Strolling along the sand with the water washing ashore.

Back Story

This shot was taken during the day one golden hour shoot at the ’11 Maui Photo Festival.

Check out a few others from the shoot in my complete review of the festival last week.

Christian’s first steps into the ocean at Kam III in Kihei, Maui.

Back Story

Over the Fourth of July holiday, we tested the waters – so to speak – at my cousin’s pool to see how our son would take to the water outside of a bathtub setting. That didn’t go too well.

Two months later, it was time to see if the ocean was a friendlier setting for him, and although he appeared a little unsure about what was happening between the waves and the wet sand below his feet for the first time, it went much better.

Seeing that he’s only nine months old and will have no recollection of his first trip to Maui last week, this shot will be the ultimate keepsake of that experience for when he’s older and well versed in the beaches of the Valley Isle.

Photo: Series of waves washing on the shores of Wailea Beach, with clouds over West Maui near the horizon.

Now that I’m sort of back in business with my laptop situation, I wanted to throw in a few paradise shots before getting back into all the hockey images from the last two Chicago Wolves games I shot.

First, The Composition

Before I get into the detail conundrum I’m in, I wanted to say I really liked how this composition came out. Not just with the waves and the trees, but the clouds over the mountain as well.

Contrast that with this similar shot that has a more wider feel to it, and you’ll see what I mean.

Now, The Conundrum

This image made its way through my workflow with a stop in Topaz Adjust, the new Version 4.0.  I’ve been using TA for a few months, and this one is with one of the new presets named “Detail – Strong”.

Now, I also did this same image with Topaz Detail, which I’m just starting to experiment with.  You can view those results on Flickr here.

The Vote

Which one do you prefer?  I’ve added a call for input on both images on Flickr, but if you’re not part of the Flickrverse, please leave your thoughts here or on Facebook when the post is published there shortly.

Many thanks in advance,
- Kris

Photo: An old image of Waikiki Beach captured with my very first digital camera back in 2004.

For those that are following along on my Facebook page this week might have read, I recently went through some of my old digital photos from our honeymoon to Oahu and Kauai back in May ‘04. This is one of the photos I’ve played around with to try and “rescue” into a something more respectable to the level of standards set by today’s technology.

This photo was taken with the very first digital camera my wife and I bought as an Xmas present for ourselves in 2003. We knew we wanted to capture photos for our upcoming honeymoon in May after all the photos of our wedding we received from our friends back in September. Yes, there was an eight month gap between our wedding and our honeymoon – about the length of a hockey season.

Specs Back Then

The camera used was the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P51, which you can see more about in the retired section at the bottom of my Point and Shoot cameras page. To sum it up, this old sport shot with only 2 Megapixels and had a max resolution of 1600 x 1200. According to the official info from Sony, that was good enough for prints up to 8×10.

Nowadays, most cell phone cameras have better specs. My current phone, the HTC Touch Pro, has a 3.2 Megapixel camera with a max resolution of 2048 x 1536. Now while I wouldn’t be using a cell phone to capture a scene like above, it does do a darn good job with random quick snapshots like this one.

What was your first digital camera?

Do you remember your first digital camera?  Sure, it’s no first kiss, but if you’ve been playing around with digital photography for at least a few years now you probably have one or two cameras that have been put out to pasture now, but were the great tech at the time.

Feel free to leave a note about your first digital camera, and even a link or two to some images if you have them on Flickr or somewhere else.

Photo: An aerial view of the peaceful D.T. Fleming Beach Park in West Maui, just passed Kapalua.

Like many beaches on Maui, I have fond memories of patrolling the sand from end to end looking for different views to capture. Yet, when I get to capture the entire crescent beach from above like this photo, it truly is a thrill.

How did I get this shot? I was hanging out of a helicopter without doors on it during the ’09 Maui Photo Festival, that’s how! Maybe I’ll see you there in August?

The Before Image

This image was taken at D.T. Fleming Beach in September ‘07, in the early afternoon. I really liked the composition, with the symmetry between the water and the clouds above. The rocks add a nice touch in the foreground, although the horizon is off and the colors are a little dull.

The After Image

A little color saturation, straightening the horizon, and a little cropping (notice the difference in the rocks) in ACR set this one up for Topaz Adjust. I chose the Photo Pop preset in Topaz Adjust to help achieve the look you see here.

Another Old Photo Saved

I like to think the next time I’m at D.T. Fleming Beach with my camera gear to find a scene like this, I would have learned enough in the last 2 1/2 years to get it better in-camera first. I also like to think I’ll be back to Maui sooner than later.

Until that next 9 hour plan ride to that beautiful island in the Pacific, I will continue pushing my post production skills and working on new tools and techniques to create these “new” images, while at the same time reliving the great memories of capturing the originals.

Stay tuned for another edition of Before and After next week as more of my early works get a new look on the digital life.

– Kris

Like many of the photos to being posted here over the few weeks, this one comes from my new-ish Maui by Photo website. You can more photos from Koki Beach there as well.

Now, on to the photo. This one doesn’t look like you’re typical Maui beach, but there’s something about this mist in this photo that does a lot more to capture the spiritual and magical feeling I get from thinking about Maui than just another one of those postcard shots do. Don’t you agree?

Koki Beach is all the way on the East side of the island, just passed Hana and before Hamoa Beach, which is indeed one of those postcard beaches.

Photo Update: Jan. 13, ’10

As part of my Flickr reset, I am going back and reprocessing some of my favorite shots from previous posts and applying the new Photoshop skills I’ve acquired in the past few months or so.

Here’s one from an early morning session I just finished with, and after applying a little Spicify action with Topaz Adjust, the result blew me away. See for yourself.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the original image for the misty effect it has, but when I saw what I was able to do with this shot using Topaz, I couldn’t pass up on it.

Thoughts?

Interested in hearing your thoughts on the before and after. I know it’s a matter of personal taste, but if you had to pick, which one and why?

- Kris

Photo: The bluest of blue skies at Wailea Beach in South Maui.

Update: Softness effect recently added with TopazDetail.

Photo: One of the most beautiful and remote beaches you’ll find on the island of Maui.

Photo: Are the patterns in the water below mimicking the clouds above, or is it vice versa?

Image updated on Jan. 13th, ’10. Reprocessed in Adobe Camera Raw and tweaked using Topaz Adjust – Photo Pop settings.