Pan Pacific Parade - 6/10/2012

The Pan Pacific Parade is the closing event of the Festival. I got to the parade a little later this year and picked a spot that faced the beach so that I wouldn't be taking shots w/ the McDonald sign again. As the sun was setting, I got a lot of glare. While some shots didn't work well, this shot was one that worked.

I'll have to practice the metering more.  I was able to recover some shots using PSE. While editing my shots, what I noticed were all the smiling faces of these participant who were really having a great time.

I was able to get a LOT of smiling faces.

I was able to get a good angle of the synchronized dancing from where I sat.

It was good that we could see the groups as they were coming down the street.

This group performed a dance about rice planting.

It is true.. I just learned that the afternoon sun really makes the gold color shine. 

As this group of taiko performers were coming up, I could see the final float arriving in the background.

The parade seem shorter this year, or maybe I was enjoying the parade too much to realize all that time has passed.

After we had dinner after 8pm, we saw lights and music coming from the Waikiki Beach Hula mound and decided to check it out.  We were lucky to catch one of the final performance of hula groups from Japan.  It was really dark w/ large spot lights that lit the stage of performers.  I was lucky I was able to shoot this w/o a flash.  At the end of the performances, everyone joined hands and sang Hawaii Aloha.  What a perfect way to end the Festival.