“Zen tree.”

These photos are from my friend Jeff Flores (Poksai.com). He’s a talented photographer who has a real gift for capturing the vibe of island life. Originally from Guam, Jeff now lives in Honolulu.

Jeff and his friends recently hiked Ka’au Crater. He came back with this photoset called “Zen at Twenty-Two Hundred” and I asked him if I could share it here on the blog. Thankfully, he said yes.

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This event took place in February 2012.

A group of Hawaii rock climbers gathered at the rock climbing gym to have fun trying to nail some crazy dynos.

A “dyno” is a rock climbing move where you fling your body from one spot on the wall to another.

Brad from Berad Studio came out to capture the event in slo-mo.

The idea is this. In some rock climbing routes, typically in bouldering, there are holds so far apart that the only way to get from one to the other is to jump. You crouch low, then pull up with your arms and push off with your feet to launch yourself at the far hold. If you catch it you are all good. If you don’t you fall. At the gym, we were able to stack pads on pads so that falling would be safe, fun and funny.

At the gym, several dynos were set up with different levels of difficulty and climbers could compete to see who could get the most done.

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We hiked through a beautiful forest on the Leeward side of Oahu.

Following the ridge, we summitted Pu’u Keaau.

We hiked across a saddle in the ridgeline and descended Keaau Middle Ridge.

It was a long hike that took most of the day. Keaau is a Hawaii ridge hiker’s dream.

With the heavy rain we had in Hawaii this season, the Waianae Mountains were as green as I’ve ever seen them. It was a perfect time to hike them and my friend Pete had a hike planned.

There are a different ways to hike this area. We did a loop that goes up the front of Pu’u Keaau, turns left (sort of) into a saddle in the ridgeline and then back down Keaau Middle ridge. We were on the trail for something like 8 hours.

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This is photo was taken by Kevin Ford.

Kevin photographs people.

He’s an up-and-coming photographer with talent.

I know Kevin from the rock climbing gym here in Hawaii. Over the past few months Kevin has been building his photography portfolio. Much of it involved shooting photos of our rock climbing friends in Hawaii. Kevin doesn’t only shoot rock climbers though. His passion is photographing people in all types of environments. Kevin just launched his website KevinFPhotography.com and you can see his breadth of work there.

In this post, it’s my privilege to share a selection of Kevin Ford’s photos with you.

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