Honolulu Festival Part 2 - 03/03/2013

I managed to beat the mad traffic jam on Kalakaua so I could stake out a good spot for the parade. There were people already staked out at all the good spots on the sidewalk when I got there so I was lucky I found a spot that I wouldn't be blocked by other enthusiastic photogs or the official festival camera people.  I'm also glad it didn't rain this year like it did last year and it turned out to be a perfect day for a parade and grand fireworks.

I can't believe Hilo Hattie has been around for 50 years old.  This is the world's largest aloha shirt.. wonder how large is the suitcase?

There were groups representing different countries...Samoa

It seems you can't have a parade in Hawaii without the traditional Chinese Lion Dance.

The Philippines...

This character representing Taiwan looked like he was staring and smiling into my camera.

I think there must've been more than a hundred girls in this group.  They managed to take a quick break before starting up their performance.

I missed Sugaren in the morning performance at the Convention center, but I managed to catch them at the parade.

They are one of the liveliest groups I am glad to see each year at the Honolulu Festival.

After the sun set, the lit up floats start to come down the parade.

Bummer, this year, I think they must've run out of fireworks by the time they reached us.. last year, there were huge fireworks.

At the convention center, they had displays of the firework bulbs that would be used for the grand Nagaoka firework finale at 8:30pm.

I managed to find an open spot on the beach to set up my tripod for the fireworks and hoped I was well aligned with the firework bursts.  It was so dark and I could hardly see what i was shooting.  I was surprised I got people in my shots..but in retrospect, I think it worked out well having something in the foreground.

This firework show is different from the July 4th one in that usually they shoot out lots of fireworks at the end.  In the entire 10 minute show, they were shooting out lots of fireworks at the same time so I had to cover my lens to avoid overexposing the fireworks and I got a lot of overlapping fireworks .

One of the signature design of the Nagaoka firework is the weeping willow design.

I lost count how long I kept my shutter open.. There so many blossoms I didn't know when to release and take the shot.

This looks like something you can do w/ duplicating images in photoshop, but this was how it really looked.  In 10 minutes, it was all done....until next year!!

Honolulu Festival Part 1 - 03/03/2013

I was able to go to the 2nd day of the Honolulu Festival at the Convention center to see the performances. There were 2 stages with different entertainment throughout the day.  I had lots of exercise going from the outside stage to the inside stage, but it was very challenging having to change my camera setting from outside lighting to indoor lighting.  This year, I tried to frame my shots a little differently by doing mostly landscape shots.  I had a great time enjoying the entertainment and taking photos.

There were different lively groups performing taiko.

In the indoor stage, there was a group from Japan performing the Hula.

Then on the outside stage, this lively group of young rock and roll performers doing songs from the 80's. These were the most talented youngsters I've seen. 

I stayed for this jazz group from the Joint Forces at Hickam.  I enjoyed their performance as much as they enjoyed performing together.

For the finale on the Indoor stage, the Yosakoi Team Tokiwa.  I've seen a lot of the performers from previous year but I still enjoy seeing them again year after year.

During some breaks in performances I was able to take some shots of the art work displays.

I saw this mask on the news and I was glad to be able to catch a shot of it as well as the master carver.

There was a floral group who displayed different bouquets. I really couldn't tell if these were real or fake flowers.  

Chinese New Year Festival - 01/26/2013

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was at the Japanese New year celebration, today I was in Chinatown and checked out the Pre-Chinese New Year Festivities at the Chinese Cultural Plaza. There were booths selling new year good luck trinkets and food as well as lion dance performance.

Almost everything in this booth is red and gold color.  

This booth had Jung (mochi rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) and I have no idea what is in the other pot.

They also had jin dui and other dim sum and desserts..

They set up the firecrackers before the lion dance.

There were two troops so there was twice as many drums and cymbols and it was very noisy.  When I went to lunch, my ears were still ringing for the first 10mins of sitting down.

There was a booth selling these cherry blossom which were pretty pricey, but people buy them to display in their homes for good luck.  The real Chinese New Year festivities will be next weekend on Feb. 1 and 2 when there will be a parade w/ many lion dances and street festival on Maunakea Street. 

New Year Ohana Festival - 01/13/2013

Somehow, I managed to miss this event every year but I finally got a chance to check out the Ohana Festival this year at the Japanese Cultural Center. I was worried it would rain, so I didn't bring my 50D but it turned out to be a great but super hot day.  The Lumix is great for sunny outdoor shots, but too slow for action  shots so I  didn't get any good performance shots. Still i managed to click at the right time to get some good mochi pounding pics and the long zoom helped get great closeups.

When I arrived, they were doing the Mochi Pounding or "mochi-tsuki" demonstration. It was really cool how they managed to pound the grains of mochi rice into a sticky dough.

I wanted to get pics of the entire process so I came back later to get better shots of the mochi-tsuki process.

At the cultural center, they had calligraphy writing make-it take-its.

 I watched a dance performance by these girls in brightly colored kimonos.

And of course the Taiko performers.  I recognized them from the Okinawan Festival.

I wasn't a fan of Kikaida when I was little because of the language barrier, but saw that the actor was going to appear so I fought the crowd to try get some pics..  I think he is Kikaida..

And here's the actor Ban Daisuke who came all the way from Japan.

There were also appearance of Kikaida's Friend, who I have no idea what his name is.. but I know he is a 'good guy'.  It was great fun and the kids young and old loved it.