Elemental Discourse

When I found out I was going to be in Hawaii this entire month for work, first thing I did was a quick flickr search for "Oahu landscape". Nothing really caught my eye as far as what I was thinking of capturing, so it was off to google maps to study the topography and identify potential sites.

From there, I started scouting locations after work. One site involved hiking almost 6 miles, and it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I didn't even unpack my camera or wait for sunset. At another place, I slipped, fell, scraped my leg, and sprained my toe... that place wasn't all that great either. At other places, I just went to observe how the light and shadows fell during sunrise or sunset.

The scouting missions went on for more than a week, until I found this spot at the bottom of a seaside cliff.

I had seen it from another location I had scouted, and so I drove there, parked by the side of the highway, hopped over the guardrail and slowly scrambled down the cliff. The waves that afternoon were pounding really hard, so I looked for an alternate exit point in case the tide swiftly rose without warning and I was blocked from my original path down. Then it was just a matter of finding a comp, and waiting.

The booming of the waves was a bit intimidating at times, but at the same time, the solitude of being completely alone (which is hard to find in a place like Hawaii) was quite calming.

I sat around for more than an hour and watched the occasional humpback whale jump out of the water, until the sun finally dipped below the horizon. The sky slowly caught on fire and I shot.

Patience and persistence finally paid off.

Done