Super Moon - 3/19/2011

I felt like calling this post 'It was a Dark and Stormy Night'. That's how it kinda was while waiting for the largest full moon in 18 years, hence, called the 'super moon'. It was cloudy and windy and then it rained. My camera nearly tipped over in the darkness. After fussing w/ my settings, I got this shot in between trying to keep my umbrella from flipping and protecting my camera from the rain. The lights from the elevator of the Ilikai made it hard because it was either overexposing the light, or getting really dark building. Somehow it also turned my photo kinda reddish purple but it did make the color of the water really cool..
I was about to pack it up then I heard Celia say something like 'I see a sliver of the moon' from were she was staked out. Then there was the moon.. and then I heard 'here comes the clouds'. The original shot was kinda dark so I decided to crop it. While trying to lighten it, I couldn't get the colors right, so I decided to make it B&W.. I think this effect came out better. The moon finally came out...the B&W helps suppress the brightness of the elevator lighting..
Then the clouds came..
Just before I packed up..the moon was high and visible in the sky.. hmm..somehow it doesn't look as big any more..

St. Patrick's Day Parade - 3/17/2011

I took a day off and decided to check out the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Being at noon, I knew it would be super bright. I tried a different spot and tried to shoot away from the bright beach. There were some weird creatures.. a giant leprechaun?
There were many people wearing kilts.
Coach McMackin.. Even the mayor hammed it up for my camera. This shot originally came out soo dark.. good thing for photoshop element..
More Leprechaun...hey..is that gold in his kettle?
More green.. the army band.
Green Car..
Not sure if this is an Irish brand car..
I had no idea that Star Wars were Irish...
Darth O'Vadar..

Honolulu Festival Day 2 - 3/12-3/13/2011

There were more entertainment at the Convention center on Day 2 of the Honolulu Festival. I think this is the 3rd time I've seen Sugaren perform in the festival. Each time it is a new learning experience to try and capture their expressive movements.
I figured since they were performing in a brighter stage, I could use a faster shutter speed to capture their fast drumming. It was soooo hard....I got so many blurry shots.
This group made cool designs w/ this bamboo mat..I think this is the rainbow.
Day 2 of the Honolulu Festival concluded with a parade. I've shot at many parades and each one still present a challenge of shooting in ever changing lighting so this is good practice. It starts out really bright.
As always, there are pageant queens.
This energetic group performed continuously along the entire parade route. There were a lot of ethnic performers.
Giant masks of the indigenous people from Taiwan.
These double dutch jump rope performers stopped to perform for the camera.
The sun started to set and it got darker.. I tried using some fill flash..
Then it got really dark. I tried several flash settings and pointed my flash up, down, etc.. still the background came out dark. After many tries shots, I got one that didn't come out too blown out or dark...and she even looked at my camera..
The finale.. the fire breathing dragon. I used my 50mm because it got really dark and I also dashed across the street to get closer..I think this is the best shot in the 4 years I've been to this parade. I'll try again next year.
I even managed to get the back of the float.

Honolulu Festival Day 1 - 3/12-3/13/2011

This year's Honolulu Festival took place 2 days after the great Japan Earthquake and Tsunami scare here. I didn't know if there would even be an event but was happy to know that the groups that had arrived still participated in the events. It was heartwarming to see them put in their utmost efforts in their performance. It's been months since I took event shots and it took some figuring out to adjust to the indoor lighting and fast movements. The stage was brightly lit and was very colorful so it worked well with the performers' colorful costumes.
This is one of the littlest performer. She's only 4 years old.
There was an exhibit of art work created by Japanese artists. I really like the intricate details on this sculpture.
This one is simply titled 'Small Bird is Back'. I think it'd make a really cool large sculpture in a park.
There was supposed to be a huge firework celebration after the parade on Sunday put on by the city of Nagaoka. But with respect to the people of Japan for their loss in the devastation, the firework was cancelled. Here are some firework shells. I'm not sure if these are life size or not..but these are pretty big.

I followed Celia and Erick to Ala Moana Center Stage to see these cheerleaders from a high school in Nagaoka.
Dai Hirai is a ukulele pop singer who sang the theme song for the Honolulu Festival. I thought I found a great spot in front of the stage and it was a great spot...since these videographers were standing right in front of where I was sitting. I had to shoot whenever I could get a clear shot. Argh!!
So, I decided to take this shot. You can see in the screen that he got a great unobstructed shot.. ARGH!!
There were even these Middle Eastern dance.
Then these very energetic dancers. I was sitting in the front row and he looked straight into my lens.
Last year, there were a lot more Hula dancers. Due to the Earthquake a lot of groups were not able to get here in time.

All the Monkeys in the Zoo... - 3/5/2010

I'm a bit behind in my photo blogging and I'm finally posting my zoo shots from last weekend. It was an overcast Saturday afternoon having rained in the morning and the lighting was perfect for shooting at the zoo. I tried to take a lot of closeups being inspired by Erick and his humongus lens. We covered a lot of animals from this excursion so I decided to post them in groups. Here are the monkeys.
I thought all the animals would be sleeping, but some were actually out..
Then it was feeding time in this cage.. I was facinated w/ them discovering food wrapped in what looks like paper towel centers. I could spend a day just watching them.
Not sure what they were eating, but it looked like a biscuit shaped like a sliced hotdog.