I recently returned from 9 days in Maui.  Time spent with my wife Isabelle and close friends Lance and Mona.  To say it was a treat is an understatement!  Deciding what beach to hit, what hike to take, what quiet corner of the island we would explore were all on the daily agenda.

Despite taking a camera body and a couple of lenses, this however was not a serious photography trip.  We saw some extraordinarily beautiful places that were off the beaten track and well away from the tourist traps that drive me absolutely crazy.  From a photography perspective, when I stopped to take the time to photograph a subject it was decidedly not of the obligatory beach scene with the fiery sunset...far from it.  Yes, Maui beach scenes at sunset are worthy of the experience, for me though it's just better to watch and take it all in.  My eye seemed to be attracted to the smaller details.  A beautifully curved palm, contours left in the sand as the water washed over a beach and retreated, the colorful rainbow eucalyptus trees of the tropical rainforest.

My favorite experience was an overnight trip to Hana on the Hana Highway.  We stopped along the way at small beaches, arboretums, quaint villages, tropical rain forests, and tasty food trucks.  The highlight was a morning spent at Waianapanapa State Park.  A gorgeous park with a small black sand beach set again a rugged coastline of lava and palm trees.  Of course, there was a fantastic trail that wound through the lava overlooking the ocean that was just too beautiful to resist.  The day we were there the surf was extremely high and we experienced huge waves crashing against the lava and blow holes that dramatically shot the surf up in some cases 50 to 70 feet.  I could have sat there for hours and just watched...the photographic possibilities were so seductive!

Back to reality as I sit in my living room watching a light snow fall on the redrock that surrounds me.  An unusually wet winter in the high deserts of Southern Utah persists.  More snow and cold coming which offers up its own photographic possibilities.  Mahalo!