TURBULENT FORCES...05.13.18

Just my thoughts...The turbulent of forces of the smooth silky water & the raging surf in the background is what's troubling my thoughts. Everything in my heart is telling me what I'm doing is the right thing or the best thing, but there's something in my head that's telling me I'm wrong. Just as the rocks are sharp & clear the wave in the background that pushes the sea inland is soft & blurry. 

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved   
 

HOW I WONDER WHAT YOU ARE...05.13.18

Sunday morning got up at 3:30 am, unfortunately, woke up with an upset stomach & by the time I was out the door it was late again. I did get a fairly decent shot of the Milky Way but the foreground was so messed up with the strong lights coming off to the right side of me, arragh! Decide to take it into Photoshop & play around to see what I could do to "fix" this problem & came up with this abstract image. Hope you like it. 

I've also been "itchin' " to start shooting my waves again but the tides have been so weird lately & we've been having a string of low tides at sunrise. So hopefully, soon I'll start shooting waves again :)  

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

MY FUJI XT2, END OF DAYS...05.15.18

Fuji put out a firmware update 4.00, about a week ago & I had some spare time today to update my XT2. After I picked up my Sony A7R III in December 2017 I haven't used it & it's been sitting in my daughter closet up until now. First thing I noticed is that the battery door wouldn't snap up after I unlocked it, I noticed some corrosion on the spring that flipped up the door. Put the battery & it started fine & took several pictures. The shutter button was sticky & hard to do a half press to autofocus. In the picture, you can see some white corrosion starting to build up around the right side of the lens mount. The back screen was sticky when I tried to raise the screen up & could barely flip up the screen into a vertical tilt. All of the external tiny screws are rusted. On the right side where I have the Peak Design button, there's corrosion that's eating into the cord...It's dying! A grim reality & hazard to all seascape photographers who subject their gear to the harsh corrosive qualities of salt water.

Feeling sad that the body is slowly dying & will meet its camera maker! It has served me well for a year, I've put it through its paces & never has it disappointed me. It's an excellent camera & will continue to recommend it to people. If by chance my daughter Kim picks up photography again I'll probably look for a something smaller like a used XT20 or another XT-2. I still have my 10-24mm, 16mm 1.4, 23mm 2.0 & 35mm 2.0. so I'm not looking to get rid of my Fuji just yet :)

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved   

 

TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR...05.12.18

We've been having such bad weather lately with cloudly & overcast skies, I've been itchin' to shoot the Milky Way! This past Saturday woke up at my usual time 4 am, the first thing I did was walk out to the garage to look at the skies to see if there were any stars visible...YES STARS, I see stars!!! I immediately texted my buddy & found out here was already on his way to the location we decided on the day before, in anticipation of shooting the Milky Way. I quickly made my coffee, gotta have my coffee!!! Threw my gear into the car & off I went. Luckily the location was fairly close to my home so it took only 15 minutes to get there, driving like a maniac!

The image is a composite as I moved to a different location & by that time the ambient light got brighter so the MW wasn't as visible as I wanted it to be. Took some finagling in Lightroom & Photoshop to enhance the MW's core & to match the white balance with the foreground & sky.

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved   



  

DARK SKIES...05.05.18

Gloomy skies reflected how I was feeling on this particular Saturday morning. There were 3 rain squalls behind the Manana Island moving west to east. As the skies started to become brighter, I looked to the east & saw another huge rain squall moving towards me. Fumbling around with my filter holder trying to change my ND filter from a 6 to a 10 stop & then readjusting the 3 stop reverse grad to the horizon, being very careful not to drop it into the sand & water, like last time! What seemed like an eternity I finally clipped on the filter holder to the front adapter, double checked my focus & started the 3-minute long exposure, hoping that the rain would hold out for the duration of the exposure & it did!

For this comp I thought about the rule of odds & was contemplating on removing the rock in the middle left in post but I think it offers a sense of balance to this image. The 2 larger rocks in the foreground that's offset left to right, the rock in the midground & the island.

The passing of a loved one, even if expected can & will affect you more than you'd probably admit. I did notice a lack of focus this whole weekend as far as my shooting is concerned. I just needed to get out to a place that will calm my soul & that place is here on the beach, any beach at sunrise, sand between my toes, the smell of the salt air, water washing past my legs as to cleanse & wash my worries away. I have so much to be grateful for to a man who put a roof over my family's head & to allow me to grow my family! Aloha oe...Dad
 

PHOTOCON HAWAII 2018

PHOTOCON HAWAI'I 2018

A little different blog post today. I just received this "Early Bird" email yesterday from Ric Noyle, the man responsible for the creation of PhotoCon Hawai'i. GREAT news, Canon will be bringing down the amazing Joel Grimes to this years PhotoCon Hawai'i as a keynote speaker!!! I've been a huge fan of Joel for many years now & I am ecstatic that he'll be in Hawaii at the Blaisdell on September 7th 6:30 pm!

A BIG MAHALO's to Ric for securing such an iconic photographer for the next PhotoCon Hawai'i 2018!

For more info & to subscribe to the "Early Bird" email notification for Keynote & special workshop discounts, sign up at, PhotoCon Hawai'i 2018. Ric needs all the support to be able to bring down big names in the photographic community & more vendors so we can have hands-on looks at the new technologies, from innovative vendors & informative workshops. You can help to make this year PhotoCon bigger & better by signing up as an Early Bird subscriber. Aloha my friends!

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved   

DEBRIS...04.28.18

Paiko Park was littered with broken branches & tree trunks scattered amongst the sand flats with the minus low tide. On April 13, Honolulu's east side was hit with a storm that flooded homes & cut off all in & outbound traffic to Hawaii Kai. All this debris was washed down the stream & off the small bird sanctuary off to the left of this image. This was a smaller branch about 7-8 feet in length & 6 inched around. The fury of Mother Nature!

 I had to really work this comp to get what I wanted, even after taking the shot, I continued to work the comp in post & did some heavy cropping to get all of the other distracting elements out of the frame. Love the cloud structure thou!

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

JUST BEFORE SUNRISE...04.29.18

Sundays I normally shoot alone, I know that it's better to shoot with a group or a buddy for safety reasons but, I find the time alone every Sunday morning when I go out to shoot very therapeutic for my soul! 

I also like the fact that I'm not committed to meet anyone at any specific location. I can go somewhere else if the location isn't speaking to me, I guess it's the freedom to go wherever the wind takes me as I'm leaving home.

I drove down to Sandy's by the 2nd bathroom but I just wasn't feeling any good vibes, so I jumped back into my car & drove down to Makapu'u Beach. When I pulled down into the parking lot there must have been a dozen cars & bright led panel lights which looked very familiar as they were filming an interview with a production crew. They were on the rocky side, so I headed in the opposite direction to the left towards the beach. As the sky started to light up, the grey overcast clouds were being pushed away & left the horizon with very minimal clouds. I ended up towards the middle of the beach & wanted to isolate this particular rock in my shot with a long exposure. I've shot it before but, the comp never appealed to me. I feel better about this comp but it's not the shot I was looking for! Soooo, I'll continue to come back to this spot to try again to get what I'm looking for...one of these days I'll get it!!! 

It was a busy sunrise at Makapu'u Beach, besides myself & the production crew on the rocky side, there was an engagement shoot, a wedding & a senior portrait shoot going on all at the same time. All photographers respected each others shooting location except for the engagement shoot photographer, she was a bit rude & walked into my frame, but that's another story! I choose not to get angry when people walk into my frame while I'm exposing a shot. Anger clouds my creativity & I refuse to give into that emotion, it will pass.

To all the photographers who read this, I humbly ask, please be aware of your surroundings & of other photographers shooting & to respect their space, especially if they were there before you.   

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved  

STRINGS...03.28.18

It's Aloha Friday, I'll leave you with another look at the stunning Olivia Thai!

Stream her NEW SONG, "I can do Better" on SPOTIFY or APPLE MUSIC
You can find her on:
YOUTUBE
Instagram

Have a safe & great weekend my friends!!!

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

THE NARROW DOCK...04.22.18

looks can be deceiving, like this 3 feet narrow dock that hovered above the waters below. The pilings that held up this dock, from the bottom side looked very sketchy & unsafe, but from the top, it looks solid, such as life!

The couple that was the current resident at this home, saw my buddy & I shooting under the dock & invited us up on top to shoot, a very kind gesture! From the top, I loved how the weathered wood planks looked!

I did have to do some dodging on the wooden railings to brighten & bring out the textures, especially the right side of the railing which was backlit from the sunrise to the far right, out of frame. For me, this image is all about the many, many textures within this frame, the wooden rails, planks, water & clouds.     

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

THE STARS HAVE IT IN MAUI...04.14.18

At the Hyatt Regency Maui in Kaanapali early Saturday morning,  & knowing that I wouldn't be able to see or shoot sunrise on Saturday morning, I had done some reasearch on where the Milky Way would rise & luckly it would be visable right in front of the hotel! I was tired, but my alarm went off at 4 am, as usual. I sluggsly dragged my ass out to the balcony & looked up...WOW!!! It was clear with stars all over the sky! That woke me up real fast, I got ready & rushed out of my room straight to the beach.

I looked  for a composition with Lahaina's city light as a backdrop with the waves rushing up the sandy beach. The day before I saw a cluster of rounded rocks in the middle of the shore break & made a mental note of it, wanting to use that as my forground element for the next mornings Milky Way shot. In my excitement & darkness I couldn't find the rocks so I had to settle on using just the city lights. As it became brighter, I turned around & saw the rocks I was looking for jyst about 50 feet behind me?!?! Haha, just didn't walk down far enough! I thought maybe tomorrow morning I could get a shot of it with the Milky Way but a storm system had moved in late Saturday night & the skies were too cloudy...I must return one day!!!  

It's ALOHA FRIDAY, have a safe & wonderful weekend my friends! Life is too short enjoy your loves while you can...Aloha

** Prints are available upon request**

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

MAUI NO KA OI...04.12.18

I was back with my Cooking Hawaiian Style Ohana, shooting on location at the Hyatt Regency Maui this past weekend. After a slightly bumpy, but not so bad ride on Mokulele, I arrive on Maui, Thursday afternoon around 5:30 pm. The one thing on my mind was to get up to my room, drop off my duffle bag, grab my tripod & head straight out to the beach to shoot sunset!!!

I walked out to the water's edge & looked to the right only a small cluster of rocks & sand. Then to the left, only sand, but as I scanned the coastline farther down I saw that the sand turned into a rocky coastline, exactly what I was looking for!!! Unfortunately, it was about a quarter mile walk in the sand, in my slippas, not fun! I reached the rocks & did some rock hopping wearing my slippas, not very safe as I almost fell a couple of times. I worked the area shooting sketches & was disappointed that I couldn't find a decent composition. 

I had taken this sunset shoot as one of my failures & had accepted it, maybe I was too excited & couldn’t focus my vision. As I walked back, I saw these rocks with the green moss growing on them, I took a shot parallel to the shoreline & it didn't work. I wanted to use the rock as a leading line, but that meant that I'd have to walk into the shore break & get wet?! Wasn't planning on getting wet but, what the hell!!! With the next shot, I was very happy with the lines & the misty waters, I folded up my tripod & made the long trek back to my room...with a smile on my face! 


** Prints are available upon request**

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

THE NEXT MORNING...04.08.18

This past weekened was kind of a blah weekend! Saturday morning after arriving at Sandy's at 5am the light rains drizzled non stop, 2 of my buddies arrived about 5 minutes after I got there & as we were talking story the drizzle turned into rain. We decided to pack it up & have an early breakfast. 

Sunday came around & as I left my house the ground was wet from an earlier rain. Not too optimistic, I drove to Sandy's once again. I got my gear ready & walked into Sandy's, observing how the waves had changed the landscape. The areas that once were covered with rocks was now under the sand. Nothing seemed to have caught my eye as I continued walking into the depths of Sandy Beach. I came upon an opening & watched how the incoming waves washed over & around these rocks. I also noticed that in this spot the waves were consistent with a good deal of motion. It took several tries to finally find a composition I was happy with. Having my 16-35mm lens on I needed to get closer, as the 35mm focal length wasn't enough reach. I thought about changing my lens to my 100-400mm but the wind was blowing a little too hard for me to comfortably swap out lens with all that salt spray in the air. 

I knew where I needed to be, & muttered under my breath, "crap I didn't want to get wet this morning!", but you know how that goes! After wading out, with water just above my knees I had to remind myself to keep 1 eye on the incoming waves & to watch for the rouge waves that might roll in. As I finally got to the right spot I set up my comp & looked at the clouds & wanted to it to be a big part of my image to convey the feeling of how overpowering the gloominess was & actually overtaking my thoughts. I also knew that this image was going to be a black & white. My only disappointment was that I wished that the clouds would have had more texture to it.


Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

OLIVIA...03.28.18

Last week Wednesday I had the privilege to do a photo shoot with the YOUTUBE sensation, entertainer Olivia Thai.  She is a very beautiful young lady, very down to earth & of course a very, very talented musician, singer/songwriter. 

I first saw her on IG & was drawn to her music. I reached out to her & asked if she wanted to collaborate on a photo shoot & after all this bad weather we've been having, we finally got out to shoot! This was 1 of the first shots I took thst day & as you can see, it's pretty hard to take a bad shot of her! 

You can find her on:
YOUTUBE
Instagram



Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

THANKFULL...03.31.18

With all the bad weather & bad attitude I've been having, this past Saturday was a blessing! We arrived at our location & as we unpacked & got our gear ready, I looked up to the skies & could see a lot of low lying grey clouds, but off to the right just beyond the last house on the beach, there was a small patch of clear sky. Hmm. I wondered if there was a small chance that it'll open up?! 

We had to wade through the water, just a little bit enough to get the bottom of the shorts wet, which actually felt good on this muggy Saturday morning. I've never shot from this spot before, so I was very excited to see what this location has to offer & it didn't let me down! :) 

The skies lit up with some beautiful colors & combined with the rain clouds that surrounded the clearing just above Rabbit Island, made a recipe for an amazing sunrise!!! Maybe it was God's way of showing me even though the surrounding grey skies are closing in, there's always that glimmer of hope!!! For that glimmer, I am thankful...Amen


** Prints are available upon request**

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

HIDING BEHIND THE TEARS...03.25.18

I've been crying all day, off & on Tuesday, hiding behind my computer screen at work, driving to my daughter's appointment, back home & then back to my mom's place to give her, her meds. I received a call on Tuesday morning that my mom has a compression fracture in her back. While at work, I felt that the entire universe was working against me! I have a photo job scheduled in Maui to shoot the 9th season of Cooking Hawaiian Style, I always look forward to shooting that job, it’s more fun than work!  My moms doc is out of town & won’t be back until 4/12, the day I was planning to leave for Maui. I realized that I may not be able to shoot this season, which was the straw that broke the camels back, that's when I impulsively wrote that Facebook post. 

I’ve been taking care of my mom since my dad past away in 2009, caregiving can be so stressful that it can suck the life out of you! I love my mom dearly, but it can be very hard emotionally & mentally draining. Mom has been in & out of hospitals & rehab 3-4 times in the last 5 months. I've become used to having some down times for 1-2 months at any given time, of peaceful nothingness, no falls, no medical emergencies but it's hard to fully relax knowing that in the back of my mind, I know something bad is coming & being in this state of mind for a year & 3 months has taken a toll on my me mentally & physically, especially with the news of her recent compression fracture to her spine...I'm just so tired! I think everything that's been happening since November 2017 til now with my mom snowballed into my breakdown on Tuesday. I know I’m being selfish & should just suck it up, but it’s so hard...so very hard!  I had a long talk with my wife & she’s going to take mom to the docs on 4/12 so I can go to Maui to do my shoot & get a little R&R & just getaway from all this, at least for a little while. This Maui shoot, which I was so looking forward to, was the tip of the iceberg that sent me over. I think about it now, a day after, & since I’m thinking straight & it’s such a peytty excuse to go off, I feel embarrassed! 

I am so blessed with so many friends that care so much about me & my art!!! I thought I was done crying but as I read the comments on the Facebook post, the DM messages & text messages, I was touched as I teared up once again! Thank you all for your loving support, again I am truly blessed to have friends such as yourselves!!! As far as my continued shooting, I don’t know?! I don’t want to stop, but we’ll see what happens this weekend if I pickup my camera or not?!

A friend texted me yesterday with some kind words of encouragement, she knows who she is, "I've found my calm" once again! Thank you 😊 

My tita Sista in the mainland who was very worried about my state of mind, called me, you are truly My Sister, love you girl, I’ll see you soon!!! 😊

They say laughter is the best medicine, it is so true! My buddies who I shoot with on the weekends helps ease the pain, worry & always there for me for anything, love you guys!!! 

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

STARS AT MAKAPU"U

Totally rained out on Saturday woke up to the sounds of water hitting the ground outside of my window, I didn't have to check to see if it was raining! I checked my phone & my shooting buddy had already texted me to go back to sleep. It's nice to sleep in every once in a while!

By Sunday I was weary as my alarm sounded at 3:45am, I listened for a moment straining my ears to hear the sounds of raindrops...nothing! I staggered up & walked outside into my garage & looked up at the sky, I could see STARS!!! I ran back inside & got ready, grabbed my F-Stop backpack, which was prepacked from Saturday, made my coffee & out the door I went straight to Makapu'u Beach. I was very surprised that as I pull into the parking lot, there were no other cars, only mine?!  I would have thought that with the rain out on Saturday every photographer would be out here??? 

I quickly set up my gear & immediately started to compose & capture the Milky Way. I composited about 3 images to increase the light trails of the cars passing by along the main road near the mountainside. 


** Prints are available upon request**

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

DAWN PATROL PART II...03.17.18

In hindsight, I should have overexposed this image by bumping my ISO up a tad bit, Live & learn! Here's the Image I was talking about in Wednesday's post, the long exposure that smooths out the crashing waves & gives it a more somber look & feel to the image. I thought it was an OK image but was lacking something, & yes it was a blah colorless sunrise, which I really don't mind! I originally grabbed this shot just for the showing more movement in the clouds. 

With all that said I also see another picture within this frame! I'll have to come back when the tides & surf have similar conditions, & compose another shot. Many times this is how I see the 2nd composition from one of my wider shots. At the time of capture, I'm so caught up in the moment trying to get the shots that I need for another shot & I don't see the other compositions!  

Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

DAWN PATROL PART I...03.17.18

Whenever I want to show the waves & how angry the sea is, I always shoot 1 long exposure to capture the motion in the clouds. A normal exposure time for somthing like this image, is between 1-3 minutes & then shorten my shutter speed down to about 1-1.5 sec to get that silky movement that has that just right texture to it. I'll take it into post & use PS to blend the different areas of each wave. In this image I used 4 frames & masked out only certain areas of each image where I thought had that perfect wave motion.

Layers in PS

In the image above the bottom, 4 layers have the 4 frames I used to blend. You can see the white areas on the mask is where I revealed for that specific image. Above the 3rd layer, I added a curves adjustment to match the exposure to the layers below. The 5th layer from the bottom is showing only the rocks with the water rushing back into the sea & then another curves adjustment on the 6th layer to match the exposure. 

Layer 7 is a is a comp layer of all the underlying layer into 1 single layer. Layer 8 is a 2nd adjustment to the sky & remove the white halo around the edges of the dark rock on the top of the cliff. The haloing normally occurs when too much contrast,& clarity is added, so I made a selection around the rocks & cloned out the white halo with the clone stamp tool set to darken. Save in PS ...

Round trip back to LR & did my final adjustments, by bringing up the exposure just slightly & then using the Oval Radial Filter to selectively bring up the Whites on the waves & remove some of the shadows on the rocks. I don't time myself when I do edits like this but I'd say a good 45 minutes was spent working on this final image. It was fairly an easy blend, had some noise issues at the end when I brought up the shadows on the rocks but I went back in & cloned all the color noise out in PS. Friday I'll post almost the exact same image with a 3 minute exposure, it changes the mood so dramatically!


Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved

THE GALACTUS CORE...03.17.28

I walked into this composition knowing that I was going to get only 1 image that would be composited later in post. I found my spot early, took a few shots to where I thought the MW was & to be sure that I was able to capture the beginning, core, & the tail of it. Made a few little adjustments & was happy with the exposure. I needed to be sure that the stars were in sharp focus, so I switched my lens into manual focus & using the focus peaking function on the Sony A7RIII, focused on a boat with a bright light shining on the horizon. Knowing where the MW was previously, I recomposed & did a final test shot & adjusted my comp to taste.

I then took about 4 shots, checked my focus & waited for about 20 minutes, twiddling my thumbs, until there was enough ambient light. A very important thing I had to remember, do not move my camera or tripod! This was very important as I didn't want any movement in the focal plane of the MW & the rocks. I now changed my focus point to the farthest rock in the midground, changed my aperture back to f/8, dropped my ISO to 100 & shutter speed to 30 seconds & used a 3 stop soft grad to bring down the brightness of the sky & not blow out the horizon & then took my shot. I just wanted the midground rocks & foreground to be in sharp focus with a usable exposure. I guess in a way I've applied 2 different techniques, exposure blending & focus stacking into this 1 image, 1st time I've tried it & in need of more practice for sure! Want to incorporate 1 more thing in next weeks MW shoot, my Sharp Star Filter, if weather permits with clear skies. The hardest part about blending these 2 images together was matching the foreground rock to the MW sky exposure. Having the dynamic range in these Sony files helped immensely!!! 

Side by side, the 2 frames that I used to composite my final image. 

The only thing about this shoot, is that I knew that I was going to walk away from this with 1 final image, so I couldn't move around to grab different compositions, interesting theory, so if I messed up I was going to get nothing for my MW shot. Planning all this took a lot of discipline, as I wanted desperately to move around & get more compositions but knew that if I did I'd screw the alignment when I’d layer the images in PS!!! Would I do this again? YES I would, next week...YES, YES, YES!!!


Aloha a hui hou my friends! 
www.ryansakamoto.com
Copyright 2016 Ryan Sakamoto, All rights reserved