21st Annual Honolulu Festival - 03/07 - 03/08/2015

The Annual Honolulu Festival is always a great shoot. You experience the Outdoor/indoor lighting shoot, the street shoot, sunset and even a fireworks shoot.. what more can a learning photographer ask for? I wasn't able to spend a lot of time, but I saw a LOT of great performances on stage and on the street. I'm glad I'm able to photograph it every year.

They are my favorite Taiko group.. I was so lucky I managed to catch their performance on both days...

There was a modern dance performance.  I had to shoot between the heads of people in front so my pics have a vignette-like effect on the bottom edge even though I tried to crop the heads out.

The inside stage is quite large and they even show the performance on a large screen.

There were performances on the street before the parade.  Next year I'll find a closer spot than where i sat..

There were a lot more traditional Japanese performers at the parade and less Hula performers this year.

This is the 10th year the Sonoda Gakuen High School girls joined in the Honolulu Festival parade.  There must've been more then 200+ girls marching and dancing in the parade.

Taiwnese Performers

Traditional way of carrying goods in Philippines..

Not so traditional goods ... hey, you'd never lose your cellphone if you carried it this way..

The sunset.. then it got really dark so I couldn't take any more performances in the parade since my 50D doesn't have high enough ISO to handle the noise.. and the flash is too harsh.. I guess time for an upgrade to 7D Mark II? :-)

I did manage to get lighted floats though.. this float is a trademark of the Honolulu Festival Parade.. 

These lanterns were carried horizontally and then as they passed my area, they raised them high up..  I had to run after them and shot a short video and also got this shot w/ my iphone!

Then, after about an hour break, at 8:30pm, the giant fireworks..They fired it off from 3 barges or boats.  It was so large, my 16-35mm lens couldn't get the entire bursts..I managed to get just a few good shots including this one..Next year I'll be more prepared.. (I tell myself that every year... )