Iconic Maui sunset with palm trees and lava rocks in the mid ground, and the west side of Maui in the background. The setting sun creates a Sunstar as it is obscured by distant clouds over the small island of Lanai.

Everyone has a different approach to how they shoot landscapes. Some like to spend a lot of time researching locations and planning shots while other like to go without ever seeing reference images from other photographers, and explore the new place with fresh eyes. I’ve always approached trips with the former approach, and maybe it just comes down to personal preference, but I feel like it’s the best way to experience the most a new location has to offer. That is especially true when it’s a location like Maui, which, for me, is very far away and likely that I won’t be going back anytime soon. So for this trip, I started by researching other landscape photographers to get an idea of what kind of imagery they are creating. I’ve done the same thing for my Florida landscape photography, and ultimately it is a way to get inspired by the landscapes and have a starting point for where to look. Some of the photographers who really stood out to me were Andrew Shoemaker and Max Foster who both create fine art landscape photography. I also stumbled upon the amazing work of Lyle Krannichfeld while in Paia, in the Pueo Gallery. Looking at their work gave me an idea of just how many different landscapes exist on Maui.

Overall, shot planning helps to build an outline or generate ideas for what to shoot while visiting somewhere new, but it can be taken too far. There are so many unpredictable variables that will affect your decisions on what to shoot that I usually end up just going with the flow and taking the opportunities that present themselves. One example is the below shot, which I took the evening I arrived after travelling from Orlando to LAX to Maui, renting the car, and checking in to the Airbnb. The time difference was -6 hours, so to put in perspective, I woke up for 3AM in Orlando and shot this sunset at what would be 1AM the next morning in Orlando time with no sleep in-between. We went to sleep around 8PM Hawaii time that night, and I was up at 4AM the following morning, which is like sleeping in until 10AM for my biological clock. It would probably take a full 5 days to get used to the time difference, but since we were not staying longer than that, we never fully adjusted.

The excitement of shooting in a new environment helps to push through the exhaustion of travelling all day.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of beaches on Maui. A nuance to that is that there are so many different types of beaches, that it may truly surprise you. In a single day you can experience black sand beaches where the sand is really these small black pebbles smoothed through the eternal motion of the waves, a red sand beach that has more of those pebbles, only more red than black, and you can be on a beach that is covered in lava rocks or a beach like Makena that is well maintained and pristine with clean white sand and clear water.

Sunny and warm, but not too warm… catching the light in the morning on this iconic beach just about guarantees the best viewing experience, as the water is so clear and the water is relatively calm.

One of the best beaches in the world. Makena Beach, Maui. There is also a neighboring beach right next to Makena, but it is hidden. Aptly named, Secret Beach.

Maui’s Secret Beach. On the other side of Makena Beach, you can find a secluded small beach and escape any crowds.

Moving away from the beach, there is still a lot to explore on such a small island. There are many waterfalls, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit two of them close enough to photograph. The first one is small, but the valley is really awesome, and I love how it is lit in the late afternoon light.

Iao Valley Monument

Iao Valley State Park is another park where you must pay to use if you are a tourist. They close at 6PM sharp. When I arrived at 4:45, I had very little time to not only explore the park, but to find and shoot a composition that I felt represented the area. At first I went to the iconic overlooks and was underwhelmed by the overcast weather facing North. I jumped onto the trail not knowing where it went, only that it appeared to follow this river, so there was little chance of getting lost. I set my GPS watch to track me just in case. I am not prepared for this dirt/mud trail as I’m in sandals, but I continue on, hurrying because I’m aware that the sun is setting and the gates to the park will close at 6 (the attendant at the gate was very clear on that point). About half a mile through the woods, I come out to the river and cross over some boulders and carefully navigate through some shallow pools of perfectly clear, and cool water. I stop to compose one shot, that turned out to be very uninspiring, and continued on around another bend. Then I came to the view you see here on the left. Honestly, when the scene looks this good, it’s really easy to take the photo, I just have to make sure I get the settings right, and for this image that included a focus stack and exposure stack due to the high dynamic range. The shade was dark enough for me to not need a ND filter to blur the water, I just stopped my aperture down to F/20 or so, and was able to get a 1/3s exposure to create that sense of motion with the water. I hastily took three slightly different compositions just to ensure I didn’t screw up, and then packed up the tripod and hustled my way back through the trail, this time I was pretty much jogging back through the woods. I made it back to the car in time to roll out of the park with 5 minutes to spare. Total distance hiked was about 2 miles. Really not bad for an impromptu trip to a location I would have never been able to scout/plan ahead of time.

Pua'a Ka'a Falls

This waterfall was a stop on our Road to Hana tour. We jumped in the water and relaxed for a little bit before getting back on the road. I snuck away for a few minutes to compose this shot, where I only had to clone out 3 people! I like the black and white composition, and the fact that it was overcast really helps with these waterfall scenes.

There are some really cool iconic scenes like this surf board fence.

As I’m writing this, I am realizing there is so much more on the island to do, that I didn’t have the chance to experience. That’s always good though, because it gives me a reason to go back. Missing from this blog are the images I didn’t have a chance to capture. To name a few, I’m thinking of the bamboo forests, banyan trees, the crater at Haleakala National Park, sea turtles, rainbows (can’t believe I didn’t see a rainbow!), more waterfalls, and more amazing sunsets.

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