Bishop Museum (#2) 11/22/08

It seems I've only been to the Bishop Museum when it rains.. but it gives the foliage nice and fresh color. Today's mission: Take shots that I did not take the last time. I used the 50mm F1.4 lens so all shots taken were different for me and it took getting used to w/o the ability to zoom. However, I think the shots came out a lot sharper than w/ the 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens I used the last time.
I started taking 'museum catalog' type shots..since my lens was not wide enough to take much other than closeups.
I did find that I got sharper shots w/ my 50mm lens that shows greater details than with my zoom lens.
Then I saw Erick and Celia doing shots of different perspectives and I started to try some of it myself.. first shooting up from below this carving while sitting on the floor. It took several tries to get the right part in focus.
Then shooting these spears mounted on the wall looking up from below. Here's a different perspective of a carving mounted on the wall. The lens gives it a very shallow depth of field.Since my 50mm was not wide enough to take the sharks in the Megaladon exhibit, all I could get were shots like this of shark bones in the showcase.

Disappointing Sunset

Update: I got this sunset yesterday... I decided to change white balance to tungsten to get sky even more blue...but it also affected the color of the water. I went out to take picture of the sunset. It looked like it would be a pretty good one after it passed the thick black clouds.. Then out of nowhere, the 2nd cloud obscured the entire sunset.. then I noticed the cloud as it was shaped like a sea monster eating up the sun.. well, it was still a disappointing sunset.

Full Moon (almost) 11/14/08

I tried shooting the full moon w/my 50mm f1.4 lens on a tripod using aperture priority set at F8 but they all came out too dark, so I ended up having to use Bulb mode and released at 2 secs. I also changed the white balance to tungsten so that it wasn't so yellow. Finally, I used the timer mode to eliminate all chance of camera shake. The moon sure rises quickly..even at 2 secs it looks like the moon already moved..

Waikiki Aquarium 11/11/08

If you are ever looking for a challenging shoot, then the Waikiki Aquarium is for you. It's dark and the fishes move fast! I had a difficult time and most of my pictures came out blurry. I was using my 50mm f1.4 lens exclusively and I really have to learn how it works.
I spent a lot of time waiting for 'Dory' only to get a shot where she's hidden in a school of fish (center).
I could only get slow moving fishes like this one.
Then, there were the few that were razor sharp. I guess it must be a 'user problem'.The Jelly fish was another difficult shot. Here's one-not-so-blurry lucky shot.
I must've taken 50+ shots of the sea dragons, but finally got a decent one. The two of them seemed more docile then usual today.
We waited and waited in front of this tank...And finally got our fish..he swims really fast..
I like this shot since even though it was dark in there, I took this w/o a tripod.Here's the sunset I took on Saturday...not much of a sunset with the clouds blocking the entire view, but the sky was really nice.

Liliuokalani Garden 11/8/2008

Joined Ed Yee's photography class at the Liliuokalani Garden for an early morning portrait shoot outing. The lighting was perfect for portrait shots. It was great fun and good learning experience.
I tried some slow shutter speed shots of flowing water.
Here are some portrait shots. It was hard to keep the subjects in perfect focus.
Then learned about some posing techniques of subjects for wedding shoot. Very interesting... A shot of an avid photographer.

Cute Pup at Liliuokalani Garden

There was a cute pup who came to the Liliuokalani Garden shoot. He was very photogenic so I decided to have a separate posting just for him. I also tried my 50mm lens which took some getting used to having to zoom manually by getting closer to the subject.

Sunsets

I took sunset photos of Waikiki a while ago over a period of several weeks and thought I'd post them.

Battleship USS Missouri 11/1/08

My photo buddies Erick, Celia and I visited the USS Missouri and took an informative guided tour of the battleship. I had no idea all the history that is behind the ship and it's been here for 10 years! It was a great day, a little too sunny for some of my shots, but at least I'm glad it didn't rain.