The March Issue of National Geographic Traveler is out to subscribers and it is with great pleasure that I am able to share these images from the story. The article was put online a few days ago, but now the printed version is also available. Although I didn’t shoot all the images for the article, I did wind up with the majority of published pictures along with a nice byline. Here are the photographs from the story that I made. Please go buy a copy of the magazine, or even better, support magazines and get a subscription! You can also look at more of my photography of Hawaii on my photoshelter site by clicking here. I spend four months a year in Maui, so I am very proud to have had this opportunity to feature one of my favorite places on earth in pictures. I hope you enjoy the story and have the opportunity to visit our 50th state sometime in the very near future. Aloha and mahalo nui loa!
Opening spread for the cover story "Undiscovered Maui" in National Geographic Traveler Magazine
Makamakaole Falls on Maui's rugged North Shore
Kahakuloa, the Hawaiian village located on Maui's rugged North Shore, accessible only by a narrow, one lane, cliff hugging road
These images were made with a Canon 5D, Canon 5D Mark II, and one film camera, the Hasselblad. When shooting digitally, I always shoot in a RAW format. The digital images were processed in Adobe’s Lightroom software program.
It is with great pleasure to announce that an online photography gallery of images about Hawaii was recently posted to the National Geographic Traveler web site. The story is about “Undiscovered Maui” and will be running in the March issue of the magazine. Macduff Everton and I both contributed images to the story and I am pleased to share a byline with him. In this web gallery, his image is taken from the inside of an outrigger canoe, and the rest of the photographs were made by me. Click here to see the gallery of images and here to see the story by Andrew McCarthy. What made this assignment so incredible was having the opportunity to meet the good people of Kahakuloa. Each and every person in this small town nestled in the cliffs of the northern tip of Maui demonstrated true aloha spirit in the most genuine way. The premise of this story is absolutely true and it’s best experienced by taking time to talk story with the locals. They have a long history to share with us and we have much to learn from them and their culture. One of the most memorable moments of the shoot was meeting Richard Ho’opi’i. Not only did he give us an enormous amount of his time as we sat in his back yard and listened to his history of growing up and learning na leo ki’eki’e, (falsetto), he generously gave us a private concert in the little green church that is nestled in this picturesque village of only a few hundred people. His wife runs the pink ice cream stand in the village. If you travel there, stay a while, enjoy the stories and experience the aloha that these warm people so generously offer.
Click here to be taken to the web gallery of images on National Geographic Traveler's Web Site
During whale season in Maui, one can head out to calm waters and listen to the whales call to one another. We swam out to a popular snorkel spot on Ka’anapali Beach called Pu’u Keka’a, otherwise known as Black Rock, where the lava forms underwater valleys that collect the sonar that the Humpback Whales use to communicate. Breathing lightly through the snorkels, the whale calls are unmistakable and make me wish for more pro equipment to collect them! The reef is alive with snapping shrimp and sometimes there are lots of people, but some days, the winds are calm, few people have swum around the point, and one can simply float in the water, ears just beneath the surface and be suspended in a completely different world. It’s truly amazing and I recommend it to anyone comfortable enough to dangle in the open ocean. The person in this multimedia piece is my husband who had stopped to listen. He was too close to the reef, and I had swum out to deeper waters to try and get away from the snapping noise and was able to lay that sound over his image using iMovie. Although this isn’t the best recording of whale calls, I hope that you enjoy it nonetheless. I used a Canon SD1000 Digital Elph in a WP-DC13 Waterproof housing for both the video and the audio.
Sometimes the Kona winds pick up, the light is dramatic and I imagine what it must be like in the desert, minus the ocean of course. All of these images, both motion and still, were shot with the Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-105mm IS USM lens. I was a bit concerned about the sand getting into the camera, as it was blowing pretty hard, but so far, there’s no indication that any grains penetrated the body, lens or mount.
whale watching with Canon Image-Stablized Binoculars
A wind blown beach, but beautiful and dramatic nonetheless.
An equally dramatic sunset with a view of the island of Lana'i
On mornings like this one, the surface of the ocean is glassy, the winds have died down and the sun is still behind the West Maui Mountains but is, from this vantage point on Ka’anapali Beach, lighting up the island of Lana’i in such a way that every valley on the windward side is placed in high relief. On the horizon, an approaching storm front is gray and foreboding, but there’s a calm here at the ocean’s edge that betrays the oncoming weather. The smooth waters reveal what appears to be holes in the ocean surface where whale spume appears like steam vents. Just beyond the reef point, a mother humpback whale boosts her newborn calf out of the water, apparently teaching it how to breach. This is the sort of morning that calms my heart and makes me so very grateful to be here, now.
maui morning
This photo was taken much later this morning, after the trade winds had picked up. I took it from a stand up paddle board, about 50 yards off shore. I was using a Canon Poweshot SD1000 Digital Elph in a water housing. The combination of swell and wind didn’t allow for much picture taking, but I got a good view of a pod of breaching whales and a very nice run-in with a very large turtle.
It appears that digital technology has its firm grip on photography. I have certainly embraced the technology and enjoy its immediacy. My primary camera is a Canon 5D Mark II which is lovely. (now that I have one that actually works). That said, I love my good old film cameras. Working with film forces me to slow down, look carefully and make decisions prior to releasing the shutter. Currently I shoot about 25% of my work using an old, beat up Hasse with a set of prime lenses. Occasionally I use my Rolliflex. Sometimes I’ll take out the Linhof Technikardan. What I LOVE is that the film doesn’t become obsolete in 3 years, I can put the film in a filing cabinet (as opposed to RAID storage for my digital files), and put the caption information on the sleeve (which can’t be stripped by software programs). Plus my cat can have a nap on the 8×10.
Although the majority of what I photograph is travel, when I look back through the majority of my assignments, I discovered that food photography is a huge component of travel photography. As I think back on some of the most memorable moments of my travels over the years, food stands out as one of the most defining aspects of the places I’ve been. This year my husband and I will be celebrating our ten year wedding anniversary. For our honeymoon, we blew all of our frequent flyer miles and went on a dream trip to Italy. Of course, all of the usual architectural and art suspects stand out, but the most memorable part of the trip was an amazing lunch in Tuscany at a private villa. Details to follow, but I thought it would be a good thing to start my year’s blog posts with a few images relating to food from assignments over the years. As Julia Child would say, toujours bon appétit!
Chocolates from Cacao in Portland, Salt from the Meadow in Portland
The Sydney Opera House and Kylie Kwong's famous crispy duck
… is featured in the new book entitled, “Where the Revolution Began, published by Spacemaker Press. It features the work of landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, who had been at the leading edge of urban design (sadly, he passed away in October). Together with his wife Anna Halprin, they transformed notions of public space and community. The book contains three essays by John Beardsley, Janice Ross and Randy Gragg. I made the modern photographs of the Halprin Promenade in Portland over the last couple of years. If you would like to buy the book, you can do so here. We hope you do, as all the proceeds go to the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, “a nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public and preserving the Portland Open Space Sequence.”
Where The Revolution Began: Cover and Modern photos by Susan Seubert
The process of documenting these parks was a very interesting exercise in trying to “see” back in time and envision what these plazas might have looked like before they were overwhelmed by high rise buildings, neglect, (don’t mean to be down on Portland here, I would wager this was due to city budget restraints), and the addition of unintended architectural features (such as sculpture, planters, etc…).
This book is a magnificent testament to these public spaces and we hope will not only bring attention to these important Portland landmarks but lead to the preservation of them for future generations. In addition to my work, the book also includes reproductions of Halprin’s drawings and some historical images for context.
Sometimes, assignments come across the desk which end up being more of a gift than a job. This story for the New York Times came through at last minute: the evening before the shoot was to take place. Technically, I was already booked, so although I ended up a wee bit late for the other gig, I felt I had to meet this extraordinary youngster.
My favorite quote from Kyra’s story is the following: “Sometimes your dreams get crushed but you just keep going.”
It is my understanding that not only is she an actress, but also proficient gymnast and ballerina.
Let this young girl be an example to us all.
Here are a few other images from the take:
Kyra Siegel, understudy for Abigail Breslin, star of the Broadway production of The Miracle Worker, about the life of Helen Keller
Kyra Siegel, understudy for Abigail Breslin, star of the Broadway production of The Miracle Worker, about the life of Helen Keller
Kyra Siegel, understudy for Abigail Breslin, star of the Broadway production of The Miracle Worker, about the life of Helen Keller
The show, “A Concise History of Northwest Art,” is currently on display at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington state. A series of pictures I made in 1998, “The Ten Most Popular Places to Dump a Body in the Columbia River Gorge” will be on display until May 23rd of 2010. If you haven’t been to the TAM, I highly recommend a visit. Not only is the collection housed in a magnificent building, designed by Antoine Predock, but there are also several other museums located close by. Although Tacoma is generally not considered as worthy a destination as it’s big sister Seattle, I have found it a fine place to visit. We’ve taken the train from Portland and spent the night at the impressive Hotel Murano, which is dedicated to glass art. Not only is the train ride from Portland relaxing, once you arrive in Tacoma, you can take the free streetcar from the train station and spend the day tooling around the downtown area.
Susan Seubert's image from A Concise History of Northwest Art at the Tacoma Art Museum
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