

• My reviews and photos from the ‘09 Maui Photo Festival
• A little insight into my experience at the Sunset Hula photo shoot
• Another great #MauiTweetup from October, courtesy of @jalove
• Some pumpkin picking at the Kula Country Farm thanks to A Maui Blog
• The official Maui Photo Festival 2009 group on Flickr

Mahalo, and enjoy,
- Kris

Aloha Friday
A cloud covered Molokai as seen from a private area of the Sheraton Maui Resort.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 3 months since my last Aloha Friday post. I guess it goes to show just how busy of a summer it has been for me. Regardless, I’m still working on getting things a little more regular here.

This photo is an oldie but still a goodie. It’s taken from one of the viewing areas at the Sheraton Maui Resort in Ka’anapali. In fact, it’s only one of many great views you can find at the Sheraton.

More FollowFriday Coming Soon
I’m writing this a little unprepared today, so the return of Follow Friday (aka #FollowFriday on Twitter) will have to wait until next week. I’m excited, though, because I met so many great people at the Maui Photo Festival last month and have a great list of tweeps you’d be interested in following.

And speaking of the Maui Photo Festival, they’ve recently announced the dates for the 2nd annual event next year. If you couldn’t attend this year, or wasn’t sure what it was about, let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing. I still owe you details and photos from my MPF experience this year, and hoping to feature some of them this weekend over at Maui by Photo. In the meantime, find me as @MauiByPhoto on Twitter and ask away.

Back to the dates for next year’s event, block off August 25-29 on your calendars. Also, there will be a big push on preregistration starting in a few weeks, and great early bird deals to save money on your registration. Check out their site (and here) as more details are released.

Hope to see you there next year.

Taken by Kris Nelson on September 18th, 2009
Location: Above Napili Bay in a helicopter (with the doors off)

This is one of the many awesome shots I took on the doors-off helicopter tour I took as part of the Maui Photo Festival not so long ago.  While we didn’t get to go as far south along the West Maui coastline as Ka’anapali (which would have been awesome), it was still a blast and well worth doing.

Here are a few Google maps to help show where this was taken.

Where did the week go?
Don’t ask me to account for my activities last week after we returned from Maui. It’s been such a losing battle trying to catch up with everything (except sleep, that is) that I can’t keep track of whether I’m coming or going.  I did make the promise to myself, however, that after next year’s Maui Photo Festival, I intend to take the following week off from work just to wrap up with everything I need to finish up from that.

Still to come
It hurts to even type up this list because I don’t have a good feel for when I can get to it all, but here it goes.  The following is a brief list of things I’m trying to get to in the coming weeks (in no particular order).

• Final trip journal entries from our most recent trip
• Adding new beaches and activity pages from both our February and September trips
• Update our trip details section to include a recap of this most recent trip, as well as plans for a week in February to see the whales
• Get back into the Aloha Friday groove, because I’ve gotten to meet so many cool Maui tweeps since the last time I posted one of those lists

I’m going to stop there, otherwise I might not publish this post altogether.

Mahalo nui loa for all of our loyal readers that have still stuck with us during this dormant period here at the blog. I promise, once I find what normal is and my life returns to some semblance of that, it will be well worth the wait.

Aloha,
- Kris