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I saw firsthand the impact marine conservation projects can have. Read my story with photos, "Snorkeling Big Island Reefs: How Protection Brought Hawaiʻi’s Sea Life Back."
It is free on Medium, with no paywall. >> Link in comments. ⬇️

A VERY popular tourist spot on the Big Island is Rainbow Falls, which sits in Wailuku River State Park just west of downtown Hilo on the Big Island, where the Wailuku River drops about 80 feet over a ledge of ancient lava. The Hawaiian name Waiānuenue means "rainbow seen in water" — on sunny mornings, sunlight hits the mist. Hawaiian legend says the cave behind the falls is the home of Hina, the mother of the demigod Māui.

For other Hawai'i stories and photos, check out my blog on Medium; always free, no paywall. ⬇️ Link in comments

An unidentified hiker pauses above the breaking surf at Onomea Bay, along the trail near the Hawaiʻi Tropical Botanical Garden near Papaʻikou on the Hāmākua Coast. The rock taking the pounding here is basalt from the lava flows that built this side of the island, and the relentless wave action is an example of coastal erosion slowly wearing away at stone.

For other Hawai'i stories and photos, check out my blog on Medium; always free, no paywall. >> Link in comments ⬇️

▪️Along the Halemaʻumaʻu Trail in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, the coiled frond of a young fern — called a crozier or fiddlehead — showcases one of the oldest growth forms in the plant kingdom. Ferns have unfurled this way for more than 360 million years, long before flowering plants existed. Several fern species along the trail exhibit the same spiral emergence, including the native ʻamaʻu (Sadleria cyatheoides) and the larger hāpuʻu (Cibotium spp.), both foundational to the rainforest ecosystem here.

The tightly wound spiral protects the delicate developing tissue as it pushes upward, unrolling only once it clears potential hazards. In Hawaiian culture, the fiddlehead symbolizes new life and new beginnings, and fern imagery appears widely in traditional art, chant, and hula. Early Hawaiians also ate the young fronds of hāpuʻu in times of scarcity.

For other Hawai'i stories and photos, check out my blog on Medium; always free, no paywall. >> Link in comments ⬇️

How can you go to Hawaii and not photograph the sunset? Cliche, sure, but always as dramatic as fireworks on the Fourth of July.

This sunset was photographed on the Kohala Coast of Hawaii Island. The west-facing Kohala and Kona coasts consistently deliver dramatic sunsets because of basic geography: the massive bulk of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa blocks the moisture-laden trade winds coming from the northeast, leaving the leeward side dry, clear, and oriented directly into the setting sun.

The silhouetted palms here are coconut palms (Cocos nucifera), a Polynesian-introduced "canoe plant" brought by the earliest Hawaiian voyagers somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago.

• For other Hawai'i stories and photos, check out my blog on Medium; always free, no paywall. >> Link in comments ⬇️

A recent discussion with a friend about the impact of bad design on content reminded me of what I wrote back in 2002. This page is from the 89-page News-Leader Design Style Guide I wrote when I redesigned the newspaper that year. The design advice I offered in the guide’s introduction is timeless and easy to remember. It was good advice then, and still is today.

VIDEO & STORY: I timed my trip to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park to catch Kīlauea's lava fountains. Pele didn't cooperate, but the trails, petroglyphs, and forests did. Read my story for free on Medium, no paywall. >> Link in comments. ⬇️

Attending the 2026 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships is probably the closest I’ll ever get to attending an Olympic event, let alone photographing one. Images look best on a monitor or iPad. >> Link to story and photos in comments below. ⬇️

Quote from the story: “This is not going to strengthen the Forest Service, it is going to weaken it,” Bonnie said. “It’s not about solving problems, it’s about blowing things up.”

None of the farm groups want this. No one in conservation wants this. Nobody.

Forest Service overhaul sows confusion, concern - High Country News In the Trump administration’s reorganization of the struggling agency, painful echoes of BLM’s past moves.

Are A.I.-Generated Videos Changing How We See Animals? (Gift Article) By manipulating animals to do wonderful things, we may become numb to their real wonder.