Sunset on the Beach near Aulani in Hawaii

The sun sets past the lagoon and ocean near the Disney resort of Aulani on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi, as seen during our June 2023 visit.

As you may know from reading the trip report, we went for a walk just about every evening that we were there. Part of that was to work off some of the calories we had eaten (do vacation calories even count?), part of that was to unwind from the day (not that we were stressed, but it is always good to relax at the end of the day), and part of that was to enjoy the beautiful scenery and sunsets. And as you might imagine, photos were taken on most of those nights, too. Not quite every night, but most of them.

The above photo is just one of many examples of what we saw. You might also want to check out this sunset and palm tree (taken on this same day), as well as most of the trip report parts to see more. However, I felt like some of the photos deserved posts of their own, and this one was one of them. But how about a few more photos than just this one?

People on the Beach

This next photo was taken from a slightly different vantage point than the first one. You can see the sand of the beach, and you can see a few people enjoying the water.

You can also see one person in particular at the edge of the water, and that person is Laura. She was always wanting to put her feet in the water anytime we were near it, and this night was no exception.

Laura at the Beach

So here is Laura with her feet in the water, lit by the glow of the setting sun. As was true most every night, it was a colorful sunset, and these photos captured the colors well.

Good times and great memories!

By the way, these photos all come from Day 6 of our trip. You can see more from that day in the Day 6 trip report post.

Don’t Rush

So many times, we are rushing from one thing to the next, when what we really need to do is just slow down.

Laura reminded us of that several times when we would be walking or doing something else, and she just wanted to stop and put her feet in the water. When she did that, I would always take time to notice the scenery, the colors, the people, the water, the trees, everything that was around us.

At other times the sunset reminded us of that. Our goal was to walk, but many times we could not help stopping to enjoy the sunset. If we had just kept on going, we would not have spent as much time looking at the sunsets. But we did not have a schedule or a deadline, so why not slow down and look around?

Sometimes schedules and deadlines are important. But even then, it is good to slow down and catch your breath for at least a few minutes. Get up and walk around. Talk to someone. Send a text message to a friend. Slow down so that the really important things do not pass you by.

When we are rushing, we sometimes forget what is really important. Pay attention to those reminders to slow down and take a break. It will be worth it in the long run.

About the Photos

These three photos are actually outtakes from Day 6 of the trip report. Sort of. When I was putting together the report, I felt that it was getting rather photo-heavy, especially since I had a couple of other sunset photos in there as well. So I decided that these could stand on their own in a separate post.

When I am working on photos for a trip report, I usually do a quicker version of processing, meaning that I do not spend as much time on those photos as I would on those for a post with just a couple of photos. However, that “fast” processing worked just fine for these photos. So there was not a need to put any extra time in them anyway. Those are the best ones sometimes.

Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Raw Therapee.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
Date: June 18, 2023
Location: Aulani, Ko Olina, Hawaiʻi