Pow Wow Graffiti Art 2014 - 05/26/2014

It's been raining for nearly the entire Memorial Day weekend, but finally the sun came out on Monday when we photogs decided to check out the Pow Wow 2014 art work. I've seen photos of previous Pow Wow arts but never seen it in person so this is a great chance to see them in person. We walked around just discovering art in every turn of a corner and it was like a scavenger hunt. It was a hot, humid, and muggy day but it was great going on this hunt w/ great fellow photog friends. It was after the trek that I found out there's a map and listing of all the art work and there were a lot more we missed.  Next time, we'll be more prepared so we don't miss out. 
This one on the side of the former Comp USA building is one of my favorite.  It looked like someone had mistakenly taken the plans and accidentally painted it upside down..and it totally works!

It was a bright day and some of the art works were dark so it was hard to meter.  I have to admit that I ended up shooting it using the camera's Program mode.  Then, I reworked them in PSE and upped the saturation to bring all the colors back.

I'm not really sure which ones were done this year and which were from previous year.

When I checked the Pow Wow site, I realized this building had last year's design completely repainted over with this new design!

We started on Cooke street and turned onto Pohukaina street and came across this colorful work.

I'm not sure how this one is done but it looks like it was carved out of the building.

Since it was a holiday, the streets were not busy but just after I took a test shot of this large wall, two cars pulled into the lot.. :0(

This is probably not part of the Pow Wow, but I thought it was so cute for a taximeter shop.

This is another cool work.  I have no idea how the artist managed to make it look like a pencil drawing.  I hope this doesn't get painted over next year.

It took me a while to work on my post because Erick told me about how I can fix the leaning buildings in my shot using PSE.  I ended up reworking a lot of my shots to fix the leaning shots using the distortion correction tool...soo cool!

We then headed back to the park in the back of Fisher Hawaii on Cooke Street. 

There were a lot of different art work on all sides of the building..

We managed to find the sign on the back wall of the building.  Mission accomplished!

These are truly great pieces of art work.  It was like walking thru an art exhibit.

I don't remember what street this was on, but it was in a locked parking lot and I managed to shoot between the chain fence.  This was my last shot before calling it a day and we went for Shaved Iced at Waiola Shave Ice.  No shots of my Cherry and Vanilla shaved ice but it was a great ending to another great shoot.

May Day - 05/01/2014

The first of May is always the May Day Festival, regardless if it is on a Monday or a Saturday.  I went a couple of years ago and realized that there was a whole May Day program that I had missed. So this year, I took the day off from work so I can enjoy the entire festivities.  When I got to Kapiolani Park, there was such a large crowd that I soon forgot it was Thursday and not Saturday.  Even the Queen Kapiolani statue was covered in lei strung with jade flower, said to be her favorite flower.
This year, I went 'light' and used just my 100mm lens.

When I found a spot to sit, the hula performance had already started.

When Mayor Caldwell was making his speech, the monthly noon time test siren had gone on and Kimo Kahoano did an impromptu emergency announcement that made everyone laugh.

The 2014 May Day Queen performed a hula about lei giving.

Under a tent, there were lei making demos.  I spent most of my time taking pics of all the flowers.

One of the lei maker even got interviewed by a TV crew.

They offered leis to the cutest visitors to the booth..

I became fascinated by the colors of the flowers that were randomly strewn on the tables.

There was a tapa demo.  I have to admit that the smell of the wet bark that was used to make the tapa smelled worse that the corpse flower.

I waited in line for about 20 mins so I could see all the lei entries and winners on display.

There were all kinds of leis of every color of the rainbow, from strung leis to haku leis.

 I believe this was the Mayor's winner.

There were also ribbon leis that were made to look like real flowers.

It was a hot and sunny day but I was glad I spent a day off to enjoy this May Day. I think I'm gonna do it again next year!

Eyes of Hawaii State Library Exhibit - 05/01/2014

The State library exhibit is the main event that shows the member's of Eyes of Hawaii's work. This year, the displays were in the main lobby of the library and there were a lot of great photos. The exhibit runs for a month thru May 29th.