Willie Huang Photo
Hanalei Dreaming
A trip to the north shore of Kauai is not complete without a visit to Hanalei Bay. Hanalei Bay is a crescent shaped bay backed by mountains behind. Although denied by the writers, the backdrop to Hanalei Bay does resemble a dragon (with some dreaming of course). On the last evening in Kauai, my girlfriend and I decided to spend sunset here together enjoying the beautiful colors and breathtaking scenery.
I headed to the eastern part of Hanalei Bay where the pier was located. After scouting around for I ultimately decided using a small tidepool as my foreground element to capture the reflection. I wanted to create a dreamy feel for this shot by smoothening out the motion of the clouds and thus I grabbed my 10-stop ND filter for the long exposure. The clouds were perfect: thinner cumulus clouds that moved quickly above the mountains. About a half hour before sunset these clouds began displaying their sunset glow and tinkered with oranges and pinks. The great part of using such a long exposure is that moving people will not appear in my exposure. Hanalei Bay is very popular for tourists hiking the beach as well as people surfing in the waters.
With the sky lighting up I fired off several long exposure shots capturing the smooth moving clouds painted with the late afternoon sunlight. Though windy, the long exposure also helped smoothen out the tidepool and define the reflection. Despite the reflection not being as crisp as I would like, I still like the final dreamy result of this shot. Just as I tried to fire off my fourth shot, a fun-loving dog decided to take a plunge into the tidepool. What can I say?
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 17-40mm f/4L
B+W 3.0 ND filter
LEE 0.6 SE GND
Hanalei Dreaming
A trip to the north shore of Kauai is not complete without a visit to Hanalei Bay. Hanalei Bay is a crescent shaped bay backed by mountains behind. Although denied by the writers, the backdrop to Hanalei Bay does resemble a dragon (with some dreaming of course). On the last evening in Kauai, my girlfriend and I decided to spend sunset here together enjoying the beautiful colors and breathtaking scenery.
I headed to the eastern part of Hanalei Bay where the pier was located. After scouting around for I ultimately decided using a small tidepool as my foreground element to capture the reflection. I wanted to create a dreamy feel for this shot by smoothening out the motion of the clouds and thus I grabbed my 10-stop ND filter for the long exposure. The clouds were perfect: thinner cumulus clouds that moved quickly above the mountains. About a half hour before sunset these clouds began displaying their sunset glow and tinkered with oranges and pinks. The great part of using such a long exposure is that moving people will not appear in my exposure. Hanalei Bay is very popular for tourists hiking the beach as well as people surfing in the waters.
With the sky lighting up I fired off several long exposure shots capturing the smooth moving clouds painted with the late afternoon sunlight. Though windy, the long exposure also helped smoothen out the tidepool and define the reflection. Despite the reflection not being as crisp as I would like, I still like the final dreamy result of this shot. Just as I tried to fire off my fourth shot, a fun-loving dog decided to take a plunge into the tidepool. What can I say?
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 17-40mm f/4L
B+W 3.0 ND filter
LEE 0.6 SE GND