UH Wahine Vs. Colorado 1/4/09

The second attempt at the UH Women's Basketball game seemed a little more productive for me. Unfortunately, UH lost to Colorado. Either my XT or the 50mm must have a really small focus area since once it is a little off, like in this photo, the action is blurry while the ref is in sharp focus.
It seems to take me to the 2nd half of the game to really get the hang of taking the fast action. Most of my shots seem to work best if they're right beneath the basket. Here are the shots I was able to get.

Colorado vs. Pepperdine Women's Basketball 1/3/09

My first basketball shoot using a 50mm F1.4 lens was a BIG challenge. I got a lot of of action, but what I want to focus came out blurry. However, look how sharp the people in the background are!!Then just to proof that my lens can take really sharp shots, I took the STATIONARY shot clock :-)..
Then Finally in the 2nd half, I was able to get two lucky shots. I seriously need more practice.

Happy New Year 2009

The fireworks that lit up the night sky really created a thick fog. There sure were a lot of impressive but illegal fireworks tonight.

Honolulu Hale-Third try 12/27/08

One last attempt to get some shots from the Honolulu City Lights. I tried to get things I missed the last two times.
I finally got the spinning tree.Well, after having a couple of these, all the trees would look like they were spinning anyways.

Tiger Cubs and the Zoo 12/27/08

We went to the zoo to visit the newborn cubs that were finally out in public. I must've spent a better part of an hour trying to get a good shot thru the fence and the closest I got was this. It was almost impossible to shoot thru the fence.
Most of my better shots came from the bird cage. This bird was very colorful. The underside of his wing was actually red.
This is a cute bird. He is always picking up twigs to build his large nest.More fowl shots.And finally, this Serval who lives in the bird cage for reasons unknown. I've only seen him sleeping but today, he was unusually lively allowing me to take these two shots thru his fence.

Island Wide Power Outage 12/26/08

I started out trying to take photos of the lightening storm, but only got the lights of the apartments.Then suddenly the power went out in my area and all that was left were parking garage lights powered by generator.
Then my street went dark.
Then I noticed St. Louis Heights and Kaimuki went dark.
Finally after struggling to find batteries and a radio, I heard it was a Island Wide Blackout.

Christmas Street 12/20/08

Our group started out visiting a "Christmas street" in Pearl City to take photos of homes w/ brightly decorated lights. I am amazed at the efforts some families put towards christmas decorations.I became fascinated with large inflatable christmas characters.There were also a lot of different christmas lights that were hung.Then finally, our tour ended w/ taking lights of different sort over a freeway overpass.