Good finds and exercising the camera

This weekend was filled with work and lots of play.  Friday night I had to work a pool party with my kids at the Y.  But Saturday I had no plans to do anything until the night before.  Katie and I decided to try and find some waterfalls out in Kahalu'u.  When we got there we just saw a few trickles so we decided on a back up plan.

Not too far away we decided to hike in Waihe'e Valley and find two waterfalls.  It was her first time there so she was quite excited.  The weekend before I did the "Harlem Shake" youtube video there and it brought the most views to my Youtube channel ever in a weeks time.  We went to both falls and did a little exploring.  We climbed up three or four tiers at the second waterfall.  What was interesting was that after the third tier of the waterfall there wasn't as much water flowing above as below.  Meaning that there had to be a source of water coming from somewhere below or near where we were.  We looked around and found a few fresh water springs!  The water was coming straight from the rock filtered through the Earth.  Katie decided to look a little more and come back down... I asked "Any water up there?"  She replied, "Just a trickle."  So unlike most waterfalls where water comes straight from the top of the Ko'olau's and down and creates waterfalls this waterfall is spring fed!
That was the end of our adventure on Saturday, she had to be somewhere so I decided to check out the beach.  That day my kids and some of the advisors that work with me hit up the beach.  I met up with them at Waimanalo Bay otherwise known as Sherwoods.  I bodyboarded and enjoyed the waves for a few hours and called it a day.

Sunday I planned to hike with Josh, Baron, and a new person Janice.  We went exploring for some waterfalls.  What's amazing is that it's somewhere you would not expect... I'm not gonna delve into too much detail because it's probably one of the less frequented trails.  We were greeted by the bluest fresh water I had ever seen in pools on Oahu!  The hike took a little longer because we used the natural beauty of the area to TRY and capture it on our cameras.  If you know anything about shooting photos it's extremely difficult to shoot under a canopy because of the harsh contrast of sunlight and shade.  I did my best to capture our adventure on my Gopro and Canon camera.  If you ever do find this place please keep it the way it was found, it's really a true gem hidden on Oahu. 

Please enjoy the pics!

 It really difficult shooting under a canopy, the harsh contrast of the sun light coming in makes it difficult.  In the foreground there is a mini cascade and if you look close enough there is another small cascade in the back. 

 Josh and Janice shooting a small cascade and a really blue pool.  

 One of my favorite pics is this "Floating rock" picture.  

 Water flowing over the stream bed.

 The whole time it was pretty surreal because of this streams location.  

 There were a few flumes along the hike with water flowing through them.

 This picture was taken on top of the "Floating Rock" picture.  Check out the ants on the leaf!

 The tallest waterfall along our hike spilling into a blue pool.

 It was hard shooting what I wanted to capture because of the light along the way BUT the sun also gave us rainbows if you were in the right spot!  

 Here is Baron chillin in one of the final blue pools.  

Last shot is the low perspective shot of this tree. 

All of my shots were taken with my Canon T2i and kit lens.  A little editing of the photos were done but nothing drastic was changed with the photo.  

Shot on the Gopro Hero 3.  Sherwoods was a fun 2 ft windy sandbar. 

This video is from the Saturday hike above the waterfalls... looking where our water comes from!

Blue Water Gulch from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.

Standing tall above waterfalls

This past Sunday I got to complete some of the sections of the KST I haven't completed before.  I got from Manoa to Palolo done!  All I need for the lower sections of the KST is from Palolo to Hawaii Loa and I'm done... oh and the notches section.  I'm really excited because it's one of my goals for the new year to complete this section.

Our crew this past Sunday was Cory, Katie, Jen, Baron, Seth, and Justin.  Here's a few pics and the video of the hike!  Enjoy!

 Seth feeling good climbing a spur ridge above Manoa

Panorama shot of the East side.

Taking a break.

Closing in on our destination.

Hamama Shake (Harlem Shake)

Sometimes I stay up late at night and just watch Youtube videos, I came across this "Harlem Shake".  Pretty much its a 30 second video of just people dancing in random places.  Most of the videos had costumes and props, some were filmed in the snow, and some were filmed underwater.  Since Hawaii has such nice scenery and I'm an avid hiker I pitched the idea of having it at a waterfall.  I made an event on Facebook and told everyone, I want to do it tomorrow.  What I thought would turn out to be just a few people turned out to be more than a handful of people to just come out dress up and dance stupid in front of a waterfall.  Here is the video and I hope you enjoy it!

Soccer season

I learned a lot this season shooting some of the local high school soccer games.  I met some cool photographers that shoot sports for a living and I met some players on teams!  The few teams that I followed this season were the Kaiser jv and varsity girls and the Kalani varsity boys soccer team.  I know a few of them on the soccer team since I work with teens at my job.  Both the Kaiser Varsity girls and Kalani Varsity boys made it to the states.  I was excited when I heard.  Here are some photos from this season... the highlights were the Kaiser girls winning third in the states and Kalani boys taking the state title!

 Sisters running for the ball!  Kaiser JV team beat Kahuku

Jaylin heading the ball in from a corner kick against Kahuku varsity game. 

 Callie handling the ball. 

 Ally getting pulled back by Mililani varsity girl.  

Jaylin battling with a defender at the Mililani game. 

 

 Callie on the offense against Kalani.

 

Ally playing defense against Jana at the Kalani Kaiser game. 

 

 Scott early in the season heading the ball against Kaiser.

 Jarrett going up against Buffnblu. 

  

 

Leo sliding and getting the ball at the championship game.

 Kalani couldn't have done it without their dedicated fans and their mess of poster!

 Scotty getting pushed away from the Punahou defender.

Kent coming in with a header to defend against Punahou.

 The game went two overtimes and one round of penalty kicks.  This was the winning save by Kazu!

 2013 State Champs

Amazing season everyone! Proud of you guys!  Till next season!

-Ryan

Students if you want any photos please shoot me a message or leave me a comment below!

Frigid Waters of Hawaii

I was lucky enough to tag along on one of the most unseen and untouched places on Oahu.  Our friend Cory let us tag along on one of his routine inspections of his weather stations.  The people with us were Pete, Nate, and August! August and Nate love native plants and Pete loves adventure!

The day started out around 9 and we spent some time at two weather stations.  After Cory finished up we went exploring up stream.  It was about an hour and half up stream where we were greeted by a sixty foot cascading waterfall.

Along the way we rock hopped, climbed, and swam through some of the coldest water I've ever been in.  We also got to see lots of native plants along the stream bed which was very interesting.  The plants we saw only grow in Hawaii and some are on the endangered list.

When we got to the waterfall it had a large pool that you could swim in.  We all jumped in and spent a half hour or so enjoying each other company and snapping some pictures.  One of the first things I noticed that on the right side of the waterfall there was water coming straight out of the rock.  It's probably one of the first times I've seen this.  They say that it's pure enough to drink because it's been filtered by the Earth, I had to give it a try!  Hopefully I don't get any bacteria and get sick and die haha!

The last obstacle was jumping off a waterfall into a pool of cold water.  By this time I was freezing!!!!  So cold that I was making weird noises.  Eventually my body temperature got back to normal and we finished up our hike.

Please no questions on where... But enjoy the pictures and the video!

 Enjoying lunch after a swim in the waterfall!

 Pete climbing the first waterfall.

 Cory working on a gauging station.

 Flow!  Look carefully on the right... that's the fresh water coming out of the rock!

Frigid Waters of Hawaii from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.