Capturing the Moment

  A huge, 80,000lbs humpback whale leaps out of the ocean in a tremendous breach. I spent last week on a weeklong expedition cruise through the Hawaiian islands. One of my major focuses was on wildlife photography. I had my Canon 5d with an L-series 100-400 lens ready at a moments notice. And we scored. There were humpback whales, different species of dolphins, rare birds, then even rarer birds, octopus, and more. Check out the photos and descriptions and enjoy coming along for the adventure! The shallow ocean waters around the island of Maui play host to thousands of humpback whales every winter. They come to have babies and make babies. We think these breaching behaviors are part of their communication. Although perhaps just for fun. We can identify individual humpback whales using the unique white patches under their tail, which you can see here. There is an online database called HappyWhale.com, that you can upload your ID pictures like this to, and it will let you know if the ...

  Almost every night, manta rays come into a few select bays on the west coast of the Big Island, to feed in the shallows on plankton. Snorkeling with the manta rays has become one of the 'must-do' adventures here in Hawaii. However, it is not for the feint of heart. You have to wait for darkness, and be willing to jump into the ocean at night, and share it with creatures that are bigger than you. Luckily, these manta rays are gentle giants. They don't have teeth or stingers, which is nice, because as you will see, they can swim very close to you! Tonight was extra special, as it was the total lunar eclipse as well as our manta snorkel night. We took our boat to a little bay in front of the fancy, Mauna Kea resort. We anchored in about 17ft of water, put out surfboards with special underwater lights in them, and waited. The lights soon got crowded with plankton, and different fish coming in to feast on the plankton. But after thirty minutes, that is still all we saw. Everyo...

  Tidepools formed by a lava flow now fill with algae covered rocks, which is food for these Hawaiian green sea turtles. We saw eight or nine turtles along this stretch of the trail in Koloko-Honokohau National Historic Park. The Ala Kahakai trail on the Big Island of Hawaii, follows the coastline for 175 miles. The Big Island is aptly names, as it is the largest island in all of the United States. This trail has been here since the ancient Hawaiians, used to connect all the different land divisions. Later, during the Hawaiian monarchy times, the king would use this trail to visit the different land divisions and collect taxes. It was established as a National Historic Trail in 2000, to preserve native Hawaiian cultural and natural resources. We landed at Honokohau Harbor, just north of Kona town. From there we walked to the start of this section of the trail at the entrance to Koloko-Honokahau National Historic Park. There is a historic heiau, or temple, out on the point, and a re...