Night photography is a really great fun. Since I am mainly a wildlife photographer, I normally like taking pictures of animals even during the night as I have done it a couple of times before. However, a few weeks ago, I decided to photograph a classical Hawaiian landscape at night with the ocean and some palm trees in the foreground. Technically, one of the most crucial things in night photography is to properly illuminate the subject. Of course, silhouettes work in many times, but not always and in the picture in my mind, I prefer a colorful image with a yellowish sand and green palm leaves under the night sky. One of the solutions to achive this is light painting when a handheld light source (usually a flashlight) is used to illuminate the foreground, however, it is not so easy with large landscapes. I don’t have any experiences with light painting so I decided to take advantage of the fact that Oahu is the most light polluted Hawaiian island. After a small searching, I found that the Laniakea beach is a great place to create the image I wanted, because the palm trees are on a private property next to the beach and there is always enough artificial light that illuminates them. When I arrived to the beach, I set up my equipment, took some test shots to fine-tune the composition and about 15 minutes later I was able to attain the photo I imagined.

Gear: Canon EOS 7D, Canon 17-40mm F/4 L lens, Manfrotto tripod