Sunset at the Beach

Another sunset shift at the beach as Honu Guardian yesterday. I mentioned in a previous post that the volunteers are there to keep people from harassing the turtles. Well, we really do more than that. There's a large element of education as well. People have all sorts of questions about the turtles, and the volunteers are there to answer those questions, hopefully, or direct the person to where they can get the answer. So in addition to being on the beach at a beautiful time of day, there's a lot of interaction with the people who visit the beach.

Fact: these Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles do not mate or lay their eggs here on the beach on Oahu.

Fact: the turtles can stay submerged for between 4-5 hours before surfacing for air.

Just a sunset shot, and one of the surf.

I think I just might be in another part of the island in the next few days, and maybe I'll get some images other than turtles worth posting.

The Day of Orange and Blue

My friend and I spent the afternoon in Haleiwa. We had lunch first and then parked the car and walked around to "see what we could see". Along the way, she suggested that we each concentrate on a color. We pulled colors out of a "hat"--actually it was balled-up pieces of napkin with different colors written on them, and they were scattered on the top of a table. No hat available, but "necessity is the mother of invention". She laughed, but it worked.

She pulled blue and I pulled orange. "hmmmm", I thought, "that's not going to be an easy color to find, nor is it very exciting, sure wish I had pulled blue, but that's the luck of the draw".

From the get-go everywhere I looked I saw orange. Probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been specifically looking for it.

The sun was really bright and in most of the shots I took, the orange looked yellow. Her blues, however, looked good. So we managed to occupy ourselves for quite a while with this project. One of my first shots is this image below. It's part of a poster in a store window.

One of my favorite places to go for coffee or snacks in Haleiwa is called the Coffee Gallery. I mentioned it last year while I was here. They have an inside seating area, but they also have this outdoor area, which, when it isn't too hot (as, in the summer-hot) it's a really fun place to sit and relax. Very "Gilligan's Island" looking.

This is just a fountain as seen through the louvered window of a gift shop.

As we were getting ready to head home, we saw this VW bug. One of the originals. This certainly looks like an Island car, doesn't it? And it is "blue" and "orange"--how convenient for us both.

I Learned Something Today

What I learned today is that I'll probably NEVER be a surfing photographer.

Now, I've tried this before, and I've never been very successful. But "hope springs eternal" and I keep trying, thinking that I might get the one killer shot. Well, it would be a killer shot for me--have you seen some of those fantastic surfing photos out there???

Whether or not I get that killer shot, it's still fun trying and definitely awesome to be sitting on the beach, in January, wondering if I should have put on the sunscreen, because, maybe after all, the sun might be strong enough to burn me while most of my friends are dealing with snow, wind, sleet, cold temps and dreams of spring, back in NY, and other cold places.

So today I began my jaunt at Laniakea Beach--where I "guard" the turtles. when I'm on guardian duty. I wasn't on duty today, so I was free to wander around and try to get some different shots. Not too successful, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Then I drove along the North Shore to see what the other beaches offered. I arrived at the beach where the PipeLine surfing competition is held, only to find that the surf was BIG
and they were setting up a booth to (I assumed) accommodate the surfer's registrations. The beach was dotted with people watching the waves and the surfers practice. It was one of those truly beautiful days--blue skies, breezy, high surf, perfect temp. and surfers to watch.

I took about a gazillion shots, but considering my lens isn't anywhere near as long as it should be for this kind of activity and that I was hand holding the camera against the wind, I threw most of the shots out and I consider it amazing that I could keep any of them.

The first two images are just waves--if you look for surfers, you won't find them. I was just trying to document the magnitude of the waves, and the beautiful color of the water.

These surfers were much easier to photograph than the ones in the water trying to catch the waves. But since I love people watching, these were fun too.

The last two are the better of the bunch. I'll never be famous for these, but they make me happy.

ALL THE CLICHES

You know those cliches that talk about living in the moment? Like:

*Stop and smell the roses

*You only have one go-around in this life

*Don't save the "good" dishes, use them now

*Every day is a gift

*Don't go to bed angry

*You don't know what the future holds

*Live like you were dying (from a wonderful Country song)

*If life hands you lemons, make lemonade

Well...all the cliches are true. Don't take your life for granted, count your blessings, don't grieve the past, but don't live for the future. Cherish your friends and family.

Psalm 139:16--Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.

My friend and sister in the Lord, Louise, very admirably lived out each and every day the Lord had fashioned for her. She went to be with her Lord on Monday, Jan. 19, 2010. We will miss her, and her memory and testimony will live with each of us until we're called to join her.

First Day at the Beach

So, I arrived in Hawaii last Tuesday, Jan 12. It was a good trip, and I felt like I had arrived home when I got off the plane.

During the next few days I visited with some friends, ran some errands and just slowed down and enjoyed the warm weather.

Today was my first shift watching the turtles. For anyone new to my blog, I'm a Honu (turtle) Guardian. On the north shore there's a beach that the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles love to use for basking.

An entire group of people volunteer to keep watch over the turtles. Yeah, it's kind of like babysitting--only without whining, changing diapers or nap time. We stand on the beach making sure people don't sit on, move, feed, or, in any other way, harass the turtles.

The first time I visited this beach two years ago, my first response was, "well, I can see it's a tough job that someone has to do, so sign me up!" To be fair, I suppose it IS pretty uncomfortable in the middle of the summer, standing in the sun all afternoon, trying to keep one eyeball on the crowd while keeping the other on the tourist next to you asking questions, and all the while trying not to become dehydrated and fried by the extremely direct & hot summer sun.

However, in the winter, it's near perfect.

I always choose the sunset shift. Lovely.

The first two images are practically the same scene but I took my light reading off a different part of the subject.

This is the one and only turtle that graced the beach today, providing the tourists with their "turtle" fix.

And this is one group of tourists. I have as much fun watching them as the turtles.