TTL : Capturing Souls in Paradise (NSFW)

It has come to our attention that we haven't updated our blog in months. Seeing as this is a blogosphere world, I give you my deepest apologies for not sharing our most intimate secrets with the majority of the English speaking and reading world. That being said, today we begin a new series sharing our experiences in the world of photography called "TTL, short for "Through The Lens." Its a doozy, this one. I have been keeping it in a dark place since my wedding last June in Maui. But its cold and dreary out and it seems like its time to let this cat out of the bag.... There is a photo coming up that is NSFW, so be warned.

The Road to Hana is considered by many to be a harbinger of doom. With a healthy dose of fatalities due to narrow lanes, wicked curves and tourist ignorance, the Road to Hana isn't so much a pleasure cruise as it is a test of attrition. I was extremely grateful that my wife took on the driving so I could take pictures of the magnificent scenery. The scattered rains had glossed over the roads and leaves with a nice shimmer that created photographic gold. I spent half the trip standing on my seat, sans restraint, leaning over our windshield taking high speed photography, trying to get it the feel of the Road to Hana just right. And despite the risks I was taking, the results made my heart flutter. (I actually removed a warning sign in post to make it look more like a car ad...)

We took the trip early on a Saturday morning, which makes a huge difference in Maui because there are nearly no TRUCKS driving around these bends at 40 mph on the weekend. Should you travel during the week you risk being splattered at every curve by ferocious semis that don't yield on one lane bridges nor slow down on the hairpin curves. They say 8 people die a week on the road to Hana. While we weren't willing to become a statistic on that Saturday morning, someone else we would meet was more than happy to oblige. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our first stop was in the Garden of Eden. There aren't many places to pull over without getting Islander Stink eye on the road to Hana so to take in the sights, we pulled into the private park. We were using 'Maui Revelead' by Wizard Publications which would lead us to some remarkable off the beaten path secrets, but also result in some sneering from the locals. I say use it at your own risk. (I never felt truly comfortable in Maui. You're always a mainlander, an outsider and a tourist. There's no way to trust the leering eyes of the natives...) Anyhow, the Garden of Eden is a $15 park and walk in the first leg of your trip. We got there during a small monsoon, which again, would lend itself for better pictures. The Jungle should always be wet.
The place was magical and thanks to the rains, fairly empty. The trip was turning out to be a serendipitous as any newlywed couple could ever hope for. We got on the slick Hana highway after about an hour of wandering the grounds of a meticulously manicured paradise. We then set out for our next leg, the sidetrack known as Nahiku Road. This is a three mile, one and a half lane road through the lushest jungle in Maui. We knew that it was going to be a bit of the beaten path, but looked forward to seeing if it lived up to the hype in our guide. After a quick pull off from the death trap known as Hana Highway, our breaths were taken away.
George Harrison supposedly had his house in this area, and Willie Nelson had been spotted smoking dope around here too (He owns half of Maui, btw.) As we passed the natives who sneered and gave us stink eye and the angry signs that read "No Tourists" or "Enter at your own risk", it became clear we were on to something. I always find that when adhering to Risky Business's mantra "Sometimes you gotta say ' What the Fuck!' " life tends to get a bit more interesting. By this time, I was practically standing in my bucket seat shooting the enveloping jungle. We pulled past the final warning sign and saw one of Maui's finest vistas... a lava breakwater with a surging aqua ocean crashing all around. Talk about worth pissing off the natives. We couldn't have ever imagined such a sight at the end of this lush jungle road. I felt like there was no way to covey its grandeur in pictures. So try to imagine that the rocks are the size of an 18-wheeler in the photo above. The drive back resulted in more dirty looks from terrifyingly large natives, but once we plunged out on to the Hana Highway again, we both knew we had seen something that not alot of tourists get to experience. Totally worth it. The rest of the journey was amazing, and I took a thousand pictures...but the whole journey was capped off with a reflective moment that surprised even me. After we reached Hana to pick up my In-Laws (Who were traveling with another caravan) the grey skies found a permanence and would symbolize the grim happenings ahead of us. We were on our way to the Seven Pools at Haleakala National Park, which is about as far as any mainlander will travel. Upon pulling up to the last and final bridge before entering the park at Wailua Falls, we were stopped in our tracks by an extraordinary event. My wife's girlfriend was out of the car and greeted us at the mouth of the bridge. Upon asking what was happening she looked at us with a somber face and said "This guy just killed himself. Jumped off the bridge."


Bridge jumping is something of an art in Hawaii. There are more than enough pools and waterfalls to keep the daredevil population extremely satisfied, but in the case of the Wailua Falls bridge you'd have to be insane to try to leap. Below the twenty foot drop is a pool of flat and round stones with about 18 inches to 3 feet of water. Not even near enough for the most experienced of jumpers to attempt. We parked the car, I grabbed my 70-300 mm lens and ran to the scene of the crime. Here was my first earth shattering moment. I wasn't anxious. Not even nervous. I have had the unfortunate pleasure of discovering dead bodies before and am well equipped to handle the mess that we make of ourselves on the way out to greener pastures. We got to the bridge and I looked over the side. Fairly far down, two men were dragging the dead rat of a man out of the water. I finished changing the lens at lightspeed and took a look through the zoom. "He's dead. Gone." I uttered to my wife. Despite the panic and attempts of CPR by the men who bravely risked life and limb to retrieve the jumper's limp corpse, I could see the man's head was swollen with trauma, inflated like two basketballs. (My wife would comment later that he looked like a squirrel with walnuts in his mouth. Pretty accurate.) People were shouting their two cents from the bridge, thinking that there was some way to save this poor SOB, but it was clearly obvious nothing was happening. One of them exclaimed from below as he stuck a bamboo rod in the victim's throat, trying to clear it "He's breathing!" while the story in my lens suggested that they had just let out the final gasp of air in this already cold body. I snapped a bunch of pics at high speed and one really spoke to me. I have not shared it with anyone but close friends and family until now. (Though I did contact the Honolulu Times to see if they were interested in the story.) The story was that this native from the other side of the island was at the falls with his buddy. They were high, wasted, strung out on Meth....who knows. But according to eyewitnesses, they were clearly OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS. The jumper was boasting about how he could make the jump. The locals who were hanging out did everything in their power to convince him otherwise. Tourists even cited the idea as insane. Regardless, the bastard took a nosedive into the kiddie pool of death below. His buddy, realizing something horrible happened, did what any other spineless addict would do: He got in his black pick up truck and bolted, leaving his buddy gurgling on his own blood at the bottom of a rocky, watery grave.

Behind me, as I was shooting this horrible crime scene was Wailua Falls, one of Hana's crown gems. I took this picture while everyone looked over the railing behind me at the town fool.


We would go on to the Seven Pools and talk to the park rangers immediately. Apparently, rumor had spread that I had caught the whole incident on film...which of course was not the case. They took my information anyway but never called. We heard from the Officers and bus drivers that there were reports of the erratic, speeding black Nissan pick up truck trying to burn its way back through Hana. Sirens erupted and that was that. When we finally reached the Seven Pools, it didn't surprise any of us to find them closed due to violent rapids. It was almost fitting. I checked my settings and knew that this picture would be perfect in Black and White, capturing the beauty and violence that is the Road to Hana. -TC