Peter Liu Photography

Water Play At Sunset, Makena Cove

There’s something about Makena Cove that lends itself to slow shutter shooting. Every time I go there, I have the urge to capture the movement of the water as it ebbs and flows.

Yesterday evening, I was there with my friend Meliezza Walker, who was visiting from Texas. She’s a portrait shooter but wanted to learn more about landscapes, so I handed her a tripod with a ballhead and we set off for the beach.

We explored some of the nuances of slowing the shutter at various settings to see what changed, then I showed her how to use an ND grad to shoot the sunset. We had a lot of fun.

So who’s up for the next photowalk?

Water play at sunset at Makena Cove, Maui, Hawaii

Sunset at Makena Cove, Maui, Hawaii

Sunset Water Play At Makena Cove

Makena Cove at sunset.

When I first arrived at Makena Cove to shoot a sunset a month or so ago, it didn’t really look like it was going to amount to anything. That’s the way it is here. Sometimes the sunsets work and sometimes they fizzle.

I’m glad I stayed. As it turned out, it ended up being a fabulous sunset, but the show didn’t begin until the sun was below the horizon. It just proves that a mentor of mine was right when he told me of sunsets a long time ago, “It isn’t over until it’s really over.”

While I was watching the sun sink in and out of the clouds, I was mesmerized by the movement of the water as the light changed, and walked around the beach capturing some of those moments. Here are a few of those shots. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did when I was making them.