Waipio Valley - Big Island Hawaii

Waipi'o Valley is one of those shots every Big Island tourist has taken at one point or another. But you know what? I don't care because it's still super cool and makes for an amazing photo. There are lot of great places like this on the Big Island that are absolutely stunning yet super easy to access.

People actually live around here and down in the valley and get to see this every day. Imagine being born and raised here, you would probably be completely ignorant to how awesome the view this is. But at the same time, you'd come to L.A. and probably think the Hollywood sign is cool, something I have to stare at everyday as I'm stuck in traffic. 🙂

Waipi'o Valley – Big Island Hawaii

I did something unusual on this photo that I don't usually do. It was a single exposure but I still tone mapped it in Photomatix. Why would I do that? Because there is something tone mapping does to the image, or at least Photomatix does to the image that can really help the colors and saturation pop.

I really wanted the water in the shot to have that almost emerald like feel, which is how it felt when I was there, and tone mapping in Photomatix was really the only way I knew of to get this particular look without going completely crazy in Photoshop.

If you don't have Photomatix, you should check it out. It's a must have tool that I think every photographer should have in there arsenal. You can see my Photomatix review here to see more on how I use it.