Honolulu Festival Day 1 - 3/12-3/13/2011

This year's Honolulu Festival took place 2 days after the great Japan Earthquake and Tsunami scare here. I didn't know if there would even be an event but was happy to know that the groups that had arrived still participated in the events. It was heartwarming to see them put in their utmost efforts in their performance. It's been months since I took event shots and it took some figuring out to adjust to the indoor lighting and fast movements. The stage was brightly lit and was very colorful so it worked well with the performers' colorful costumes.
This is one of the littlest performer. She's only 4 years old.
There was an exhibit of art work created by Japanese artists. I really like the intricate details on this sculpture.
This one is simply titled 'Small Bird is Back'. I think it'd make a really cool large sculpture in a park.
There was supposed to be a huge firework celebration after the parade on Sunday put on by the city of Nagaoka. But with respect to the people of Japan for their loss in the devastation, the firework was cancelled. Here are some firework shells. I'm not sure if these are life size or not..but these are pretty big.

I followed Celia and Erick to Ala Moana Center Stage to see these cheerleaders from a high school in Nagaoka.
Dai Hirai is a ukulele pop singer who sang the theme song for the Honolulu Festival. I thought I found a great spot in front of the stage and it was a great spot...since these videographers were standing right in front of where I was sitting. I had to shoot whenever I could get a clear shot. Argh!!
So, I decided to take this shot. You can see in the screen that he got a great unobstructed shot.. ARGH!!
There were even these Middle Eastern dance.
Then these very energetic dancers. I was sitting in the front row and he looked straight into my lens.
Last year, there were a lot more Hula dancers. Due to the Earthquake a lot of groups were not able to get here in time.

All the Monkeys in the Zoo... - 3/5/2010

I'm a bit behind in my photo blogging and I'm finally posting my zoo shots from last weekend. It was an overcast Saturday afternoon having rained in the morning and the lighting was perfect for shooting at the zoo. I tried to take a lot of closeups being inspired by Erick and his humongus lens. We covered a lot of animals from this excursion so I decided to post them in groups. Here are the monkeys.
I thought all the animals would be sleeping, but some were actually out..
Then it was feeding time in this cage.. I was facinated w/ them discovering food wrapped in what looks like paper towel centers. I could spend a day just watching them.
Not sure what they were eating, but it looked like a biscuit shaped like a sliced hotdog.

Sunset - 2/26/2011

Due to the vog we've been having lately, we've had beautiful sunsets. I saw it a few days ago on my way home and wished I could just pull over and take a picture of it. Today, I asked my friend to let me off so I could grab a few photos. I had my Lumix and I think it did a pretty good job with zoom so I didn't have to crop as much had I brought my canon lens. There were lots of people gathered to watch this grand show presented by God...
I saw the huge cloud but I held out hope that the sun would shine thru it and would present a beautiful sunset.
Finally, the sun came thru the cloud.
I know it is just an optical illusion, but the sun looked especially large today.
I wish the catamaran had it's sails up to make a better shot..but the sun was still as spectacular.
As the sun fell, there was a beautiful reddish hue. Too bad, I didn't get to see a green flash today. Near me, a violinst was playing (I think Erick had a picture of him in his blog in his Waikiki shoot) and after the sun had set, some people around me actually applauded. Ahh.. another day in paradise and thank you God for a great show indeed.

ZOO - 2/13/2011

It's been a while since I've been to the zoo and there's been a lot of expansion constructions going on, but most of the animals are still where they have been. I brought along my 70-200mm but it is no match for Erick's 200mm giant. It was a nice sunny day for Celia, Erick and I to go to the zoo but it sure was hot and sticky which seem to make my camera bag 2x heavier!
I always like to photograph them, but you gotta have patience since they usually like to show you their backsides..
The Gibon was really active swinging around the 'island'. I thought for sure he'd fall in the water..how does he keep his fur so fluffy?
It's so hard to shoot thru the reflection of the glass esp. when the sun is shining. I somehow managed to put my lens really close to the glass..and some photoshop element magic go get color back..and voila.. Here's Rusty and Violet (Celia's really good at remembering names names..).
I don't like lizards..but it was such a great look that I had to take a shot..I'm thinking of using it as my facebook profile pic.. hmm...
I was surprised they came out pretty sharp, even thru the thick glass..the one in the back was eating some kind of meal worm.
We came back for a second try...he must've been intrigued by my large lens..
This guy was hanging by his tail! (and I managed to shoot thru the fence)
The tiger cubs (hmm...can I still even call them cubs??) were held in the smaller holding area while workers were cleaning their main cage. I took many shots, mostly fence..and only one came out.
This pic is not so great, but this is the only one i got that shows the pink fleshy patch on his back that Erick pointed out to us. Probably got hurt from too much rough play with his siblings.

Chinese New Year - 2/3/2011

Happy Year of the rabbit. My narcissus bloomed just in time for the new year. I'm not sure why it grew so tall, nonetheless, I'm just glad it flowered. This year, I did what my mother used to do and bought candied fruits and put them in a Chinese new year candy box we've used every year. Unfortunatey, I didn't find any of the red watermelon seeds my mother used to put into the center compartment.
I even made Jai using a combination recipe from the internet and my mother's friend and added only the ingredients I like to eat. Not bad considering this is the first time I've ever cooked Jai. XD

Pro Bowl Street Festival - 1/29/2011

Since I wasn't able to go to Chinatown for the night festivities, I decided to check out the Pro Bowl street festival that shut down Kalakaua Ave. to traffic on a Saturday night. It was dark and I brought the 50mm F1.4 thinking it could handle the low light, but it was too dark and I ended up using a the longer 100mm lens with flash to get closer shots of the performances on stage. It was also a great chance to learn about my new flash.
They had tents selling food and NFL merchandise.
There was a SEA of people..EVERYWHERE.. by 8pm, it was a major human traffic jam! I decided I needed to grow at least 5 inches taller to get above this crowd.
One of the stage had local music with Lena girl as MC. The stage lights like this pink light caused great problems for me, even with flash.
There was also latin music with Ronaldo and his band. And the lighting? If it wasn't pink light, it was yellow light!!
There was this group doing classic Beattles songs.. They were great.. under extreme yellow lights and background too!!
There was even an Elvis sighting!!
There were mascots from the NFL teams auctioning off NFL item to raise money for the Special Olympics.
And Cheerleaders too.. I am surprise that my flash was able to break through the darkness, even though I was pretty far away.
They were signing autographs and I had to wait to shoot through the people. I am very happy with my flash since I was able to maintain skin tones even w/ the dark lighting!
I took these using shutter priority @ 1/250 and ISO 800, there was hardly any grain, all because of the use of my flash, I think. And the crowd? it took me 1/2 hour just to walk 3 blocks back to where I started out.