We are ever so lucky to have friends we can spend an occasional evening with, and then get up for an early walk at dawn.
We were out there again Saturday night, and walking the hood this morning. Always a great pleasure.
The road work underway in an attempt to prevent further damage from sea level rise to the two-lane highway along the coast was very visible. They’re working seven days a week in several areas in Kaaawa.
Anyway, here are a few selected photos.
We lived in Kaaawa for 27 years. Luckily we haven’t had to cut our ties completely, and are able to revisit quite often.
This morning we woke up in Kaaawa and, as we did for about 20 years, walked down along the beach and through the neighborhood at dawn.
We are so lucky. We get to enjoy being close to everything at our “new” house in Kahala, where we’ve been for just over four years. And we get to return regularly to Kaaawa and enjoy that sense of being restored!
After spending the night with friends, we followed most of the route down to the beach and back through the neighborhood that we walked most days for almost 20 years, before we moved to town.
Click below to follow along.
It’s getting to be a tough call.
I was just reading a couple of columns written last year by a self-described “camera geek” admitting that he was now relying more on his iPhone than a traditional camera while traveling.
And with Apple and other companies dramatically improving their phones with each technological generation, it does seem almost inevitable that phones will continue to eat away at the camera market.
Travel Photography in the Age of the iPhone, 8/18/2018
But then I thought back to this past weekend, when I forgot my camera when we drove out to have dinner and spend the night with friends in Kaaawa. On Sunday morning, I had just my iPhone to rely on. I wasn’t confident that it would suffice.
As far as the photos were concerned, the iPhone produced very good results. And it was relatively simple to give them an additional tweak in Lightroom, which (along with Photoshop) are my primary editing tools. You can see the results below and judge for yourself.
However, I found using the iPhone camera to be awkward. I never did quite figure out the best way to grab ahold of it, wake it up from it’s slumber, frame the shot and take the photo.
A standalone camera is made to be fit in your hand. It has some heft, which helps reduce camera shake, and is balanced in your hand. I carry it on a strap, over one shoulder, usually holding it in one hand. Moving it into position at or near eye level feels natural. I’ve used cameras for so long that they feel natural.
The iPhone kept capturing photos that included part of a finger in the image, even when I thought I was being very careful. To wake up the iPhone XS required me to hold it in one hand and swipe up with the other and then take a good look at the screen to get get past its security and be ready to shoot. I tried carrying it between photos, but that didn’t really work. Then I stuck it in a pocket, but that wasn’t satisfactory either. The iPhone was always within easy reach, but somehow required more attention than any of my cameras, which by now just work.
Bottom line: I don’t think I’ll be retiring my cameras any time soon.
But, as I wondered recently on Facebook, when will someone license the great smartphone software and package it in a traditional camera body?
