Category Archives: Nature
My Top-10 Hawaiian Sunsets
About 10 days ago I posted a picture of one of my favorite sunset shots that I took in Hawaii. You can view it here (Hawaiian Sunset at Turtle Bay Resort). In that blog post I explained that about 75% of my pictures from that trip were sunsets (but really, who can blame me?). So, today I am offering you a look at my top-10 favorite sunset shots that I took from that same Hawaii trip. How would you rank them?
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Please like, share, and comment if you enjoyed this post! Also, don’t forget to follow my blog for more photography from around the world!
Ben
Glowing Grafitti
A few weeks ago, I posted a blog post about the history of our ancient French monastery that has been passed down in our family for several generations. Click here if you want to read about it more and also look back and see the images I took of the Milky Way as well. The images below were taken on the same night. After dinner we decided to build a camp fire from scratch using one of the best fire starters, pine cones. We laughed, we drank, we then played with sticks of burning fire and acted like we were in the movie Highlander. Anyways, please like, share, and comment if you enjoyed these sweet pictures!
Lover’s Beach, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Welcome to Lover’s Beach, Cabo San Lucas, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez. Only the bravest of adventurers can set foot on these majestic sands because there is no dock, no direct access, and often times large waves to restrict any average tourist from coming. Don’t believe me? Just look at the images below and you will notice that there is not one single person other than myself and my girlfriend on the beach. During the day you can take a glass-bottom boat and try and jump out to swim to the sands, but most people just watch and take pictures from the water. My girlfriend and I pursued a more non-traditional route and walked along the entire peninsula until we reached it. The excursion took us about an hour, but it was an absolutely amazing experience to do it. Have you ever been to Lover’s Beach before? Share your experience in the comments!
Ben
Fun fact of the day: There is a ‘Divorce Beach’ adjacent to ‘Lover’s Beach’. The name ‘Divorce Beach’ was given because of the high volatility of the ocean, similar to an unsteady relationship. 
Hawaiian Sunset at Turtle Bay Resort
When I played college basketball at Chapman University, we took a 10-day trip to Oahu to play BYU Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University. Fortunately, our program broke their budget a little bit and spoiled us student athletes by staying at the world famous Turtle Bay Resort for the entire stay and let me tell you, it was one hell of a basketball trip! Hawaii is such a magnificent place to photograph that I ended up with over 2,000 images after 10 days. Of which, 75% were sunsets. But who can blame me, Hawaii has some of the best sunsets in the world. This picture was taken from the main pool at Turtle Bay Resort. Please like, share, and comment if you enjoyed this picture!
Ben
The Milky Way from an Ancient French Monastery
These photos were taken during July of 2012 without any sort of professional equipment, simply a Nikon D90 and a 10.2 mm lens. Of course, with a little bit of PhotoShop, the pictures came to life. As an amateur photographer, I was beyond excited with the results.
This location where the photos were taken, as we call it ‘Crouzet’, is located in the outskirts of a small village called Aubenas, France. The larger geographical area it is located in is called Ardèche. We roughly own 50 acres of the land around the building. Although it is hard to pinpoint exactly when it was built, it is believed to be around as far as the 14th century. During it’s long history, it first served as a monastery and then was later bought out and turned into a silk mill. The owner of the silk mill had two daughters and they happened to marry two Ricard brothers back in the early 1900s, which is how it fell into my family. Our tradition is to hand Crouzet to the first born son, and believe it or not, the first born child has been a boy in the Ricard family tree for as far as we know, and as the second born son, I am a little bit bitter about this tradition.
Today, we use this place as a vacation home during the Summer where we usually invite friends and family to stay with us for a week, or longer. Without TV or Internet, it truly is a therapeutic escape from life. I have retained some of my best childhood memories from Crouzet, and I hope to do the same for my children and grandchildren.
Please like and share if you enjoyed the blog post and the pictures. Comment if you would like to see more images from this magical place.
Ben
Life of a Pipeline Surfer
These two photos were taken during December at the world famous Pipeline which is located at the North Shore of O’ahu, Hawaii. I sat there for hours mesmerized at how powerful these waves actually were. The top image describes perfectly the outcome of these violent waves. What’s even more incredible is that this day was considered to be a ‘medium’ day according to some of the locals. If you want to know more please comment and I will respond as soon as possible. Please like and share with your friends if you enjoyed these images.
Ben
The Malibu Bandit
I took this photo in Malibu, California at Leo Carrillo State Beach. I put this photo under my ‘lucky’ category because it is one of those moments where you don’t have any time to react, you just have to press the shutter release button. I am sure most photographers can relate to moments like these in life. If only the wave was breaking in the background! I hope you enjoy this photo. Keep an eye out for more of my work. Don’t forget to like and share!
Ben
Ben Ricard Photography & Film 