Capturing the Moment

  I am on a very quick trip to Maui, Hawaii and I was eager to test out my new drone at some of my favorite photography spots. The closest beach to my condo is Sugar Beach, in North Kihei. It is a very long sandy beach, popular with locals. Imagine my surprise when I walk down to find a big shipwreck, cast ashore on the sand. The waves were hitting it and splashing up, but otherwise the wreck looked like it was in relatively good shape. I feel bad for the owner, but I wasn't going to pass the opportunity for a quick photo shoot. Morning at the wreck. It isn't the best lighting during sunrise here which is when I took this photo with my DJ Mini 4K drone. I planned to come back for sunset later. On my way to the wreck I had to stop and take a long exposure at this rocky outcropping. The beach is mostly sandy, so these rocks provided a very nice foreground subject while the sky looked afire in the background. A bit of a south swell was rocking the shoreline and crashing against th...

Heidi at Sugar Beach Shy Octopus    After seven straight weeks of work I was very much looking forward to a wonderful vacation consisting of a week in Maui and then three weeks in Indonesia. The week in Maui consisted of surfing, diving, hiking, wining, and dining at all of our favorite spots. Bubble Man Nudibranch rare find, Caloria sp#3    Things started off right with Heidi meeting me at the airport with Pizza Madness and Krispy Kreme doughnuts, two of my favorites. Then we drove up to Kula to find the Pietsch's family house way up on the slopes of Haleakala volcano. Redwoods Hike with Pat, Heidi, and Ben Redwoods   From there we hit up breakfast at our favorite places: Grandma's, Three's, and Fred's. Dinner spots included Pizza Madness, Three's, Mama's Fish House, and Casanovas up in Makawao. We dove at our favorite nudibranch hot spot, Sugar Beach, where we found a couple of very rare species. We circumnavigated the west Maui moun...

Tiger Cowrie   Strange creatures abound at Sugar Beach after dark. This is one of our favorite night dive spots for some muck diving action on Maui. Not many people know about this place because it really does take some faith, especially at night, to get in the water here and hope for the best. It doesn't look like much at first but after finding the first few unusual creatures they seem to appear everywhere you look. From active cowries to unknown nudibranchs we delighted with each new find. Gloomy Nudibranch   Even the fish can look totally different at night, taking on new colorations and behaviors. But the big surprise of the night was a beautiful red-orange frogfish that Heidi found out in the open. Moorish Idol at Night Pokemon Nudibranch Shy Scorpoinfish Heidi's beautiful frogfish Reticulated Frogfish, very rare