Aloha!

This issue is in the same vein as the H is for Hipster Aesthetic issue: all photos from one particular trip. That trip was the second time I rented a Leica Q, this trip was the first: a trip to Kauaʻi with my family in December of 2016. A week is a good amount of time to get to know a camera, and vacations are filled with lots of moments to photograph, so it seemed like a great opportunity to check out a camera I had been curious about. Seeing as I ended up buying it (and still use it often!), it was a great use of a vacation.

I don’t think there’s a particular visual theme to these photos, other than they’re all on the same gorgeous island. It’s really hard to take a bad picture in Hawaii: the lighting was great, everybody is so relaxed on vacation. Let’s dive right in!

December 2016. Shipwrecks Beach (Kauaʻi, HI)

This beach was nearby where we were staying. I love the lush greenery and the gorgeous light blue water. This photo is my laptop background image, so I get to see it often, it’s just so pleasing every time.

December 2016. Poʻipū (Kauaʻi, HI)

This photo is of a street in the complex we were staying at. The moon was really gorgeous in the sky, and it was still kind of light out, and the street lighting was doing all sorts of fun stuff, so I tried to capture it all. I did a lot of messing with the shutter speed and a little bit of messing with the ISO, and a lot of holding my breath to hold the camera still to make this happen. I’m glad I was able to pull this off, and it was great to have the experience making manual adjustments, part of learning the camera. I’m really happy with the end result on this one, it’s just a really pleasing photo.

December 2016. Some beach (Kauaʻi, HI)

This was just a precious moment at a beach with mom and dad. I forget which beach. This is also on my list of photos I should frame and print out, most of the other photos I have of them are more posed and I love how airy and free this one feels.

December 2016. Somewhere on a boat (Kauaʻi, HI)

My nuclear family, there are surprisingly few photos of all four of us together because my brother and I don’t live at home anymore. I think it was our holiday card for the following year? Clearly, I didn’t take the photo because I’m in it, but I did do some messing with the aperture first to make sure that we could all be in focus, since the default focus for the Leica Q is the shallower, blurrier look (it’s gorgeous, but not useful for subjects lined up like this).

Thanks and see you next week! Next week is gonna be a fun one, promise!

XOXO,
Margs