I'm a single mom who works a full time job and photographs as often as possible when I have time.  It's safe to say that I photograph a lot more than I have time to edit because I'm so backlogged with editing personal photos that I take for my art that I'm finally editing photos taken late last year.  If it's not a job commissioned by a customer like an event, wedding or family portrait, I consider it my personal art and thus it sits in my computer until I have enough time from being a mommy and working the "day job" to properly edit it.

Le sigh.  So sat these lovely photos at Sandy Beach on O'ahu's southeast shore for months... unedited... untouched... unloved.  It's not that I forgot about them.  They were always on my mind, I just never had enough time to devote to properly editing them.  This week is going to be literal hell week at work so I spent the better part of my nights last weekend playing catch up.  I have yet to reply to several emails and haven't even started following back everyone on the Aloha Friday Blog Hop which had an AMAZING turnout last week.  So proud of our team!

Back to photography... so I finally found the time to edit my photos and though I have tons more to edit (specifically of the Milky Way and starry night sky), I was able to put the final touches on my sunrise shots and upload them to my gallery.  Did you know I have a gallery for my photography?  You can check it out if you want: What Jean Likes Photography.


I've been playing with HDR settings on some photos and basic enhancements on others.  Sunrises are so vibrant and beautiful, especially here in Hawai'i so I rarely end up giving them that vintage-esque look because I don't want to diminish any of the natural vibrant colors and beauty in the sunrise.

Sometimes it's fun to remove all the color and just focus on the variety of textures in the photo by making it black and white.  The rays of the sun look so much more pronounced when you take the color away.  How amazing is this beautiful world God gave us?

This purple horizon shot was taken just as the sun rose while I was setting up my tripod on the rocks in the photos above.  I saw the light start to peek above the watery horizon and the colors and rays of light were so amazing that I had to snap a few handheld shots.  This was just taken on a whim but I think I may like it even more than the ones I planned...

This wasn't my first sunrise shoot at Sandy Beach. I shot there before from a different location and angle yet was equally beautiful.  I just feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful place.  God planned this world so perfectly down to the most minute detail and I'm in constant awe of His attention to detail.


I'm thinking of doing more photography tutorial-esque posts in future months once the "day job" mellows out.  Would you like that?  I get questions all the time and I think it may be a little easier if I walked you through it step by step.  Long term goal here...nothing yet because I don't have time but I just thought I'd throw the idea out there.

Happy shooting and don't forget to take a moment or more to enjoy the beauty God created in this world for us to admire and look at in awe.

Aloha,