Slickrock and Shadow

Euakafa Beach is just one of many stunning deserted beaches. This articles is about Tonga Landscape photography in Vava'u.  I recently returned from a 10 day trip in these beautiful islands.  Because there is no information on photography in the island group of Vava'u, Tonga, I want to share what I have learned.  In this article I will focus on many of the incredible beaches.  They are clean, empty, private, gorgeous and unspoiled.  These are reached by boat.  Many of the islands in Vava'u group are uninhabited and the only way to really get around is on the water. I will give my best beaches a ranking from number one and on down just for fun and for interest! #1:  Best beach in Vava'u Tonga:  Ngau and its' neighboring isle of Taunga . This stunning beach is actually a stretch of sand reaching from one island to another.  At low tide one can walk without getting feet wet.  When the tide is a bit higher, wading from one b...

Hamoa Beach, a beautiful sunrise location Headed back to Maui for a second visit, I hoped to see some new things.  Previously during my visit to Hana I enjoy the sunrise and Black Sand beach, Koki beach and Red Sand beach.  Because there are not very many beaches in this area, I had seen everything except for Hamoa beach.  All of these other locations are outstanding at sunrise.  I hope that Hamoa beach would be equally good and rewarding. Previous day it had rained a lot.  Clouds were just starting to clear through the night.  When I arrived at the beach, everything was very overcast and the sunrise really didn't happen all at once.  Instead, the sun would peek through the clouds here and there in the clouds themselves dynamically changed from moment to moment. A wonderful thing about this beach is the different viewpoints.  Getting down in the sand near the water yields fantastic photos.  Likewise, it is an easy walk to the south s...

Sandy Cay as seen from the water Sandy Cay is a national park of the British Virgin Islands.  A visit here is highly recommended.  The islands is a tropical paradise with beautiful sandy beaches and a wonderful trail circling the island.  The trail is not long at all but highly pleasant. On the same island, cactus and palm trees co-exist.   You'll start by landing your watercraft (in our case a kayak) on the beach.  Then walk around the beach to the right where you'll discover a trail leading through the trees.  After a few hundred feet, the trail climbs onto rockier and higher ground.  Here the cactus thrive and you'll have a splendid view back toward the beach.  Keep circling around the trail and you'll drop back into the forest canopy.  Finally, you return to the beach.  Total time:  20-40 minutes.  Memories:  priceless. When you land with your kayak or dinghy, this is what you see. Looking back to the beach...

Bikini and Sailboat:  Postcard-Perfect Photo from Sandy Cay, British Virgin Islands I would like to step back from vacation location information and focus on what makes a good photograph.  Everyone would like their vacation photographs to capture how beautiful that beach is or how clear and blue are the waters.  So many times vacation photographs fall short.  I see this all the time as friends will share their pictures with words such as "It looks so much better in real life" or "You had to be there."  Although nothing is as good as being there, I like my photographs to come very close. Sandy Cay is a national park in the British Virgin Islands.  This small island was donated by the Rockefeller family and is an absolute treasure to visit.  You truly get a sense of Paradise found.  That is what I was hoping to convey in this photograph.  I isolated a lone sailboat with a beautiful woman walking into the water.  These 2 are balanced...

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, has the Beach Beach in the World!  (no exaggeration) Jost Van Dyke has several places to visit and to anchor for the night.  By far, the most beautiful on the island (and perhaps all the BVI) is White Bay.  Two amazing beaches stretch for miles separated by a small rocky prominence.  Sailboats come and go.  Sections of the beach are empty, virgin.  Others have lively bars and restaurants.  Here you can sink your toes in the sand and know that there is no better place in the world.  From a photography standpoint, the surrounding green hills and colorful boats are like icing on the cake.  These provide more photo subjects to mix into the beautiful beach scene.  In the photo above, I tried to capture these elements.  I crouched low on the sand and photographed some incoming waves.  In one corner I positioned the lovely red sailboat and in the other I included some palm trees:  Snapshot of para...

Loblolly Bay has a place for you Anegada is the favorite of all the British Virgin Islands for many people.  Here you get away from any hustle and bustle of life even more than in the lower BVI.  Being extremely flat and surrounded by a protective coral reef, Anegada has marvelous beaches.  Cow Wreck is my favorite for being alone.  Loblolly Bay can be all yours if you arrive before noon.  That's what I did and found an empty swath of white sand and turquoise waters.  Loblolly is also known for excellent snorkeling.  For this photograph, I hoped to capture a piece of paradise.  I also wished to make it inviting, like it was just waiting for you to come.  I moved the bench slightly, so as to be in the shade of the umbrella and composed the shot with a sweeping bay and beach in the background.  I was careful to get low enough to separate the umbrella from the horizon, putting it up with the clouds. 

Cow Wreck Beach, Anegada, British Virgin Islands Sporting an atrocious name, Cow Wreck Beach doesn't attrack many visitors.  On the north shore of the northern-most British Virgin Island, this beach is hard to reach.  Most visitors take a plane, a sailboat and then some ground transportation to sink their toes into powder-soft white sand.  Of all the beaches in the world, this is one of the most beautiful and lonely.  If you ever get to Anegada, be sure to visit Cow Wreck.  It's much less crowded than Loblolly bay and truly gives you an "at-the-end-of-the-earth" feeling . . . and that's a good thing.

Geiger Beach:  Pretty but not much of a beach To get off the beaten path in the Florida Keys, I took a trip to Geiger Beach.  This is a small drive off the main overseas highway.  It is located near the military base on Boca Chica Key.  Here you will find free spirits, some beautiful trees and pleasant water.  Sand is not very common here. I visited this beach on a February afternoon.  The weather was beautiful.  I was hoping to hike farther along the beach and find some isolation, solitude and a beautiful photographic location for sunset.  Here you do find all of those things but they do not come with a beach.  The trail is very simple at first but after you reach the first estuary, the trail becomes overgrown with trees and vines.  You just walked past the best easily accessible areas. You can continue going but there isn't any beach reward further down.  Also, you will wade up to your knees in mud in order to cross the e...

Koki Beach and Alau Island Hana is not just the location for waterfalls.  Because it is on the east side of the island of Maui, it is a great location for seeing the sunrise over the ocean.  Just south of Hana, Koki beach has gorgeous sand and the Alau Island off shore makes for a sight at sunrise. On the top of this jagged island, there are a few ragged palm trees. This is actually a bird sanctuary and cannot be visited by tourists.  Like most sunrise locations, I arrived in darkness and set up my equipment. Slowly the light started to come through the clouds and reflected off the water.  The stormy clouds gathered before dawn, but enough orange light came through to make my day. This is my favorite sunrise of the trip to Maui.

Macro shot of the smooth and highly tangible rocks and pebbles of Waianapanapa State Park (Black Sand Beach), Maui. These lovely rocks make an excellent fine art subject.  Black Sand Beach (a.k.a. Waianapanapa State Park) is a location that I was hoping to visit. I had seen some very good as well as some very bad photographs from this location. I was not sure what I would find. Getting to Black Sand Beach was much easier than Red Sand Beach because a road goes right to it and there is no hiking in the dark on the side of a cliff required.  I was surprised to discover there was no one at this highly accessible and very beautiful location. I had the entire place to myself for two hours until I decided to leave. One of the most delightful things about the beach is the rocks themselves. They are smooth, black. When they are wet, they reflect the light from the sky. It's really a beautiful sight. Normally reflections are things you want to remove in a photograph with a polari...

Red Sand Beach, Maui at sunrise Red sand beach near Hana, Maui is a great location for sunrise. It faces east so that the rising sun's for strays will strike it. On my recent trip to Maui, this was my first landscape location. I had driven the road to Hana the night before in darkness. The next morning I woke up and drove in darkness to the trailhead for Red Sand Beach. I then walked down the trail in darkness using my headlamp. It wasn't until the sun came up several minutes later that I saw sunlight on the island of Maui for the first time. The clouds were illuminated for about 20 minutes before the actual sunrise. During this time I took several pictures from the beach looking east. My favorite one I have titled "Red Sand Beach:  Watercolor" because the beautiful color in the clouds is reflected in the water. Red Sand Beach:  Watercolor, taken at dawn Although it is not legal, I found two couples had camped out overnight on the beach. One woman had h...