In Hawaiian culture, Maui was one of the Kapua, and was known as a trickster. Many stories about him reconcile myth, religion, and physical reality.  Two stories are relevant to this post.  In one, he restrained the sun, which was regarded as rising and setting too quickly for men to work (and in particular for the fabric his mother was weaving to dry).  He was on the flanks of Haleakala (house of the sun) and lassoed the rays of the sun when it appeared.  This slowed the sun down and delayed its daily disappearance.  In another, he lifted the sky, which until then had been very low.  Realizing men were constrained by the very low sky, he and his father lay on their backs - near Lahaina, long before it was teeming with tourists - and with their legs pushed up at the sky until they lifted it high enough for men to live without constraint. (Or he may have put the sky on his shoulders and then run uphill with it to raise it.)

Had demi-god Maui not harnessed the sun and raised the sky, Maui photography - and indeed, Hawaiian tourism - would have suffered greatly.  Luckily he intervened.  

But a higher sky and slower sun, in isolation, wouldn't necessarily have made interesting pictures.  A blazing orb surrounded by a field of rich blue would be good for one or two images.  Clouds are what make Maui sky photographs interesting. Particularly the billowing cumulus that are Maui's undisputed drama queens when the volcano isn't erupting.  Their deep rifts and bright lobes would be graphically attractive, even if their changing shapes didn't seem to depict whales, fish, birds, turtles, and demi-gods (or, for mainlanders: rabbits, Mickey Mouse, bears, elephants, and giraffes).  

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Spoiler alert: sunsets are coming, but not yet. These are offered only as a pre-sunset sky visual commentary.