Beach – SarahRuthSeeks

FRG Christmas Mini Photoshoots Fundraiser

November 2, 2021 No Comments

As I started taking family shoots I realized it could make a great FRG fundraiser. So I offered my time and skills to the FRG and they took me up on it! We did 15 minute increments and six families signed up over a course of two days. Let me tell you, I don’t want to edit again for a while.

I say that, but I think part of it was the location we picked (Kamehameha Beach on Hickam). It ended up being “busy” (relative term for a military beach, it was actually pretty quiet for a Hawaii beach). I had to edit out a few people and a big, blue sun shade tent out of probably 25 pictures. Phew!

Each family paid $40 and I received $20 and the FRG received $20. I gave them all edited photos of my choosing, we guaranteed three good ones but most of the time they ended up with more.

Day one ended up being one couple and we had the bench set up in a weird way, and I feel bad because it made the pictures a little misaligned. Basically, either the horizon was horizontal or the bench was horizontal. If the Horizon was, the tree looked crooked. Anyway, we ended up shifting the set up on this little patch of sand. However, by the end with the rising tide the sand bar disappeared. You can see here my horizon line is still a little crooked. I did rotate in post processing, but obviously not perfect!

I’m learning that there are limitations to the software I chose. There are basic things I wish it did, like I think other software will auto rotate for the horizon with a click of a button. I think other software can also blur faces. I chose the software I did because it uses AI to enhance photos, so I can let the algorithm take care of most of what I need. I also picked it because it’s not subscription, so I paid once and don’t have to pay monthly. It’s the part of me that doesn’t want to pay for months I didn’t use, although I’ve been using my photo editor quite often (more than I realized).

Anyway, we fixed the horizon/bench issue by moving the scenery. However, other issues were that back to the left where you see the bushes was the huge bright blue sun shade tent. Also, the bright sun made it difficult for people to open their eyes to look at me, but it was the best lighting and again best for horizon lines. All things to learn and think about!

There were a ton of great shots that came out of these sessions and the families were so much fun. I’m really proud of the work I’ve been doing and think for $40 the results were on par with the value (especially including all that editing time).

I might ask permission to share more photos, but you at least get the gist of the shoot with the above one. Great learning experience, and it’s very interesting the time difference between shooting a couple and a family. I also was worried I wouldn’t have enough poses on the bench, but we did the shaka and sometimes isolated kids and did kisses. Then we also took people away from that and did spontaneous shots like dancing, jumping, walking, etc. I felt a little weird when I ended up with so much time after a session! But they go quicker when it’s not a full on family shoot.

Super fun, but I’m so so over editing for a bit!

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Waimanalo Beach Pictures

November 2, 2021 No Comments

It’s been pretty quiet on the family photography end, both because I’ve been away and because I still don’t have a good enough self image about it to advertise (nor do I really know how to advertise). Anyway, a family posted that their photographer bailed on them, and they were having some personal family things happening that they really wanted to get these photographs done. So I replied to their post and volunteered!

She had already scoped out beaches in our area (it is not lost on me how amazing it is that we even have that option) and picked Waimanalo beach park. If you’ve been following along, I haven’t really posted much about Waimanalo (it’s where we saw sunflowers and it sits between us and the Makapu’u lighthouse). There are a lot of reasons, but mainly it’s because it’s mostly known as native Hawaiian territory. If you drive through that neighborhood you’ll see it is not at all built up, there are tons of local businesses, and there are a lot Hawaiian-esque things about it. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but some native Hawaiians still have a vendetta against Americans for taking over their land and aren’t incredibly friendly with “haole“. Along one stretch of the beach park is a homeless tent city. I’m painting a really bad picture of this place, in reality it’s not like I hear of incidents happening there often. It’s just somewhere I respect is their territory. All this to say, there are really nice ballfields there and the beach itself is expansive and quiet (which makes for easy photo editing). I pulled into the parking lot closest to the tent city and decided to move to the one closest to the ballfields.

I was apprehensive to have my huge nice camera strapped to me, but once I got out and walked around and saw people of all shapes and sizes my comfort eased a bit. I started walking around and scoping things out and before long the family showed up. Really, I think it comes down to the inherent extra caution growing up as a woman has lent me to think about.

The beach itself is nice, but it doesn’t have palm trees, and the mountains are quite the distance away, so I’m not sure it’s my preferred scenery. I think it’s definitely beneficial it was so quiet, WAY less post editing to clean things up!

The family was a lot of fun. One teen that was having a little attitude about playing along, but he did just enough to capture some gems.

The sun sets behind us, so the color started to show on the clouds, which also made for some nice background. Prior to that, the sky was so bright it was getting a bit washed out. I loved their matching outfits. The little girl wanted some pictures of her and her mom hula dancing with a haku lei, that was fun! We used a huge piece of driftwood as a bench. I’m glad I got out of my comfort zone and did these in Waimanalo. They turned out great. One of the kids had been stung by a Japanese man o war and so I ran into the same issue I had with the other family; the kids were very paranoid they’d step on one on the beach. It made casual walking a bit difficult. We tried a pose with the kids faces inside a heart made by the hands of the parents. I am pretty impressed with how it turned out!

There’s so much to think about with these photoshoots! Is everyone smiling? Looking at the camera? How’s the background, where are the mountains? Are they centered? Is everyone positioned evenly?

I think I most excel at capturing the spontaneous queues, like “Let’s dance” and “3,2,1 jump!” and Shaka pictures. The more structured, perfect ones are harder for me to nail. It’ll come with time!

Also, thankfully, this mom knows how to photo edit, so although I went and did my own thing and sent her a bunch of edits (she’s super busy and still mid-pcs so doesn’t have access to all her stuff), I know she can take the raw material and edit her own way. You can tell some of my horizons aren’t even and the brightness isn’t either… it’s definitely something I’m getting better at reviewing before sending (I’ve had more sessions since this one).

This was a good warm up to what was to come with this past weekend, when I did a bunch of mini photo shoots for a fundraiser for the last boat we were on’s FRG. Post to follow!

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North Shore Wrap up

September 27, 2021 No Comments

After the botanical garden I made my way to Hale’iwa bowls, a place specializing in Acai bowls. It was definitely the best one I’ve had on island so far. It was fruity but not super sweet.

I got the local bowl. It’s really hard to take a picture one handed with my camera. Apologize for the poor focus.

The parking lot had space for maybe… 10 cars? So it was a little crowded, but the turnover is quick and there was space even though I went at prime lunch time.

I never know if I can drive to my next spot before it completely melts… so I just ate it there. Then, I HAD to find my way to a beach so I can see the big waves. Ha.

This obviously wasn’t it, but it was a protected (from the waves) cove and I saw three turtles just by walking the shoreline. It was Hale’iwa beach park. I did see surfers… so I started walking along the beach toward them.

This is very zoomed and cropped, but I will for sure bring my zoom lens some day. I thought this crew was cute!

I was getting very weary in well doing at this point… it was very hot. There was a little bit left to a beach before I turned a corner. So I saw a couple walking back and asked if there was anything exciting to see around the corner, and they said “big waves” and I said great! And they were right. This doesn’t really give perspective, it’s really rocky so I imagine a terrible spot for surfing… but one day I’ll get a surfer so you can see how big they are. I would not go swimming, that’s for sure.

Looking forward to spending more time in this area!

There’s a category of photography called street photography. Professor Hines is one of my favorites to follow. Essentially you photography cities; walk the streets and capture some cool moment in time. I want beach “street” photography to become a thing. This would be one that I would put in that category.

After this I headed home. I would’ve loved to stay longer, I just knew my energy levels wouldn’t sustain it. I walked something like 5 miles… phew! So fun, and can’t wait to go back. It’s so much the same but so different.

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Sand Island

September 14, 2021 No Comments

Church, the market, and chocolate all happened already…tired yet? I crammed a lot into this day! After stopping home for a quick change of clothing, I brought some frozen meals to my CO’s wife to give to our Ombudsman. An ombudsman is a point of contact for boat information. She has a lot of work with communicating with all of us. Anyway, Sept. 15th is Ombudsman appreciation day. She has an almost 6 month old she’s handling herself as well, so I hope the meals help.

Anyway, then I went off to sand island after dropping off the food (I’m on the other side of the island now). Sand Island is an industrial of all industrial areas… except there’s this huge state park at the end of it.

I figured for a Sunday it would be busy, but no, it was so quiet. A hidden gem, kind of? The waves were really big, there’s a break but it didn’t help much. The real reason I came was to check out the sea glass, which my friend clued me in on. It is a seaglass gold mine! In this picture I see at least six pieces (can you?)

I had my camera with me, though, and the waves were huge, so I had to weigh risk of grabbing sea glass and getting soaked. I didn’t have much time to spend here, though, because in short order I went and picked up a friend from the airport. I will certainly be back! Next time with a bathing suit and/or at low tide.

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Downtown Honolulu walk on Kalakaua to Tiki’s

July 19, 2021 No Comments

Our experience in Waikiki was a HUGE difference between when we were there in May. Here are some (ok, a lot) of pictures I took during our walk to the restaurant from the convention center. We walked down Honolulu’s version of Newbury street, Kalakaua Ave. I won’t bore you with a million photos of expensive stores, but here are a couple.

There are opportunities to cut through to the beach along the way and plenty of board storage we are assuming is public.

In this picture I am about 20 feet away from four homeless people. You can see one barely on the right. It’s a significant issue in Honolulu.

We walked by a lot of fancy hotels, including the Surfrider.

Boston has the Emerald Necklace, and Hawaii has the Lei of parks.

The Whaling Wall mural

You can learn some Hawaiian by reading the paving stones

And the road essentially spits you out at the beach and runs along side it.

I wish I could do a better job of summing up just how many people were here… but here’s a video to maybe help.

There’s a statue of Duke Kahanamoku (olympian swimmer who popularized surfing) and Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole who did a lot for the Hawaiian people.

This post is getting to be very lengthy, so I’ll break up Tiki’s and walk back into a second post. I’ll end with this quintessential picture of Waikiki. First of all, these trees are the coolest. Banyan trees can walk. The cars are meant to give you perspective to just how big it is. Second, you’ll see kids in the back of a pick up truck. In Hawaii, Hawaiians can travel in the back of trucks. Third, this is a roundabout of sorts, and you’ll see people packing their boards on top after a day of surfing. And last, you can see the hoards of people walking to the beach (Still… at 5pm on a Saturday.)

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Another day another beach; Kailua Beach

July 14, 2021 No Comments

This is the sunrise from Lanikai-As mentioned I’ll add sunrise pictures from days I talk about other stuff 12JUL21

We finally went to Kailua beach, the very popular beach right next to Lanikai. We technically live in Kailua, but Lanikai is the neighborhood we’re in. I was itching to get out of the house last night and neither of us had walked Kailua beach yet, so we went. It was getting dark and it was cloudy, so not a lot of great pictures, but it is generally beautiful during the day. This is looking toward Lanikai, you’ll see one of the islands I photograph (see above) just past the end of the coast.

Very long beach, crazy parking, I don’t see us going here too regularly unless off hours.

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Another day another beach…

July 14, 2021 No Comments

This past Sunday Brian and I went to visit Bellows Airforce Station beach. It’s right before you get to Waimanalo (where we picked up our table and went to the farm). Brian and I are completely puzzled why this beach isn’t more popular. It’s only open on the weekends; during the week they use it for training purposes. On the weekends there is no guard checking IDs to the main beach. Ample parking and facilities. The surf is a little higher but nothing more than we’d see at, say, misquamicut. There are lifeguards. Picnic tables and grills.

Looking back at the two islands you see in my sunrise pictures

Again, this is a SUNDAY. Where is everyone? Maybe Hawaii’s best kept secret. It’s a good thing these guys are scared of me, because they blend in so well I could barely see him.

I really wanted to go to check out the “market”. I am betting before COVID it was a little more happening, but for now it was 4-5 vendors and two food stations. The chicken meal we got from here was DELICIOUS.

And we got Elote Corn from here, it was good but a bit pricey for the size.

We could see this being a place to organize a BBQ and beach day with some friends. It’s super quiet, plenty of parking and space. We honestly don’t know why more people don’t come here, except maybe the drive?

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The definitive guide to MCBH beaches, part 1

July 10, 2021 No Comments

All beaches in Hawaii are public beaches. However, the Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) has 5 beaches that you can only access if you have base access. #workperks However, you can apply for base access even if you’re a civilian and it’s good for one year. The pictures don’t have the best lighting, it was cloudy, but I was tired of waiting for the perfect day to photograph, so you’ll just have to pretend or come see for yourself.

There are five beaches on the MCBH. This post will talk about three of them, and I’ll get to the other two eventually. First up is Fort Hase Beach (pronounced Hah-see). It’s probably the most convenient to the gym/main part of base. It overlooks Kailua and Lanikai, the area where I live.

Then looking left you can see base housing.

There is a lot of reef and rocks sticking up out of the water, which makes it difficult to swim. The surf is also really high. According to my friend, during low tide it creates a lot of fun tide pools for kiddos to use, but I haven’t been at low tide so I haven’t been able to verified that. Lots of sea glass opportunities. There is some open area for swimming without reef. And as you can see, I currently have the entire beach to myself (4pm on a Friday, though).

Convenience: A+
Parking: A+ (paved option and designated)
Swimmable: C-
Lifeguards: No
Bathroom: Port-o-potty
Sea glass: B+

Up next is North Beach. This is the beach that Brian and I ran (trotted) during the surf and turf 5k. It’s a little further away than Ft. Hase. There isn’t any real parking lot for it, just street parking. You have to take stairs down to get to it. More rocks on the shoreline, but I think more room without rocks.

Toward the right side of the first picture you’ll see a pyramid shaped rock. That’s by the third beach I’ll talk about next. North Beach is a popular beach for surfers. (I need to work on remembering to up my shutter speed during action photos, this is a little blurry).

All beaches have a lot of signs about who to call if you see wildlife in danger or nesting. There were a couple of these roped off nesting spots on North Beach. I wonder if the turtles approve of the imposed redecoration. Unfortunately, no actual turtle sighting.

This had more people on the beach, I think because it has more swimming space. It can be rough surf.

Convenience: B
Parking: C (street)
Swimmable: B
Lifeguards: Yes
Bathroom: No?
Sea glass: D

The third and final beach for this post is Pyramid Rock beach, which is essentially adjacent to North Beach. This first picture will look very similar to the one from North beach in the same direction.

This is the picture of its namesake, that Pyramid rock I mentioned earlier. (Tangent about photography. To create this picture I actually stitched together three different exposed pictures. Having the setting sun reflect bright in the clouds would wash out the sky, but then exposing for the sky would make the “rock” a dark blob. Will write a post about this later).

There weren’t any lifeguards at the time, but I believe there can be on certain days with certain currents. To get to this beach you have to cross the airfield, so it’s a bit far. Crossing the airfield is normally easy, but if they’re doing training exercises you’ll get stuck behind a gate (think railroad crossing except for planes).

Convenience: C
Parking: B (dirt patch)
Swimmable: B+
Lifeguards: Sometimes?
Bathroom: No?
Sea glass: D

Another #workperk is some of the recreational activities available to us. Here is a beach cottage you can rent out on the MCBH (there are a few on this side of base). Civilians can’t be unaccompanied without applying for access first, but if you came and visited we could rent one out and get you a pass. They supposedly book quickly though.

Moral of the story, MCBH has quite a few beaches if you’re looking for a quiet respite from the tourists, or for a quick walk on a different beach after the gym. I’ll recap the last two when I get pictures of them. Three beaches in one day is a lot!

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Family Photoshoot

June 27, 2021 No Comments

I had the opportunity to photograph a family before they PCS (Permanent change of station(Permanent is a loose term, but it’s about as permanent as a military move can be)). I have next to zero experience doing this; the closest thing I did was do a newborn shoot in another military family’s apartment during COVID.

It took a little bit for everyone to warm up and kinda figure out what we should do. After probably an hour and a half and 600+ photos I came up with 65 good ones to edit and send, I’d say that’s a success! Here are a couple that are my favorites. They are pregnant with their second, so I was able to capture a couple announcement shots for them.

I think the toughest part was getting her to look at the camera, because she was fascinated by the water and kept saying “swimming?” If I do this again I might invest in a squeaky toy. I’m also generally uncomfortable around kids so room for improvement… but for a last minute photoshoot setup I’m incredibly proud of what I was able to give them! I was happy they were willing to give me a chance.