Look around and you’ll find what you seek.

Recently I was asked, “where are the people? I thought Hawai’i was crowded with tourists.”

I typically respond with, “you find what you seek. If you travel to Hawai’i to find people, you will find them.” My thought pattern continues with … if you travel to find natural surroundings, raw shoreline, beautiful blue water, lava rock, flowers of every kind, sweet sounding birds, and tasty fish … that’s what you’ll find.

My travels to Hawai’i aren’t about the beach. Sure, I go to the beach (more so at sunset), but I’m much more interested in hiking, walking and exploring. Certainly there are times where I need to move around and actively crop people out of my frame.  But that’s an exception. Cropping people from the frame (or their noise from the HD-mic) is much harder orchestrate at sunset than at any other time of the day.

Early morning is the easiest because most visitors aren’t interested in getting out of bed at 5Am. Shooting midday is fraught with lighting issues – unless you’re under heavy brush or indoors. Either way, finding yourself far away from the masses is a choice.

If you land in Honolulu (Hono-rue-rue), you find six lanes of traffic on BOTH sides of the highway. If you drive downtown you will find a sea of white flesh (yes, mostly Caucasian) and a roar of happiness stemming from a collective notion — “we’re on Waikiki Beach!” Look around and you smell the fatty flesh of tourists. Or, you can choose another route and find a dried red dirt path strewn with Acacia trees … leading far away from masses. Ninety-eight percent of my travels include the later variety.

According to management, we will continue seeking the quiet red dirt path until further notice.

Aloha.