New Day... New Island. We bailed from Oahu in the morning and landed in Kona by around 1:00. We rushed to the hotel and then headed straight for the Observatory. Its basically nestled in the middle of two volcanoes on the tallest peak on the island ( ~14,000). They have a visitors center at around 9000 feet where you have to get aclimated to the elevation for 30 minutes before they will let you head up the rest.
The amazing thing is it goes from bright, sunny, and 85 degrees on the start of the drive to 38F and winds blowing 55mph+ at the peak. It was some COLD picture taking. Many times the wind was blowing right up my nose so hard it was dang near impossible to breathe!
This was taken on the way up the saddle road. After seeing the picture later, I wish we would have stopped the car and got out for a bit. The dead trees in combo with the lighting would have made some much cooler pictures.
Once at the visitors center at 9000 ft, they had an area fenced off that had these silver sword plants growing there.
After the visitors center, its a 10 or so mile drive up to the top of the summit. Most of the road is unpaved, but towards the top its actually paved nicely. If you go on a trip there, make sure you have a Jeep or something 4WD.
Are we are mars?
The road to nowhere
Anna took this one... it could be in a Jeep ad.
That is Manua Loa in the background, which is an active volcano. You can see the old lava flows coming off its ridge down into the valley. This one looks like a painting to me.
At the peak...
This one is best viewed large for a tiny bonus on the ridge line...
This is my buddy Luke taking pictures on the peak.
A little sun flair never hurt anybody...
After the sun went down, we headed back to the visitors center for some star gazing. Every weeknight they setup telescopes for people to look through and see some awesome sights. Being on an island AND above the clouds/pollution, etc... the number of stars is simply breath taking. Seriously its something everyone should experience once in their life time. I mean, I've seen dark skies and bright stars before, but it was unlike anything I've ever experienced.
Taken with a 50mm F1.4 at ISO3200 and processed with Deep Sky Stacker to remove the noise. View LARGE to get the full effect by click on the photo.
If you want to see a single frame that has been unprocessed or stacked or anything, click HERE Thats a ton of stars for a single 1/4 second exposure.
I'll also post this one just because its cool
I took it by trying to focus my camera hand held through the telescope. Its harder than it sounds
Hope you enjoy... more to come.
The amazing thing is it goes from bright, sunny, and 85 degrees on the start of the drive to 38F and winds blowing 55mph+ at the peak. It was some COLD picture taking. Many times the wind was blowing right up my nose so hard it was dang near impossible to breathe!
This was taken on the way up the saddle road. After seeing the picture later, I wish we would have stopped the car and got out for a bit. The dead trees in combo with the lighting would have made some much cooler pictures.
Once at the visitors center at 9000 ft, they had an area fenced off that had these silver sword plants growing there.
After the visitors center, its a 10 or so mile drive up to the top of the summit. Most of the road is unpaved, but towards the top its actually paved nicely. If you go on a trip there, make sure you have a Jeep or something 4WD.
Are we are mars?
The road to nowhere
Anna took this one... it could be in a Jeep ad.
That is Manua Loa in the background, which is an active volcano. You can see the old lava flows coming off its ridge down into the valley. This one looks like a painting to me.
At the peak...
This one is best viewed large for a tiny bonus on the ridge line...
This is my buddy Luke taking pictures on the peak.
A little sun flair never hurt anybody...
After the sun went down, we headed back to the visitors center for some star gazing. Every weeknight they setup telescopes for people to look through and see some awesome sights. Being on an island AND above the clouds/pollution, etc... the number of stars is simply breath taking. Seriously its something everyone should experience once in their life time. I mean, I've seen dark skies and bright stars before, but it was unlike anything I've ever experienced.
Taken with a 50mm F1.4 at ISO3200 and processed with Deep Sky Stacker to remove the noise. View LARGE to get the full effect by click on the photo.
If you want to see a single frame that has been unprocessed or stacked or anything, click HERE Thats a ton of stars for a single 1/4 second exposure.
I'll also post this one just because its cool
I took it by trying to focus my camera hand held through the telescope. Its harder than it sounds Hope you enjoy... more to come.
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