Minolta XG-9 to Maui | RainbowMinolta XG-9 to Maui | a 7 Image Story  My first trip to Maui was also my first trip with my new Minolta XG-9 SLR camera.  The XG-9 replaced my SRT-102 as my top camera.  The SRT-102 was a great camera and a hard act to follow.  The XG-9 was smaller and a bit easier to use.  It performed quite well in Maui, even though it was new to its photographer.

Maui is known for it’s rainbows. It seems like there’s a rainbow everyday. Rain clouds frequent the tops of the west Maui mountains.  Sometimes, the rain in the mountains will blow onto the beach while the beach remains sunny. You can sunbath in rain drops and get a sunburn.  One night, when driving back from dinner after dark, a rainbow made by a full moon and mountain clouds could be seen for miles. It wasn’t very colorful, but was clearly a rainbow.

Maui is such a beautiful island, it’s hard to think about crops.  The sugar cane fields dominate the southern slopes of west Maui.  Notice the almost ever present clouds on the mountain tops.  The West Maui Mountains are also called West Maui Volcano or Mauna Kahalawai.  Mauna Kahalawai means “holding house of water” which relates to the huge amount of annual rainfall in the mountain tops.  The mountains are made from a highly eroded extinct shield volcano; approximately 1.7 million years old.

Haleakala is the world’s largest dormant volcano.  At 10,023 feet tall on the east side of Maui, it provides numerous breathtaking landscapes and skyscapes.  Haleakala means “house of the sun” in Hawaiian.  Sunrise on Haleakala may be the most spectacular sunrise on earth.  Near the summit, the Haleakala Crater offers hours of hiking in a colorful, sculpted cinder desert.   There are many hiking trails offering solitude with scenic vistas through sub-alpine shrub land, cloud forest, and cinder desert.

For more information on the Minolta XG-9 camera, please see Minolta XG-9 Camera.

Each image will be posted individually this week with a bit more narrative under category Minolta XG-9 to Maui.

Click any image below for a slide show!