Hawaii 2023 - Chain of Craters Road

Gallery (40 images): Hawaii 2023 - Chain of Craters Road

Our first major excursion while staying near Hilo, was to head west and then drive the Chain of Craters Road to the south part of the island, as far as one can go.

The first shot in the gallery was of our vrbo booked stay, the "Peace of Paradise" as it's known. There were three huts, all connected by wooden walkways and surrounded by jungle.  There was a living room hut, a bedroom/bathroom hut and a kitchen hut. Apart from some dogs barking from the relatively close-by neighbours (who we never saw or heard), it was peaceful and relaxing stay. The accommodations were unique and made the second part of our honeymoon special! The jungle sounds at night were amazing... and loud! At first I thought they'd be disturbing, but they were surprisingly unobtrusive while sleeping, even relaxing somehow I thought.

There were so many geckos too, including one that decided it liked walking all over our ceiling inside our bedroom hut. It was a game in the morning after waking up; who would be first to spot our little green gecko friend! There will be a cellphone image gallery coming as the last blog posting from the trip and it will have more photos of the huts.

The remainder of the gallery has photos from our Chain of Craters sightseeing drive and hike. I took many photos of waves crashing against the rugged lava rock coastline. Once again, there wasn't all that much sun, although it did peek out a few times, like for the above headline photo.

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Hawaii Trip

Hawaii 2023 - Five Days

Gallery (20 images): Hawaii 2023 - Five Days

This next gallery has images from our next five days in Hawaii... well six days actually, but I didn't take any photos on one day. I didn't have that many opportunities to take photos, but they were nice relaxing days. The first set of images in the linked gallery are from the "Feast and Fire Luau" at the Kona Outrigger Resort. Sadly, during the amazing fire dancing segment, which I recall was definitely worth seeing, they did not allow any photography at all, not even with cell phones. The famous fire dancing segment was one reason we decided to go to that particular luau, and I had been looking forward to taking photos. Oh well. What is interesting is that I hardly remember any details about the fire dance segment, but maybe it was because I was so irritated at not being allowed to take photos? Regardless, it was very enjoyable overall and the food was excellent!

The next set of images was from the Waipi'o Vallery Lookout on the north coast of the Big Island. My father made his way down the steep trail with his rollator (a rolling walker), and although I had intended to push him back up in it, since it converts to a transport chair, the big ridges and washouts on the trail made it pretty much impossible to push. I was anticipating a long arduous journey back up, when a big burly young native Hawaiian man generously offered to assist. Between him pulling the front of the rollator over the bumps and washouts, and me pushing from the behind, we made quick work of the trail back up again. We thanked him profusely for the help and he was super friendly - a typical Hawaiian! That was one of the reasons my mom loved it so much in Hawaii; the friendly and welcoming nature of native Hawaiians is wonderful.

The next few images were taken from the balcony while Emily and I were having a nice brunch at the Papa Kona restaurant. Originally, when we were contemplating getting married in Hawaii, Papa Kona's was one place we were seriously considering. Lastly, there are a few views from our stay at the Kona Bali Kai, and the last shot was after we had driven to the east coast of the island for the last part of our stay at the wonderful "Peace of Paradise" cabins, south of Hilo; a photo of one of the many cute little geckos that shared our stay in the jungle.

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Hawaii Trip

Hawaii 2023 - Old Kona Airport Botanical Gardens

Gallery (45 images): Hawaii 2023 - Day 3

On our third major day in Hawaii, we drove to the Old Kona Airport, north of Kailua-Kona and spent a few hours strolling around the botanical gardens there, marvelling at the diverse range of colourful plants and some large and cool looking spiders too!

As is typical for the Kona coast, afternoons are overcast and one really needs to be a morning person to take advantage of full sunshine! It was still wonderfully warm, but with mostly cloudy skies, the colours didn't pop as much as they could have. In the evening, the clouds often burn off and it clears up then, making for nice sunsets at least.

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Hawaii Trip

Hawaii 2023 - Miloli'i and South of Kona

Gallery (35 images): Hawaii 2023 - Days 1 & 2

In mid August of 2023, a week after Emily and I got married, we were off to to the Big Island of Hawaii for our honeymoon. Following will be an excerpt from the above linked blog post about our wedding...

---

For a few days at the start, my father joined us since he'd been wanting to revisit the memorial for my mother one more time, which is on the outskirts of the village of Miloli'i, on the Kona Coast, where my mother's ashes were scattered in the ocean back in 2008. A night shot of the memorial that I took in 2019 can be seen below. I am sad that my mother never had a chance to meet Emily. She was an artist herself and she and Emily would have had many fascinating discussions no doubt!



Being 92, travel is becoming more of a challenge for my father and that may well have been the last opportunity for him to visit the memorial with Emily and I. For more on this memorial, see this blog post of mine from 2019. Once my father flew back home we started our honeymoon proper, spending a few more days on the Kona Coast, then over to the east part of the island, staying just south of Hilo at a wonderful little private set of three walkway connected bungalows in the jungle.

---

Oregon 2023 - Shaniko & Antelope

Gallery (30 images): Oregon 2023 - Day 5

On the last day of this trip, during our drive north, we stopped by the ghost town of Shaniko. There are still people living in Shaniko (30 as of 2020), but it is mostly deserted and there are numerous historic buildings. As you'll see in the gallery, I was fascinated by the "Chrysler Fluid Drive" emblem on an old car there, haha. Shaniko does have a hotel, and you can see it in the gallery where my Subaru Crosstrek is parked. For more photos of this quaint location, see the first twelve photos in my 2019 gallery here: 2019 Grand Canyon Trip - Days 1-3

After Shaniko, we drove onward to the town of Antelope and briefly stopped at the historic school there, built in 1925. The school is stated for restoration work to become a city hall / community centre. The last three photos in the gallery were taken inside a quirky little shop in Condon Oregon, called The Condon Local. There, they serve breakfast & lunch, have ice cream and milkshakes, have an espresso bar, sell vintage items and clothing, and have numerous little displays with antiques, like the old boxes of Kodak Developer Tubes shown in my photos. This was the last blog entry and gallery from our 2023 Oregon trip. Next up, photos from Hawaii later in 2023, when Emily and I were on our honeymoon!

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Oregon Trip

Oregon 2023 - Pine Mtn. and Paulina Lakes Obsidian Flow

Gallery (30 images): Oregon 2023 - Days 3 & 4

After the Painted Hills, we drove further south and camped up on Pine Mountain, where there is also an observatory run by the University of Oregon. After hiking to the top of Pine Mtn, we drove to Bend, where we had an amazing breakfast at The Victorian Cafe. Then, for the rest of the day, we drove around Bend, checking out some shops until camping at Skull Hollow to the north.

The next day we drove further south, stopping at the Bend REI and then heading to the Paulina Lakes at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and hiking up the 1300 year old Big Obsidian Flow, which is actually the youngest volcanic lava flow in Oregon. The photo at the top of this blog post shows the edge of the massive basalt and volcanic glass lava flow and photo 29 in the gallery also shows how deep this flow is at its edge in spots, dwarfing some fairly tall trees right next to it. Photos 10, 20 and 27 show some good views of this black volcanic glass, which is formed by rapid cooling of magma which had minimal water and gas content, rapid enough to not allow the molten minerals to crystallize. After hiking around the obsidian flow and taking some photos, we started heading north again, through Bend and camping at the Postpile Campground on the Crooked River.

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Oregon Trip

Oregon 2023 - Painted Hills and Blue Basin

Gallery (65 images): 2023 Oregon - Days 1 & 2

This is the first gallery from our week long June 2023 trip to Oregon. On the drive down, we passed an old abandoned house in northern Oregon, one that has been slowly deteriorating over the years and gaining more and more graffiti inside. I've photographed the same house on multiple other occasions over the span of decades and it is interesting to see the progression.

The first "real" day of photography started to the north east of the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The above image was taken along a backroad route, coming in to the area from the north, whereas normally people would access the Painted Hills from the south. This was a very scenic drive as you can see, first starting off with a lightly paved backroad before turning into a much narrower and rough gravel off-road trail. The views were spectacular and there were virtually no other vehicles along the way, something I love about the Oregon Outback! The night skies there are magnificent and the area has been designated the largest dark sky sanctuary in the world.

We spent the afternoon and evening at the Painted Hills and that night, camped nearby. The next morning was relaxing, taking in some gorgeous views over the John Day River while sipping our morning coffee.

After breaking camp, we drove back out and up the John Day River valley to an area called the Blue Basin, which features strongly blue-green coloured and eroded soft sandstone formations, which made for a very scenic hike. I have been there on other occasions over the years, but if I recall, it was always either overcast or hazy, or scorchingly hot, and I never had an opportunity like this one to capture the beauty of the area...

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Oregon Trip

2023 Victoria Trip - Day 6

Gallery (80 images): 2023 Victoria Trip - Chinatown & Butchart Gardens

On our last day in Victoria, Emily and I first walked over to Chinatown and did a bit of exploring, including visiting the Chinese Canadian Museum, which was quite fascinating. The narrow brick lined alleys with lots of paper lanterns were wonderful and very photogenic! It turned out to be a rather lengthy walk we did that morning and early afternoon, totalling over 12 km. After finding a coffee shop and relaxing for a bit, we headed back to our B&B, grabbed the car and then headed up to The Butchart Gardens, where we spent another few hours walking around and taking lots of photos before having a quick dinner and making our way to the Swartz Bay ferry to head back to the mainland. It was a long day with lots of walking but the weather was absolutely beautiful and it was a great way to end our trip to Victoria!

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Victoria Trip

2023 Victoria Trip - Days 3 - 5

 Gallery (55 images): 2023 Victoria - City Walks

The next three days, I spent my time wandering around Victoria, part testing lenses and part just exploring the city. These were slow and relaxing days, wandering around and taking photos. I used to do this quite often in and around Vancouver, but I've never taken the time around Victoria.

I had borrowed a few lenses and a GFX body from my Fujifilm rep for a couple of the days. One was a pre-production Fujinon XF 8mm f/3.5 R WR (equivalent to a very wide 12mm lens on full-frame) and there are a number of photos in the above linked gallery that were taken with that lens. I was impressed enough with this lens, that this year (in 2024) I bought one just before my trip to the Southwest with Emily. It replaced the also otherwise excellent Laowa Zero-D 9mm f/2.8 manual focus lens I had been using for many years with my X-Pro2. In a few ways, the Laowa 9mm is actually slightly better than the Fujinon 8mm, but overall I ended up preferring the Fujinon for a few reasons, so I made the switch.

At the beginning of the above linked gallery, there are also some infrared (IR) shots taken with my IR-converted X-E2, a camera I rarely use and when I do, I always tell myself I need to use it more often since the results can be magical! The grain and highlight glow, to mimic B&W Kodak IR film, were added in post with Adobe Photoshop.

I had also borrowed a Fujifilm GFX 100S as well as the then new ultra-wide zoom Fujinon GF 20-35mm f/4 R WR (roughly equivalent to a 16-28mm in full-frame terms), and this combination proved outstanding, with the zoom lens performing pretty much every bit as well as Fujifilm's GF prime lenses. If I were to ever get a GFX system, that lens would be very high on my list of lenses to buy! There are no images from that combination in the gallery, although there are a number in the gallery accompanying my review of the lens on the Beau Photo website here... https://www.beauphoto.com/tested-fujinon-gf-20-35mm-f-4-r-wr/

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Victoria Trip

2023 Victoria Trip - Days 1 & 2

Gallery (100 images): 2023 Victoria - City, Beacon Hill Park and Finnerty Park

This is the first gallery I've posted from my 2023 trip to Victoria, BC, in late May. My wife Emily was attending the Canadian Association for Conservation conference there and I decided to tag along, which gave me some time to meet up with some old friends and colleagues, as well as wander the city and take lots of photographs while she was busy.

Fujifilm Canada was working the same conference and I thank the rep for lending me the then brand new Fujinon XF 8mm f/3.5 R WR for a day of shooting in Victoria, a pre-production copy that nonetheless provided excellent image quality. In the meantime, I've purchased the same lens for myself and have been extremely happy with the results. For example, the recent posting of my 2024 Southwest Trip - Highlights gallery has many shots taken with the new XF 8mm.

The gallery accompanying this post has some shots I took while wandering around the city on the first day, then shots I took in Beacon Hill Park on the next day (the first ones with the rock formations sure don't look like they were taken in Victoria!), followed by a trip to Finnerty Gardens at UVIC, where I killed some time prior to meeting up with Eric Higgs, who is in charge of the fascinating Mountain Legacy Project. I acted as a consultant early on in the project, giving advice on the high end medium-format digital camera equipment used to capture the repeat photos for the project. Definitely head over to the link above to see some fascinating examples of how the Rocky Mountain landscape has changed over the last 100 years or so, due to both natural and man-made influences.

Read: All the blog postings from my 2023 Victoria Trip