Storytelling in Photography – Oahu’s North Shore

Kids on Oahu's North Shore jump off the "30-foot Rock" by Joel Addams

NORTH SHORE, OAHU, HAWAII

We used to make runs up to the North Shore whenever we used to have time.  Sometimes we would arrive late or the swells from earlier in the day would have died down.  On this occasion, nothing was happening, so we wandered down to the 30-foot Rock, so-called by the locals because of its height.  When timed correctly, the water is plenty deep for a safe landing.  (Watch out for the low tide!)  I thought these kids would make a good silhouette as the sunlight was fading, and their body language described pretty well what was going on.  My friend with me described this bottom photo later on as a “tweaked out melon grab.”  Admittedly, the jumper may not have been the most graceful or picturesque subject, but perhaps that is what gives it a lot of local flavor.  The exposure on this image (and most silhouettes) is terribly simple.  Point and shoot.  Don’t worry about overexposing.  If you shoot in an evaluative metering system, with no exposure compensation, your meter in the camera will read the light in the sunset and automatically darken the foreground subjects.  No problem.  Now if you wanted to lighten up the kids, you would need to overexposure the frame, either by increasing the exposure compensation (+/- button) or manually increasing the size of the aperture or lengthening the shutter speed.

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Naturalist Basin, High Uintas and a Little Photography

There’s nothing quite like hiking up random slopes to get some interesting photography.  Thanks to Nate Nelson, good weather, and the Uintas National Forest in Utah, we got what we wanted.  Nate was the perfect companion on a little photographic outing: strong hiker, has a photographic eye, is a good friend, and makes sure you get up for the light.

The Singh-Ray filters came in quite handy on this shoot, as usual.  Both hard-step and soft-step filters figured into the lineup to balance some of this harsh light on the ridges behind us.

While our goal was the peak above us, the time of the day and the question of whether we could get a tent up on it were two factors in why we chose the ridgeline we did.  Oh, and we were pretty beat, too.  September wind chill factor adds an extra bite to the air, but we were able to pull together our frozen fingers for awhile to pull off some shots.

"Nate and the Ridge" ©JoelAddams.com

"Sunset, Agassiz Ridge, Uintas" Uinta National Forest, Naturalist Basin, Utah. ©JoelAddams.com

"Nate Nelson, Photographer" Naturalist Basin, Utah. ©JoelAddams.com

"Blue Lake, Naturalist Basin, Uintas" ©JoelAddams.com

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Aspens in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Out this evening for a little walkabout.  I always try to visualize what I want to shoot beforehand, but something else ends up popping up…couldn’t get enough of the light in the aspens.

"Sunset in Aspens" ©JoelAddams.com

"Aspens, Big Cottonwood Canyon" © JoelAddams.com

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Images of the Salt Lake City Skyline – Joel Addams

"Salt Lake City Skyline in April" ©JoelAddams.com

"Salt Lake City Skyline in December" ©JoelAddams.com

"Salt Lake City Skyline in August" ©JoelAddams.com. Model: Julia DeLoach

"Salt Lake City Skyline in April at Dusk" ©JoelAddams.com

"Horizon from Salt Lake City in June" ©JoelAddams.com

Love it or hate it, Salt Lake City can still pull off a spectacular sunset and skyline image with the buildings of this rather small city bounded by the Wasatch Mountains in the north and on the east.  Its west side opens up immediately to the Great Salt Lake and a vast desert of salt, sage, and dust.  Its pollution has been blamed for the awesome colors in the sky in the past, which are normally worse in January and February.  At any rate, the air seems to clear out during the rest of the year.  I was driving home this evening and caught the last image in this series, over the Great Salt Lake.  There is no post-processing in this image.  No increase in saturation or change in exposure.  It was shot at f4.0 around 1/60 of a second on a Canon 5D Mark II with a 70-200 mm lens (still works just fine!).  I hope you enjoy some of the skyline pictures of the place that I call home.

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Manarola at Sunset, Manarola at Dusk

As 80 DAYS OF IMAGES continues, I’d like to post both technical articles as well as “lifestyle of photography” articles. Some of these articles simply explain what I was thinking and offer a little behind the scenes answer to “why” the images were made…

"Manarola at Sunset" in Cinque Terre, Italy, sits in the warm light of sunset. © Joel Addams

“I first visited Manarola in Cinque Terre, Italy in 2002, a quintessential backpack-style tour of Europe with three friends, some money from laboring during the Winter Olympics in 2002, and a bag small enough to hold my Nikon F100, thirty rolls of film, and a change of clothing. At that point in life, I knew nothing about photography.

I returned in 2007, after five years of studying photography and light all over the world. I was alone as I photographed in Venice, Florence, and the Tuscan countryside, but my mind was always pleasantly reminiscent and looking forward to Cinque Terre. It was waiting for me to bring back more developed skills and better equipment. Probably even more patience. Patience was a must on this visit: an Italian holiday had the highway that connected these five charming coastal cities packed with Italians, coupled with the gobs of tourist who had discovered the quaint cities of the west coast of Italy. I was forced to park about two miles away from Rio Maggiore, the southernmost city of the five and then hike down to it and up the trail past Manarola and onto a perch overlooking the scene you see before you.

Knowing that a great photograph is in reach is a true delight for any photographer, and I waited for the sunset to glow with heightened anticipation. the Mediterranean sun started to dip, the orange glow deepened the saturation of the brightly colored homes and highlighted the boats carefully docked in the harbor. While I reeled off photographs of the changing light, a girl politely asked to take her photograph in the sunset. She stayed stayed around and watched me work. When the radiant sunset had passed, she questioned my desire to continue to photograph. explained that while the sunset is a brilliant photograph, the dusk also offers a mood that is unique and different (see “Manarola at Dusk” below.)

"Manarola at Dusk", Cinque Terre, Italy, is the shot taken 30 minutes after "Manarola at Sunset." © Joel Addams

“I hope you enjoy “Manarola at Sunset” and “Manarola at Dusk.” The balance of the homes against the sea, as well as the warm colors make it a perfect example of the old world Italy that develops neighbors into families and that joins the sea to the land.

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