Happy 2015 everyone!  As the new year approaches, I wanted to reflect on some images from my amazing relaxing vacation I got to experience last year in Maui, Hawaii.  Since I haven’t taken a proper vacation in a very long time, last year around this time, I decided to fly out to Maui with one of my buddies and finally relax a little.  Maui was an absolutely incredible place, and I got to cherish all of it’s beauty for a week.  The landscape changed from crystal clear waters, to white sandy beaches, to lush tropical forrest, to desert like terrain, to high mountain tops above the cloud.  What’s truly amazing is that you can experience all of those things within an hour of driving since the island is relatively small.  The weather was almost always at 70­­° with clear sunny skies.  I mostly spent my time sight seeing and ate a ton of really good food.  I got to enjoy fresh local seafood and loads of tropical fruits (which I’m a big fan of).  More than anything, as a photographer, I got to experience some of the most amazing landscapes and sunsets that I have ever witnessed.  Looking back at it, I miss Maui dearly, and it makes me wish that I had the opportunity to be back this year.  My 2015 resolution is to hopefully be back in Hawaii by the end of this year or early 2016, so any of you native Hawaii readers out there that need some photos done, just shoot me an email =)

Camera Nerd zone:

Being a photographer, what to take on a journey such as this is always difficult.  You have to consider many factors and really think about what you want to get out of it.  I knew I wanted some high quality images (especially since I wanted to try some timelapse [which I’ll post at a later time]), but I also didn’t want to lug around a bunch of heavy gear.  In the end, I ended up bringing with me my 5D mark 3, the 16-35mm f/2.8IIL, a 45mm tilt shift, and my 135L.  These mostly stayed in the bag unless I was doing timelapse, wanted a higher pixel shot for print, or ran out of battery.  I ended up also bringing a Fuji x100s which I used for 85% of my photos.  The Fuji has a fixed 23mm f/2 lens, which was great for most general photos.  For wider shots, I just switched to the canon system.  Lastly, since I knew I wanted to get some underwater photos, I also brought along a GoPro Hero 3+ Black edition which worked great for many videos and underwater shots.

 

It’s impossible to capture the true beauty of this place unless you go there in person, but hopefully some of these images can act as a reference.  Below are some of the photos I managed to capture from my week out in Maui.  If you like a particular shot, please click the little ♥ on the top left corner so I can know, and leave some love in the comments section below!  A special shout out goes out to Andaz Maui at Waliea for providing many of the backdrops and an absolutely exceptional stay throughout my trip.