Maelstrom

I thought about calling this post "A quick exit" because that's what happened. Literally a second after taking this picture the wave was over the rock I was standing on and I grabbed the camera and tripod and made my way off this rather exposed spot via my exit route. Actually, it wasn't quite as dramatic as it sounds, the ocean was pretty calm until this set of waves came in and even they were pretty small, but enough to make me very wet and probably destroy my new toy if I'd just stayed there. In fact I thought I had ruined the shot by grabbing the camera before the exposure ended (it was a 1-sec exposure, f/22 for the geeks) but as I found out later, I'd timed it perfectly. Both pictures here are the same by the way, I just converted one to black and white because I like the way it looks. Despite it being a typical Hilo evening - calm waters and and a few showers, the black and white photo makes it look more stormy, whereas the other catches the colours of the rocks, ocean and sky.

Over on the left someone was watching me during the whole hour I spent here. I'm not sure why, maybe they were just waiting for this moment. I've been here too long, however, and know never to turn your back on the ocean. Even calm waters can surprise you every now and then!

I actually came to this place (Keaukaha Beach Park, Hilo) hoping for some rainbow pictures because as you can see there were showers around and thought I might be lucky. Well, I did catch a couple but unfortunately they weren't particularly impressive. So ended up catching and dodging the waves instead.

More pictures to come I hope...