Waikiki Walkabout - 4/3/2011

I had a super stressful Monday to Saturday (yes Saturday..ugh) at work so on Sunday, I decided to take a walk around Waikiki and enjoy myself playing tourist doing something I enjoy..taking photos. I didn't want to lug my big gear so I used my Panasonic ZS6 P&S camera to see what I can do. It has a pretty wide angle and a nice zoom so I wanted to try some landscape photos. I started out at St. Augustine Church and took a closeup of the statue of the saint. I headed across the street and saw the statue of Prince Kuhio..and took a picture of him. Then I got the idea to walk around to take photos of all the statues around Waikiki.. The famous Duke Kahanamoku. Lots of people take photos in front of him.. There's also a webcam aimed at him as well. I've walked pass this many times, but never stopped to check it out. These are the Stones of Life. According to the plaque, legend says these stones are the living legacy of four powerful Tahitian healers who once resided near this site. Statue of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. Princess Kaiulani Statue at a small park at the corner of Kaiulani and Kuhio. Mokua and Kila from a children's story. I'm afraid I don't know who this surfer is. Statue of Ghandi fronting the Honolulu Zoo. Then I heard this guy nearby playing the bag pipe. It wasn't until a couple of days ago I found out that I missed the Scottish Festival this weekend! Bummers. When I walked by the King's Alley earlier, I found out that there is a Changing of the King's Guard performance nightly at 6:3opm and decided to check it out. What else would be at King's Alley but a Burger King! I was lucky and found myself in the front row. (ugh..slightly blurry, but I liked the composition) They were twirling their rifle in front of me and I was really worried about the spinning projectile. I put my camera in sports mode, but it was still not fast enough to get the spinning rifle. I tried a few zoom shot of the wave. Pretty good..not fuzzy or blurry. Check out the guy and the kid who's about to get pounded by the wave.

Oahu Civic Orchestra Spring Concert - 4/4/2011

My friend who plays for the Oahu Civic Orchestra told me about the Spring concert and asked if I wanted to take photos. It was at Chaminade University's Eiben Hall and was free and open to the public. I couldn't pass up the great opportunity to practice and also hear great music. I had no idea what the environment would be other than no flash photography. Although I was glad they were photographer friendly, I tried to shoot when music was loud so that the beep of my camera's focusing would not be so disruptive. I had much difficulty since the only low light lens I had was the 50mm F1.4, it was hard to get a good reach to take closeups. And in using large aperture, not everything was in focus so I had to crop out a lot. Most of my photos turned out a bit soft on the edges, so I tried some B&W to see if it would hide those defects. It was a good practice and I got to hear a great orchestra perform music pieces I actually recognized. They played this piece by Strauss made famous by Bugs Bunny Cartoons. The Civic Orchestra is made up of professionals, amateurs, retirees, students, all of whom love to play music and I can tell by how beautiful they sounded.