Chasing the Light: A Sunrise Hike up Lēʻahi

There’s a quiet kind of magic that lives in the stillness before dawn.

I laced up my shoes while the city slept, and began the familiar climb up Lēʻahi (Diamond Head). Each step on that weathered trail felt like a return too breath, to focus, to awe.

I passed others, some silent, some smiling, all of us chasing that same first light.

As the sky slowly warmed and pressing through the toughest part of the hike.

The summit revealed itself with it, the horizon.

From the top, time paused. The sun lifted, casting golden silence over Honolulu, and I pressed the shutter. These images are a trace of that morning, of effort meeting reward, of nature meeting soul.

Welcome to the beginning of the day, seen from the edge of the island.

Location: Oahu, Hawaii

Photograph & written by: Jun Tagai

Filmed w/ Nikon Zf