Sunset - 2/26/2011

Due to the vog we've been having lately, we've had beautiful sunsets. I saw it a few days ago on my way home and wished I could just pull over and take a picture of it. Today, I asked my friend to let me off so I could grab a few photos. I had my Lumix and I think it did a pretty good job with zoom so I didn't have to crop as much had I brought my canon lens. There were lots of people gathered to watch this grand show presented by God...
I saw the huge cloud but I held out hope that the sun would shine thru it and would present a beautiful sunset.
Finally, the sun came thru the cloud.
I know it is just an optical illusion, but the sun looked especially large today.
I wish the catamaran had it's sails up to make a better shot..but the sun was still as spectacular.
As the sun fell, there was a beautiful reddish hue. Too bad, I didn't get to see a green flash today. Near me, a violinst was playing (I think Erick had a picture of him in his blog in his Waikiki shoot) and after the sun had set, some people around me actually applauded. Ahh.. another day in paradise and thank you God for a great show indeed.

ZOO - 2/13/2011

It's been a while since I've been to the zoo and there's been a lot of expansion constructions going on, but most of the animals are still where they have been. I brought along my 70-200mm but it is no match for Erick's 200mm giant. It was a nice sunny day for Celia, Erick and I to go to the zoo but it sure was hot and sticky which seem to make my camera bag 2x heavier!
I always like to photograph them, but you gotta have patience since they usually like to show you their backsides..
The Gibon was really active swinging around the 'island'. I thought for sure he'd fall in the water..how does he keep his fur so fluffy?
It's so hard to shoot thru the reflection of the glass esp. when the sun is shining. I somehow managed to put my lens really close to the glass..and some photoshop element magic go get color back..and voila.. Here's Rusty and Violet (Celia's really good at remembering names names..).
I don't like lizards..but it was such a great look that I had to take a shot..I'm thinking of using it as my facebook profile pic.. hmm...
I was surprised they came out pretty sharp, even thru the thick glass..the one in the back was eating some kind of meal worm.
We came back for a second try...he must've been intrigued by my large lens..
This guy was hanging by his tail! (and I managed to shoot thru the fence)
The tiger cubs (hmm...can I still even call them cubs??) were held in the smaller holding area while workers were cleaning their main cage. I took many shots, mostly fence..and only one came out.
This pic is not so great, but this is the only one i got that shows the pink fleshy patch on his back that Erick pointed out to us. Probably got hurt from too much rough play with his siblings.

Chinese New Year - 2/3/2011

Happy Year of the rabbit. My narcissus bloomed just in time for the new year. I'm not sure why it grew so tall, nonetheless, I'm just glad it flowered. This year, I did what my mother used to do and bought candied fruits and put them in a Chinese new year candy box we've used every year. Unfortunatey, I didn't find any of the red watermelon seeds my mother used to put into the center compartment.
I even made Jai using a combination recipe from the internet and my mother's friend and added only the ingredients I like to eat. Not bad considering this is the first time I've ever cooked Jai. XD

Pro Bowl Street Festival - 1/29/2011

Since I wasn't able to go to Chinatown for the night festivities, I decided to check out the Pro Bowl street festival that shut down Kalakaua Ave. to traffic on a Saturday night. It was dark and I brought the 50mm F1.4 thinking it could handle the low light, but it was too dark and I ended up using a the longer 100mm lens with flash to get closer shots of the performances on stage. It was also a great chance to learn about my new flash.
They had tents selling food and NFL merchandise.
There was a SEA of people..EVERYWHERE.. by 8pm, it was a major human traffic jam! I decided I needed to grow at least 5 inches taller to get above this crowd.
One of the stage had local music with Lena girl as MC. The stage lights like this pink light caused great problems for me, even with flash.
There was also latin music with Ronaldo and his band. And the lighting? If it wasn't pink light, it was yellow light!!
There was this group doing classic Beattles songs.. They were great.. under extreme yellow lights and background too!!
There was even an Elvis sighting!!
There were mascots from the NFL teams auctioning off NFL item to raise money for the Special Olympics.
And Cheerleaders too.. I am surprise that my flash was able to break through the darkness, even though I was pretty far away.
They were signing autographs and I had to wait to shoot through the people. I am very happy with my flash since I was able to maintain skin tones even w/ the dark lighting!
I took these using shutter priority @ 1/250 and ISO 800, there was hardly any grain, all because of the use of my flash, I think. And the crowd? it took me 1/2 hour just to walk 3 blocks back to where I started out.

Chinese New Year Festival - 1/29/2011

Chinese New Year is on Feb. 3rd so the weekend prior is the big festival in Chinatown on Maunakea Street and the Chinese Cultural Plaza. The new year is the year of the Rabbit. This year I didn't bring my 50D since I had to do some food shopping so I only brought along the Lumix ZS6.
Stores were stocked with red and gold items for the new year.
Lots of things were decorated for the year of the rabbit.
There were lots of lion dances,
and lots of narcissus flowers.
There was this unusual Narcissus blossom that had a fuzzy center. It was the first time that the carver ever saw this unusual blossom in his 30 years of doing this.
There were many carved narcissus...what I aspire to do.. I'll try again next year.
Of course there were lots of food booths like this one selling jai.
This is the first time I saw this 'Dragon Whisker' candy made in Chinatown. It is fine sugar kneaded and pulled into very fine threads, then the bunches of threads are used to wrap a peanut, coconut and sugar filling. I wanted to buy some, but you had to wait for more than an hour to get your order so I ended up just taking a picture of it :-P
Not bad a price for hand made candy.
And of course, you can't have chinese new year without the jin dui....
I was trying to get a closeup shot of the jin dui w/o getting my camera fried and I tried to show them bobbing around and bubbling in the hot oil...yum!!!

Samsung Solstice II Pics - 1/25/2011

I recently upgraded my phone to the touch-screen Samsung Solstice II and it has a camera feature that has a higher resolution than the LG Shine that I previously owned. While shopping at Chinatown this weekend, the Chinese Cultural Plaza New Year Festival was going and and I was lucky to catch the Lion Dance and took some pics w/ my new phone. Pretty good..can't tell that these were taken w/ a phone. eh?
Here's an update shot of my narcissus progress. The leaves have curled, although it looks a bit unmanaged. :-( Here's an article from the Star Bulletin archives and photo of what it should look like. At least, I see flower buds appearing. :-)
One of the bud has broken open and I think it should bloom within a day or so.
My father saw a guy selling narcissus in Chinatown and decided to buy one instead. These are the upright form and costed $8 without the pot. Hopefully, I'll be seeing the flowers on mine real soon.