The Story Behind the Shot: Running in Paradise

Happy Aloha Friday, everyone!

I’m going to start an informal series of images along with the stories behind them and how they were created. I hope you all like this idea. If you do, please comment below so that I know that there’s interest.

This post is a personal one, taken very recently.

Loretta and I are both relatively new to Oahu, even though I was born and raised in Hawaii and lived on Oahu for 2 years some time ago. Consequently, we make it a point to do some exploring to new areas on a regular basis. She is totally infatuated with palm trees of all sorts, and here in Hawaii we have plenty.

As we drove by this lineup of trees, I immediately envisioned this composition. The mid-afternoon sun combined with the clouds and the backlit trees made for a dramatic scene. I initially thought of just returning at sunset (which we did as well), but as I suspected, this time was more effective in capturing what I could see possible.

Since Loretta loves these trees so much, I wanted to have her in the shot. I asked her to walk up to the trees and run to the right, where I would capture her in the largest gap. I also showed her how to run, because there’s no way for me to communicate with her at this distance, and I didn’t want to call her on her phone. In any case, it’s usually — if not always — more effective to demonstrate to your subjects instead of communicating verbally.

While the original capture in color was great, I felt like the image could be stronger if the colors were less distracting. After a little split-toning and some contrast adjustments, I achieved the look that I wanted. The good thing is that Loretta likes it, too. 🙂

If you have comments, let me know what you think by commenting below.

Have a great weekend!