Over the Rainbow

Okay, call me a fool… or worse. I admit to having a rainbow Eucalyptus tree fetish, at least those on the island of Kauai.

Every time I’m on that Hawaiian island I make time to visit a grove of these magnificent trees and spend a glorious couple hours just meandering and contemplating these botanical miracles. Camera and tripod in hand, I stop to examine different aspects of the trees, finding new and interesting combinations every time. Those of you who read my blog know that I encourage repeat visits to locales to uncover hidden treasures, and these trees are on my revisit list.

So last month I spent some time on Kauai, visited that grove, and found some new angles that I’m sharing here. All the images were taken with a Fujifilm GFX 100, Fujinon 120mm lens, Really Right Stuff tripod with BH-55 head. All are focused-stacked images sent from Capture One through Helicon Focus and sent back to CO. They were shot at f8 @ 1/25s and ISO 50 or 100.

The lead image above is one I hadn’t noted before, despite having visited this tree numerous times over the years. I liked the way the base of the tree curved back from the roots and the way the oblique light saturates the color.

The next one is of the exposed root area of one tree. Again, I had missed this one on my prior visits.

Finally, this was the only one that I was able to capture that day that had some water droplets remaining. I arrived just after a morning rain passed over the area. But rainbow eucalyptus have a shiny coating that repels rain, so I wasn’t able to get more raindrop images.

A final thought. I find that frequently photographers visiting an area grab whatever shots are obvious, colorful, in-your-eye images, then quickly leave the site. I call this drive-by-shooting.

I encourage you to pause. Turn your camera off and wander. Look for extraction images. Explore new angles. Kneel down. Wait for sun. Wait for clouds. Be patient.

I know I’m looking forward to my next visit to the Rainbow Eucalyptus grove. I look forward to what treasures they’ll offer up to me then.