Tag Archives: sunrise

Hiking to a Goal

Posted on March 5th, 2018 by

Having just left Hawaii I can’t help but think about it constantly. It was warm and full of adventure and time with my favorite person in the world…what’s not to love! This last trip was my 9th to the Hawaiian Islands, and my next will mark a very momentous occasion. When you enter Hawaii, the State of Hawaii ask you to fill out a declaration form on the plane. On the back is an optional demographic survey and they ask how many times you have been to Hawaii. I know this is coming and I always have to count my trips there. This next time (though I will still count one last time) should be the point I hit 10 or more and no longer have to prepare! That is probably a silly goal, but the one I will share today…I just might have others.

Hiking to a Goal
Hiking to a Goal

Photo Technical Info

  • Aperture: ƒ/8
  • Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
  • Taken: 31 August, 2014
  • Focal length: 23mm
  • ISO: 100
  • Shutter speed: 1/125s
  • Title: Hiking to a Goal

Sunrise at My Favorite Spot

Posted on August 3rd, 2015 by

Favorite Places

Do you have a favorite place?

I usually have a hard time picking a “favorite” anything. Favorite country, favorite animal, I even find my favorite color problematic! There though is an easy answer to my favorite morning…Lanikai. I exist in a world of movement. I am constantly going places, most of which I will never return to, but I keep going back to Hawaii and specifically back to Lanikai Beach. If I have the morning in Oahu, I will always do the same thing. I hike up the Pillbox Trail, then go and swim at Lanikai Beach. One day, I hope Pamela and I will live out my remaining days on Oahu, watching the most perfect sunrise, knowing, there is no place on this Earth we would rather be.

Sunrise at My Favorite Spot
Sunrise at My Favorite Spot

Photo Technical Info

Tokyo Sunrise

Posted on June 1st, 2015 by

Big, Big City

The sunrise endlessly is interesting to me, it’s just SO incredibly difficult for me to get up for. There are two problems. First, I am not a morning person, though this is frequently aided by jet-lag. Hawaii is a great example…I am usually awake by 3 or 4 am easy. The second problem is breakfast. If you want to eat at the hotel (one of my economizing tips) you have a problem. Generally there is not a pre-dawn buffet and if you get out, it’s often difficult to make it back in time to partake of the (in my case) free food! Sure this gives you a great opportunity to sample cafe’s, but I tend to like to save that for an economical lunch (free breakfast, econimical lunch, then a dinner wow). This sunrise was captured from the hotel breakfast! Since I was on a really high floor, it was the perfect compromise!

Tokyo Sunrise
Tokyo Sunrise

Photo Technical Info

Beautiful Sunrise Kauai, Hawaii

Posted on March 30th, 2015 by

Beautiful Sunrises

When I go places I end up being torn between sunrise and breakfast. Some of the most beautiful light is at sunrise and sunset. The secret is the hoards come for sunset, but sunrise is almost mine alone. The problem is that I get free breakfast at my hotel, but its time period conflicts with my capture of sunrise. Too often I get out early, but get caught up in photographing sunrise to make it back in time for breakfast! I always attempt to find balance in my trips, sometime the beauty of a place can easily makes me forget to eat, and too often I am so lost in the beauty, I don’t mind.

Beautiful Sunrise Kauai, Hawaii
Beautiful Sunrise Kauai, Hawaii

Photo Technical Info

Kauai Sunrise

Posted on December 1st, 2014 by

One morning I followed the beach around away from the resort on Kauai and found this wonderful beach to watch sunrise. I met a WONDERFUL character who was here fishing and also photographing sunrise. We chatted about life and his feelings of Kauai and Oahu and discovered his family lives in Missouri…but that is perhaps another story (ask me sometime).

After parting with my new friend, I photographed a bit longer. I was so enamored with the sky, I forgot the importance of elemental balance, the ocean was all but too kind to remind me it too is a powerful force. I ended up completely soaked on my right side. I just got off this photo before yanking my camera to safety!

Kauai Sunrise
Kauai Sunrise

Photo Technical Info

Sunrise on Ponte dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy

Posted on October 30th, 2014 by

Venice

To encapsulate my feelings of Venice would be impossible. Perhaps this discription from one of the must read books before any trip to Venice, Watermark (by Joseph Brodsky), helps in one sense:

A reflection cannot possibly care for a reflection. The city is narcissistc enough to turn your mind into an amalgam, unburdening it of its depths. With their similar effect on your purse, hotels and pensiones therefore feel very congenial. After a two-week stay—even at off-season rates—you become both broke and selfless, like a Buddhist monk.

This quote from the same text, however, gives another glimpse of the more wonderful feel of the city:

You fling the window open and the room is instantly flooded with this outer, pearl-laden haze, which is part damp oxygen, part coffee and prayers.

Despite its flaws, Venice in two quick days became one of my favorite destinations in the world. There is something wonderfully artistic, dark and oppressive all at the same time. It is though you stand at a precipice to another world in Venice, one that perhaps you don’t want to enter, but it exciting just to be there.

Sunrise on Ponte dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy
Sunrise on Ponte dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy

Photo Technical Info

Tiny Lighthouse on Lake Michigan

Posted on August 21st, 2014 by

Where’s the Sunrise!

There is something to be said for trying. I took this photo the same day I took my Sunrise at Navy Pier photo one cold morning in Chicago. I had got up at 4am to take the train into the city to get this and it was clouds, clouds, clouds. I kept moving toward my destination…I was always headed for Navy Pier, and just as I reached the end of the pier, the sun finally broke though the clouds. I caught the whole thing for today’s photo. I sat and stared at what appeared to me to be a tiny lighthouse (it wasn’t really tiny) off in the distance. Despite the bitter Chicago cold, it was a good morning.

Tiny Lighthouse on Lake Michigan
Tiny Lighthouse on Lake Michigan

Photo Technical Info

Dawn Over Haleakala Maui, Hawaii

Posted on July 24th, 2014 by

Revisiting Previous Works

Photography for me, is about exploration, experimentation and finding that photo in my mind. It’s how I recall my life…as photos. Some of the more magical moments are often hard to express. What I see, and prehaps more importantly what I remember seeing is very different that what the camera sees. Saturation changes based on the exposure, for instance.

Our technology despite being marvelous, is a poor substitute for what nature can produce and what our brain can see and recall. I tend to not go back to images or scenes unless they are completely different, but today, I am making an exception. The last dawn over Haleakala photo I felt was too saturated and I used a variety of new techniques to product today’s version. Tell me what you think, which version do you like best and do you revisit photos to work on them again?

Dawn Over Haleakala Maui, Hawaii
Dawn Over Haleakala Maui, Hawaii

Photo Technical Info

Sunshine on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy

Posted on July 7th, 2014 by

Late Morning in Venice

I got up really early on a rainy morning in Venice to shoot St Mark’s Square when it was devoid of people. I was sick with my general post travel lung disease. I had returned home from Oahu, worked one day, then flew to Milan where I took the train to Venice. Once the sun came up, I found why many consider Venice one of the most beautiful cities in the world. This view is looking across the Grand Canal, the Doge’s Palace is to my back, I can’t think of a more wonderful way to start a sick day. If you go, just look out for the tourists!

Sunshine on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy
Sunshine on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy

Photo Technical Info

Sunrise from Lanikai Beach

Posted on February 6th, 2014 by

Talking to Locals

If there is one thing I need to do more when traveling, it’s making friends with people who live where I am visiting. They know the best places to go! I took this fantastic photo of sunrise off Lanikai Beach one morning in Oahu. Later that day I went to check into my hotel and was talking about hiking and sunrise and the girl at the hotel checking me in said she had been hiking Lanikai that very morning. Wait…I was just there! In reality she was hiking Lanikai (mountain) up to the pillboxes while I was chilling on the beach. Regardless, the next time I am in Oahu I found yet another amazing location to catch sunrise! It just goes to show you being friendly pays off.

Sunrise from Lanikai Beach
Sunrise from Lanikai Beach by W. Brian Duncan