Kauai has an abundance of Cattle Egrets. They sit on horses as well as cattle and they particularly like lawn mowers and fresh mown grass. We saw this egret on our way to our cottage at Anini Beach.

We chose to stay at Anini Beach because it is close to the Kiluea Lighthouse and next to a large reef. Last trip we swam with sea turtles at Anini Beach. We are hoping to see them again.

Tim and I will be sharing our images and thoughts on photography each day on our photo blog. We are creating our blog on a MacBook with Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, Photoshop CS3, Adobe Bridge and Iphoto.

Anini Beach is a safe beach for children to swim and a good place to try out new equipment before venturing into rougher waters. Although Tim and I have spent many years as photographers, this is our first experience with underwater photography.

Tim tries out his new ewa-marine waterproof bag. He chose this bag because the price point was quite a bit lower than an underwater housing and the bag is less bulky. He is using a Nikon D200 with a 12x24mm lens. We are snorkeling. So this lens seems a bit short. Next swim he will try a longer lens so that he can get closer to the marine life.

I am using the Pentax Optio W30 underwater camera. This camera is waterproof down to 10 feet. It is a tiny thing, about 2 in. by 4 in. I chose this camera because it is small and doesn't interfere with my snorkeling fun. At $349 it quite a bit more reasonable than an SLR with an underwater housing.

This is one of the first images that I took with the Pentax Optio W30 waterproof camera. It is a little hard to tell from the display what is in focus. But I think I'll get better at this with practice. - Katherine

The Hawaiian name for this fish is Mamo. These are probably juveniles.

Anini Beach, Kauai.

Sea Urchins move along the rocks and sand using their waving spines as legs. They can travel a surprising distance in not much time at all.

The last time we swam at this beach we saw Green Sea Turtles. We are hoping to see them again. But you never know exactly what you are going to see. So you have to enjoy being outdoors in the fresh air and seawater just for the fun of it.

We decided to take a second swim at Anini Beach. This time we went to the west end of the beach. The inner reef rocks are mostly covered with brown algae. But if you look carefully, you will find fish swimming in small, clear, sandy channels.

West end of Anini Beach. Tim is taking pictures with a Nikon D200 and a flash. He is having trouble getting the flash to sync with the camera exposure. This may be because he has a mismatch between the flash and the D200. The exposure on this image was fine.

Anini Beach

The eels like to hide in the rocks of the shallow reef.

West end of Anini Beach. I am getting more accustomed to focusing the Pentax W30. I have the camera set on underwater mode with the flash on automatic. The camera does a good job at figuring out the exposure.

Anini Beach, Kauai

Today we went looking for Sea Turtles. Ho'ai Bay is supposed to be an excellent spot for encountering sea turtles. From the edge of the beach we saw four turtles swimming in the surge. The entry to the water on this beach was a bit difficult. As recommended we went in at the center of the beach but Tim's camera got smacked against the rocks and the water proof bag sprung a leak. This ended our swim early and neither of us got any pictures of the turtles. We are learning and we think that this swim may be better earlier in the day. We did see some beautiful rock formations and fish.

There are sea turtles swimming in the surge at Ho'ai Bay. If you look carefully there is a turtle submerged near the center of this picture.

After our difficult swim at Ho'ai Bay, we headed to Salt Pond for a leisurely snorkel. Salt Pond is a busy spot on the weekends and a favorite place for families to bring their children for a swim.

Salt Pond, Kauai. The waves were coming over the reef at Salt Pond pounding the water into bubbles. The swim was delightful. We saw plenty of fish including Moorish Idols. But the conditions were not good for under water photos.

Salt Pond, Kauai. These fins with the split down the middle are great. They give you plenty of power without over tiring your legs. They are light weight and easy to carry.

Salt Pond, Kauai.

Today we tried Tunnels Beach. Ah-ha. This was much easier than yesterday's swim. The water was clear and the fish fantastic.

This fish cleans Green Sea Turtles.

Tunnels beach has a shallow reef which drops over a ledge to a depth of about 20 to 40 feet. The water turns a deep mysterious blue and we can't see the bottom in places.

A good book on the local reef fish is "Hawaiian Reef Fish" by Astrid Witte and Casey Mahaney. I am having fun trying to identify the fish and am hoping to be forgiven if I make some mistakes.

Oh no. When we went to dump the images off the Pentax camera's memory card we got a jpeg error. Iphoto would not recognize any of the images and then the camera would not recognize the card. Luckily Tim knew what to do. He googled for jpeg rescue programs and downloaded one. Two hours later the images were recovered. Yay! So when your camera or Iphoto gives you error messages, don't give up on your hard won photo shoot.There may be a way to recover the data. We still don't know what caused the problem and it hasn't come up again.

This fish is shy, speedy and very challenging to photograph.

Tunnels Beach is probably one of the best snorkeling beach's on Kauai. The fish were abundant and colorful. It rained hard while we were in the water. But the rain was warm and we were already wet.

I'm getting the hang of taking pictures with just a display and no view finder. The zoom is pretty handy. Fish that are about 2-6 feet away seem to make for the best images.

This fish is Hawaii's state fish also called the Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua'a. Tunnels Beach, Kauai

Tim's waterproof camera bag has a hole. So we are retiring this piece of gear until we can get it patched up. We are afraid to try duct tape and don't want to ruin our camera. Our 35-70mm lens was ruined by the salt water. Hurricane Flossie is on her way to Hawaii. The storm is supposed to dissipate before it reaches the Island of Kauai. If it looks rough, we may stay out of the water tomorrow.

The Hanalei Wildlife Preserve is home to many of Kauai's seabirds. We saw stilts and green herons.We are taking photos with a Nikon D200 and a Canon EOS 5D. As we were taking landscapes, we weren't ready for the birds when they flew over.

Kauai

Hanalei, Kauai

The weather seems fine and we just can't resist another swim at Tunnels Beach.

Tim's ewa-marine waterproof bag had to be retired for the duration of the trip. He continued photographing underwater with the Pentax Optio W30.

A large school of Convict Tangs swam around us at Tunnels Beach.

Hurricane Flossie was downgraded to a tropical storm. A small craft advisory was in effect on Wednesday and it was a rainy August day. For a change, we stayed out of the water.

As Hurricane Flossie was downgraded to a tropical storm, there was a 7.9 earthquake off the shore of Peru. A tsunami advisory was in effect.

Kauai Rooster

Kauai

Spouting Horn, Poipu. We photographed the sea turtles as they were knocked about in the surge at Poipu. The Tsunami advisory was cancelled two hours after it was announced. Lucky day for us. We saw green sea turtles and we were not hit by a hurricane or a tsunami.

Spouting Horn, Poipu

Spouting Horn, Poipu, Kauai

Spouting Horn, Poipu, Kauai. I love the Hawaiian chickens or Moa. You can hear them first thing in the morning. We have a very proud rooster and chicken family living near our cottage. The rooster gets up first thing and makes quite a racket. Cock-a-doodle-doo!

A beautiful Fresnel lens sits inside the top of the old Kiluea Lighthouse. This reminds me of our hometown and the Point Reyes Lighthouse.

The Shearwaters lay their eggs in shallow burrows in the cliffs. The adults leave the chicks in the burrow during the day and return at dusk. The burrows are located along the path up to the Kiluea Lighthouse.

The Red-footed Booby birds are aptly named for the color of their feet. They have oddly colored light blue bills.

The Boobies soar high above the Kiluea Lighthouse.

Tim is using a photographic technique called digi-scoping. He uses a digital camera to capture the image on the eye-piece of a telescope. These birds are sitting in the trees on a shear cliff that is about 1000 yards away.

Queen Emma's Bath is a lovely pool located in a volcanic shelf. At high tide the waves wash in and renew the water. Fish swim among the wave rounded rocks.

Beautiful red and green algae line the tide pools at Queen Emma's Bath.

Green Sea Turtles swim along the edge of the lava shelf at Queen Emma's Bath. These images are taken with the Pentax Optio W30. The shutter lag makes crisp, timed images hard to get. We didn't have either of our digital SLRs with us.

The Green Sea Turtles feed on sea weed and grass at Queen Emma's Bath.

We returned to Queen Emma's Bath in hopes of seeing more turtles.

The turtles returned and this time we had our Nikon D200 and Canon EOS 5D.

Tomorrow is our last full day on Kauai. I will be sad to leave Kauai but glad to be home in Inverness, California.

We took a boat to go snorkeling by the Nepali Coast. The boat trip starts at Port Allen. This is the coastline on the way.

Hurricane Flossie was downgraded to a tropical storm. If the hurricane had hit Kauai, Port Allen would have been directly in her path. In order to protect the boats, the tour companies moved them to Oahu. The crew said it was quite a rough ride across the channel.

We were too far from the reef below to get any good images. The the boat crew spotted a Man-o-war jelly in the tide line. Everyone had to get out of the water.

This beach is only accessible by water and is off limits to the public.

This is the end of our trip. Maybe next time we will go to Nihiau and Lehua. We have many beaches and snorkel sites yet to explore. Aloha! We will see you back at Pelican Studio in San Anselmo, California.