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June 21st, 2008
Are you looking for a little excitement and some fun in the sun? Are you looking for something for the kids to do this summer? Then look no further than Maria Souza.
Owner of the Maria Souza Ocean Sports Education LLC here in Maui, Maria teaches the new sport of Stand-up Paddle Boarding. The real treat is that Maria sponsors a once a month free teaching for kids from different programs such as youth centers, Boys and Girls Clubs and others. Her goal is to safely introduce ocean sports, including Stand-up Paddle Boarding to people, especially teens.
The program includes Maria’s teaching the kids about safety, weather assessment, posture, technique, balance and time on the board. Stand-up Paddle Boarding is easier to learn than surfing and is an activity that unites the whole family in the ocean. Maria designates every Sunday for family beach day and is all about fun and family.
The art and sport of Stand-up Paddle Boarding can be done either in the ocean, the river or on lakes, as it is an activity than can be done on flat water as well as in the surf. This sport also offers some tremendous benefits of health to your body. It is a core strengthener, it corrects postural distortions, it uses all muscles in the body, and it uses neuro-muscle coordination, balance and can serve as a de-stressor.
Maria is the first woman and the first Brazilian to tow into the powerful waves at Jaws. Born in Recife, Brazil, she competed in gymnastics until she fell in love with surfing at age 13. Maria traveled the world surfing, and then settled on the North Shore of Oahu, before moving to Maui, to build her big wave surfing skills.
After giving birth to her daughter Bela, she began to train hard again for tow-in surfing.
Maria also excels at kite Surfing and windsurfing and has also become a personal trainer herself. She went to college for marketing and designs her own line of swimwear.
Maria, along with Andrea Moeller, finished first on the first ever stand-up paddle channel crossing in 2005 and first again in 2006, a 7-hour crossing. Maria practices tow-in surfing, foil surfing, windsurfing, kiteboarding, Hawaiian canoe, longboarding, tandem surfing and stand-up paddle.
If you are interested in scheduling club or private family lessons, or just learning Stand-up Paddle Board, other activities that Maria has to offer, or would like to donate equipment or funds towards her free programs for kids, she can be contacted at 808-579-9231 or by email at mariabelabela@aol.com. In addition, if you would like your activity captured on film, you can inform Maria or contact Nicole Sanchez, owner of Behind The Lens Maui at 808-205-2366 or through her website, behindthelensmaui.com. group
Written By: Dwayne Mc Murtrie
June 21st, 2008
A problem many people have is that you never know what you’ll run into – when vacationing in southern Europe, or needing Hawaii photography tips, it is likely already too late to remember that you needed an extra memory card/stick, a spare battery, or can’t take a picture that doesn’t shake like Jello. This is where accessories come in – they can help to complete a picture-taking experience by giving the one thing you didn’t know you needed so you can get the perfect shot or the job done.
| Perhaps the accessory that gets the least respect by amateur photographers is a carrying case or bag. Ironically, this is the easiest way to not only protect your investment, which can easily cost up to or over $1000, but to also bring along all the spare parts you may or may not need on that particular day. With extra pockets, slots and a good solid strap, you can make sure you haven’t left anything behind and can still keep your hands free when trekking around on a mountain. Of course, it’s also the easiest way to identify a tourist in a foreign land, but everything has trade-offs. |
| Tripods are commonly used to minimize tremor associated with night shots, long zooms or professional portraits where as much time is spent organizing the audience rather than simply capturing a scene. For the budget- or space-conscious, buy a fist-sized beanbag or hacky sack and bring it with you – it makes a very flexible mini-tripod. Even some professionals will use them in awkward situations, like positioning the camera on a rock, ledge or other precarious positions. The moldable shape and portability make it the perfect must-have accessory |
| Lenses are often overlooked by all but professionals and serious hobbyists, but they do have applications with the lucky owner whose camera allows for those upgrades. Wide-angle lenses and telephoto lenses can be used well in nature scenes, conjuring up visions of the Grand Canyon or safaris along the Serengeti. Filters are inserted in front of the lens itself and distort or affect the light coming through to the camera’s light sensor. A polarizing filter, or polarizer, for example, filters light as it angles further away from straight ahead, and as a result gives truer tones to objects in its field of vision - which really helps to take the glare off of sunny days. In many cases, these effects can be reproduced with software programs that crop an image, tweak the colour spectrum, and otherwise alter the image, however, generally speaking, the less editing you have to do of your pictures after the fact, the easier photography will be for you. |
| When traveling to Hawaii or just heading away from home for an afternoon, plan on having a travel pack of accessories: additional batteries or a charger in case your camera battery dies on you, an external flash, and an extra memory card/stick or two in case you run out of room (many photographers find a good mix with large, medium, and small sizes a good fit – the large card/stick is the main storage used 95% of the time, the medium serving as backup with enough space to hold a day’s worth of pictures, and the small card/stick big enough for half a dozen shots in an emergency). |
June 21st, 2008
Certainly, the most obvious question that users have is what kind of camera they should choose. Camera users normally fall into one of three main categories: amateurs, hobbyists and professionals, and knowing where you fit can help you identify what features might be important, and what type of camera would make sense for your needs. Are you looking to just take a few pictures of family and friends, capture memories from vacations, or produce shots of nature and landscapes to build a portfolio? Also think about how much quality you are willing to trade away for portability, as cameras can range from large and bulky professional quality SLR cameras (Single Lens Reflex) to small ultra-portable cameras, some of which may not even have a flash.
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Cameras are typically broken down into groups: ultra-compact, compact, prosumer or hobbyist, and digital SLR, and most manufacturers build units in several categories to capture more of the market. On each end of the range, the ultra-compacts are designed to be the most portable, often fitting into pockets easily and used as key chains, while the digital SLR cameras are professional quality tools that have the widest range of options, such as external flashes, lenses and tripods (but are also often the largest and most cumbersome to carry). Most units fall into the middle two categories, with compacts having a good range of quality, resolution, and options, and the prosumer range including higher quality and greater control over manual options and accessories. |
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Buying by only the megapixel rating will mean you will miss out on the other features of the camera – portability, accessories, a good quality flash, but it is one of the most important considerations. Less than 3 megapixel cameras are suitable for basic snapshots; the camera will be small and good enough to take basic ‘I was there’ shots, but the images won’t be as clear if you want anything larger than standard 4×6 prints. Between 3 and 5 megapixels, you will find the best range of everyday use and vacation cameras – you can fill your photo albums with shots from cameras in this range or use them as desktop images, as you will generally find the images are good enough that you don’t need any more and will be able to make good quality prints at a variety of sizes. From 5 to 7 megapixels, you will find serious cameras for hobbyists that want to explore photography as an art or those that are looking to stay ahead of the curve – the images will take up more hard drive space but will be perfect for manipulation and printing out in larger sizes. Choose a camera of 7 megapixels or more if you are a professional and expect to be paid for the work you produce, as these cameras are overkill for casual everyday use, but ideal for professionals who need the highest resolution for larger prints, and more flexible cropping options. |
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Zooming is another important consideration with digital cameras - there are two kinds of zoom: optical zoom and digital zoom. An optical zoom factor is one that relies on the lens itself magnifying the light coming in, so that what is distant appears larger and closer in the resulting image. A digital zoom factor is one that takes the resulting image and magnifies it after the fact. Needless to say, an optical zoom factor is much more important than a digital zoom factor (and produces better quality results). |
| The way the images themselves are stored can be a factor in your decision, as some camera makers have proprietary storage systems that are incompatible with the cameras of other makes. Some common formats are Compact Flash (a fairly common format across both compact and professional cameras), Sony Memory Stick (unique to Sony cameras, but also supported by Sony computers, televisions, and other devices), and SmartMedia. Storage sizes can range from the smallest 64K card/stick, which can hold about three dozen three megapixel images, to the larger 1G cards/sticks, which can hold more than 500 of the same images. Prices have come down on most of the memory cards/sticks making selection of the larger sizes more affordable and a smarter choice. Choose the largest size you are comfortable with, and ideally select a second smaller stick as a backup in case the first one becomes full – a combination of a 256K with a 64K card/stick is good enough if you move all your images onto your computer on a regular basis. |
June 21st, 2008
One by-product of the digital photography revolution is that photographers no longer need to rely on traditional film processing or darkrooms to enjoy their prints. Understanding the relationship between camera resolution and final print size can help you make decisions on what pictures are the best to print, and how to go about printing them. Normal snapshot prints can be made of images that are 2 to 3 megapixels, but you will normally require a higher resolution to print larger photographs.
| Fortunately, most traditional film photo printing services also provide printing services for digital camera users. To take advantage of these services, you have flexible options: drop off just your memory card or stick, bring in your whole camera, bring in a copy of your pictures on a CD - or submit them electronically over the Internet, bypassing the lines, the wait and most of the hassle. These services allow you to either pick up the resulting prints at the store or have them delivered through postal mail. Submitting photos electronically can be a convenient option if you plan on doing a lot of editing of the images (to crop, or correct for colours, etc) before getting them printed. You can choose between various services, such as Kodak/Ofoto, Black’s, Yahoo! Photos and Shutterfly, with more options to choose from and better pricing as long as you’re willing to work strictly online. |
| Another convenient option, which can yield professional looking results, is to simply print photos at home. Fortunately, many standard printers have entered the market combining both everyday use with specialized photo printing capabilities, for example the Canon Pixma or the HP Photosmart. If you choose to print photos at home on a colour inkjet, be sure to use the specialized photo printing paper, as that can have a big impact on the final result – with the right equipment, there can be little difference between printing at home and printing using professional traditional photo printing services. |
| To really get the most out of printing your Maui vacation photos at home, there are specialized photo printers such as Sony Digital Printer that can either connect directly to the camera or to your PC, and use a specialized printing process that is similar to what the professionals use in photo labs. The cost per print is higher than what you would see with a multi-purpose colour printer, however, the end result is of far higher quality and will last longer, with the convenience of printing whatever photos you want, on the spot, at any time. |
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Maui Photography of Stand up Paddling - Maria Souza
