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Location: Maui

They have a saying on Maui: Maui No Ka ‘Oi

The meaning behind it is "Maui is the Best," and anyone that has visited the Valley Isle will find it hard to argue.

Without out a doubt, Maui is the my favorite of all favorite places to take photos. And you can’t really blame me for that because everything there is absolutely postcard perfect. In fact, if you check out my Favs, they’re mostly from Maui.

Now, it might sound like an exaggeration, but I literaly have taken thousands of photos from my trips to Maui. At last count, from trips between 2006-08 I had snapped over 7,500 photos! That’s a lot of time in the digital darkroom, for sure. Now, not all of those are keepers, but of those photos, there are about 2,000 of them that have been uploaded to Flickr collection for my Maui site.

 

Shooting Against the Wind

Most of the photos you’ll see of Maui, or Hawaii in general, will have clear blue skies, bright colors, and look like heaven on earth. Well, I can say from experience, it’s not like that all the time. The majority, yes, but I have had more than a few occasions where my trip to the beach for a day of shooting was hit or miss with passing clouds and overcast conditions. It mostly depends on the way the winds blow, the tradewinds, that is.

The trades, as they’re often referred to as, can blow in clouds from above the mountains, or they can leave you alone and keep the clouds away. I’m getting better at adjusting my settings when shooting in these cloudy conditions, but it still wears on my patience now and then.

 

But Remember, Maui No Ka ‘Oi

Still, I’ll take a cloudy day on Maui over the best day anywhere else. Maui has such as strong sense of Aloha, an aura that, if you let it, can consume all your cares and leave you with a feeling that is almost spiritual in nature. It could be the sound the palm trees make when they sway in the wind, the smell of the ocean air, the warm tropical sunshine, or maybe the anticipation of a magnificent sunset every night.

For me, part of it is also being smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away from everything else. And that’s what I try to capture in my photos from Maui.