For the past week, I’ve been at a photo workshop – See the Light – on Molokai with Dewitt Jones, Jonathan Kingston and Rikki Cooke. It has been an exciting week filled with great photo opportunities, wide ranging discussions and wonderful people. Our host is the Hui Ho’olana where we’ve been treated to warm hospitality and absolutely outstanding food.

This morning, we left at 5:15 to drive to Mo’omomi Preserve, the last remnants of a once extensive Hawaiian ecosystem. It is now a Nature Conservancy site. I was fortunate enough to ride with Rikki who told stories of the history of this area as well as of the efforts to restore the ecosystem by removing invasive, non-native plants. It’s a slow process, but we were able to see areas where endemic plants were returning.

As we fanned out along the shoreline to photograph the sunrise, there was a big cloud right where the sun would come up. The cloud blocked the first rays of the sunrise but, as the sun rose higher, it began to illuminate the cliffs of Molokai’s north shore producing layers of different shades. The result was spectacular. As we walked back to the cars, fourteen voices shouted “Thank You.”