It takes few hours driving along the Road to Hana sprinkled with waterfalls to reach Hana and it's beautifully remote bay in the middle of the rain forest. This scene presented itself at sunset from the window: I only had to quickly grab camera and tripod and rush to the beach at the back of the hotel to capture it. The color of the ocean water right under the thick stormy clouds was captivating, strong winds blowing and the sun setting on the left. The drama of the storm, the beauty of the scene and the black lava that once flew into the ocean were closely intertwined for an image I still strongly remember.
This image is constructed to convey a dramatic effect to the viewer. I stitched two horizontal frames to capture both the beach on the left where the sun is setting and the lava on the right where the waves are breaking; I composed the image to give roughly equal size on the frame to the two semi circles: one smaller in front the camera that provides a leading line to a slightly larger one encompassing the Bay. The two horizontal halves of the sky have complementary dominant colors to, again, increase drama. As often, a shutter speed around 1s beautifully renders smooth waves to convey a sense of chaotic motion without being overbearing. Finally I set the aperture at f/11 to capture enough sharpness across the image, without hitting too much diffraction.
Hana Bay is available in Limited Edition Fine Art prints on Etsy.
SONY SLT-A99II, f/11 @ 20mm, 1s, ISO 50
