Over the years, I’ve had many people say that I should photograph a tropical island. While I’m not generally one to give into unsolicited advice, it just so happens that a friend and fellow photographer (Kurt Stevens) lives on Oahu and was willing to graciously show me around. I would have ten full days on the island, and I wanted to pack light so for a change of pace the medium format 6x7cm camera went into the bag. Using roll film instead of sheets would make airline travel much easier, and since I don’t have very much experience shooting the ocean the goal was to be able to work with significantly more exposures to try various wave timing and shutter speeds. Essentially, the hope was to just try something a bit different. So I packed 18 rolls of film (which wouldn’t be enough) and my Pentax 67ii with three lenses and a 2x teleconverter and flew out over the Pacific!

“Moss Rock Flow” - Waves flow over lush green rocks at sunset. Hawaii, January 2024. Ektar 100 6x7, 45mm lens, 1/2 second at f22, no filters. **Prints available.**

Many people told me that Oahu wouldn’t be a very good island to visit, and that I should go to X island (Maui, Kauai, Big Island) instead. Well, whatever. I was in the mood for an inexpensive trip and I had a place to stay in a great part of Oahu, flights were cheap, and so was a rental car. And you know what? Oahu was beautiful, and once you get onto a beach and look out into the endless waters it was all the same to me. The island itself is very urban on the south side, but there were still areas where you could truly have a beach or ocean view all to yourself and the expanse of water provided a welcome sense of isolation.

“Cliff Splash” - Stormy winds push huge waves against rocky cliffs. Hawaii - January 2024. Ektar 100 6x7, 165mm lens, 1/15th at f16, no filters. Prints available.

Photographic Goals

A tropical island is a completely foreign landscape to me. Put me on the shores of an alpine lake or in the middle of the prairie and I have a fairly solid idea of what to do, but throw some moving waves and lush vegetation at me and I’m completely out of my comfort zone. My plan here was to just spend some time feeling out the ocean, the waves, and the island and to hopefully come away with a handful of decent images and the idea to return more if I like it. I also wanted to try to work a bit faster and experiment with more compositions by using a medium format camera (instead of 4x5” large format), allowing for a little more creative freedom and speed. Mostly, I wanted to make use of the ocean since it’s not in front of my lens very often.

“Manana Ironwood” - Ironwood trees frame Manana Island, with midday light showing off the brilliant blues of the Pacific. Hawaii - January 2024. Portra 160 6x7, 165mm lens, 1/15th at f22, no filters. Prints available.

“Lanikai Dawn” - Warm morning glow on the hills over Lanikai. Hawaii - January 2024. E100 6x7, 165mm lens, 1/15th second at f8, 812 filter. Prints available.

Getting Around

I’ve heard that Oahu has pretty rough traffic, but hey it’s a beautiful place to get stuck in a line of cars. If you want the freedom to explore photo locations at odd hours (like sunrise and sunset), you’ll want to rent a car. As with most of the Hawaiian islands, there is a road that mostly rings around the island, and a few that cross through the midsection. There always seems to be a stretch of land that is too rugged for a road, and the roads are intentionally designed as a slow ordeal with speed bumps and tons of curves. Although it’s not a big area, you can expect to spend several hours of driving to get across or around the island. You can be rewarded by just driving around the island and stopping at beaches, or perhaps by doing a little research on maps first. Or you can have a cool friend like Kurt to show you around, which he did on day one with a photo tour.

“Palm Island Sunrise” - Palm trees on a small island at sunrise. Hawaii, January 2024. E100 6x7, 165mm lens, 1/8th second at f16, no filters. **Prints available.**

The general plan was to just get somewhere interesting for sunrise and sunset everyday, while also keeping midday light in mind for beaches as the water can really turn a lovely shade of blue that varies in each area. Beaches on the east side of the island were best for sunrise, and ones either near the city in the south or along the north and west shores worked well for sunset. This was no different than any other photography planning, using maps and/or an app like PhotoPills to see where the sun will rise and set. Weather only took a minor role in planning, as it seemed like every day on this trip was perfect tourism weather. Mostly sunny skies and virtually no rain, which was unexpected for a ten day visit in January. High surf conditions (common in the winter) created some dramatic waves and the forecasting is generally quite good about which shores will get a big surf. As with most of my photography trips, I didn’t plan out shoots very far ahead of time. Options were left open and location decisions were often made last minute.

“Blue Waves” - Water colors show through waves in morning light. Hawaii - January 2024. E100 6x7, 165mm lens with 2x converter, 1/30th at f8, no filters. Prints available.

The overall experience was truly delightful, especially coming from wintery Colorado. I’ve never before had the luxury of photographing barefoot in warm sand at sunrise, just wearing board shorts so that I could take a dip in the ocean afterwards. It was quite a change from a normal mountain shoot, where I’m bundled up in layers and protected from windchill.

“Kaʻena Cliffs Sunset” - Huge waves crash against the Kaʻena shore, glowing in evening twilight. Hawaii - January 2024. E100 6x7, 75mm lens, 15 seconds at f16 - 1 stop soft GND and 812 filters. **Prints available.**

“Ironwood Shapes” - Ironwood trees reach into the sky. Oahu, Hawaii - January 2024. Portra 160 6x7, 165mm lens, 1/15th second at f22, no filters. Prints available.

The Results

My first photography visit to a tropical island ended up being far more productive than I could have imagined. Every sunrise I was typically shooting a roll (or more) of film, and then the same would happen again at sunset. In total, I went through 23 rolls of film which is 230 shots on 6x7. That is significantly more exposures than I would ever do on large format over ten days, but that is also the nature of roll film. Several exposures on a roll would often just be repeats of the same composition but with different wave timing. It’s a good thing that Honolulu had an excellent film-specific store where I could pick up rolls of E100 and Ektar at a rather fair price for an island, if you’re ever there definitely check out Treehouse.

“Palm Beach Morning” - Palms over a quiet beach in morning light. Hawaii - January 2024. Ektar 100 6x7, 45mm lens, 1/15th second at f16, no filters. Prints available.

“Palm Island” - Sunrise over an island with two palms. Oahu, Hawaii - January 2024. E100 6x7cm, 165mm lens, 1/8th second at f11, no filters. Prints available.

Over the trip I was able to photograph palm trees along the coast, rocky shores, big waves, and plenty of vibrant sunsets. The variety of scenery was really quite impressive for a small patch of land in a vast ocean and the light was always changing throughout the days. It was a very easy place for me to slide into the rhythm of photography; I generally don’t like working with a camera in crowds, but it was easy to find solitude and the sound of the ocean amplified the isolation.

“Green Beach Twilight” - Twilight glows while waves flow over green rocks on a beach. Hawaii - January 2024. E100 6x7, 75mm lens, 30 seconds at f22, 2 stop soft GND and 812 filters. Prints available.

“Oahu Fern” - An assortment of fern type plants on the mountains of Oahu. Hawaii - January 2024. E100 6x7, 75mm lens, 2 seconds at f22, no filters. **Prints available.**

I’ll even go as far to say that it’s a landscape I would happily photograph again. Quite possibly on another island, where it’s even easier to get away from humanity and experience a more raw sense of nature. I think there are a lot of potential subjects and types of images for me to explore in the tropics, and it was hard to beat the delightful weather and shooting conditions.

“Moku Islands” - Sunrise above the eastern shore of Oahu, with the Moku Islands in the distance. Hawaii - January 2024. Ektar 100 6x7, 75mm lens, 1/4 second at f11, no filters. Prints available.

Traveling with Film

Anytime I board a plane with film, people always ask questions about x-rays and the security process. So I will just make a quick note here: always have your film hand inspected by the TSA. Have it in a convenient, transparent bag that you can hand to an agent during the screening process. There is always someone there to help during the stage where you are removing your shoes and liquids to put them onto the trays, and every time they have happily taken my bag of film and walked it over to the hand-checking table where they open the bag and swab the rolls. If for some reason the agent is busy, just keep in the line and walk towards the screening gate while holding onto the bag of film. An agent will see the bag in your hand and help you out. If you have sheet film, seal the boxes well with tape and explain to them that the boxes are light sensitive and cannot be opened. Airports used to only have x-ray machines, which were fully safe for most film, but now it is critical to have a hand check performed as many checkpoints now have CT scanners that immediately destroy film.

“Alan Davis Waves” - Waves crash over the rocks on the shores of Oahu. Hawaii, January 2024. Ektar 100 6x7, 75mm lens, 1/2 second at f22, no filters. Prints available.

The camera

For those who are salivating to know the details on the gear used for this trip, I shot everything on a Pentax 67ii camera. This is a rather modern medium format camera that gets 10 shots per roll of 120 film. The viewfinder is bright, and even has little LCD displays for meter readings. For all of these images I just trusted the meter in the camera set to matrix metering mode. I would occasionally add a little more exposure for subjects that often throw off light meters, such as bright waves or shooting into a sunset. It’s not a camera that sees a lot of use from me, so I don’t have any favorite lenses or all that much to say about the kit. Make sure to carry extra batteries, as the low-battery warning light is a complete joke. Once that comes on, you won’t even be loading a roll of film as the film advance mechanism is partially controlled by electronics.

“Jurassic Valley” - Lush green foliage fills a valley below rugged peaks. Hawaii - January 2024. Ektar 100 6x7, 45mm lens, 1/15th at f22, polarizing filter. Prints available.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the images from the trip. Do you have a favorite? If so, leave a comment below. It’s not too often that I write up trip reports like this, but I was surprised by how successful this island visit was. If you’d like to read about more travels in the future, let me know that these types of articles interest you.