NY First Night 7/23/2009

I'm finally here...and online. My friend picked me up from the airport and was hit with a familiar sight...Friday afternoon traffic.
The sun sets after 8:30pm and my friend was adventurous enough to take me down to the NY waterways ferry terminal some 40 mins from her place to take this nightshot of Manhattan after 9pm..It was really hard w/o a tripod, so this is the best one of the bunch.
I finally got a good stable shot by putting my camera on top of her car...but then it got the railings and surroundings.

All Collectors' Show 7/18/09

I want to hit myself for not bringing my camera to the show today!!! They featured these star wars characters who walked around the show and posed for pics all day long. This guy came to the booth and posed for me. I only had my phone so this is the best I could do.
I decide to go around looking for the rest of them and tried to take their pics. The glare from the windows is especially bad. I tried fixing the shots w/ PSE highlights and shadows. I also tried boosting the color saturation.
ARGH! they moved.. or was it me?!!?
This came out more like a surveillance camera shot..
I had more luck w/ stuff that didn't move like this set of old toys in a glass case.
There were these Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus display. According to the antique road show, there was a Circus band set (not displayed here) appraised at $10,000!

Mid Pac Summer Basketball 7/10/09

This is the second summer basketball series game I've been to take photos and it took me two games to get a hang of taking fast basketball action. Since this gym was pretty bright, I was able to keep my ISO at 800 and still maintain 1/500 shutter speed using the 50mm F1.4 lens. This time, I was actually able to get the tip off.
Both teams played really hard and the score was close thru the entire game.
I am most comfortable taking shots near the basket since it was easiest to find the focus. I was actually able to catch some action away from the basket. I need more practice on those types of shots. As soon as the clock showed the final score, it was gone. I took a quick snapshot before it disappeared. This was a cropped shot because I was using the 50mm lens. Mid Pac won the night's game.

Ala Wai Panorama 7/12/09

We tried taking photos of the Ala Wai from atop this weekend. I did a photomerge and it came out really funky.
I did some HDR shots up and down the Ala Wai.
Then I tried capturing the rainbow w/an HDR shot.

Korean Festival 7/11/09

We spent the afternoon in the hot sun watching the Korean Festival entertainment. There were lots of colorful costumes worn by the performers that made it great to shoot. This was the first time using my new zoom lens and I was able to get a lot of better closeups. I also learned to boost the colors post processing in PSE 7 so it also helped my shots a lot.
There were different dances with colorful and flowing costumes.
These performers are students at BYU.According to the announcer, this dancer represents a crane. There was a taekwando demonstration. They sure broke a lot of boards. There was even a Flamenco dance performance.
They invited other "global" performers like the Chinese Lion dance.
And also a Japanese Taiko performance.

Oscar Mayer Weinermobile 7/10/09

Yesterday morning, My friend called to tell me that the Weinermobile will be at Don Quiote so I took some time off to go check it out.
I saw some people lined up to take a look inside the mobile so I also went and took a peek.
This morning, I saw this parked across the street and I had to take a picture w/ my cell phone camera...sooo funny... it had been there all this time.

July 4th Fireworks 7/3-7/4/09

We spent two nights shooting 4th of July fireworks first at Aloha Tower, then at Maunalua Bay in Hawaii Kai. On Friday, we waited for nearly 2 hours for the 8:45pm show at one of the lookout areas for the 10-12 minutes fireworks set off right in the harbor. This year, I had a pretty good view because there wasn't a roof overhead as there was in the other lookout and this year it seemed less crowded.
There wasn't as much wind so the blooms of the fireworks came out more like a chrysanthemum. I boosted the red and blue in PSE so that it would look more vibrant.
After some struggling w/ my camera and remote timing, I was able to capture the fireworks as it was shot out from the boat.
I really liked the effects of the sparkling blooms, but unfortunately, it does not photograph quite as well and looks more like a mess.
The finale started w/ multiple blooms but the final sequence was too bright for me to capture it w/ proper exposure.
On Saturday, we headed to Maunalua Bay for the 2nd annual fireworks at 8pm. This year it seemed like the crowd more than doubled. There were lots of kids having fun playing w/ sparklers and it was cool capturing it w/ a long exposure shot, until the police showed up and ended the fun.
The fireworks started w/ a boom and it seemed to never stop. One popped and another would go off..it was really hard for me to figure out the proper timing w/ my bulb setting.We were so close to the barge, the fireworks seemed HUGE overhead...it was a good thing I have a 16-35mm this year.
It seemed like they started w/ the finale first since there was a continuous stream of fireworks.
Since there was some wind, the trails of the fireworks looked less of an weeping willow, but did have a really cool affect.
There were these happy face fireworks, but my shots all came out looking like streaks. Actually, I'm not even sure if this shot was a happy face bloom...but the fireworks show sure left a happy face on a lot of people's faces.