Since I returned home last week, I have not had a lot of time to edit my new images, but this one is definitely worth sharing. I photographed this dramatic sunset while visiting the US National Park of American Samoa on Ofu Island last month. It took a lot of effort to travel this out-of-the-way tropical destination, which was part of the charm, but also explains why it is the least visited of the US National Parks. I stayed at the Vaoto Lodge where Jim, Ben, & Marge were delightful hosts. Other than the 2 researchers who were doing coral studies, I had the entire stretch of beach in the Park all to myself. I photographed a number of brilliant sunrise and sunsets, but this was the most spectacular. As much as I travel, it is still special when the clouds light up with intense color like this. I composed this image by framing the dramatic peaks in the distance with this eroded limestone shelf with waves washing over it in the foreground. I created this image with my Canon 5DmkII, Carl Zeiss 28mm f2 ZE lens, Singh-Ray LB Warming polarizer, and 3-stop Hard Graduated Neutral Density filter. This image is a single-exposure which required minimal processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.
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That is Toaga Beach with Olosega Island on the background
soia-Thanks for the name. No one ever told me & it is not on the Park map. I will look it up to confirm that you are correct. I am assuming that you visited Ofu? How long ago? I’d love to see some of your images.
I was born in Ofu, and did not get back there until I was well into my 60’s. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our “very short but very eventful” stay. The scene you photographed was very similar to the one we took. You colours are so much more vibrant/brilliant but to me they embodied my beautiful home of Ofu. Fa’afetai tele lava.