Nikon D810, 1/40 sec, f/10, 75mm, ISO 200
When flying to Maui from the mainland, I like to spend the first two nights close to the airport. Our first choice is The Inn at Mama’s Fish House. It is an easy and scenic 20 minute drive from Kahului airport. The Inn is a good jumping off point to visit Haleakalā National Park for sunrise the day after you arrive in Maui, and a great place to recover from jet lag on day two. After that, we move on to our longer term lodging.
The flower wall above surrounds one end of the Inn’s parking lot. There are many more flower pots on the wall, but there were also a lot of distractions like palm leaves, cars, and shrubbery. Unable to capture the entire wall, I choose to focus on one small section.
I knew I did not have the depth-of-field to get both flower pots in focus, so I took two images, one focused on each pot, and tried to focus stack them in Photoshop. Unfortunately, I did this without my tripod, and the two images did not line up exactly. This result in ghosting around the front flower pot. Oh well, close but no cigar…
The Inn at Mama’s Fish House: 20.928988° -156.367016°
Nikon D810, 6.0 sec, f/13, 100mm, ISO 160
This image is from the Summit Observation Deck at Haleakalā National Park. Sunrise at Haleakalā is unique in that you can include clouds at the bottom of your composition beneath the rising sun. I created this panorama by stitching together four separate images in Photoshop. Stitched together, this image is 68″ x 14″. Don’t you wish you had a printer capable of printing images that size?
Be advised that it will be cold at the summit. When we checked into our hotel (the Paia Inn) we mentioned we would be going to Haleakalā the next morning. They gave us some blankets to take with us. While we were prepared with several layers of clothing that were useless during the remainder of our trip, my wife greatly appreciated the blankets.
Puʻuʻulaʻula (Summit Observation Deck): 20.709868° -156.252605°
Nikon D810, 25 sec, f/8.0, 86mm, ISO 200
One must do when visiting the island of Maui is sunrise at the summit of Haleakalā. The Summit Observation Deck is the best place to catch sunrise. There is limited parking there, so be sure to arrive in plenty of time to get a spot. Otherwise you will be parking at the Visitor Center (pictured above). This is a 25-second exposure which captured three bands of cars headlights arriving at the summit. I always wanted to capture such an image and caught this one without thinking.
Be aware that reservations are required to enter the park for sunrise viewing. Make your reservations well in advance of your visit. Because of the early departure time required to reach the summit, the best time to do this is the day after you arrive on Maui. Because of time zone differences, you will be wide awake very early the first day anyway, so plan on making the drive then.
Puʻuʻulaʻula (Summit Observation Deck): 20.709829° -156.252568°
