Blue Water at Shipwreck Beach in Hawaiʻi
How Blue
I like water. No, not drinking water, although I do like that, too. I like large bodies of water. The bigger, the better. And if the water is not exactly still, that is even better.
We liked watching the waves when we were in Hawaiʻi. While the waves at Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic Coast of Florida are bigger than what you might find on the Gulf coast, the waves in Hawaiʻi were even bigger than those. They were probably the biggest waves we have seen. And yes, I know that in other places, even in other places in Hawaiʻi, the waves can even get much bigger than the ones that we saw.
On this particular evening during our trip, we had hiked up to the top of the rocks near Shipwreck Beach at Poʻipū as the sun was starting to go down. We enjoyed seeing the waves crash into the rocks, as the setting sun gave everything an interesting glow.
The big waves off in the distance, such as the one near the center of the photo, were blown around by the wind, with some spray blowing off the tops of the white caps, which made it all even more interesting to see.
I have mentioned before how much I like the blue water in places like this. The closest water we have at home are either small ponds and lakes, which are usually brown, or the Mississippi River, which is always brown. So the blue water always impresses me. It looks even better when some white patches are thrown in, such as those you can see here.
Powerful
I have always thought that the waves were pretty powerful. But in the BIble, James talks about the surging sea being tossed about by the wind:
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways. - James 1:5-8
Of course, Jamesʻs main objective was not to talk about the waves and the wind. Rather, he was talking about how anyone who asks God for anything but does not have faith is unstable, like a wave tossed by the wind. Indecisiveness is instability, according to James.
So when we ask God for things, we should have faith that he will give us what we ask. Provided, of course, that we ask with the right motives. That kind of faith is much more powerful than either the waves or the wind!
About the Photo
I purposefully pushed things a good bit for this photo, giving it a much more bold look than some of the photos I have been posting recently. I like the stronger contrast and the bold colors here. I think they definitely fit the scenery, even if the photo might not exactly look like what some people would consider “natural.”
For this photo, instead of Photoshop, I turned to Aurora HDR to get the look that I was wanting. Most HDR photos are produced with three exposures. However, I did not plan ahead for that, and I only had one exposure to use. Fortunately, Aurora HDR can still create interesting looking photos from a single Raw file, and that is what I used here. I will probably start shooting multiple brackets on occasion in the future, but it is nice to know that while those results might be better, you can still do some pretty cool things with a single exposure.
This was actually not the first photo posted to this site that I processed with Aurora. That honor goes to the Sunny Skies on the Disney Dream photo. And several of the photos in Part 4 of the 2018 Christmas Disney Cruise Trip Report were also created using Aurora. The photos from Aurora do not have to be quite as “edgy” as this one is. Unless you want them to be.
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR
Date: July 8, 2018
_Location: _ Shipwreck Beach, Poʻipū, Hawaiʻi
