Biggest Little Air Show - 8/22/2010

I've read about the Little air show in previous years but have never been so it was great to check it out and also get to go to the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island with Erick and Celia. We were limited to no baggage so I decided to take a 28-135mm zoom lens because I wanted to take some of the little planes in flight. Unfortunately, it was not useful in the museum so I also had a 50mm F1.4 in my pocket.
I think I had almost 10 shots of this tower and this one is my favorite HDR because it came out looking like the 1950's or 60's even with the people in the shot. The air show had little planes performing maneuvers just like the 'real' thing. (uh oh.. bummers .. there's dust in my lens)
They were all lined up...
The minature blue angels. I'd love to have a photo of this next to the real thing when the blue Angels come later this year to Kaneohe.
When high in the sky, you can't tell if it's a real plane or fake..so I had to take some where it's closer to the ground for comparison.
These planes could do maneuvers that real planes can't do...
This reminds me of a godzilla movie...
We checked out the Pacific Aviation Museum. It was really dark so I tried HDR.
One of the plane engines.
I thought I'd turn this B&W to make it look like it was back in time..
There were games for kids..like tic-tac-toe w/ this diver.
Then there was the candy drop. luckily I got this just before the candy fell too far..
After the air show, Erick managed to find the USS Utah Memorial. It took 3 shots to make to make this panorama.

Pacific Beach Natsu Matsuri Take 2 - 8/14/2010

A bunch of photogs decided to go and check out the summer festival so I went along again to try and improve my night shooting. It was still hard..I brought only the 50mm again. This night, I saw the crescent moon and I thought it'd make a good shot.
More lanterns.. This was the bunch w/ the most different colors.
I went on Friday night to catch Bruce Shimabukuro. It was great because I get to practice shooting while listening to great ukulele playing. He was awesome.
On Saturday night, Dazz performed his own dance. More great Taiko performance. I thought he was going to break the drum.There were fishing games for kids. It looked fun and challenging that I wanted to try...On Saturday, though, I was focused more on the food...:-)

Macro at Foster Botanical Garden - 8/8/2010

Celia suggested a shoot at the Foster Botanical Garden since we haven't been there for a while and it gave me a chance to practice w/the 100mm macro lens. It took some getting use to because it has a slider button to set the distance you are shooting, or the autofocus does not work. Also, for non-macro shots, I had to stand really far away to get the subject to fit...like this cool bear that was made from natural leaves and fibers.
I started out taking all kinds of closeup shots. It was cool how the colors of the plants in the background got blurry.
I wanted to get the stamen of this hibiscus to be in focus but I could only get parts of it focused and came out kind of soft.
After a few more adjustments.. success.. I boosted the colors in PSE and it gave the background a nice bright color.
We then went to the spot Erick told us about to find the madagascar "Geico" gecko.. no such luck..all I saw was this brown colored gecko.
I now know why people use the term "busy bees"... These bees flew from one flower to the next and were going so fast it was so hard to get a sharp shot. I took a shot of this little flower and when I zoomed in, I was surprised to see those tiny bugs on the petals....what an amazing world it is when seen w/ a macro lens!
Celia and I saw the sprinklers go off on these plants and decided to take some shots for the theme of 'water'. We started taking macros of water on the flower petals.
Then I remembered the link Jalna sent about getting a photo of a water drop w/ a tiny flower inside but after a couple of tries, Celia and I couldn't figure out how to do that w/o getting a shot of our finger! So we ended up focusing on just the water droplet.
It was so much fun shooting these water spots and seeing what you can see thru them. To do so, I had to manually focus on the water spot.
I got really hooked on water droplets.
Thanks Celia..for a super fun macro outing!

Shingon Mission Bon Dance - 8/6/2010

I've worked near by for many years but have never been to the bon dance at the Shingon Mission. It was very crowded with so many participants, it made it very difficult to shoot. Again, I tried to shoot with available light and this time it was more challenging than the previous bon dance, even with a 5omm F1.4 lens! Before it got dark, I attempted at an HDR of this statue to get more of the grains in the wood.
The temple is very quaint with a lot of neat lanterns and lights but I really like these slips of paper flowing in the window.
It got dark and very difficult to shoot.
My continuing search for lantern shots...
I noticed these huge standing lanterns outside the church that looked really cool.
It was really crowded w/ dancers so it was really hard to take photos...but the kids were really cute decked out in kimonos.
Young and old were having a great time. I had to do a lot of post work to get rid of the yellow because it was so dark.
There's even a Japanese Lion Dance.
When it got too dark and the photo got too grainy, turning it B&W helps.