Ah the Sweet Hazards of Hawaii

Tiki Temple After Rain , originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

Yesterday, we went for a sunset shoot down by the Place of Refuge.

One of the “problems” of sunset shoots in Hawaii is that all of them are wonderful. Beautiful. Incredible. You probably know this without me telling you how it is. They don’t call this paradise because it’s ugly, right?

So, picture it. We all go down to the beach, to shoot the sunset, camera gear in tow, and we’re all stoked about getting there in time, with all of our camera gear and such, all excited about seeing another perfect Hawaiian sunset. Yeah, life is good.

Well, we get down there and what happens? Yup, you guessed it. It rained. At first it was just a sprinkle, so we decided to brave the walk from the parking lot. We’re all fearless photo warriors, mind you, we’re not going to get a little sprinkle or drizzle stop us. Foof on that, no way.

Alas, as we were walking around the beach, the rain kept falling, pouring, raining down upon us. At one point, it got so heavy, we had to seek shelter in a nearby Tiki hut. So there we were hiding in a Tiki hut, rain coming down, and what do we do? Take iPhone photos. Take infrared photos. Shoot out the back of the hut. Yeah, nothing was stopping us yesterday.

We were rewarded for our ambitions too. After about 10 minutes the rain stopped and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset. It was even better than the “normal” Hawaiian sunset. And we got to shoot it. Almost all by ourselves too. All the other weak “non warrior” tourists had gone home and we were happy. Off! Off our beach, you weak white kneed tourists from the mainland, this is *our* beach and we’re photo warriors. We’re strong and we’re here to take pictures, and you’re not going to get in our way. We didn’t let any of the hazards of Hawaii stop us.

Today, in a follow-on fit of bravery, I went swimming, snorkeling actually, with a school of fish. Seriously. Me swimming. I don’t know how to swim and yet, there I was, out in the big “lake” with my water noodle, my snorkel mask, and a bunch of fishies. Maybe even a passing turtle.

Take that, you Tiki gods. I’m not scared, you’re not going to stop me, and I’m getting great pictures.

You can stop chanting now and, hey, wait, is that a human sacrifice next to your temple? Right, fine, ok, I’m not that brave, I’ll just be backing out now….(kidding, kidding.)

Until next time…