Beach Archives - Laughing Frog Images

Moloaa Beach was another new discovery for me on my photo hiking tour of the east and north sides of the island of Kauai, HI with Kauai Photo Tours.

I shot quite a few images here with my Nikon D-7100 and Tamron 10-24 and 18-270mm lenses, but it’s this image from my Lumia Icon smartphone that I like the best.

Why?

Possibly because it’s native aspect ratio lends itself to landscapes such as this. We were getting ready to leave, and I pulled my phone out and made this image using the automatic setting as I wanted to send one of “those” emails. You know what I mean. One of “those” emails or messages we tend to do from time to time when we want to share something… and perhaps make someone a little jealous… It’s a sign of the times – vanity made easier by technology! In this case though, I wanted to share it with Mrs Frog who was enjoying her time at a different beach.

My next favorite images from this location were made with the 10-24mm zoom. It’s just time and well, time that are keeping them from being posted at the moment. I’ve never done scenics on a beach with a 10-24 before, and I have to admit that I really enjoyed it.

I am not getting paid for this – but I do have to say that I love my Tamron 10-24mm lens. It’s not a Nik**, and no ultrawide zoom is perfect, and for what the Tamron costs compared to the Nik**, you can either save a lot of money or use that money to put more toys in your camera bag. But I digress… You’ll have to wait to seem more of that lens’ work.

Back to Moloaa Beach…

Technical details: This jpg is from a dng file. The original was at 0.00035 seconds, f2.4 at ISO 64. The camera is also capable of full manual settings, shutter priority and aperture priority, any one of which could have improved upon the original just a bit – but not bad from a phone camera at all! I tweaked the image just a bit in Perfect Photo Suite 9 – adding a slight skylight filter effect as well as a slight color enhancement.

Moloaa Beach on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai.

This image of Moloaa Beach is in the Coastal and Beach Scenes Gallery on Laughing Frog Images.

This image is part of the OBX sunrise series.

However, this image spoke to me and said that it was worthy of a post all its’ own.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I see things in images that not everyone else does… And, yes, I do believe that a picture can say a thousand words.

When you’re shooting (well, at least this happens to me), you don’t always notice everything that’s happening in an image at the time you’re making it. It’s also likely that not every happening and every detail stands out to you when you look at it on your camera screen. And sometimes, you really don’t see everything the first time you see it on your monitor.

Somewhere along the way – it hits you! “It” can be a lot of things.

“It” hit me in this case as I was preparing the OBX sunrise post.

Going in for a swim isn’t always just going in for a swim. Have you ever sat on a beach and seen a young child run towards the water, arms raised in excitement and anticipation? Or seen someone on their first visit to the ocean doing the same thing? If you take a breath and pause to savor the moment, it is a special moment to share, if only from a distance.

As I was going through the images, I noticed something in the lower left corner of this image that had eluded me before. Yes, there are the “big things” in this image. There’s the golden glow of the sun. The nuanced textures of the water and the waves. Footprints in the sand. There’s a lot going on here if you take the time to ponder the image, and not just look at it.

And, there’s what appears to be a sea gull in silhouette from the rising sun, it’s wings casting soft shadows. He or she is in mid-stride heading towards the water, wings outstretched like a child. Was it the anticipation of the morning swim? The excitement to catch a wave? The awe and energy of a new day?

I’d prefer to think that it was one of those instead of an early morning stretch!

What do you think was happening here?

The full image can be viewed by clicking here. You can find the sunrise gallery by clicking here.

It could look great on your wall. Or on a mug. Or a water bottle…

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