Dragon Boat Race 6/27/09

The weather wasn't the greatest, but I decided to check out the Dragon Boat races on Saturday morning at Ala Moana Beach. The sky was overcast and was kinda dull but I tried doing a panoramic anyways.
There were three boats used in the race: a yellow, red and blue boat.
Each team consisted of a flag 'grabber', a drummer and paddlers. Three boats race across the waters of Ala Moana Beach and the first team to grab the respective flag wins.
Even with the larger waves on the south shores this weekend, it didn't affect the races.

Every so often, there were only two boats in the race, so the third would be towed to the starting line at the other end of the park.
After a while, I decided to try some HDR shots.. but the moving boats became rather blurry.
I used only two shots (EV -2, +2) because the boats were moving a lot in the shot.

Downtown HDR Experiment #2 - 6/20/2009

We were planning to take HDR photos of cars at Aloha Tower but ended up taking a wide range of places in downtown. I didn't bring the right tripod so it was a lot of balancing my camera against poles and trees, on railings and on the camera bag in order to take the three bracketed exposure shots. It was a great day for an HDR shoot and the color came out really well as I now have gotten a better handle on the software. For the majority of the shots I was able to stick w/ ISO 200 using aperture priority at F8.
As I boosted some levels in the software, the red rust on the gate really showed up.
The three exposures worked well to bring out the really dark balcony on the second floor.
I took this w/ the camera on my camera bag and I was lucky to pick up the blue sky. Except, I didn't realize it was really crooked and as I straightened it out in PSE, I lost part of the street. 8-D
The boats didn't rock too much so that the three shots could be blended together w/o blurring.
I found out I could boost the yellow and red in this shot in PSE using Adjust Hue/Saturation.
We were experimenting what would happen w/ an HDR image when there are moving subjects like cars...which actually turned out looking like a slow shutter speed shot.
I balanced the camera against a tree to stabilize this shot. I actually became a "tree hugger" for a moment.
After much walking, we ended up at the Hawaii Theater.
A great end to a great shooting day. We decided to check out the Soul de Cuba Cafe across the Hawaii Theater to try some cuban food where I had the strongest espresso I've ever had called cafe cubano that came in a tiny coffee cup. I really liked the colors of the art work against this red wall so I boosted the Yellow, Red and Magenta on this shot to bring out the truer color of the wall.

King Kamehameha Statue 6/13/09

I was running an errand in downtown and thought I'd check out the Kamehameha statue since I've never gone to see it draped with leis before. I didn't have my camera so I took it w/ my cell phone (LG Shine). It was almost noon so it was REALLY bright and I could hardly see my LCD when I took the shots. The photo came out kinda washed out and not too sharp so I did some fixing in Photoshop Elements to bring some clarity.

Pan Pacific Fesitival 6/5-6/7/09

This year's Pan Pacific Festival performances were at the Ala Moana Center Stage and we found a pretty good spot to capture the action. I had just gotten my 50mm back from Canon repair so this was a great opportunity to give it a test run. The performances also gave me a great chance to practice pressing the shutter to capture action at the right time.
He was able to balance a spinning top on a sword. Later he was also able to balance the top on a piece of string.. amazing!
A lot of performers brought their family to take pictures of them from the audience. Some families were really getting into it.
Bamp! was a fashion show of kimonos.
This group made different shapes with a sheet of bamboo sticks. This is the large Eiffel Tower.
As it got darker, my photos started got get a little more yellow.
The guy w/ the accordion reminded me of Doc, the dwarf from Snow White.. too bad they didn't do 'whistle while you work' from Snow White..
I think this group came last year and they were really good.
The troupe from Taiwan were sooo colorful.
I was able to get a lot of practice to capture stop action with this troupe's lively performance.
The parade on Sunday afternoon included pageant queens.
More Daiko performers..
He smiled for us then ran off after seeing all our huge lens...

Full Moon HDR Experiment 6/9/09

As I drove home tonight, I saw a near full moon that was extra bright and low just above the buildings. By the time I got home, it had risen some but still very bright so I decided to experiment w/ HDR to see what it would look like... Starburst!!

Diving Practice at UH - 5/29/09

We got to the pool early on Saturday for the Special Olympics to find a different group practicing diving. This was my first diving shoot with fast action and I think next time, I'd probably try and adjust the aperture so that the background would be more blurred and less distracting. These were taken w/ shutter priority at 1/800 to 1/1000. This is a definite work in progress.

Special Olympics Summer Games 5/29 - 5/31/09

We spent the weekend volunteering as photographers with EOH for Special Olympics. This was the first time I attended the games and I found it to be a fun-filled and rewarding experience. The different venues with varied lighting situations presented a great learning experience in using the equipment. Also, the enjoyment of seeing all the happy faces made the three HOT sunburnt days every bit worthwhile.
The opening ceremony was like a mini version of the Olympic games I've seen on TV.
Complete with torch run and...
a torch lighting ceremony. The torch actually went out and they lit it again which gave me a second take since I missed it the first time around.
The 2nd day was packed-filled with events like shot put.
Weightlifting was hard to shoot because of the dark lecture hall.
I thought this shot was hilarious. I was at the other end of the pool missing out on the action of the finish line, but in fact, I caught more action going on w/ the cheering crowd and the photographers all jockeying for the best shot.
I was finally able to get a good spot on the other side of the pool, while trying not to fall or drop anything into the pool.
Taking photos on the track was challenging because it was back lit. But there were occasional shady times that I was able to get a couple good action shots.
At the end of the races for the day, the volunteers got a chance to get in a race of their own.
At the healthy athletes, they got to get some health checks from volunteers.
Then at night, let the party BEGIN!! The Victory dance was at Klum gym and they turned out all the lights which gave my flash a great workout. Unfortunately, it did not have enough reach and it kinda blown out the people closest and was still dark in the farther end. Check out Erick's Post for more (better) pics.
I tried taking photos w/o flash to capture more color. This one was at ISO 3200 and F2.8. These kids sure can dance thru the night away! It was like a sauna in the gym but it didn't seem to bother anyone at all.
Everyone was having the time of their lives!
The closing day's festivities included lunch from sponsor Panda Express.