Adding interest to your Hawaii sunset photos

As I’ve been organizing nearly 700 photos that we took on our recent trip to Kauai, Maui and Lanai, something about our sunset photos started to become apparent. While the run-of-the-mill, sun, sky and ocean photos are nice, the sunset photos with something in the foreground are much more interesting.

Let’s look at some comparisons. First, here’a sunset shot from Maui with just the sun, ocean and sky.

It’s pretty, right? It has some interest in that the island of Lanai is off to the right.

Now, compare that photo to this one that we took from the Wailea at the restaurant Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.

The palm trees and tiki torches add so much more interest to the photo. In my opinion, they also make it easier to immerse myself into the scene and feel a part of it.

On your next trip to Hawaii, try looking for something of interest in the foreground to include in your sunset shot. To help you with some ideas, here are some other photos from our collection.

This photo was taken at Hulopoe Bay on Lanai. Notice that the lava rock tidepools in the foreground make the photo more lively with the ocean water splashing and rolling over the rough rocks.

Another Lanai photo from our recent trip is this sunset shot from the upcountry of Lanai in Koele. Notice that the silhouette of the tall cook pines add an interesting scale and dimension to the sunset.

For a couple of other useful sunset photography tips, see:

• Andy’s sunset photography tips
• Not your usual Hawaii sunset photo tip

After you’ve practiced these tips, don’t forget to send your favorite snap(s) to us to share for our Aloha Friday Photo series.