Things We’ve Learned from CJ That Have Made Our Photos Better

I did not start off as a photographer and neither did my wife, Linda. CJ Kale and Nick Selway taught us pretty much everything we now know. So…CJ, Linda and I have been talking lately about capturing some of the good ideas and sharing them with you. We will not claim this as original, nor identify the originator of the idea…but the ones we plan to share will be ones that CJ (and often Nick) have impressed on us over and over. And they are simple. Here is the first one…

“Let’s give this sunset another ten minutes.” This is usually said by CJ as Linda and I have taken the camera off of the tripod and started to pack up for our trip back to the car. The sun is down. Sunset should have peaked by now. It is getting dark. Three times our of four…CJ ends up wasting our time and making our trip across the jagged rocks just a little more difficult. One time out of four…we hit gold.

I’m not certain this works everywhere in the world…but it sure works in Hawaii. Once the sun is down, one of two things will happen…it will get super dark real quick or…the sky will light up in colors and brightness that are hard to explain. It is part of CJ’s recurring theme of…give yourself every chance to be successful. Ten little minutes…might just give you your best sunset shot ever.

Here is a recent shot demonstrating the general idea.

Aloha.