21st Annual Honolulu Festival - 03/07 - 03/08/2015

The Annual Honolulu Festival is always a great shoot. You experience the Outdoor/indoor lighting shoot, the street shoot, sunset and even a fireworks shoot.. what more can a learning photographer ask for? I wasn't able to spend a lot of time, but I saw a LOT of great performances on stage and on the street. I'm glad I'm able to photograph it every year.

They are my favorite Taiko group.. I was so lucky I managed to catch their performance on both days...

There was a modern dance performance.  I had to shoot between the heads of people in front so my pics have a vignette-like effect on the bottom edge even though I tried to crop the heads out.

The inside stage is quite large and they even show the performance on a large screen.

There were performances on the street before the parade.  Next year I'll find a closer spot than where i sat..

There were a lot more traditional Japanese performers at the parade and less Hula performers this year.

This is the 10th year the Sonoda Gakuen High School girls joined in the Honolulu Festival parade.  There must've been more then 200+ girls marching and dancing in the parade.

Taiwnese Performers

Traditional way of carrying goods in Philippines..

Not so traditional goods ... hey, you'd never lose your cellphone if you carried it this way..

The sunset.. then it got really dark so I couldn't take any more performances in the parade since my 50D doesn't have high enough ISO to handle the noise.. and the flash is too harsh.. I guess time for an upgrade to 7D Mark II? :-)

I did manage to get lighted floats though.. this float is a trademark of the Honolulu Festival Parade.. 

These lanterns were carried horizontally and then as they passed my area, they raised them high up..  I had to run after them and shot a short video and also got this shot w/ my iphone!

Then, after about an hour break, at 8:30pm, the giant fireworks..They fired it off from 3 barges or boats.  It was so large, my 16-35mm lens couldn't get the entire bursts..I managed to get just a few good shots including this one..Next year I'll be more prepared.. (I tell myself that every year... )

Bean in a Bottle - 02/21/2015

I was planning to do an update of the roof top garden but it's been so rainy and windy, it has been hard to take pics.  The garden has also taken a beating from this rough weather.  I'll update later and share pics of eggplants, more leafy greens, lady bugs and even praying mantis.   For now, here's a story of my bean in a bottle.

My coworker showed me how to make a planter out of wine bottle.  We managed to get some donated wine bottles :-).  First you make a score along the glass bottle with the bottle cutter gadget, then (after seeing it done on YouTube) you pour hot water, then cold water on the glass to stress it.  Eventually, the glass will split on the cut line. Once the glass cracks correctly, you get a beautifully cut (and sharp) split bottle. I have to admit that not all of the bottles cracked nicely but I did manage to get a few. 

With some water on a sand paper so you don't breath in glass dust, sand the two cut edge of the bottle until smooth and won't cut your hand.  The shape of the bottle is important as red/blush wine bottles works best as it has a good cup shape so it sits nicely on the bottle and provides good area for the soil to go in. Also, the darker bottles don't grow green algae growth as quickly as clear bottles.

To set up the planter, I put some leftover window screen mesh my coworker had from changing out window screen.  I cut a hole in the center of the mesh and thread laundry line thru the hole and tied a knot.  The mesh screen keeps the cord and soil from falling thru the hole on the bottom. The cord is used to absorb water into the soil and keeps the soil nice and wet.  I used only one piece of cord folded once so there are two leads into the water. Next, fill with soil and add a plant then fill the bottom with some water.

Here is one I made w/ a bubble drink cup I had.  The basil was leftover from my Pho order.  NO care is needed, I just have to add water on the bottom once a week and that's it.  I didn't have to do anything and just left it near the window.  Unfortunately, since the basil plant was kept indoor, it never got any larger than this and it was best to transplant to the ground to continue to grow.  

We tried with different herbs from seed and nothing ever took... until we got pole bean seeds from the dried up beans we found from the roof top garden. It started to sprout quickly and started to crawl, so I ended up having to construct a 'ghetto-style trellis'.

After a little over a month by my window,  I was surprised to see a flower bud!!

I couldn't believe that after the flower died, it became a BEAN!!  Here is my ghetto trellis 2.0 using long drinking straws and bbq sticks.

The bean grew quickly..

After almost 2 weeks, I harvested it.  I still can't believe I grew this from a bottle planter..

Shangri-la, Doris Duke's home -- 01/17/2015

I've heard of Doris Duke and only had limited knowledge about her or her home in Diamond Head/Kahala area.  My friend invited me to join his group of friends on a tour of her Hawaii home she aptly named Shangri-la.  The tour was conducted thru the Honolulu Museum of Art and we had to meet there then shuttled to the home in Kahala.  We met the tour guide for the 90min tour at the end of a driveway.  The first spot was what's behind a large decorated door..the Mughal Garden.

At first, I was confused since this doesn't look or feel like being in Hawaii.  

You really get a sense that Doris Duke was really into the Middle Eastern Islamic Art.  We were not able to take any photos of the interior of the home where they showed us her bedroom, which was just opened to the public recently and her ornate bathroom that looks like some Middle Eastern bath house.  After the dining room they took us out to the patio. This is just a sampling of the tile work she has.  Her entire home is covered in tile work, some commissioned, some are antiques, and all were purchased from her numerous travels.  

The other side of the patio offers a beautiful ocean view of diamond head.  I only found out on this tour that the surf spot known as Cromwell's is actually the waters fronting her property and named after her husband, James Cromwell.

Here's a panoramic view I took w/ my iphone.   Here's the fencing they recently put up to prevent people from jumping off the walkway wall. 

Here is the pool house.

Here is the outside of her bedroom, the Mughal Suite. 

This is the panoramic of the ocean front home.

We were lead back to the living area thru another ornate doorway.

And so is the end of the tour.  This is her front door I wasn't able to get a photo of when we got there.  This was my last shot before we boarded our minibus back to the Honolulu Museum of Art.  Here's is the virtual tour website you can see the interior rooms that I wasn't able to take photos of.

Our tour included an all day pass of the Honolulu Museum and the Spalding House up in Tantalus so we went to check it out after lunch at the museum.  There was a Ikebana show and these were not your traditional arrangement as this one was huge.

Gingerbread at Princess Kaiulani Hotel - 12/27/2014

Every Christmas there is an awesome gingerbread village display in the Princess Kaiulani Hotel lobby. This year, it was moved to a different location and now they allow people to get really close to the gingerbread so I was able to get a lot of closeup shots. This year, there is even a chocolate Eiffel Tower. 

Study of the heart - 11/27/2014

As a continuation in Black and White, I've seen samples of these types of photos online and was interested in trying shooting something like this. Over Thanksgiving, I was able to enlist help w/ the setup. We found a book and used a wrist band and used an iphone flashlight app to back light the ring onto the book. 

It came out so cool that we found another smaller ring..this is an old flashlight cover that had turned yellow.. hence in the color of the shadow came out yellow.  Too bad we didn't have red filter..that would be more cool.

then we tried double rings..

Black and White 5 Day Challenge - 11/11-11/15/2014

I was invited to a Black and White 5 day challenge to post a shot every day on Facebook by Erick.  I started out w/ a single wine bottle that I shot w/ my iPhone when the idea for my first shot came to me.  I got inspired on the dark theme from the song "Chandelier" by Sia.  I was actually aiming for darker shots, but the exposure on some of the pics came out a little light so had more of a dreamy feel.  
Day 1 - This was my first and favorite shot taken w/ my iPhone.  It came out sharp and dark black and the lighting was just right coming from the florescent kitchen light strip above.

Day 2- My dreamy shot using my Lumix.  Since the shots are jpg, I could not adjust the exposure much.  This Shochu bottle are those you'd see at Sushi bars but you can't tell much from this shot. 

Day 3-This was taken using a white tall kitchen bag as back drop since I didn't have a white sheet. I decided to lay the 2nd bottle since it looked like things are in disarray to go w/ my dark theme.  I would've liked this more if it was darker rather than just being in shades of gray.

Day 4 - Found some black foam sheet so used that for background.  The bottle is frosted so it looks like it was iced.  I used a flash light to spot light the inside since I didn't want to use the flash on the Lumix. 

Day 5 - Same black foam sheet was used again. I was holding the bottle and shot from the bottom.. then while editing, I thought maybe would've been easier had I just laid the bottle down on the black foam sheet.  This was my "Bottom's Up" final challenge shot.

Some outtakes that I decided not to use since it was just one shot a day..the natural lighting actually added those cool looking lines on the neck of the bottle.

First, I tried using a white foam sheet.

This was not included because it didn't fit in my dark drink theme. I came up w/ this while staring a my keyboard thinking about my next shot idea.. I would've titled it "Lost for words"..

Sunset - 11/15/2014

It's been a while since I went out to check the sunset.  I've been discovering 'new' feature in my old P&S Lumix camera.  It's one of those presets like landscape, sunset, etc..  This one is called 'Pinhole'.  I discovered it while doing shots for the 5 day B&W  challenge.. 
The color comes out a little muted and has a vignette edge  and gives off a slight ominous feel..I think it is very cool.  Here are a few taken w/ the effect.  I did add a little more color in PSE..

This was taken shortly after the sun set below the horizon.

I turned the same photo to b&w to give it an incoming storm feel..It was fun discovering more settings in the camera that I've had for many years..