Akaka Falls is about ten miles north of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. The path to the Falls traverses tropical flora as interesting as the Falls itself. You recognize the exotic leaf-shapes of house plants, but prospering in their natural environment. The key to photographing them is to establish the scale of the plants.

Here is a photo with weak scale cues. There are some hints from the trees that appear to have ordinary leaves.

Expanding the field of view to include the path helps, but there is no clear idea of the width of the path or the height of the railing.

Including tourists in the scene firmly sets the scale. The foliage is huge. Click the image to enlarge it.

The image is a spliced panorama. The frame with the visitors must be composed, so that one was taken first. I had to wait a few minutes to get people in a suitable arrangement. I didn’t want a crowd that would compete for attention with the foliage. The foliage waits patiently for the second frame to be added. To show the previous image without the people, I roughly erased them in Photoshop™.