iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 10/06/2025

Hard to believe this photo is six years old already, with one of our legendary Hawaiian monk seal mothers, Honey Girl. Here she is with her last pup in 2019, Makoa. Unfortunately, we lost him as a weaner and we lost Honey Girl the next year during the pandemic. 📷📸🦭🦊

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 06/06/2025

It’s been a little muggy and rainy the last week here on Oahu, so sharing a rainbow for Aloha Friday in hopes of better weather over the next week! 📸📷

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 05/06/2025

Another benefit of being home, I had the opportunity to make the rounds with one of our local @HIMarineAnimal volunteers and observe 21 of our Laysan albatross chicks, including this one sitting out in an open field. Their plumage is starting to shift to the adult feathers. 📸📷🪶

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 01/06/2025

Pulling one out from the archives for Sunset Sunday… a beautiful sunset from Mokule’ia on Oahu’s North Shore! 📸📷

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 13/05/2025

On a hike out at the end of the day, long after the monk seal count had finished, I found RL42 where I had seen her at 8 am that morning, snoozing away in a tide pool. In more recent years, I've been able to watch RL42 with her own pups... hopefully, I'll get that chance this summer too! 📷📸🦑🦭🦊

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 30/04/2025

Another beautiful day in NYC and a good excuse to take the camera out to Central Park. This double-crested cormorant was fishing just off the view point where I stopped, which gave me a good chance for a quick portrait. 📸📷🪶

A double-crested cormorant turns to face the camera, with water gliding over its back in Central Park, New York.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 11/03/2025

This Honu paused on the way back into the ocean to take a last look in my direction. 📷📸🐢🦑🦭

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 21/01/2025

I heard rumors of a Hawaiian monk seal on the Big Island that weighed 1000 pounds. Most monk seals are between 450-600 pounds. 1000 pounds? I had to see this for myself, & as luck would have it, while I was exploring a beach on the Kona side in 2021, Waimanu hauled out for an afternoon snooze. 📷📸🦭🦑

An abnormally large Hawaiian monk seal on her side… rumors suggest she weighs as much as 1,000 pounds, but scientists say her blubber isn’t that heavy. She is a big girl!

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 16/01/2025

Yep, once we got back to NYC and how freezing it is, all I want to do is sleep.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 15/01/2025

Any time I visit the Big Island, I always make a stop in at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach to check out the Honu there... on the way to the eruption, we pulled into Punalu'u and that allowed me to capture these three Honu basking on the black sand. 🤙🏼📷📸🐢

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 09/01/2025

Another great spot to watch the power a winter swell brings to the North Shore is Shark’s Cove… the waves hit the back of the reef with explosive results! 📷📸🌊

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 26/11/2024

A Honu coming ashore on a remote beach on Oahu's North Shore. 📸📷🦑🐢🦎

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 26/11/2024

Mahalo… Holokai is one of my favorites! 🤙🏼💙🦭

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 25/11/2024

Before and after his very first molt with Holokai (#MonkSealRG40)... you've seen the "before" as my annual Halloween green goblin photo, but I love the side by side of these two images, taken just a few weeks apart, where the "after" is his fresh coat. 📷📸🦑🦊

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 18/10/2024

Yep, we had an amazing day… even if the sand was a bit hot on my bare feet. Mahalo! 🤙🏼

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 18/10/2024

A remote and rocky beach in the Kipahulu area of Hana, Maui. 📷📸

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 08/10/2024

A singing Honu at Ho’okipa Beach on Maui on Turtle Tuesday. 🤙🏼📷📷🦭🐢🐙

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 30/09/2024

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #26,178. Wow… very cool to see the growth here!

A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #26,178, Jason O’Rourke ‪@jasonophoto.com‬, joined on Apr 19, 2023"

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 26/09/2024

A dinosaur spotted in White Sands National Park, the Callisaurus… also known as a Western Zebra-tailed Lizard. 🤙🏼📷📸🦎🐢

A Callisaurus… also known as a Western Zebra-tailed Lizard, perches on a clump of sand from a footprint made by someone walking across the white sand dune.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 17/09/2024

A super rare photo from the archives... does this Honu look like she's enjoying a bath, or trying to get me to help her get out of this little hole on the reef? 📷📸🐢🦎🦑

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 19/07/2024

Before my wife and I got married here in 2014 (ten years ago today), we made multiple planning trips and considered where to hold the ceremony. Shipwreck Beach was just as beautiful when we visited as it was on the day of our wedding.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 04/06/2024

Luana and her pup got separated and she was began vocalizing to get him to come back up the beach to where she was. While she looks a little wild eyed, she actually could see right where he was and like any mother does, was telling him to come back to her. 📷📸🦭🦊🐙

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 23/04/2024

Happy #EarthDay! Here's a shot of one of Oahu's most famous Hawaiian monk seals, Honey Girl, snoozing to the sound of the crashing waves, without a footprint in the sand around her. Hoping we can continue to coexist with these amazing animals, and save the species from extinction. 🦭📸📷🦊

One of Oahu’s most famous Hawaiian monk seals, Honey Girl, is stretched out sleeping on a deserted North Shore beach, with waves crashing behind her.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 09/04/2024

I feel a little sluggish today after an 19-hour day yesterday, including a brutal 10- or 11-hour drive back to NYC with half the city on the roads with us, but… … it was worth it. 📷📸

Totality as seen at the base of Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, New York.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 26/03/2024

Hearing about baby monk seals born early in the season in Hawaii (pups can be born any time of year, but typically between May and September) reminds me of when my wife and I got to show her parents this March baby on the Big Island. #MonkSealMonday 📸📷🦭🦊

A baby monk seal snuggles with its mother on the Big Island of Hawaii.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 19/03/2024

Just before the lockdown in 2020, my wife & I took a hike on Oahu’s North Shore, this little one - RL74, a weaner from Molokai who wasn’t quite a year old. She woke up from an afternoon snooze to spot me and my big lens across the tide pool... what do you think of her expression? 📷📸🦭🦊

An endangered Hawaiian monk seal wakes up from an afternoon nap, looks across the tide pool and sees me, with my large telephoto lens, taking her photograph. To me, she looks annoyed.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 19/03/2024

Without a doubt! 🤙🏼🦭

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 19/03/2024

It was an interesting set of circumstances, and “they” did it for a few weeks (though, which specific seals were there did change from one day to the next). It is the only time I have ever seen that happen on Oahu.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 12/03/2024

While Hawaiian monk seals are often thought of as solitary animals, they do occasionally appear in groups, usually all males, like this one out on Oahu's west side. This is the most Hawaiian monk seals I've ever seen gathered together on one beach. 📷📸🦭🦊

5 male Hawaiian monk seals take an afternoon snooze on a beach on Oahu’s west side.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 08/03/2024

Sometimes, it’s not what you go looking for, but what you find. At Laniakea Beach, I make the trip to photograph the beautiful Honu resting on the beach… but on the way back to the car, I spotted this beauty. Happy Aloha Flower Friday! 📸📷🌸

A pink hibiscus against a dark background at Laniakea Beach on Oahu’s North Shore.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 08/03/2024

Mahalo! I was very excited to see in person… first print I have done of this image.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 08/03/2024

Mahalo… I love my cameras, but I do invest in my glass!

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 08/03/2024

I finally have a shot appropriate for the 🦊 channel. Beat up my knees skiing at the beginning of the week (but the powder was so much fun), so took it easy today and went for a drive with Annie to see what we could find. Good idea! 📷📸🦊

A fox squints over a snow bank at the camera with a thicket in the background.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 05/03/2024

Happy Monk Seal Monday. I do love the light in this image of La’akea on Oahu’s North Shore. 📷📸🦭🦑🦊

La’akea, a juvenile Hawaiian monk seal, takes an afternoon nap on Oahu’s North Shore.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 02/03/2024

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this print for a while. Shipped it directly to my collector and planned to sign it on my next trip through Arizona. Took me longer than I expected, but now it’s signed… Aloha! 📸📷

A photo of me with a 32”x48” print of my Lava Drip image, which features glowing lava as it makes the ocean entry on the Big Island of Hawaii.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 02/03/2024

At one of the view points on the road up the canyon.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 01/03/2024

I was leaning out to take a shot of Waimea Valley on Kauai, and looked to my left and found this guy staring at me. How could I resist taking his photo? 📸📷🦊

A goat munches on grass at the edge of the cliffs in Waimea Valley on the island of Kauai.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 01/03/2024

I don’t personally… I haven’t seen him since that day, though I get over to Kauai pretty regularly. Hawaiian monk seals, despite being endangered, are pretty tough survivors. Quite a few of them have cookie cutter shark scars.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 27/02/2024

A flashback to February 2016, when I identified a new visitor to Oahu... while he wasn't seen on Oahu beyond a second sighting later that week, Kauai volunteers shared photos that helped me confirm he is now one of their regular resident seals.

An unidentified juvenile male Hawaiian monk seal with a cookie cutter shark bite on his left cheek, making him very identifiable to volunteers today.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 20/02/2024

One of my all-time favorite monk seal images, Sole had tucked himself into a little crevice in the reef, and I was trying to carefully find an angle to photograph him, without disturbing him. As I lined up my shot, he turned his head and looked right at me. 📸📷🦭🦑

A Hawaiian monk seal nicknamed Sole peers out of the reef at me.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 14/02/2024

Happy Valentine’s Day to all the ocean lovers out there. Aloha! 📸📷🌊

A heart-shaped tidal pool fills with blue ocean water on Oahu’s west side.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 11/02/2024

I Love Waikiki… just a little something for the holiday this week.

The Waikiki Beach and skyline, with an outrigger canoe in the foreground and the hotel lights framed as a bright red heart.

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Jason O’Rourke @jasonophoto.com · 11/02/2024

Interesting… I was guessing red-tailed hawk based on other birders around Central Park, but I never got a good look at its tail.

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