Waikiki Sunset

This was sunset on the Waikiki beach on Christmas day, 2008.

This picture was taken during a family vacation but never processed. Our family had travelled to Oahu for a Christmas break vacation, and I took the opportunity to take this sphere (in addition to other photography, of course). I decided to finally finish this picture for one of my 20 Year celebration entries this year.

This picture was difficult from several standpoints. Obviously, the bright sunset and dimmer surroundings were a challenge for photography. I had to use high dynamic range (HDR) to get this much range. But also, we were traveling and I didn’t have my normal tripod. This made some aspects of taking a spherical picture more difficult.

I chose this panorama because, although not my best or favorite picture, it is the most distant I’ve ever taken. Most of my pictures are taken fairly close to home, so this one was a departure. Also, it represents many aspects of the journey I’ve been taking over the years to practice spherical photography, in terms of the need to learn new techniques, work through some problems when taking the picture, deal with elements in the picture that I didn’t like, etc.

Pacific Ocean / USA-Hawaii

Lat: 21° 16' 44.162" N
Long: 158° 51' 6.85" W

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye, Nodal Ninja 5, PTGui, Photomatix, Photoshop