Bon Dance at Soto Mission of Hawaii - 8/15/09

August is Obon Season and it gave me opportunity to try night photography. I found it to be very challenging because it's dark and people move fast. It was a fun and great learning experience. People were having a great time decked out their in Japanese wear.
As it got dark, it was really hard to set the right speed. I got motion shots where one feels like the world is revolving around them quickly.
I finally had to use my flash and after much adjustments, was able to get focused shots of the performers on the platform.
Everyone was having a great time concentrating on their dance steps.I was able to get the lanterns w/ my zoom lens.
Most of the time, I caught a lot of people's back side but I did get some sharp shots of different Japanese wear.This one is my favorite..the lanterns in the darkness looks like it was a black and white shot w/ just the lanterns in color.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 8/8/09

I was able to take different types of transportation on this trip and collected shots along the way. Here's the tollway to cross the George Washington Bridge to get to NYC. I couldn't believe it's $8 per car!! Fortunately, it's a one-way fee, and you don't have to pay coming back. And people complain about increasing parking meters fees here.
My friend has a gadget mounted in her car that tracks the toll fees so she can go thru the EZPass lanes. The day started out rainy and it was pouring for half the day.
About halfway on the GW bridge is NJ and half is NY..here we cross to the NY state border.
Here's the NJ sign as we get back from NYC. This is the 3rd day we crossed and I finally got a decent shot from the moving car.
The other option we took was the NY waterways. This takes us directly to Midtown Manhattan where we can board a bus that'll take us to Times Square.
I also got a chance to experience the Amtrak to Washington DC. It took us around 3 hrs from Newark Airport to Washington DC's Union Station.
The interior of the Amtrak is like an airplane, except you can take more carry-on luggage. There's even an electrical outlet so you can plug in your laptop to do some work. We stopped at Trenton, Wilmington, Philadelphia before arriving in DC.
When we were returning, it was pouring like dogs and cats. It's actually very difficult to focus thru the rainy window..I kept focusing on the window but was able to get a couple shots.
In DC, we took the subway. The escalator to the underground was massive and was a long way down.
Some routes took the underground above ground, like this station for the Catholic Univ. of America.
NY subway reminded me of an ant farm..lots of people going up and down these narrow walkways. I didn't see any escalators..just stairways.
To avoid bringing attention to myself in the NY subway and also make my friend nervous, I used my cellphone camera and was lucky to get this one of the train speeding by.
Here's my United Airlines flight back home. I was bored while waiting in Denver and took these two shots with my cell which I merged together.

NYC Full Circle - 8/4/09

It seems appropriate to post the pic from my final day as I made my way back to the same spot I took the first shot and also to take a panoramic shot of NYC skyline. I took a similar shot when I was here in 2004 and hoped I'd get a chance to do it again using my 50D. This was taken around 7pm as the sun started to set which gave the buildings beautiful colors which I hope I was able to capture. So, this panorama completes the full circle, or rather, the "panorama" of my trip.

DC Sights 7/30/09

We arrived by Amtrak to the Union Station. It is a grand station w/ a magnificent ceiling design.
Sun sets around 8:30pm and I was able to watch it go down before it got too dark to find our way back to the hotel. Planes are landing every couple of minutes and fly really close to DC.
The capitol turns kinda yellow from the sun sets.
At the National Archives, the line (on the left) to see the Declaration was too long so I skipped it and went to see the Constitution. I was worried because the guard said if our flash ever goes off, that'll be the last time we'd take photos for the day..or was it 'any' day?! The ceiling of the rotunda was also magnificent. That seem to be the theme of all the museums..so I was always looking up.
Here's the ceiling of the Capitol Rotunda.The King Kamehameha statue was moved to the new Capitol visitor's center right next to the ticket counter.
We also went to Arlington National Cemetary to watch the changing of the guard ceremony.At the Lincoln Memorial, I could see so many low flying planes that land every few minutes
The Vietnam Memorial was very moving..there must've been more than 20 panels taller than me full of the names of soldiers who died in the war.
We managed to find our way to the National Zoo via the Metro and I was able to see the Panda. He/she had been sleeping ealier but finally woke up briefly for me to take a quick shot before he/she walked off. I didn't have my 70-200mm lens so I had to do some cropping..
And I also managed to get a quick shot from the Metro...and it wasn't too scary.

DC panorama 7/27/09

Since I'm able to get my PSE to work, I'm able to take Panoramic shots and do photomerge. Here are two I took, the Capitol..
and The Library of Congress, which is near by.

NYC Continuous shooting test 7/25/09

I found an opportunity to shoot w/ continuous mode. Well, in times like this, it is better to have video instead.

NYC Central Park 7/25/09

Today we started off in NY chinatown (where else?) and had late breakfast.
We had Juk and braised Beef and tripe lo mein... the lo mein is more HK style and not like the local type w/ lots of gravy. It also comes with a bowl of broth.
It was a HOT day in Central park. I took a panoramic of this pond that's all green (it's not my color enhancement). I think it has those same kind algae growth we had in Lake Wilson the whole pond is covered w/ this stuff.
I made my friend look for these sights I've seen on TV/movies...it was like a scavenger hunt and we got lost several times and came upon this pond that had rented boats.
They even had a gondola ride and the guy actually sings. I tried to get 'artistic' taking the shot thru the holes on the walk bridge wall after taking several shots off the bridge.
After an hour or so, we found the Bethesda fountain.
Off to the side there was a performance by these guys named the "Afrobats". They were actually pretty funny and pretty good. I took a whole bunch of shots from the show so here's one of them.
Afterwards, my friend wanted to attend the 5:30pm mass at St. Patrick Cathedral. It's a very beautiful and grand church on 5th Avenue next to many expensive shops.
A must visit for me... the rockafeller plaza. Every year, there is a Christmas tree and an ice rink that I've always wanted to see, but of course, I'm too early to see it.
We went back to Chinatown to have dinner and to pick up the car and Little Italy, which was right next to Chinatown was lit up. Luckily, I didn't shake to get the shot.