I'm Never Over the Rainbow

Every year I look forward to seeing rainbow eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus deglupta) on the Hawaiian islands. These magnificent trees grow to 200-250 feet and can be up to eight feet in diameter, although most of the giants have been cut down for furniture decades ago. Still, there are enough groves here and there to make it a worthwhile pursuit for photographers visiting the islands.

I find it hard to capture these immense specimens in their entirety. They are often hidden within a tropical forest, making it near impossible to capture them in frame, even if using pano techniques. Whenever I’ve tried with super wide angle lenses, the results have minimized their color and grandeur.

Instead, over the years, I’ve taken to photographing them through extraction, as you can see from these examples that I took over the past two days. I’ve found that rainbow eucalyptus trees are perfect for photographing right after rainy or misty days, when the colors are accentuated, although these examples follow a week of relatively dry weather. I always use a tripod when photographing them. It slows me down and turns these excursions into Zen-like experiences.

Another aspect of shooting such colorful images - and I am mostly a B&W photographer - is that they make spectacular prints. I love images like these on Moab’s matte papers, like Entrada Textured Rag or Moab Somerset.

These images were all taken with a Fuji GFX-100 medium format camera, 120mm Fujinon lens, Really Right Stuff travel tripod with BH-40 head.