PSE test shots - 1/14/10

I learned about some new features (at least new to me.. )in PSE at the last HPS meeting and decided to give it a try. I had great fun doing this and made me take a new look at my photos.
I took some shots and added some effects to it.. I turned this shot of the capitol..
into an oil painting. I tried making this more painted, but it looks more like a drawing.
In this shot, I added stain glass effect..it looks more like tiles.

MPI season opener - 1/7/2010

It's basketball season again and another chance at practicing sports photography. Luckily, the brand new Gym at Maryknoll is really nice and bright. I also tried shooting w/ Manual setting @ ISO 640, 1/200 and F2. My first objective: Get a good shot of the tip-off.
It was difficult to focus on the fast action, and since I was sitting around mid court and 3 rows up, there were very few close-up action shots..
The easiest shots for me are the ones at the basket since the focus point has a larger area w/ the group of players. Also, my camera has an easier time when the focus is on the white shirts.
As I was editing out my shots, I remember reading a sports posting from Jamm Aquino at Star bulletin talking about shooting zebras at the High School football game... I, too, went on an Owls (MPI) shoot and all I got were zebra shots!! ha! ha! Occasionally, I did get action shots w/ two players... The zebra was everywhere! The game was close to the end, but as the clock ran out, Maryknoll pulled ahead and won 37-31.

In search of Hawaii No Ka Oi

This year's canon photo contest theme is "Hawaii No Ka Oi" and I've been mulling over what kind of photo will signify that theme. I had a free hour Saturday afternoon so I took a walk around my neighborhood mostly to get some exercise, but then also scout out possible scenes. It was such a hazy voggy day that I decided I was just going to walk w/o my camera. Then I wanted to capture some scenes so I ended up using my cell phone camera. There was a certain peace and serenity about the Ala Wai on this calm afternoon that I could just sit here all day...
I walked to Kapiolani park and saw some costumed dancers and decided to check it out. It was a special performance for a group of students from North Dakota. I was bummed I didn't have my 'real' camera. They had different Tahitian dances.
I then walked along the beach and found the haze covered sky along the southern shores. The waves were really choppy and not good for surfing. The haze didn't bother the beach volleyball game that was going on..After an hour of roaming, I ended back up to the Ala Wai on my walk back home. It was so peaceful to see a lone rower on the water. A hazy but otherwise great relaxing time. I didn't find the Hawaii No Ka Oi shot, but did discover some of the many reasons why Hawaii is No Ka Oi..

HDR Honolulu City Lights - 1/3/2010

Erick, Jalna and I met to get one last shot of the city lights display. I figured the crowd would be gone so it'd be a great chance for HDR. When I got there at 5:30pm, the only other people there were there were the security guards! I got in a few shots of the outside before it got too dark. I think this is the first time I was able to get the snow people w/o anyone else in the shot...and this was a 3-shot HDR!
I had wanted to do this the past two times here...and I finally got a chance...The HDR of the lights w/ traffic didn't come out like I expected... Mr. and Mrs. santa were still kinda blown out.
As I was folding up my tripod getting ready to get back across the street, I notice Kawaihoa Church looking really cool in the dark, so I decided to take an HDR. I had to change the highlights/shadows in PSE to lighten it since it came out really dark...
After dark, people must've had the same idea and started to show up. I was fussing around so much taking this shot while avoiding the crowd that I didn't know I had cut off the top of the house. I tried to take another HDR of the other tiny toy shop but there were so many people, I was only able to get just a couple shots. I think this house is just the right size for him...
While I was outside earlier, I thought it was so funny that in this perspetive, it looked like I was the dog so I decided to take a shot.
My tripod doesn't work well at this angle so I just took this by leaning my camera on the fence...it was not possible to do an HDR, but the colors of the sky still came out kinda cool.
I guess Jalna and I got the same idea of a 'self portrait'...except we had taken it from a different tree...

Happy New Year 2010!

New year's eve started w/ a blue moon...the 2nd full moon in a month. It was really cloudy and the moon just peeked out for a short time.
It poured heavily for a while and I thought there would be no celebration of fireworks this year. However, the rain stopped and the loud booms of the fireworks started up again. There were sooo many aerials this year... I decided to start taking pictures shortly after 11:45pm. By midnight, it was wild!! The smoke was really dense. It was like a war of fireworks... I couldn't even hear the one that was supposed to be at the Halekulani Hotel. Where did people find so many fireworks? Then all of a sudden, shortly after the stroke of midnight, someone shot off this grand aerial fireworks just off my street...It was sooo close...
The air quality was really bad and I could see the white fog that appeared in front of my eyes...
I took this panoramic of the Kapahulu and St. Louis/Kaimuki Hills just beyond these buildings... You can hardly see the lights on the hill.
By 1:30am, you can't even see past Kapahulu... although I missed the main firework displays, I got my own viewing of fireworks without leaving home...a pretty good deal, I'd say..

Honolulu Hale Christmas Lights #2 - 12/29/2009

What a difference a week makes..my second chance at the christmas light with the Hawaii Photographic Society group after Christmas was a much better attempt at getting some shots. The crowd has died down so there was a lot more room for my tripod. This year, I'm trying two new techniques: manual mode and RAW format. The RAW format gave me so much more room to adjust when the manual mode can't handle the darks and lights. I was also able to boost the color to make the color of the lights more vibrant. And finally after I was able to figure out Lightroom, thx to EV, it made it possible for me to edit all these large files. As with every year, I must get a photo of the Santa.. They have different ornaments this year, the 25th anniversary of Honolulu City Light.
This year, it seems like there were a lot of colors.
I was really fixated on Christmas balls of different designs and sizes.
I didn't realize this until I was editing that the gold Christmas ball was made using a martinelli apple juice bottle..
They also had a gingerbread house display. I thought this was was the most creative. No wonder it wasn't crowded...Santa had gone and won't return until next year...
I gave up using my tripod because it couldn't get me a good angle. It took me several attempts to get one that wasn't blurry.There were even TWO spinning trees this year...