About
Hi,
My name is Noah.
I’m a self-taught outdoor photographer and writer living on the Island of Oʻahu with my miniature dachshund, Eleanor!
Home! 🌴🌋
Hiking, and really my love for being outside, has taken me to some of the most beautiful places here at home and around the world.
It has taught me skills beyond hitting a typical trail, which eventually led me to mountaineering, and mountaineering eventually led to an amazing two-week unguided expedition up the highest peak in North America with a really fun group of friends!
At home in Hawaiʻi, I’m always looking for great ways to give back, and I’ve been thrilled by the overwhelming support as I continue to tell others about our native landscapes with my ever-growing native Hawaiian plant article. Working on this post has continually been one of my favorite things about this blog.
My Background
I did not study photography or go to school for writing.
In fact, when I was 18 years old, I decided to enlist above all other options because I wanted to do something different. From my grandfather, who left the Korean War with a Purple Heart, to my dad, numerous uncles, cousins, and then me, the military has been a big part of my family’s history. However, I quickly learned over the course of my first deployment that it wasn’t for me, which ultimately led to my decision to separate after my first contract.
Following this, my academic journey led me to a graduate degree in natural resources, with a focus on rare and endangered native Hawaiian plants—almost unrelated to what I do today. This explains my love for the subject and why I encourage all to be responsible wherever you may travel.
That being said, I am self-taught in this field in the truest sense, which is one of the biggest reasons that I believe my work has the success that it does! I learned to write and publish through trial and error and constant mistakes, so by no means am I an academic when it comes to journalism. However, it is because I am not an academic that my writing is easy to read, easy to understand, and written for the average person to digest, which is why I believe that it works!
Above all else, Hawaiʻi is my home, and I hope that if you live here or have the opportunity to visit, you will come to love and appreciate these beautiful islands as I have!
Thank you for reading,
Noah
HE>i
About This Blog
I pride myself and my work to be my truest and honest opinions.
These are lived experiences, and my content is not, and never will be generated by AI, or another contributor.
Every image on this blog, with the exception of select images taken of me and for specific projects, came from my own camera.
In my experience, I’ve generally found that there are three types of travel writers. First, you have the big guys, with no personal experiences. These are your TripAdvisors and big news outlets that like to write about travel. Second, you have the person or couple with a mix of personal experiences and some recommendations that they didn’t have time for on their trip, so they usually link out to someone else. Finally, there are a few individuals, like myself, who write only about personal experiences and never resort to stock photography.
However, these days we’re entering into a whole new realm of AI-generated content, giving readers the least-authentic recommendations out there. I unfortunately think it’s a shame to see some individuals, including some who are my friends, turn to AI to write their articles.
Be that as it may, a good way to know if you’re reading content like this is to do a reverse image search on Google to see what other websites are using the same image. If you don’t see images of the people living what they’re writing about, it’s pretty safe to assume they were never there.
Overall, I hate to see individual bloggers who once wrote the best kind of content on the internet ruin what was pure for the sake of making more money. However, this is not and never will be me.
I live what I write.
No matter what age, your bucket list should never be complete. Throughout your life, it should change, adapt, and grow as you grow.