The Wai Koa Loop Trail is one of those hidden gems that you find on the island of Kauai. Shelley and I little arrived in the afternoon to walk the trail and photograph the mahogany grove.
The Wai Koa Loop Trail
The trail is roughly 4.5 miles in length and takes 2-4 hours to complete if you are just walking. Making photographs and filming videos will, of course, increases the amount of time that takes to complete the trail. For information on the Wai Koa Loop Trail, check out the Anaina Hou Community Park website by clicking here.
Mahogany Grove – Kauai
For Shelley and I’s first stop along the trail, we came to bend in the path that revealed rows of evenly planted Mahogany trees. I, for one, could not pass up the opportunity to photograph these perfectly rowed trees. The directional sunlight that was raining down on the trees that afternoon created the quality of light that I was hoping to find.
I made this photograph with my Nikon D600 at ISO 100, 100mm, f/14, and 1/6 of a second.
Mahogany Tree Tunnel – Kauai
For my second composition on that afternoon, I choose to photograph the trail has it passed through the tree tunnel that has been created by the Mahogany trees. The path leads uphill at this point and under the canopy of the Mahogany grove.
The tree canopy is thick, but not so much as to block all of the late afternoon light. I then began to notice that dappled light and light rays were making it through the canopy. The rays of light were falling along the path. And where adding contrast to the scene. This quality of light gave me the slide light that I was looking for along the tree tunnel.
I made this photograph with my Nikon D600 at ISO 100, 100mm, f/14, and 1/6 of a second.
Shelley and I walked the entire Wai Koa Loop trail that afternoon. As we approached the halfway point, we began to lose the light. The Sun was sinking behind the mountains to the south and west.
With the understanding that the light was genuinely fading, we donned our headlamps and quickened our pace. I, for one, did not want to walk through the Mahogany grove in the dark. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. The Mahogany grove was the darkest part of the hike. And without the aid our headlamps, it would have been an awkward hike, to say the least. Shelley and I pushed through and made it back to the car just after sunset.
To read more about Shelley and I’s Photographing Kauai 2019 trip click here.
To view the video series on our YouTube Channel click here.
