Chinese New Year Festival - 1/14/2012

This year, the lunar (or Chinese) new year is earlier than usual so all the festivities are happening in mid January. The crowd seem to be larger and even the parade seem to have more participants. We all met up around 3pm to stake out a perfect spot to catch the parade. It was overcast so there were no harsh lighting to worry about. I took lots of pics before my unfortunate mishap (more on it later).  The different groups were still heading down to the start of the parade when we arrived.

Finally, a bit after 3:30pm, the parade began.

There are the "usuals" of the parade..marching band, parade official, pageant queen...

This year, they had someone dressed as the character of the famous Chinese story of the Monkey King.

And also as the Monk character.

Ronald McDonald.. I must've seen him every year I've been at the parade.

Billy V. posed for his photo.

There lots of lions of different colors and styles to feed.

When the parade was done, we walked around to check out the food booths along Maunakea Street.

We all gotta have a Jin Doi...freshly made.. it was HOT!!

Gau was being being sold at both Maunakea Street and at the Chinese Cultural Plaza.

I was unable to use my 50D (explained below) so I took the 'massive' crowd shot using my Lumix..

We ended at the Chinese Cultural Plaza to see some entertainment.  This couple was performing Chinese Opera.

There were more calligraphers than I remember from previous years.

It was cool that we got upstairs and I got to take this shot of the movement of the crowds below..

Well, here it is..:0(  Shortly after the parade ended, I wanted to buy some red slips of lucky paper and then I let my camera slip off my shoulder and it landed on the cement floor.. the lens cracked and broke into two pieces.  Luckily, it can be repaired and I should get it back in two weeks.

Makapu'u/Makai Pier Moon Shoot - 01/08/2011

This is the first time I've been to the moon shoot w/ the Eyes of Hawaii group and this time we met at the Makapu'u Pier. On our scenic drive there, I could see the sunset turning the terrain red. I was glad to have snapped a photo out the window.

When we got there, I was taking photos of the beach and saw a single stick in the sand.  As I looked in my viewfinder, I could see a cross.  Looking up, I realized it was created by a stick that was lying on the sand. 

I tried unsuccessfully to make the water smokey with varying slow shutter speeds.  This was the best I could do w/o over or under exposing the shot.  Next time, I'll try the method Celia told me.

When the moon finally appeared, it was large and yellow.  I tried to capture it but had to boost the color a little in PSE.  I'm not sure why the moon looks so small in the shot.

One of my last attempt of the night was to take the streaks of the cars going along the road side.  I believe all those lights are coming from the buildings at Sea Life Park. The light on the edge of the mountain is the Makapu'u Light House.  After we were done, we all then met for dinner at Kona Bar and Grill at Koko Marina.

20 minutes - 1/7/2012

Saturdays are filled with errands and chores and by the end of the long day, I'm beat. But today, as I was driving home from Hawaii Kai and I could see the sun was setting. It was so beautiful, I had to stop at Maunalani Bay and watch the sunset. I was sooo lucky that I had my Lumix and it was the best 20 minutes I spent of a long day.

It was so picturesque, I decided to use PSE and turned it into a painting using the Fresco effect.

I put some texture in this one..so it'd look like an oil painting..

I kept snapping but the refresh rate of my lumix is slow and as I saw the green flash in my LCD, my camera wasn't able to snap.. I exclaimed, "I saw it, but I missed it".. the other photog next to me said he missed it too.. argh..and we both laughed.

I remembered Jennifer Wu at the photog talk said that half hour after the sunset was also called the "golden hour".

As I was shooting, people walked into my shot which I think turned out to make the shot even better. I used the Ink Edge effect to make it look like a drawing and also brings out more of a silhouette.

I've never thought of watching the sunset at Maunalani Bay and today's detour really made my day.

Honolulu Hale and New Years Day - 12/28/2011 - 1/2/2012

I can't believe it's 2012 already.  Here are some pics I took after Christmas and New Year. The HPS club usually go to Honolulu Hale after Christmas as it is a lot less crowded so that we can get shots w/o other people in our shots.

I always strive to get one w/ the light bulb lights along the walkway.. here's this year's version..

I even tried a closeup shot..

I saw someone's shot and I wanted to copy the same angle w/ the lighted reindeer in the foreground.

There were lots of tree displays this year and it seems like Angry Birds was the popular theme.  I did find this Kung Fu Panda right near the main entrance.  It was really dark w/ super bright spot light.  In fact, the first time I went in, I completely missed it..until Celia told me about him being there..

I actually wanted to take pictures of motion as people walked in and out of the Honolulu Hale..but in this slow shutter speed shooting, people just seem to disappear.

Then over the New Year weekend, I took a quick walk down to Princess Kaiulani Hotel to see the gingerbread village.  It's really hard to shoot because of the low lights and all the houses are dark brown.  It's actually kinda strange to see a snow scene of Iolani Palace..

That evening, the haze created some awesome sunsets.. it was really beautiful..but I was unsuccessful in capturing the beauty because of the auto exposure of my Lumix.  So I decided to rework them in Photoshop Elements using some effects.

This effect was called "Plastic Wrap".

Then, yesterday, while I was at Ala Moana, I caught the most beautiful sun. Unfortunately, I could only see it between the building and above the trees.  The sun was really orange-red, but somehow, my camera turned it pink.  I'm not so skilled to change the color in PSE, but was able to erase the electric wire that was in the shot. :-)

Then, as I was leaving, I realized Christmas is really over when I saw this...

Christmas Cookie Time - 12/25/2011

I haven't posted for an entire month!! Christmas was crazy busy and I took any opportunity I could find to take some photos. We made some Gingerbread and sugar cookies and found this cool free iphone/ipod app called WEcam that puts borders as you take the photo...

We had this idea to make this series.  I took this while hand holding my Lumix.  It would've been easier if I had a tripod.  The first try didn't match up and didn't look so good.  I'm thinking of turning this into a Christmas card next year...Bwahh! ha! ha! ha!   (note: no gingerbread cookie was actually harmed while making this shot...at least not DURING the shoot)

Here's more from the ipod/iphone app.. pretty fun..

Here's one that makes one think..

This is what happens when gingerbread goes bad..