Our first night, the luau we were scheduled to attend was moved inside because of the rain. Since doing a fire dance inside isn’t the best idea, they moved that part to the parking lot. With about a hundred people in front of me, I flipped up the LCD screen on my camera, held it over my head and started shooting. God I love autofocus! Nikon Z 6 II, Aperture Priority, Auto white balance, ISO 3200, 1/60 at f/6.3 in Matrix metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 160mm.

In a place like Hawaii, the weather changes regularly, and sometimes you just need to move ten miles. That’s what happened when we visited this beach and found some sun. With splashing water, I remind my students that sometimes finding a shutter speed between freezing it and blurring it creates a nice effect. Which is just what I did here. I was also working on a tripod, and did manage to pull the rig away before getting splashed. Nikon Z 9, Manual, Natural Auto white balance, ISO 100, 1/125 at f/13 in Matrix metering, 0.0 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 24mm.

Most evenings the rain stopped and the sky started to clear, so we decided to meet behind the hotel at sunset to see if we’d get some color in the sky. Scouting the area an hour beforehand, I found a group of kids leaping off the pier into the ocean. Sitting on a dock gave me a low enough angle to silhouette them against the sky. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Natural Auto white balance, ISO 400, 1/1600 at f/9 in Matrix metering, -0.3 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 150mm.

And then we were gifted with a lovely sunset. After that, a couple of us stuck around a bit longer, hoping that as the sky got darker, the lights from the hotel would illuminate this scene enough to make a nice picture. Which they did. An added bonus – the long exposure smoothed out the water to add a touch of reflection. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 200, 30-seconds at f/9 in Matrix metering, -1.3 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 39mm.

After two days in Kona, we moved to the other side of the island and Hilo, which lived up to its reputation as one of the rainiest spots in Hawaii. But wet foliage can create a lovely green glow, which is what we found in the rain at Akaka Falls State Park. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 32, 1/5 at f/20 in Matrix metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 29mm.

And once we made the hike into Akaka Falls itself, the rising mist also added a nice touch to the scene. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 64, 1/10 at f/16 in Matrix metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 46mm.

The rain was almost constant during our visit to Honolii Beach Park outside Hilo to photograph surfers. That didn’t stop us, though, as today’s cameras are generally well weather-sealed, and we were prepared with camera raincoats and umbrellas. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 800, 1/2500 at f/6.3 in Matrix metering, +1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S Z TC with 1.4X teleconverter for 560mm.

Sarah’s the manager of a local surf shop, and we’d hired her to do some in-close surfing for us to photograph. As I was walking out with her afterwards, she stopped to rinse off the saltwater. Again, a moderate shutter speed added some character to the splashing water. Nikon Z 6 II, Aperture Priority, Auto white balance, ISO 250, 1/125 at f/7.1 in Matrix metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 92mm.

Even in the rain, light tones stand out well against dark backgrounds, if underexposed. And the lack of strong sun also means a lack of harsh contrast, which allows more detail to be seen. This was at the Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve & Garden, which you could easily spend an entire day exploring. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 800, 1/250 at f/9 in Matrix metering, 0.0 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 200mm.

One more photo from the Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve & Garden. I was struck how these leaves looked like a cascading waterfall of foliage. And again, the wetness gave the ferns a lovely green glow. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 1600, 1/50 at f/7.1 in Matrix metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 96mm.

Visiting the bluffs above Kehena Black sand beach gave us an opportunity to photograph it from a high angle, to work with the contrast created by the foam against the black. Being a clothing optional beach made it a bit of a challenge, though. Nikon Z 9, Manual exposure, Natural Auto white balance, ISO 400, 1/500 at f/8, Nikkor NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 200mm.

We arrived at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park’s crater rim well before sunrise, hoping to photograph the glow of the active lava flows there. Unfortunately, rain and mist blocked us from seeing that. However, we did get a brief bit of sunrise glow coming through later, just enough for a nice photo. Nikon Z 9, Manual exposure, Sunny white balance, ISO 160, 1/10 at f/9 in Matrix metering, -0.3 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 28mm.

Driving across the top of the island on our return to Kona, I slammed on the brakes and did a U-turn to return my group to this scene. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Auto white balance, ISO 320, 1/640 at f/6.3 in Matrix metering, 0.0 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 200mm.

Back at Kona, Rene, the group leader, had booked us on an outing to the top of Mauna Kea, 13,800 feet, for sunset. There we enjoyed snow, cold weather and some beautiful scenes, like these cinder cones rising above the clouds. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 125, 1/80 at f/10 in Matrix metering, 0.0 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 105mm.

The other neat thing about being atop Mauna Kea is all the observatories there, to take advantage of the elevation and clear skies. They also make nice subjects for photos! I crouched low to use this mound of plowed snow as a foreground, with the sun just kissing the top of it. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 64, 1/40 at f/20 in Matrix metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 16mm.

We were rewarded for braving the thiin air and cold with a beautiful sunset. Thirty-minutes after that we were headed out, to let the astronomers do their work. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 200, 1/500 at f/8 in Matrix metering, -2.7 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 24mm.

However, after dropping down a few thousand feet, we were allowed to stop and do some night photography. At that point we were far enough away and below the observatories that our few lights wouldn’t create a problem for them. Nikon Z 9, Manual exposure, 3850K white balance, ISO 4000, 25-seconds at f/4, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S lens at 14mm.

On the morning of our final day, some of the group chose the option of a helicopter flight around the island. We had a great pilot who found some breaks in the clouds, letting us work with those occasional areas of sunshine. When shooting from a helicopter, you always need to use a very high shutter speed to counter the vibration. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 250, 1/2000 at f/7.1 in Matrix metering, -1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 24mm.

He flew us into some of the valleys along the coast as well, to explore a few of the many waterfalls. And again, a shaft of light in the right spot, and a little underexposure, made all the difference. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 1000, 1/2000 at f/7.1 in Matrix, -1.0 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 35mm.

Coming back to the airport we even flew over a group of humpback whales. They didn’t know it, but they were next on our itinerary. Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, ISO 1600, 1/2500 at f/7.1 in Matrix metering, -0.7 EV, Nikkor Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens at 200mm.

On the plus side, we saw a number of humpback whales breaching during our whale watch tour. On the minus side, the boat was bouncing around so much it was hard for some of us to shoot pictures. Although we still had it better than those on the boat who were too sick to shoot! Nikon Z 9, Aperture Priority, Sunny white balance, , ISO 250, 1/2000 at f/7.1 in Matrix metering, 0.0 EV, Nikkor Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S lens.