Honolulu Festival Part 2 - 03/03/2013

I managed to beat the mad traffic jam on Kalakaua so I could stake out a good spot for the parade. There were people already staked out at all the good spots on the sidewalk when I got there so I was lucky I found a spot that I wouldn't be blocked by other enthusiastic photogs or the official festival camera people.  I'm also glad it didn't rain this year like it did last year and it turned out to be a perfect day for a parade and grand fireworks.

I can't believe Hilo Hattie has been around for 50 years old.  This is the world's largest aloha shirt.. wonder how large is the suitcase?

There were groups representing different countries...Samoa

It seems you can't have a parade in Hawaii without the traditional Chinese Lion Dance.

The Philippines...

This character representing Taiwan looked like he was staring and smiling into my camera.

I think there must've been more than a hundred girls in this group.  They managed to take a quick break before starting up their performance.

I missed Sugaren in the morning performance at the Convention center, but I managed to catch them at the parade.

They are one of the liveliest groups I am glad to see each year at the Honolulu Festival.

After the sun set, the lit up floats start to come down the parade.

Bummer, this year, I think they must've run out of fireworks by the time they reached us.. last year, there were huge fireworks.

At the convention center, they had displays of the firework bulbs that would be used for the grand Nagaoka firework finale at 8:30pm.

I managed to find an open spot on the beach to set up my tripod for the fireworks and hoped I was well aligned with the firework bursts.  It was so dark and I could hardly see what i was shooting.  I was surprised I got people in my shots..but in retrospect, I think it worked out well having something in the foreground.

This firework show is different from the July 4th one in that usually they shoot out lots of fireworks at the end.  In the entire 10 minute show, they were shooting out lots of fireworks at the same time so I had to cover my lens to avoid overexposing the fireworks and I got a lot of overlapping fireworks .

One of the signature design of the Nagaoka firework is the weeping willow design.

I lost count how long I kept my shutter open.. There so many blossoms I didn't know when to release and take the shot.

This looks like something you can do w/ duplicating images in photoshop, but this was how it really looked.  In 10 minutes, it was all done....until next year!!

Honolulu Festival Part 1 - 03/03/2013

I was able to go to the 2nd day of the Honolulu Festival at the Convention center to see the performances. There were 2 stages with different entertainment throughout the day.  I had lots of exercise going from the outside stage to the inside stage, but it was very challenging having to change my camera setting from outside lighting to indoor lighting.  This year, I tried to frame my shots a little differently by doing mostly landscape shots.  I had a great time enjoying the entertainment and taking photos.

There were different lively groups performing taiko.

In the indoor stage, there was a group from Japan performing the Hula.

Then on the outside stage, this lively group of young rock and roll performers doing songs from the 80's. These were the most talented youngsters I've seen. 

I stayed for this jazz group from the Joint Forces at Hickam.  I enjoyed their performance as much as they enjoyed performing together.

For the finale on the Indoor stage, the Yosakoi Team Tokiwa.  I've seen a lot of the performers from previous year but I still enjoy seeing them again year after year.

During some breaks in performances I was able to take some shots of the art work displays.

I saw this mask on the news and I was glad to be able to catch a shot of it as well as the master carver.

There was a floral group who displayed different bouquets. I really couldn't tell if these were real or fake flowers.