Light Painting Orchids At Hana Tropicals
A beautiful Phalaenopsis Orchid.
While on our trip to Hawaii to celebrate our anniversary, Joannie and I had the unique opportunity of light painting orchids at Hana Tropicals on Maui. These are some truly stunning tropical flowers and we’re going to share some of the before and after light painting photographs in this story! We’re so glad that we stopped by to see the crew at Hana Tropicals.
A beautiful White Dendrobium Orchid.
We arrived in Maui and spent our first two nights and three days in Hana. It was the first time that we’ve ever stayed overnight in Hana. In the past, we’ve taken the wild and crazy, but extremely beautiful, Road To Hana (which takes several hours one-way) and then had to drive back to the other side of the island in the dark. Not this time.
The tiny Oncidium Sharry Baby Orchid. In addition to its beauty, this little one has the strong fragrance of chocolate going for it too!
Staying overnight in Hana allowed Joannie and me much more time to check out this stunning location. It was a much more relaxed pace this time around. It was truly wonderful and we can’t wait to return there once again!
A beautiful Mangosteen Dendrobium Orchid.
The Road To Hana
On our last visit to Hana several years ago, I noticed a sign for an orchid farm on the Hana Highway. At the time I thought it might be fun to see what they had there. But because we had to get back to our hotel on the other side of the island before nightfall, we couldn’t take the time to stop. Even then, we still ended up driving a couple of hours in the dark.
A pretty white and purple Dendrobium Orchid.
The trip was a couple of years before I had been taught how to light paint by my friend and mentor John Hartman. With that photographic tool now in my arsenal, I hoped that on this trip, we could use this technique on some of the pretty flowers and orchids at Hana Tropicals.
A beautiful tropical plant, an Orange Bromeliad.
We stopped by to visit them near their closing time on our first full day in Hana. They all were so nice and they even gave me a quick tour of the greenhouse! I told Katie about our light painting technique and I asked her if she wouldn’t mind us taking some photographs the next day, and she said yes!
A stunning Mangosteen Dendrobium Orchid.
Light Painting in the Rain
It was lightly raining off and on the next morning, so after breakfast, we stopped by to see if it was a good time for them. They had a couple of tours scheduled, and if that didn’t bother us, they were fine with it. So Joannie and I set up for light painting orchids at Hana Tropicals.
The beautiful Dendrobium “Fire Wings” Orchid.
Katie apologized for not having many orchids for us to photograph, we thought she was kidding. Since we gave them basically no advance notice, we were thrilled that they let us “play” there at all. Next time around, we will plan ahead!
A Classic Phalaenopsis Orchid.
That morning, it was still sprinkling off and on, but nothing that stopped us from photographing more than a few seconds here and there. If there was anything that was a problem, it was the light breeze in the outdoor greenhouse. Several times, we had to stop and wait for our pretty subjects to stop moving. In post-production, some of the images had to be realigned so they matched up with the previous exposure. Thankfully, it was nothing that I couldn’t handle using one method or another in Photoshop.
A pretty Cattleytonia Orchid.
With the tripod in place, we just walked around and grabbed one pretty orchid after another, placing them in “our set”. As you can see in the before and after images, light painting allows me to remove unwanted items in the scene by simply not lighting them.
A Brassidium Gilded Urchin Ontario Orchid.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our travel photography story about our stop on The Road To Hana. Mahalo (which means thank you, in Hawaiian), to Hana Tropicals for giving us the opportunity to create our art right there in their greenhouse. We can’t wait for our return visit! Aloha! – M&J
This one really caught our attention!