Winter in paradise: a week on Maui

This is me at the top of Haleakala Crater, a place that looks down on the clouds and, much like the Grand Canyon, defies any sort of scale that a human being can relate to, especially in photographs. I made this shot for Fjallraven, the outdoor clothing company that produces these amazing hiking trousers that I’m wearing.

This Winter season has been one of ‘firsts’ for me - First time seeing Acadia with snow; First solo trip all the way down the entire East Coast to the Everglades; and now my first trip to Maui.

It’s not my first trip to the Hawaiian Islands, though, and this is where things get reflective, introspective, and sappy for me. The last time I went to Hawaii was August 2011, when I went to Molokai. Unbelievably, at that time, I was not in any way, shape, or form a professional photographer: I was visiting to make photos, surely, but who knows what I would do with the images I would make or the information I would gather. I had never sold a single print, never taught a single workshop or even lesson, and was still a month away from showing my work to the public for the first time!

So this return to Hawaii gave me a chance to reflect on my career, and how far I’d come since the very beginning, and was a great reminder that with belief, persistence, and some entrepreneurial spirit, a person can bring their talents from dream to reality.

Here I am, visiting Maui in 2020, as an established professional photographic artist and instructor, making images that I know will sell, and researching for a potential photo tour that perhaps you will be on someday.

Haleakala is a crater with other craters growing inside it. Even this panoramic image cannot fully express what I felt when I looked down into the center.

A photographer’s best asset is having friends in all the right places. When I went to Molokai in 2011, I had a friend and fellow photographer living there who could guide me to all the hidden spots. And here in Maui, I have my friend Amy, a metalsmith and jeweler originally from New England, who has gathered quite a bit of local knowledge in her few years living here, and she was able to show me so much more than I would have found just researching on my own.

Amy is such a nice and generous person that she vomits rainbows for all of Maui. You don’t want to know where the lightning comes from.

“Honu Awakens” - Once I learned that the sea turtles had arrived for the season, I was bent on photographing one for the first time. The northern coast of the island, with its gently sloping sandy beaches and relatively calm water was the perfect place for “honu” to come up on the shore at dawn and soak up the sun throughout the day. This is a “turtle landscape” done in my style, with a 30-second exposure in relatively dim light. The shot is possible because turtles can remain still for a really long time.

When approaching a new destination with the idea that I might one day create a photo tour there, I have two priorities: Cover the bases of what people expect to see when they come to a place; and reveal some unexploited gems that don’t appear in the guidebooks. Importantly, much of what people would want to see and do on a vacation is often very different from what we would want to capture on a photo tour. There was this one dead tree on the beach that, once I stumbled upon it in harsh midday light, I knew I would want to make multiple visits and really explore its photographic potential at more flattering times. So I visited twice more.

While most people think of Maui for its beaches, it’s important not to forget about the incredibly lush forests that start where the sand ends. Honolua Park has scenery reminiscent of “Fern Gully” and trees that dwarf little Amy.

And another forest has a very small grove of these rainbow eucalyptus trees. No two trees have the same color scheme.

At dusk, gentle, colorful light brought out all the textures in the gnarled wood….

…And in the middle of the night, the Milky Way rose through parting clouds to create a surreal landscape combining the natural and the man-made. Unlike at home, the Milky Way is visible in the winter here thanks to the tropical latitude.

One thing you would want to experience whether you’re on a regular vacation or a photo tour is a whale watch! This is a really great year for whale viewing in Maui.

I’m gonna go ahead and say this was the best whale watch EVERRRRRRRR!

Not five minutes after I arrived at Maluaka beach to photograph the sunset, it started raining buckets, while the sun was still perched on the horizon, ready to set through orange clouds. I said to myself, “It’s rainbow weather, baby!”. So I turned my back to the sun and waited, while me and my gear continued to get soaked. A few minutes later, an amazing rainbow indeed appeared over this perfect grove of palm trees. It’s as if I wrote the script myself.

I either have the best luck, or I just have a lot of patience and perseverance and never bail on a shoot just because conditions look like they’re turning bad.

I’ve been told that Maui has the most photographic possibilities out of all the Hawaiian islands, and although I’ve only visited a few of them, I am definitely not going to argue, after a thrilling and productive week there. And I didn’t even get to explore what lies beneath the surface of the ocean. You can bet that if I ever have the chance to spend more time there on my own, my camera is finding its way into a waterproof housing and going for a swim! But in the shorter term, I am inspired to bring like-minded photographers back with me in the upcoming years. Who’s up for a winter photo tour in paradise?