Christmas at Honolulu Hale - 12/29/2010

I finally made it to see the lights at the Honolulu Hale. I feel like I had to learn how to shoot in the dark again since all my shots came out so dark so thank goodness for RAW and Photoshop! Since it was after Christmas, it wasn't as crowded and I was able to set up my tripod and take photos w/o a sea of people.
I tried using my 100mm to get this zoom shot.
There were a lot of cute decorations inside the Honolulu Hale...I wish I had more time to explore.
They even had a Chinese Christmas tree. Every year, there is a spinnng tree.It was so dark, I decided to try HDR on some shots using the 3 exposure settings.
I figured the dark trees with the bright lights would be perfect candidate for HDR and I've always wanted a good shot of the light.. not bad..still some yellowing and grain..I'll try again next year for this elusive shot..
This is the most difficult shot since the sign is so bright and everything else is so dark. HDR really helped bring all the exposures together.
Somehow I'm never able to get all the colors in the lights to show, even with HDR...I think I need to lower the exposure more..
My final HDR shot to get the lights and the Mele Kalikimaka blocks.
I've always seen these light, but never took a photo of it.. and I finally got it...