We took a stroll through the forest the other day.
This is Josh, the guy who runs the 808 Goonies hiking blog. He’s leading the way to a few spots in the forest where we can get some interesting photos.
Our objective was to hike to some streams and try out long-exposure photography.
Hiking through the rainforest in Hawaii to practice long-exposure photography. Oahu, Hawaii.
The location Josh picked out was a forest in a valley on the Windward side of Oahu. It had rained recently and the streams were flowing nicely.
This outing was more of a photowalk than a hike. It was just two people on a mission to take photos. Josh knew a few spots and at each one we would sit and take our time experimenting with different compositions and camera settings. We weren’t rushed to get to a summit and we didn’t have to worry about holding up a group of hikers.
We ended our day when we decided that we had enough photos in our cameras for this session.
This trail takes you into a lush forest.
The trail was recently cleared by the Hawaiian Trail & Mountain Club so the hiking was pretty easy.
We crossed the stream by walking over this log.
It was nice and mushy in the center.
We stopped here to take some photos of the fallen tree.
Surprisingly, we ran into another hiker on the trail. He was by himself and had a camera around his neck so he joined us and geeked out on nature with us.
When you don’t have to worry about keeping up with your hiking group, you can find some interesting compositions.
This was our second stop in the forest.
I took so many pictures of moss.
The moss was super green.
The moss grew on branches.
The moss grew on rocks.
The moss grew on a tree that had fallen over rock walls on which moss also grew.
If you ever wondered what the bottom of a tree looks like, here you go.
A huge tree had fallen and the root system was exposed.
This tree formed an arch over the stream.
Further up stream, small cascading falls were forming.
Then we hiked up the trail a bit more and saw this. The stream had formed a collection of small cascading falls. I think we spent an hour here taking photos.
We dropped down from the trail to get closer to the water.
Josh picked his first spot to set up his gear.
I grabbed this photo from higher ground.
Moving to a location further down stream, I could see all the mini falls in one frame.
I took several shots using different settings and trying out a couple lenses. I learned that I have a lot to learn about nature photography.
When we were done, we hiked out the same way we came. Here and there the forest canopy would open offering views of the Koolaus.
But for the most part, the canopy was thick and we spent most of the day in the shade.
The moss grew on logs.
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