Friday, September 19, 2008





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Well, we finally made it back from our Hawaii trip. Naquel and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on the Big Island. We stayed at the Hilton Wiakoloa. For those of you that are not familiar with the Big Island, it is on the Northwest side of the island, the dry side. Our flight left Monday 8/8/08 @ 2:30 AM for a 5AM arrival in Honolulu, and then a 45 minute flight to Hilo. From there it was a 2 hour drive to our Hotel. It seems like a lot of traveling, but we were so excited that it didn't seem that bad at all.

As our luck would have it, there were shark sightings along the Kohala coast line, so the best beaches in the whole state were shut down (all of the other beaches were lava beaches and offered nothing but sharp rock and cuts and bruises for the brave). I know Naquel was really looking forward to basking in the sun, and we had to wait till the last day we were in Hawaii. To make up for her disappointment, I scheduled many excursions including snorkeling at the Captain Cook Memorial (another best in the state of Hawaii), a helicopter tour over the active volcano, and a really fun ATV tour thru the north side rain forests.

Naquel was nice enough to let me get away for my photography, and take photos I did... lots and lots of them... really good ones. Since we planned this trip 5 months ago, I have been chomping at the bit about getting out to take some awesome Hawaii photos. I bought a fantastic book by Andrew Dougherty called " Hawaii, the Big Island Revealed". 400 pages of a local insiders guide to the VERY best places to eat, sights to see, excursions to take, and places to stay at. Some might call me obsessive compulsive, bit I like to refer to it as just being prepared. And besides, Naquel was really happy that I was putting so much effort into making our trip a great one. So, when we got to Hawaii, we already had a really good idea of what we wanted to do and see.

Naquel was so patient with me at times. About 1 hour before sunset I get really serious about my photography because that is the VERY best time to start taking pictures, and you only have so much "good" light until its gone. So there were a few times I just pulled off the side of the road and hiked into the rain forest a few miles to find an extremely remote beach to take my photos, while she waited nicely in the car... for a few hours. Luckily her cell phone worked to keep her busy. She is such a sweetheart.

So...now that I have talked your ears off...here are some of my favorite photos I captured with my D700. I have many more photos to post, but it will take a little more time and they will be on my photo site: www.chrisrossphotos.com when they are completed. I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed capturing them.

Thanks

Chris

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