Splendor of China - 10/30/2011

After missing this event last year, I finally made it to the Splendor of China on Sunday. It wasn't too crowded so we found good vantage point in the back to shoot the performers with our long lens. This year there were musical performances with Chinese Singers. There was also a display with Chinese symbols like these red bun which I think either represent longevity or good luck.

There was the Narcissus Court from last year.

Also the contestants from this year. After practicing my shooting of all the contestants, I think I finally discovered the proper breathing pattern to ensuring a sharp shot. This was a great opportunity for practicing. Now if I can figure out when to click before they blink. :-(

Here are more Chinese ornaments for the Year of the Rabbit.

They had a sample Dragon Boat. 

I didn't realize this was a lantern until I took a closer look and saw the detailed work.

Ala Moana Center Fire - 11/3/2011

I've been bringing my Panasonic Lumix with me since it's light, handy and have great zoom. In daylight, it is super sharp. So when I saw the fire at the Ala Moana Shopping Center this morning, I grabbed my camera and zoomed in and took some shots. There were lots of black smoke and looked really bad. Fortunately, according to the news, it wasn't too bad and was started w/ oil in a wok at Panda Express.

I saw these orange objects in the black smoke and thought it was fire..turns out to be two guys on the roof. 

I think within 1/2 hour, the fire was mostly out and there was left with only white smoke.

Texturing Experiment - 10/29/2011

I learned about Texturing thanks to Jalna and wanted to test it out so I Googled and found youTube videos with some cool and easy instructions on adding textures to my photos using layers. Also, I took this panoramic using a cool ipod app (or iphone app, but I don't have one) for $1.99 called DerManDar Panorama that is so simple to use. It guides me on matching each shot and then auto stitches as I take the photo using my ipod camera. I then emailed the photo to myself to work on it in PSE.
This Texture is called Them Blues and I left it as Normal in layer at 49%. After adding the layer, I removed the layer from everything and just kept the sky textured.

I then reset the layer to Difference and kept everything the same. I like this since it gives it an old post card look.. pretty cool..

On the Street Where You Live - 10/22/2011

Every month, for the Eyes of Hawaii Photo club, there's a theme of the month shot that we would submit for a photo slide show at the meeting.  It is usually due just before our monthly meeting. I found out that this month the photo was due on Friday Oct 21st at NOON when I had thought at Midnight. So.. I missed the deadline. But since I have a blog, no sense wasting the photo.. here it is..on my walk down the street in search of a photo op, I found these "birds (pidgeons) on a wire" basking in the afternoon glow perhaps catching up with each other's day's adventures.    

Then I found these birds on a pine tree. I thought it was kinda cool that their feathers look like snow flakes on the tree.  I wonder what's next month's theme?  Hopefully, I won't miss that deadline.

Fishing and Seafood Festival - 10/9/2011

This is the 2nd year I've been to the Fishing and Seafood Festival. This is a well organized event: Park at Honolulu Community College, hop on a large air conditioned tour bus and you're dropped off at Pier 38. I decided to go in the afternoon this year since I missed the Coast Guard Rescue demo last year and I wanted to get some cool shots.  There were food, fish exhibit and demos. It was cloudy and overcast, but it was still hot and muggy. I met a few people from HPS and hung out for a while going through the exhibits. It was nice to be in the cool a/c of the fish auction house.  There was actually a line of people waiting to see the display of fishes.

I decided to take an extreme closeup of this fish.

We were able to board this ship to see how long line fishermen live and work on the boat. They had narrow quarters so it was kinda tricky going up to see the inside of the boat with all my gear.

I decided to take an HDR of the wood in the steering..surprised it came out even though the boat was rocking..

I thought these were fishing poles, but turns out they were radio signal receivers.

They also allowed you go board the coast guard ship. 

Very high tech controls..

Celia and I were waiting around for the Coast Guard rescue demo, we were talking to the event photographer and he let me test out the new version Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II lens and an extender. It was SOOOO cool..the zoom was so quiet and smooth and wow..SO SHARP!!..I took a couple of shots.. Thanks for letting us test drive the lens!  Time for an upgrade!??!  ha! ha!

We were waiting around and I saw this huge cargo ship being towed out by a tiny tug boat.

Turns out the large ship is Hong Kong based liner.

I also took some zoom shots using the Lumix.. not bad for a tiny camera.

We waited until 3:15pm and were told that the Demo was cancelled because the coast guard was called out on a real rescue.. Oh well.. I guess I'll have to come again next year.

Test Picasa Slide Show - 10/9/2011

Here's my Test Picasa Slide Show..Ok..this seem to work with Internet Explorer 9 and also works w/ FireFox 6.0.2.  Not sure if it will work on Safari..so you may not see anything below. It sure takes a while to load..

Rice Festival - 9/11/2011

Between the two Fashion shows at Ala Moana, I had almost 2 hours to kill so I decided it was a good chance to walk to Magic Island to check out the 2nd Annual Rice Festival and the record breaking Giant Musubi.

When I got there, they were starting to wrap up the musubi, which was shaped like a twin size matress.

upon closer inspection, it was covered w/ a layer of Spam.

I checked out the taiko group performance.  The sun was super strong.

I also happen to also catch Bruce Shimabukuro's (Jake's brother) performance.

I was planning to leave and then I saw people start to measure the musubi.

It looks like it's almost 69 inches long.

I even saw Mr. Gohan who was 'hamming' it up for the camera....or maybe 'spam'?

On my way back to the mall, I wanted to take some shots for 'things are looking up' theme.

It was hot!!

By the way, my 50D was in for repairs because I was getting the Canon version of BSOD ('Blue Screen of Death'..hmm, I wonder why the screen of death is always blue anyways?).  It cost me $188 to repair and I got it back within 2 weeks.