Iheya Island camping and the Moon Light Marathon

Took a little break from shooting back to back weddings through this busy bridal season to get away to beautiful lesser known Iheya island to support Haruna running in the half marathon and to also shoot as much of the island as I could in the 2 and a half days we were camping there.

Iheya island is one of the most northern islands of Okinawa and also one of the most beautiful I've visited so far. It's like Okinawa's secret paradise as even in the busy time during the Iheya Moon Light Marathon we still had entire beaches to ourselves. To get there it's a 1 and a half hour ferry ride from  a port near Nakajin, north Nago out past Izena island to Iheya. We usually always take our car along on the ferry with us as we take a fair bit of camping and photography gear but it does cost around 15,000yen to get it there and back.

The island is a seascape shooters dream with most of the island surrounded by beautiful rocky shorelines and stunning clean beaches with pretty much no one on them. We were lucky enough to have great weather for the 3 days also apart from the rough seas that we had to cross on the ferry to get there which had myself, Jet & Jenna my kids feeling pretty sick.

I ended up shooting a bit over 1000 photos during the 3 days there. With a lot of them shooting runners in the marathon. Of the 1000 I kept about 200 images and from there picked 10 or so I'll be offering as prints for purchase, use in magazines etc..

Here are a few shots which stand out to me from our time there.


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All images are available as prints or can be purchased digitally for publication by contacting me here

Exploring the coast line early in the morning

I love rocks like this. The early morning golden light was lighting them up just perfectly. 

Then a rainbow came out for a few minutes also.

A couple of Iheya Moonlight Marathon runners relax at the beautiful beach right by the camp ground before the race. 

Exploring a huge cave in the side of a cliff with Jenna looking extra tiny at the bottom. 

Waiting for the full moon to rise

Morning sun beams

The early bird gets the good light!

Looking across from the campground to some of Iheya's hills and mountains. 

Exploring Iheya and Noho island in the Nissan Serena

Had to take the Ikelite underwater housing along for a play. 

Glad I did as the water was amazing

Found a cute little black piggy

Im constantly surprised at how much Okinawa has to offer. I've been here about 3 years now and still finding awesome places to explore. If your on Okinawa and haven't visited Iheya or any of the outer islands of Okinawa you owe it to yourself to check them out. The beaches there are even better then here on the main island, great visibility for snorkelling, diving and it's a perfect escape if you just want to get away from crowds of people. 

To see the rest of the images please check out the main Iheya gallery on my website http://www.fotoshisa.com/p1055041520

Photos from the Marathon coming in a future blog post. 

Thanks for dropping by!