Haleakala NP, HI – House of the (Rising) Sun

Photographing the sunrise at Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

Picture: Sunrise as seen from the summit of Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

My family recently returned from a summer vacation holiday trip to Maui. Months before, my wife had asked what I’d like to do for my fiftieth birthday. As an almost off-the-cuff remark I said, “Watching the sunrise from atop Haleakala.” Now mind you, the mountain or place itself wasn’t the point, as much as I was saying I simply wanted to be watching the sunrise atop a mountain; any mountain. Haleakala was simply the one that came blurting out of my mouth. But my wife wanted to go to Hawaii, so this became her excuse to start planning our vacation.

A couple weeks after my birthday, we arrived in Maui. The last time I’d been to the island was with my wife on our honeymoon, 24 years ago. Research indicated the best time to catch a sunrise on Haleakala was the morning after your arrival, since you’ll have a few hours of time difference working in your favor. My kids weren’t too thrilled about waking up at 3:30 am, but they endured. Our research had also indicated it would take about 1.5 hours to drive to the summit from our location in Kehei. (Plan on 2 hours from Lahaina or Kaanapali.) I figured to be safe we should plan on arriving about 45 minutes before sunrise.

Picture: The Big Island of Hawai’i as seen from the summit of Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

My first hint of what was about to come was as we turned onto the Haleakala road at 4:15 in the morning, along with about 7-8 other vehicles. “Honey, it looks like we’re not the only ones heading up the mountain.” Understatement. Another line of cars greeted us we round the corner to the entrance station, where rangers were happily collecting entrance fees. Silly me forgot (read: didn’t think to bring) my National Parks Pass which was resting comfortably in my truck back home. As we snaked our way up the mountain, you could see a bead-string of car headlights working their way along the switchback road.

We arrived at the Visitor Center just as it was starting to get light. The photographer in me was suddenly confronted by a dual-problematic scenario. My wife was squirming and reminding me for the 15th time she needed a restroom just as I entered the traffic-jammed and already filled parking lot. (Note to self: Next time, leave even earlier.) People were parked double cars thick, and smack dab in front of signs that said No Parking Anytime. We eventually fled the area for the even higher elevation Observatory where we managed to find a parking spot. Thankfully, and although still crowded, this area was not the completely crowded madhouse back down at the Visitor Center.

Picture: Dawn over the observatory on the summit of Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii

When you’re photographing the sunrise at Haleakala National Park, one of the conditions you’ll want to hope for is a layer of tropical clouds off to the east and below the summit to provide a little extra visual drama, as well as providing a good subject to photograph in themselves. Because of the 10,000-foot elevation at the summit, you will also likely be treated to a vivid twilight wedge of color when looking in the opposite direction of the sun.

One of the best tips we got before our trip was to swipe all the blankets and bedspreads from our condo, and use them to keep warm, since carrying winter clothing to Hawaii is often a waste of luggage space given how little it would be used. I had opted to take along some of my backpacking layers and a windbreaker so that while the family was all wrapped up like pigs in a blanket, I could comfortably get to work doing my photography. One of the first things I did was set up my GoPro next to me in timelapse mode, and just let it run.

Picture: Panorama of clouds at sunrise as seen from the summit of Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii – ** Click on image to see a larger version. **

Next I set up to shoot a panorama of the landscape / cloudscape that lay before me. As a professional landscape and travel photographer, we often talk about ‘the money shot,’ or ‘the hero shot.’ This is the shot that when a client is paying you to get, you get. First and foremost, all your efforts are focused on getting that shot in the bag. Once that’s done, every other good photo you’ve taken (before or after) is icing on the cake. This was going to be my hero shot for the morning. (The reason I shot the panorama before the sunrise vs. with the rising sun in the frame is that with the sun below the clouds, there was very little light change happening between frames. Once the solar disc becomes visible above the clouds, the amount of change in light values and lens flaring increases dramatically and so rapidly, it’s difficult to maintain smooth color gradients between frames.) The finished panoramic photo, shot with my Nikon D800 was 8,000 x 36,000 pixels, and saved as a 1.5 Gb 16-bit TIFF File.

Picture: Tourist photographing the sunrise at the top of Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

There are some people who say that watching the sunrise from Haleakala is one of those bucket list items that you hear about, and truthfully, for me, that’s exactly what it was. But I didn’t have illusions of being there for a personally fulfilling spiritual experience. I was there to photograph. The actual moment of seeing the sunrise was done through a camera viewfinder. After all, it is kinda my job. 😉

But most people don’t get to experience a sunrise from high atop a mountain that often in their lives, so perhaps it should be more of a spiritual experience to be savored. But if you’re looking to watch the sunrise in solitude with a more spiritual and personal slant, you’ll want to avoid the main areas at the top of Haleakala. They’ll be filled with crowds of tourists and the glow of cell phone camera screens. If you want quiet peaceful solitude for this bucket list experience, you’ll want to arrive extra early and go hike a half mile down any of the trails.

And like watching a sunset from any vista point, it was interesting to see how many people left so quickly after the sun rose. It’s like my old boss, Galen Rowell used to say when talking about how nice the light is after a sunset, (paraphrased:) “As soon as the sun sets, you here all sorts of clicking from things other than from a camera, like tripods being collapsed, car doors opening and closing, and motors starting.”

The same thing happened in reverse at sunrise. As soon as the sun was up, cars started going down. It’s as if those people who should have really taken the time to savor the moment simply said “OK, there it was,” and left without further pause.

Once the sun was above the clouds, I focused on where the light was, and used a lens shade to help prevent sun flares. I then continued shooting casually for the next half hour, playing around with my brand new Sony RX100-mIII point and shoot camera. (More about that camera in an upcoming post.)

Picture: Sunrise light on clouds as seen from the summit of Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

Finally an hour or so after sunrise, the calls from my family tugged me back towards the car, and to our decent back down the gentle slopes of this volcanic landscape.

Picture: Road near the summit of Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii

—

If you like this post , I would greatly appreciate it if you’d consider sharing this with your friends using one of the Social Media sharing buttons located at the top of this post. You can also sign up to receive free updates by email when future posts are made to this blog.

—

If you’re interested in any of these images for use in publication or as Fine Art Prints, please let me know.

—

Gary Crabbe is an award-winning commercial and editorial outdoor travel photographer and author based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. He has seven published books on California to his credit, including “Photographing California; v1-North”, which won the prestigious 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal award as Best Regional title. His client and publication credits include the National Geographic Society, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, TIME, The North Face, Subaru, L.L. Bean, Victoria’s Secret, Sunset Magazine, The Nature Conservancy, and many more. Gary is also a photography instructor and consultant, offering both public and private photo workshops. He also works occasionally a professional freelance Photo Editor.