By Jenn Gidman
Images by Kristi Bonney
Kristi Bonney lives in Lake Chelan, Washington, but her heart and soul are forever in Hawaii. Kristi was born and lived on the island of Oahu until 13 years ago, when she made her move to the mainland, but trips back home allow her to reconnect with her roots and feed her creative soul through the photos she captures. "If I'm not doing some kind of photo project at any given time, I feel unsettled," she explains. "My photography brings me back to center, because it's something I'm doing just for myself."
For her most recent photo project, Kristi wanted to capture two specific facets of her birthplace: the staged, flashy elements on display for tourists, as well as the laid-back lifestyle that the locals enjoy. "For me, sharing the essence of Hawaii requires patience and the ability to not just see, but to feel the people, the flora, and the beautiful and mysterious places," she says. "I then allow those elements to guide my work and shape my vision for the travel story I'm telling."
Packed for Kristi's flight across the Pacific were five of her favorite Tamron lenses:
The SP 24-70mm VC, SP 70-200mm VC, SP 90mm VC Macro, and the new 16-300mm VC and SP 150-600mm VC lenses. "Each lens had a specific purpose on this trip," she explains. "The 24-70 is the lens that's almost always attached to my DSLR. It's such a versatile lens that's so fast and sharp—it's especially great for portraits. I put the 70-200 to work for images that required me to zoom in a little closer; I just love the beautiful compression that this lens provides. Meanwhile, the 90mm Macro is always wonderful at bringing out the beautiful details of mosses, ferns, and flowers."
Kristi also test-drove two more-recent additions to her lens arsenal. "I got to know the 16-300 a little better," she says. "It was perfect for those wide landscape shots where I wanted to convey the vast beauty of a particular scene. And the 150-600 is a beast—I'm in love with the fact that I can handhold this powerful lens. It was just what I needed for shots of surfers, boogie boarders, and fishermen throwing their nets out into the sea."
Photographing the locals was requisite, which meant one of Kristi's stops was to a neighborhood lei-maker. "I wanted to show what Hawaii is known for," she says. "Just looking at this lei-maker's face, you see how warm, inviting, and sweet she is—you want to call her your auntie. I try to do that with portraits: create an image that shows the person's pure nature."
A guy on his boogie board let Kristi show off Hawaii's carefree side. "I wanted to convey a sense of adventure and fun," she says. "I can tell when surfers are about to ride a swell: They do a little dance as they're approaching a wave and then turn at the last second. I shot this handheld at 8 frames per second so I could just fire away as needed to capture a photo that showed both action and facial expression."
Attending a luau or hula dance is a must if you're visiting the islands, and Kristi tries to show this entertainment ritual from a variety of perspectives. "I love to give a sense of 'This is a show,'" she explains. "For this photo, I stood toward the back of the stage, off to the side, to achieve that perspective. I wanted to show the crowd reaction, the dancers' skirts swishing—all of the action in the scene. I slowed my shutter speed down just enough so you could see some blur in the uliuli (the gourd rattle in her hand that she shakes while she's dancing)."
To show an alternate side of the same dance routine, Kristi zoomed in on the dancers' hands, creating a beautiful bokeh in the back that allows the viewer to focus on the movements instead of the crowds or stage design. "I wanted to convey the delicate nature of the dance here," she says. "They're performing in the same show that you see above, but I took the picture from a totally different perspective."
For Kristi, capturing the often-hidden, ordinary facets of island life that aren't on display is what shows the real Hawaii. "I love looking for something behind the scenes, like one of the lei-makers assembling a lei, or a guy just pulling coconut flesh out of the husk," she says. "Where else can you go and see a man just opening a coconut up in his front yard? I don't always have to show their faces, either, to portray an activity that's unique to island life."
Another part of Hawaii's appeal lies in its nature and wildlife, which Kristi tries to photograph in unconventional ways. "Native hibiscuses are found all over Hawaii, but they've been photographed a million times," she says. "I wanted to create something a little different than the usual 'flowers in a bush' image. I'd happened upon this flower lying in the middle of the path along a winding maze. I got down to the ground in the dirt so I could capture the flower with the path in the background. By lowering my perspective and adjusting my depth-of-field, I was able to create an image that not only captured the beautiful flower, but also pulled the viewer's eye to the path off in the distance."
When she's photographing flowers and plants, Kristi keeps an eye out for the outliers. "I seek out the imperfect one of the bunch," she says. "There's something that's so mesmerizing and lovely about little flaws in things like flowers and ferns."
For wildlife photography, Kristi seeks out distinctions between the animal and its environment. "The contrast between the scales of the koi I photographed and the green water make for a gorgeous palette," Kristi explains. "I also like to create images that convey movement or emotion. You can clearly see that the koi here are in a frenzy of some sort; I shot with a faster shutter speed to ensure I froze them in motion. Though I could've slowed my shutter speed down to get motion blur instead, it was important to me to capture their open mouths begging for food. Choose your shutter speed and aperture according to the story or feeling that you're trying to convey."
For the various types of architecture sprinkled throughout the islands, Kristi tries to see it with all new eyes, as if she's a tourist. "This Japanese temple, where people still go to make offerings, is located in a cemetery," she says. "I've driven by it lots of times before, but never visited."
This time she did pull over and tried to unravel the building the way someone seeing it for the first time would. "I make it a point to move around my subject and take photos from different angles when I'm shooting architecture," she says. "So often, architecture photography is straight on and straightforward. I think angles and curves are so beautiful, though. Plus, when you move around a building, you reveal layers of its personality. If you just shoot straight on, you're missing out on its unique, hidden qualities."
No photographer would leave Hawaii without at least a few images of its unmatched beaches and stunning shorelines. Searching for leading lines and ensuring a visual anchor will help you create memorable landscape images to include with the rest of your Hawaiian photos. "I took this picture in Makapu'u because I just liked the way the land jutted out near the foreground and in the middle, then again in the background," Kristi explains. "That's the kind of balance I look for in my images."
Looking to capture the sweeping scenes in front of you in a grander way? Create a panorama. "Stand in one spot, shoot all the way across the scene, then put stitching software to work to craft a great panorama," Kristi says.
To see more of Kristi Bonney's photos from her Hawaii project, go to http://kristibonneyphotography.com/hawaii.