Maui Moonlight

The Paradise by Moonlight tale. Creating something totally original for the first time is the greatest high you can have, at least in my experience of getting high. By the mid 1970's I had been experimenting with time laps color photography using just moonlight for years. I dreamed of creating a moonlight masterpiece. I knew it had to be something never done before that would stand the test of time. Doing color film time exposures at night is difficult, and using just moonlight was unheard of when these photos were taken. For all you people now and in the future who have never taken a photograph using film, let me tell you it was a hassle. You had to do all these calculations to set up your camera and then get the film developed to find out if your calculations worked. There was no photoshop to correct the image if your calculations were wrong. Slowly I learned how to read the moonlight and calculate the many minute exposures in my mind while taking the photos. This is not normal photography. I started my quest to photograph the pristine coast line of Hana using just Moonlight in 1976. The remarkable variations of shore line from Blue Pond to Kipahulu, is astounding. Very few people had seen the spectacular Hana coast line at night, and no one had photographed it. It was virgin artists territory that on a moonlit night jumps to way pass magic. These night photos are pure moonlight with no human elements or lights in them. I had no idea how hard it would be to complete this masterpiece. Moonlight is basically very dim, reflected sunlight. It has all the same colors as daylight but they are very weak Even the fastest speed color film in 1976 needed to be exposed for 2 to 15 minutes to capture a moonlight scene, and there were problems with reciprocity failure. The most expensive photographic light meter back then did not work with moonlight. The intensity and color of moonlight changes by the minute, time of night, cycle of the moon, time of year, you name it. Not to mention clouds, reflections from water, and other unpredictable stuff. It took me many years to figure out how to get images to look the way I envisioned them. Yet, many a time I was blown away by the raw, untamed energy or peacefully tropical beauty captured in the photograph. The movement of the clouds, ocean, wind, stars and moon shadows over time made each image totally unique. There were many nights I really didn't’ want to get up and drive down to the ocean to spend hours trying to get one photo. Sometimes it would be months before a night would come along that was calm and clear enough during the full moon period to take photos. It took me over 10 years to of persistent work to complete this entire collection.