Say Goodbye...

Say good bye to these tall, elegant Eucalyptus trees overlooking Pearl Harbor.  Someone has been hacking away at them with an axe or a hatchet.  It's obviously not a professional job, but rather appears to be a case of malicious mischief.  

Why would anyone want to harm these trees?  They are located in remote foothills of the Ko'olau Mountains.  It's unlikely that the perpetrators will ever be observed, much less apprehended.  

So say goodbye to these trees.  Their days are numbered.

Intensity

I like leaves when light shines through them.  The effect produces a startling amount of color and detail and reveals qualities unseen by mere surface light.  When leaves are layered, the effect becomes even more interesting, the colors deepening and intensifying.

Waianae Coast Range

Waianae Coast Range as seen from the Ko'olau Mountains.  On a day like this, with the trade winds gently blowing, clouds scoot by rather than collecting around the mountains.

ME:  Cloud, where are you going in such a hurry?  Where will you end up?

CLOUD:  Who cares?  Don't worry?  Enjoy the view!  Enjoy the ride!

A hidden valley

The trail I frequently take to photography sites passes over this beautiful little valley.  But because it's surrounded by very steep hills and, on one side, a cliff, I know of no simple, safe or easy way to get to it.  So it has become the hidden valley, filled, of course, with many wonders unseen by modern man:  a clear-flowing stream, no doubt, leading to some small waterfalls surrounded by glades of wild orchids.  

It's probably better just to leave some things undiscovered.

Earth Meets Ocean

On this stretch of Oahu beach, broken coral meet fingers of ancient lava.  It is the convergence of two forces;  the hot magma running from the core of our planet and gradual accretion of billions of single cells of life forming ocean floor communities.  It is the contrast of sudden versus slow, hot versus cold, black versus white, life form versus chemical reaction.  Yet despite all of these extremes, these forces together build and renew our globe.  Despite these extremes, everything IS related and it meets, peacefully, in this little ocean cove on Oahu.

Old Kapok Tree

Peaceful.

Strong.

Steadfast and enduring.

This old Kapok tree's canopy provides soothing shade on this warm summer day.

Diversity

Cannonball Tree

Foster Botanical Garden

Honolulu, Hawai'i

Signs around the base of the tree warn park visitors to beware of falling cannonballs.  (They are large, heavy and very hard.)

Reflections in a Purification Pond; Many Dimensions, Many Thoughts

This is a small purification pond at the Ulupo Heiau in Kailua, (Oahu) Hawai'i.

Sometimes we just need some peaceful beauty in our lives...

Mokule'ia Beach near Camp Mokule'ia

O'ahu, Hawai'i

A beautiful death

When palm leaves start to die, the missing chlorophyll leaves behind beautiful patches of golden plant.  When the sun shines through these leaves we are witness to a beautiful dying process; we see what the palm once was, and we see what it will soon become.  

Impermanence in one of its finer hours.

Poster for Neil Abercrombie's Gubernatorial Campaign

I shot this photograph near my house last year.  I like the multiple layers, the different colors and the games the lines of the leaves play with the viewers' eyes in this image.   And, needless to say, I like Neil Abercrombie.

Seeing more than I can see.

You are seeing more than I, or the camera can see from this view point on my morning hike up into the local mountains.  Several images have been stitched together (albeit in a rather patchwork fashion) to give you a view up the valley.

The albizia trees are in bloom and their symmetrical boughs are beautiful, but it's hard to enjoy a tree that is rapidly taking over this valley at the expense of all other plant life.  Its canopy forms a deep shadow and little survives beneath.

Afloat in the Middle of the Pacific

On this beautiful summer day, O'ahu appears to float on the Pacific Ocean.  And white fluffy clouds float over the island's mountain tops.  People who sail these oceans have told me that they can find islands by the towers of clouds above them; they become visible before the islands themselves.

Mountain Snow

The mid-year 2010 snow pack in the Rockies seems sparse.

Labels

I don't use labels on my photography website very often.  For example, how would you label this photograph?  Weeds or wildflowers?  Common name (but wait-- that varies from place to place) or Latin name (for those scientists out there?)  Or should I make up a name for the composition, which I would invariably feel was silly/pretentious/misleading/limiting or some other characteristic the made the effort and effect unacceptable?


I'd like to have my viewers not think, but rather experience.  I'd rather elicit emotions and memories.  I'd rather stimulate the imagination.  Labels are too limiting.  They lead the viewer down a garden path, when I'd rather they were wallowing in an entire field of wild flowers.