Pololu Valley - Kite Aerial (KAP)

That's quite a hike just to do some sunbathing.

TBenedict I am going to be on the big island starting tomorrow. Do you have any suggestions on places to go/eat? BTW I love your kite synths!

Glad you like the synths!

For places to go, it depends on how much time you have. But Pololu Valley is a good spot (of course) and the nearby towns of Kapa`au and Hawi have good eateries. Waipi`o Valley is also a good one, and Honoka`a has good restaurants as well. I do a lot of photography on the Kona coast, which is good for sand beach and rock beach, but inland it's largely lava flows. Lots of places to eat up and down the coast, though a stop at Kona Brew Pup never goes amiss.

On the Hilo side, it's a bit of a drive to Kalapana, but you can see lava flowing into the ocean. Pahoa has some good spots to eat, and is on the way. The tide pools at Kapoho are also beautiful, and are close to Kalapana. Going north, the Botanical Gardens are beautiful, and well worth the admission. Akaka Falls is also a good spot. The park at Laupahoehoe is beautiful around sunrise and sunset. To the south, a stop at Volcano NP is always worthwhile.

Lots to do and eat!

Thanks for the advice!

In Waimea aka Kamuela have breakfast at the Hawaiian Style Cafe. (Meal is big enough to last you to Dinner :) )

If you're up for a bit of a nature hike you can take the Waipio rim trail which will take you to the back of the Valley. Would be cool to have that synthed since tbenedict already got the mouth.

Another short hike would be to climb buster brown (biggest hill in Waimea), would give you a great view over the town... and I'd be you best friend forever if you synthed my hometown.

Also, if you take the upper road from Waimea to Kohala you'll get a great scenic viewpoint that looks all the way down the coast.

Oooh! Good point! Do stop by Hawaiian Style. Seriously ono grinds. But be prepared! I have yet to be able to finish any meal there except for the reuben. dariusmonsef is not #%!@ng about it being big enough to last you to dinner.

I still haven't climbed that hill... I don't know about you, Schn828, but I'm adding that one to my list.

As for synthing all of Waimea... I think it would be fun to stick a camera on top of my car with an intervalometer script running on it and just drive all over the place. But I have no idea how that would synth. Has anyone tried anything like that yet? Seems like it'd be easy enough to integrate something like that with a series of handheld orbits around some of the landmarks in town.

For that matter, do you think a driving synth like that would work for something like Mana Road? I'm planning to do some more kite aerial photography up there, and could give it a try while I'm driving.

Thank you so much for all the advice on where to go/eat. The main reason I wanted to come to the big island was to see some lava flows. So I am about to leave and drive to do that. It should take up most of the day, and I leave tomorrow, so I do not think that I will be able to make it to the breakfast spot on the opposite side. Breakfast is my favorite meal too so I am a little bummed out. Wherever we end up today, I will post a synth of our adventures.

tbenedict, sticking a camera on your car and driving around would definitely synth as long as the frequency is high enough. you'll get what we call a tunneling synth where pressing the up arrow will take you forward in the synth. i have a sample data set from the chiricahua desert in arizona, i'll upload it shortly.

the only downside to that approach is that you won't be able to look side to side. ideally if you're going to try it you'd want to capture a 360 panorama (make sure you have LOTS of overlap) every so often to tie things together.

Here's an example of a simple driving synth. Keep in mind these photos were taken through the windshield at low quality: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=8803dd0d-5a66-470e-a2cc-1cf656edf0db

Sweet! Hey, thanks for the info and the example, K. I can get 1.2 second interval on the shots, which shouldn't be bad, but I'll have to keep the speed of my car down. The car-top mount is all ready to go, but I'll have to wait for now. There's a big weather system over us right now, and it's raining.

Time to play with Photosynth in the studio!