Wahine, Kealakekua Bay, South Kona, Hawai'i

[sabbath999]

EXIF: D40, 18-55 VR, circular polarizer, 1/125, f/14, ISO 400

 

[bradsperry]

how can something be so uninteresting but so busy, so empty but use up so much space ..... the color sucks too ......... doesn't do anything for me.

 

[ILovePlaya]

Not one of my favorites from ya'.
Craig.

 

[Village Idiot]

Cut off everything above the person's head. Looks like you underexposed the body but got the mountain and the sky exposed properly.

 

[sabbath999]

I admit it isn't my best work ever... I am not very good at taking people pictures or landscape pictures, but I really like this particular person and this particular spot so I thought I would share it.

The woman (Wahine is Hawaiian for woman) was born and raised there at Kealakekua Bay, and her mother operates a small business nearby. She now lives on Oahu, but she is extremely nice and friendly.

I have decided that when sharing my pictures of Hawai'i, an island which has become our second home (for now, one of these days it will be our only home), I need to start sharing the stories of the place to give perspective to those who have never been there (or haven't had a chance to spend time at off-the-beaten-path places like Kealakekua Bay).

Kealakekua Bay, our friend in the picture would tell you, is a sacred place full of magic. It is a holy place to native Hawaiians, and very much a place of spiritual power. The cliff along the right side (that you can see) is actually an ancient lava flow from Mauna Loa, which towers up about 14,000 feet over our left shoulder as we are standing. The pre-western contact Hawaiian people used to bury the bones of their leaders, hereditary tribal leaders at the highest level of Hawaiian society called the Ali'i (pronounced Al-ee-ee). It was considered the highest honor to bury an Ali'i, and a man would be lowered on ropes and place the bodies of the dead Ali'i in one of the many caves that pock the facing of the cliff. After the body was placed, he would signal the people at the top of the cliff that the job was done and that all was well, and then they would cut the rope and he would fall to his death... so that nobody alive would know where the Ali'i was buried. It was believed that you could gain a person's power by possessing and using their bones.

To the right of the picture, barely visible as a dot along the shoreline, is a large monument to Captain Cook of the royal navy. That side of the bay is where he was killed. Feel free to read the wiki on him for details. The monument is best reached by boat or ocean kayak. There is an old, closed four wheel drive road that drops 1000 feet down the cliff that you can hike if you want to, but it is a real corker and not maintained. The monument its self is, by treaty, British soil.

The cliff is a large crescent shape because it is, in fact, what is left from a large land shelf that collapsed from the island in prehistoric times. To the right of where we are shooting from is a rock beach, which was formerly a very nice sand beach until it was destroyed in a hurricane in the 20th century.

The bay is one of the best snorkeling and scuba sites in the world. It is the home to a large family of hawaiian spinner dolphins who enjoy playing with snorkelers (not with scuba diver though, they don't like the bubbles). It has a large and varied reef in pristine condition.

OK, not my best shot, but a lovely place none the less, and a very sweet lady.

 

[Do'Urden's Eyes]

how can something be so uninteresting but so busy, so empty but use up so much space ..... the color sucks too ......... doesn't do anything for me.

The colours are fine.