Lanikai Pill Box Trail

Planning The Hike

When we go anywhere, we always have gear of some kind with us. Sometimes we have more gear than other times. The truth of the matter is that whenever we go anywhere it's always a challenge to plan what gear we're actually going to take with us. There is usually a conversation that takes place between us as to which lenses we're going to take if we're going to take a Glidecam or two, possibly the shoulder rig and, of course, there is always the conversation about whether we're going to use tripods or not. Add this conversation to the fact that our kids usually go everywhere with us, and since we're homeschooling we try having our son take his DSLR with us so he can experience taking photos and learn something from that. You guessed it, it takes forever to get out of the house especially if we just decide to do something spontaneously. Packing everything up the night before is the only sure way to get out of the house early. That didn't happen on this trip, though, so we didn't get out of the house until late. The photos still turned out amazing, though. We got to capture the sunset on the east side of the island.

Story Time

I said earlier that we didn't prepare for this trip the night before, so we kind of just quickly got all of our camera gear together, kids and their stuff together, threw all our stuff in the Jeep and jumped in heading toward the eastern side of the island. The thing we had going for us was that it was a weekday, so parking over at Lanikai wasn't too difficult to find. If it were a weekend we might not have found a parking spot right away. There were a lot of people there, but we did find parking nearby. We got everything and everyone out of the Jeep and made our way up to the trailhead. When we got there, I instantly saw that the trail had a steep incline when you first start. Right away, I knew what mistake I had made. In the rush to get out of the house I put on the wrong shoes for this hike. Even though the difficulty of the trail is easy and is considered family friendly you should always wear good hiking boots. The ground tends to be crumbly here, so shoes that don't grip the ground well aren't good for hiking. I have a good pair of hiking boots that I bought a few months back, but in the midst of the rush to get out of the house I completely didn't think about what shoes to wear. It was a challenge, but it wasn't a deal breaker. The trail is easy, especially when I look at other trails I've taken in the past. This trail is a popular hike on Oahu, so a lot of people of varying ages and hiking abilities take this trail daily. I do recommend it for anyone on the island or visiting. It is family friendly. Our 6-year-old son hiked the whole thing. He slipped a few times, but if you stay on the trail and don't get too close to the edge at the top it's definitely doable for pretty much anyone. I just chose to wear shoes that do not grip the ground well at all. Even though my shoes weren't right, I still had fun and obviously made it up and out without any mishaps along the way. Haha!

Panorama

The panorama above is an 11 shot panorama. This means I took 11 photos and used my photo editing program to stitch them all together to create one image. I wanted to show everyone how beautiful it is up at the second pill box you come to on the hike. It is an amazing view. In the bottom right, you can see our son, my mom and part of our daughter. I really wanted all three of them in the photo, but at the last second, our daughter moved; which put most of her body out of the frame. That's just how it goes sometimes. I wanted to share the photo anyway because it still shows how beautiful it is up there. Next time I go, I will take another panorama. This time I hope to get the islands in the photo that are just a little past the pill box in this image. I'll have it in our online store available for purchase. This one I'll keep to myself. In the near future though, there will be one that is ready to be hung on someone's wall.

Vlog

Yes, there's that nasty word again vlog. We have been promising vlogs for a while now, but I'm serious this time. I recently bought a new camera bag for my gear because my current bag isn't doing it for me anymore. I have too much gear and accessories for the old bag, so it was time to upgrade to something better. I still wanted it to be easily carried around and not massive because I take my bag on hikes like the Lanikai Pill Box Trail. Needless to say, I don't want to carry around something too big because it's just uncomfortable. Anyway, since my new bag will be arriving in the next week or so, I thought it might be a good time to show you what actually is in my bag. Not an overly exciting vlog, I know, but it's a start and gives you an idea what I use to create this stunning images that I share. I'll also show you the GH4 and a little bit of the video gear that I carry with me regularly. It should be fun and will give you some insight into how things work behind the scenes here. Also, I'll compare my old and new bags for you, so you can see the difference between them. Keep an eye out the next couple of weeks because I'll be getting this vlog done as soon as my new camera bag arrives.

Online Store

I wanted to touch on the subject of our online store again. Our fine art photos are in the online store available for sale. The store is packed with a bunch of different products to choose from. They are great for decorating your home, office or even as a gift to someone who loves beautiful photos. The money we make from the online store allows us to continue doing what we love, and lets us follow our dreams. On the plus side for you, you're able to get some amazing artwork that is an attention getter. All of the photos above are in the online store right now except the panorama plus many others from our adventures in Hawaii as well as other parts of the U.S. We really appreciate any support you give us and hope that you love your images! Mahalo!