I hesitated to start this post about Queens Bath on Kauai as I know that quite a number of people have been killed in this area of Kauai – swept from the rocks by an unexpected wave and drowned. So I’m not recommending, at all, that you go there, and even if you do go for a look, I wouldn’t go swimming there although I know many do! In this short article, I plan to show you what you will see down there – perhaps the images will be enough for you! I do have this waterfall one on my wall at home as a nice reminder of happy times on Kauai!
This was a tricky one to take and as you can see, the ocean is not particularly rough, so much so that a fisherman very kindly was standing on the end of the rocks to provide a perfect focal point for our eyes in this image! However, I had to climb down the rocks on the right with my camera and tripod and stand on the boulders at the end of this little cave. Of course each incoming wave resulted in a spray of water and so my lens constantly had droplets on it. I was going for about a 1 second exposure to slightly blur the water and the waterfall with several different exposures to cope with the contrasty light. Still, the final result more than made my day and I’m very pleased with the result.
But to step back one or two steps. The route down to the rock platform is treacherous to say the least. Not an image I want on my wall, but this is the typical condition of the path:
Not for the faint hearted! When you reach the bottom, this is the scene that faces you (or at least it does if you go on a really nice evening as the sun is setting behind some clouds):
This was taken in May as obviously the sun sets in a different position as the year moves on. If you visit on a calm day in January, it looks more like this:
For those counting, this was a 15 second exposure – the waves were stronger on that day in January.
Walking along the rock shelf takes you to the actual pool known as Queens Bath. This was taken in November on a calm day:
And around at an adjacent pool on a very calm February morning, I was very pleased to see some great colors in the seaweed developing on the rocks:
But just to show how conditions can change with the weather and the wind direction, here is a view along that same rock shelf in January. Amazingly, there were two young men planning to dive into the pool at this same time – crazy!
Finally, to end this little tour of this North Shore gem, a more artistic view of the rocks just off the coast with the waves splashing around. I particularly liked the little still pool on the top of the rocks – a nice contrast to the rough ocean waves.
I’ve written other articles about Kauai here on my site. In particular, there is one about my personal ten best places to photograph on the island here.
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Rebecca Herranen
17 Jul 2021These images are beautiful and even though I have lived on Kauai and still have family there, I have never been there. Will have to ask my nephew to take me when I go next month. On the image of the NaPali coast that you shot a 15 second exposure, were you using an ND filter too? If so which one? We just got ND filters and are trying to learn before our trip to California.
admin
18 Jul 2021On this one, I had a 25 second exposure. I have two ND filters, one is a Singh-Ray Vari-n-Duo that is a combination variable ND filter and a polarizing filter. It is pretty expensive but high quality and having both in one filter allows you to remove reflections from water and rocks at the same time with the polarizer. It is also better for traditional DSLR as you can set the focus with the variable ND set very low so that you can see things through the lens and then lengthen the exposure ready for the shot by upping the ND effect. Its downside is that on wider angles lens (I was using a 24 – 105mm), it causes vignetting. The image you mention was taken at 26mm and I had to crop in to get rid of the darker edges in the corners. I also have a fixed ND filter 10-stop from Breakthrough Photography, which is a larger filter size and I bought a step down filter mount at the same time. This can go on any of my lenses and doesn’t have the vignette. The cheaper ones change the colors as they step down the brightness I think. I use the latter one a lot for waterfalls.
Steve