Aloha everyone!

It’s been a while since I last wrote my blog post. How is everyone doing during this quarantine time? Hawaii’s stay-at-home order has got extended up to the end of May, so we have more than one month to go. However, I am very thankful that we are allowed to go out and exercise as long as we follow the guidelines, so I have been hiking around in the island in between my edits.

Did you know today was Earth Day? I was lucky enough to learn about this from someone else’s instagram post. Today my co-worker and friend Jason and I went for a hike to exercise and appreciate the nature for the Earth Day, so I would love to share some of the photos we took.

There are so many amazing hikes all over the island, but I always prefer secluded and adventurous ones. One of the parts I like about this hike is that I get to climb very steep hills using the ropes. I appreciate anyone who did this for other hikers so we can share the amazing view in a safe way. Sharing is caring!

Absolutely my favorite part of this hike is this view of the mountain range. Today we were very lucky with the weather. In the beginning it was too cloudy to see anything, but the wind was helping to carry the clouds to the other side of the island. Landscape photography needs patience when the condition doesn’t corporate with you, but it is a good exercise to take it slow in the daily life.

It’s a huge plus to have at least one photographer in the group. In my case, it’s nice to have another photographer/videographer friend in the group to keep our memories in the best way, especially by using correct exposure and well-thought composition.

So how did we take this photo of me and Jason when we were only two of us? The answer is, we took two solo shots from the exact same place, and I combined them in Photoshop. As long as most of the background is overlapped, it is so easy to composite multiple images into one piece. In the reality, we were not standing next to each other like this to keep our social distance very well, so don’t worry! ;)

We have been shooting together about 4 years or so. He does photo and video, and I do photo and drone photography. We both have strong passion in creating awesome work in photo and video format, and LOVE traveling and adventures. We even shot together in Japan and Jamaica last year! We are up for any adventure shoots, elopements, weddings, or any other occasions. If you want to have quality photo and video in amazing places, please hit us up! We go anywhere in the world for your stories :D

I like both land and water activities, in and out of Hawaii. Since it’s Earth Day today, I would like to share what I think to keep the Earth healthy, or even help to make it a better place. First of all, I am a strong supporter of “Keep the Country Country” concept. With the popularity of social media, more secret places are exposed by visitors, and as a result, some places are slowly damaged. To prevent this problem, I suggest not to GEO TAG exact names and addresses of where you visit, unless it is an obvious place or private property where they should be credited. I often just tag “Honolulu, HI” for local places where are rather hidden to show the respect for the location itself and also for the native people. Instead of sharing the location information in public, I just keep the record of where the photos were taken at on my personal drives :)

Another thing I want to mention is that not only in Hawaii but in many places in the world, I always see littering and that makes me sad. I see floating or sunk plastic, cans, beer bottles, water bottles, etc. when I am out in the sea, and also on hiking trails. Let’s all be responsible for our own trash! I try to pick up trashes when I can, but some of the items are too big or nasty for me to pick up :/ When I can’t pick them up and just leave them sitting there, I feel very guilty. I think every one of us should be caring about the nature, and take responsibilities to keep it nice and clean. In Japanese schools, students are taught to leave the place cleaner than when you first visited. I really like this idea, and I want to do my portion but I can’t do it all by myself. So your help would be greatly appreciated :)

I’ve seen news of positive environment changes in various parts of the world right now with the pandemic. Improved air and water pollution, a lot less CO2 emission, maybe this was happening because the Earth needed some pause to save it from our massive consumption. This quarantine time definitely slowed down my life, and gave me a chance to think about more fundamental things. Everything happens for reasons. I am not useful in terms of helping others to get over the disease as a photographer, although I hope these beautiful photos show how beautiful nature is on the Earth and serve as a reminder that we have to take actions to protect it.

Thank you so much for letting me express my feelings about environment! I am such a nature lover, and I believe many of you feel the same when you are out in beautiful places. I hope this blog post will bring some positive feedback and we can all enjoy the Earth beyond generations.