what’s a cawu?

Nobody really knows, but hey, you've found one! I'm Chris, and this...is my photo blog. But you already knew that. How about some stuff you didn't know:

I split time between my full-time job, part-time seminary studies, whenever-time photography gigs, and all-the-time husband and father life. Can you guess which one's my favorite? Seriously though, my fantastic wife Karen manages to keep me silly and sane through it all, and nothing beats being a daddy. Cliche? Sure. True? No doubt.

I'm horrible at sports, but love baseball. I not-so-secretly wish I could be a big league pitcher. Don't laugh too hard if you go bowling with me - you can sometimes tell from my routine that I'd rather be an ace on the mound.

And maybe I should have studied design or at least some form of liberal arts back in college. I love a well-designed poster, picture, sign, car, pair of scissors, you name it. In fact, one of my quirkier characteristics is the instant frown you'll get from me when a perfect, clean, new cardboard box gets its first dented corner. Ok, so maybe that's more my weirdness than a sense of art or design.

When I was younger, I loved making photographs but was horribly shy about it. However, my glamorous career in high school journalism (take that, JV chess team!) introduced me to fabulous gear I couldn't afford and a license to snap photos when nobody asked for one. Capturing moments that'll never come again ignited a passion in me that has yet to wane.

Actually, capturing the beauty of the moment is what photography is all about for me. It's fantastic, really. We live through an almost infinite number of moments in our lives, each never to be repeated exactly the same way. Photos help us remember those moments - special or seemingly mundane - even while our own memories tend to fade out as time goes by. They help us to remember our own finiteness, and in turn, be thankful for the grace of every breath.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

hawaii 2010

Ahhhhhh, Hawaii. What can be said? I’m not sure there’s more than a handful of people who have ever had anything less than a wonderful time there. Good weather, good food, good sights…what more are you looking for? Karen and I spent 7 beautiful days in Kaanapali, Maui followed by 3 quick days in Waikiki to wrap it all up. Not all was ideal, though. I had some paper writing to finish up for the end of the semester which put a slight damper on our first few days, but once that was fully out of the way it was relaxation-city!

our condo’s view

This was, I think, my fourth time to Maui and maybe eighth time to the islands in general. Not much new, but you really don’t need “new” out there. I’ll take it unchanged and familiar any day. We did take an excursion to Lanai, however, that was a first and a highlight of the trip. This little island, previously made up of mostly pineapple plantations, only has about 3000 residents and is dominated by the two resorts run by Four Seasons. There’s one town and basically one main street. Anything you want to see out toward the shores (other than where the ferry comes in) requires traveling on rocky trails in a 4×4 vehicle. Here’s our Jeep, pulled to the side of the Polihua trail as we passed through the “garden of the gods”:

the garden

driving the garden of the gods

Looks almost like what you’d think the surface of Mars looks like, eh? Oh, and when I said rocky, think Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride from Disneyland. For real.

I think we averaged about 10 mph through the trail. The ride’s well worth it though…at the end you get this beauty:

polihua

That’s 1.5 miles of pristine white beach, baby. No footprints, no trash, no people. Somebody build me a villa there, please.
Closer to town you see a bit more of the resorts’ influences…we stopped on our way back to say hi to the folks living at Kō’ele stables:

Kō’ele residents

Our few days in Oahu went by quickly, but we managed to take in a few sights including the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites…I hadn’t been there in over a decade!