Stupid things i do....

A few years ago when we were on the Big Island i was shooting these huge waves crashing unto the side of these cliffs. It was really incredible as the whole cliff would shake under my feet, the sound was amazing and the water sprayed soo high! I was shooting pictures at a safe distance but of course as always i had this uncontrollable urge to get get closer. While getting closer does make better pictures many times it is a stupid thing to do......this was one of those times. I could have easily been knocked flat on the ground or fallen into the ocean. Anyway i got closer saw a big wave coming and got my camera up to my face and got ready, as the wave hit i began to take photos in a fast sequence. Everything inside of me told me to run......but i stayed and i got SOAKED!!! I was drenched and so was my camera, its times like this that i am grateful that Nikon cameras are built like a tank cus my gear goes trough this kind of scenario all to often but they still live to tell the tale. I was able to laugh about it later and looking back on it now i ask the question.......would i do it again? YOU BET I WOULD!

Heres a short animation for you to enjoy and laugh at me. Enjoy!!

Spirituality of nature.......

One of my favorite things about photography is looking for a way to connect to the landscapes that i am photographing in an emotional and spiritual way. I love to in a sense pour myself into my work, to find a way to not only pull my viewer into the moment but to also find a way to experience that connection that i felt while shooting the photo. Sometimes the connection is made easily, other times i have to really slow down take in my surroundings breathe the air and step back to think about why im photographing what is in front of my camera. This last trip to the Big Island i was blessed to have an experience that was so incredible that finding that spiritual connection came effortlessly. It wasnt so much because i found that connection easily but because this place was so saturated with it that it just hit me like a wall of bricks. I am talking about my visit to the Kalapana lava flow, in 2008 i posted a blog about our 1st visit there. We could do little more that watch it from a distance, but the experience was an incredible one and one that stayed with me long after we left the island. Since then i have dreamed about getting closer, watching documentaries on volcanoes or on hawaii i would always think "i want to be that close!" Little did i know that i would be blessed enough to get that close, to see something that few people get to see. Through a (ill call him a contact, but really consider him a friend) i made on the island who has access to the flow we were able to go out there. Ill leave out all the details about our preparation to go out there, but will say that we left our hotel at 2:30am and hiked for over an hour to get to the flow. Hiking in the dark over sharp and uneven lava rock is grueling work. Halfway there I was tired and already out of breath but we pushed onward, finally after what seemed like an eternity we arrived. I was not prepared, not at all, not for this, it hit me all at once. i had seen this before but from a distance and even then i was not prepared. I was in the presence of something incredible, something so much bigger than me, something that i could not fully understand. That spiritual and emotional connection to this place was instant, i had to stop and soak it all in, i have dreamed about being here.......and now here i was finally and it had overtaken me. How can you do anything else but humble yourself in the presence of such power, how do you feel anything besides tiny knowing full well that one bad step can cost you your life. This place demands your respect as soon as you get there not just because of its destructive power but the knowledge that much of what you are walking on is ancient ground. You cant help but reflect on the Hawaiians that 1st lived here and lived in the presence of the volcano, respecting and even worshipping its power. This place has deep spiritual tones coursing through it and in the few seconds that i had been there it had overwhelmed me. The deep red glow of the lava in the darkness of the night, the sound of it moving and of it crystalizing as it began to immediately cool when it met the surrounding air. The thing that stands out the most though is the heat, oh man the heat! It hits you like a wall, sometimes just carried by the breeze, other times you try to get close for a shot and you hit a wall of pure invisible fire. It feels like your skin is burning off and you just cant keep moving forward. Your body is completely unprepared for it as well as the heat saps away every ounce of water and energy that you have, i have never drank so much water and gatorade in my entire life and still i was dehydrated. The movement and fluidity of the lava is mesmerizing, it captures your imagination immediately and you cant help but just sit there and stare. Most intriguing of all is thinking that this molten material is what is coursing deep beneath the planet and yet here it is flowing on the surface right before my eyes. It claims everything in its path, many have lost their homes to the volcano and yet despite its ability to destroy it also has the ability to create. As the lava cools it creates new land, over time the rock gets broken down and it becomes incredibly fertile soil. Thousands of years from now when the volcano stops its eruptions all that land will be dense jungles, even now there is a new island being formed underwater...........the process is endless and incredible. It was all i could do to contain my excitement and keep focused on the task at hand. Eventually the light of the sun became way to harsh and it was time to go, it was difficult to say goodbye and you have to fight the feeling to just stay and capture a little more. The hike back was long and i was exhausted, finally back at the car we rested for a little bit. In the coolness of the shade we had found i sat and reflected on our journey. It seemed like a dream or a distant memory from many years ago and yet it had just began hours ago. The affects of this incredible place are undeniable, it has sparked my imagination and an insatiable hunger.......i must go back, i must see more, i must capture more but most of all i must prepare myself. I must keep that respect and not lose my wonder, someday soon i hope i will return and be in awe once again in the presence of Pele.

Addendum: Concern has been expressed over this latest blog post that it sounds like i worship the Hawaiian goddess Pele. I assure you that nothing could be farther from the truth, while the tone and the closing lines of what i have written may lead you to believe that i do i can tell you with certainty that it was not what was intended. I believe that we live in a world of ignorance, where we are so focused on making our point or shoving our beliefs down each others throats that we forget that respect for one another and diplomacy are much more powerful "weapons" than the best laid argument. I do not worship multiple gods or nature for that matter, but i do understand that the hawaiian people are deeply spiritual, have ties to their lands and to their ancestors and respect the "spirituality" of their surroundings. I dont believe in everything that they do but i do respect them and honor their beliefs, i think that this above all else has been the biggest reason why so many hawaiians have accepted me or treat me like i am a local while i am there. As for spirituality in nature, i fully understand that i am looking at something that was created, i dont worship this nor do i claim that it gets me closer to God. I do admire the craftsmanship of the creator through it and will say that i helps me to reflect upon my own existence. It helps me to understand just how truly small i am in the grand scheme of things, that i am just a small speck on this world and yet despite this fact i am loved above all else by the ONE who created it all. That......to me is amazing and humbling.......

Rolling with the punches....

Yesterday.........well it was one of those days. The kind of day where you have a ton of things to do and no time to do them, and to make it all worse things happen throughout the day that just work against you. Yesterday was such a day for me.........it began by being woken up by a loud crack of thunder. It was a weird way to wake up but i welcomed it as i really enjoy severe weather, my 1st concern was Kai our 5 month old puppy. Oh yeah for those of you who dont know we got a second dog, very cute and smart but extremely stubborn and strong willed. Heres a quick photo:




Where were we? Ah yes Kai!He was in his kennel and to my surprise he seemed to ok, no howling or crying nothing. I let him out went downstairs to let him go outside. Well he didnt want to set foot outside and just sat at the doorway, no problem, i figured if he really needs to go he would go out. I regretted that decision 5 minutes later when i found a huge pile of poop on the carpet!! It was the really soft and runny kind too, the kind that dog owners LOOOOVE to get on their carpets. I was ticked! I knew it was going to take forever to clean that up and make sure it doesnt stain the carpet......all the stuff you need to do in order to save the carpet. Anyway, i was pretty upset and not looking forward to this, but i figured i would treat a couple other small areas of the carpet that needed more cleaning after we had shampooed the carpet. So the dogs went outside, and i cleaned away forgetting that i had used the hose and forgot to turn it off. My backyard became a mud puddle and i didnt realize what was going on until i went outside and heard a splashing noise and saw Kai vigorously digging in the puddle! I ran to the backyard and was greeted by this......





I was even more upset now and i could feel it........but i took a deep breath looked at my 2 boys and couldnt help but start laughing. The backyard was a disaster, my day was shot as i now had to clean up the backyard and then clean up the dogs. What can you do though, if i were them i probably would have done the same thing. Its easy to get caught up in this life, to let these little incidents become disasters. Its hard to see past the crisis thats in front of your face, but a lot of times its a crisis because we make it a crisis. I overreact way to easily and let small problems become big ones all to often, it took 2 very dirty dogs to remind me that i should live by the motto i tell everyone else "Life is only as complicated as you make it." Theres times to get up set but for the most part i think life is full of very little problems and a few BIG ones that come a long in our lifetime. I think ill try to to relax from now on, sometimes all you can do is just roll with the punches...