Queen Kapiolani Garden 2/10/09

I must've past this place hundreds of times but never really 'stopped to smell the flowers'. So this afternoon on my day off, I decided to check it out. There used to be roses, but now there are mostly hibiscus. There are many different colors and varieties and I was fortunate to visit when they were all in full bloom.
It looked like it would rain when I left my apartment, but turned out to be a really nice afternoon being a little overcast. The overcast actually helped because the colors of the blossoms did not get blown out w/ too much sunlight. I was able to take all of these using my 16-35mm wide angle lens and the results came out really nice.

Aloha Tower 2/10/09

I went down to Aloha Tower on my day off to play tourist for a day. The tower is open from 9-5pm daily and is free to go up the elevator to the 10th floor observation deck. It was a very nice day, but a little too bright by the time I got there around 10am.The Princess Cruise ship, Golden Princess, was docked. It's a huge ship. (Darn...dust in my camera!! Argh!)Here's the 'A' of the Aloha on the tower looking thru to Sand Island.I was even able to see a plane take off from the reef runway.
I actually saw a picture like this on the wall of my orthodontist's office but never knew where it was taken..and now I found the spot...at the Aloha Tower. Go see for yourself :o)

Pro Bowl Festival 2/7/09

We checked out the Pro Bowl Festival in search of a "perfect day" photo. It was a nice day, but I didn't take very many shots. We ended up taking in some time at the zoo.
There was a lady on stilts.There was this huge football to mark the festivities.There was also the Kraft Dinosaur taking pictures w/ kids. Here the 'trainer' is talking to the peep hole inconspicuously placed on one of his spots. :0DMom's resting near the fence..that darn fence!! AAAAAAAARGH!!I managed to get a shot of Rusty the orangutan thru the very dirty green plexi-glass.I was finally able to make my camera take a nice flower shot w/ large enough aperture that made the background blurry.

Happy Chinese New Year 1/24/09

I spent a day in Chinatown for the celebration of the Lunar New Year festivities. There were crowds of people, lots of food, and lions were everywhere. It was like a zoo! At the end of the day, we saw the Night in Chinatown Parade down Hotel street.
It's a tradition to feed the lion for good luck...where there is a lion, there were lots of people waiting to feed them.Even the stores provide a challenging way to feed the lion.Hmm..so why did the dragon cross the road? To get to the Parade!! Actually this shot kinda reminds me of the Beatles album cover.Lots of the lions were lined up waiting for the start of the parade.A parade is never complete w/o dignitary..Beauty queens..Clowns..
Lions..
And finally, dragons.

Wahiawa Botanical Garden 1/19/09

This is the first time I visited the Wahiawa Botanical Garden and found it to be a beautifully hidden paradise of plants. The grounds were really well maintained and there were much to photograph.
I've seen these Jade flowers on leis but didn't know they grow on vines.
I'm amazed how strong these tall bamboos are.The bright sunlight was really harsh to photograph, but I finally got one of the Ohia blossom.
I tried taking the entire foot bridge using my wide zoom lens. The afternoon sunlight was really harsh.
Then got a great suggestion from Paster Curtis to try taking a different perspective, climbing down a slope. This came out much better.
Here are some of the flowers.Here's what I call "reflection from a puddle of water".Celia was kind enough to let me use her new 70-200mm IS F2.8L lens and I was able to take these really sharp zoom shots. These were taken from the foot bridge and maximum zoom were used on these shots.
The zoom lens is super sharp and the Image Stabilzation(IS) really helped get the subject sharp.
This is "trust in your monopod"..Erick hanging his camera over the bridge to get some cool shots.
I was able to get a quite a bit of sharp shots w/ the lens, thanks to Celia.