Recently in Maui Trip 2006 Category

It's almost time to go home, so here are the rest of the photos that I took on Maui.

As promised, here is my third and final set of underwater photos. I took these in Lanai today, where the conditions weren't quite as clear as Black Rock the other day. Nevertheless, I have a few cool shots to share with you after the link.

So what did I learn from this experience? Underwater digital photography is ten times more difficult than "regular" photography. You're moving, the fish are moving, the camera's LCD is hard to see, and the lighting is often poor. I can't tell you how many photos I've had to throw out over the last week. In addition, a lot of them needed some "work" in Photoshop to get rid of color casts (usually cyan). Still, it was fun to try, and since I own all this equipment I hope I'll get another opportunity to do more underwater shooting.

And now, on with the photos!

Today we took a trip via catamaran to the island of Lanai. We didn't actually do much sailing (since it wasn't windy) but it was still a fun ride. Once there we started with some snorkeling (pics to come) and laying around on the beach. Then we took a tour of the island -- there isn't much to see. Lanai was once the pineapple capital of the world and now they grow nothing at all -- Dole bailed out a few decades ago. Lanai is the polar opposite of Maui: no high-rises, no fancy restaurants, few paved roads, etc.

The highlight of the trip was on the way back. We saw whales, and plenty of them. At one point a humpback whale came out of the water right next to our boat, and it was awe-inspiring. In fact, I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't actually get any photos of it. We had plenty of other humpback sightings, plus there were pilot whales around as well.

Click the link below for pictures from the day. I'll save the underwater shots for a separate entry.