Texturing Experiment - 10/29/2011

I learned about Texturing thanks to Jalna and wanted to test it out so I Googled and found youTube videos with some cool and easy instructions on adding textures to my photos using layers. Also, I took this panoramic using a cool ipod app (or iphone app, but I don't have one) for $1.99 called DerManDar Panorama that is so simple to use. It guides me on matching each shot and then auto stitches as I take the photo using my ipod camera. I then emailed the photo to myself to work on it in PSE.
This Texture is called Them Blues and I left it as Normal in layer at 49%. After adding the layer, I removed the layer from everything and just kept the sky textured.

I then reset the layer to Difference and kept everything the same. I like this since it gives it an old post card look.. pretty cool..

On the Street Where You Live - 10/22/2011

Every month, for the Eyes of Hawaii Photo club, there's a theme of the month shot that we would submit for a photo slide show at the meeting.  It is usually due just before our monthly meeting. I found out that this month the photo was due on Friday Oct 21st at NOON when I had thought at Midnight. So.. I missed the deadline. But since I have a blog, no sense wasting the photo.. here it is..on my walk down the street in search of a photo op, I found these "birds (pidgeons) on a wire" basking in the afternoon glow perhaps catching up with each other's day's adventures.    

Then I found these birds on a pine tree. I thought it was kinda cool that their feathers look like snow flakes on the tree.  I wonder what's next month's theme?  Hopefully, I won't miss that deadline.

Fishing and Seafood Festival - 10/9/2011

This is the 2nd year I've been to the Fishing and Seafood Festival. This is a well organized event: Park at Honolulu Community College, hop on a large air conditioned tour bus and you're dropped off at Pier 38. I decided to go in the afternoon this year since I missed the Coast Guard Rescue demo last year and I wanted to get some cool shots.  There were food, fish exhibit and demos. It was cloudy and overcast, but it was still hot and muggy. I met a few people from HPS and hung out for a while going through the exhibits. It was nice to be in the cool a/c of the fish auction house.  There was actually a line of people waiting to see the display of fishes.

I decided to take an extreme closeup of this fish.

We were able to board this ship to see how long line fishermen live and work on the boat. They had narrow quarters so it was kinda tricky going up to see the inside of the boat with all my gear.

I decided to take an HDR of the wood in the steering..surprised it came out even though the boat was rocking..

I thought these were fishing poles, but turns out they were radio signal receivers.

They also allowed you go board the coast guard ship. 

Very high tech controls..

Celia and I were waiting around for the Coast Guard rescue demo, we were talking to the event photographer and he let me test out the new version Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS II lens and an extender. It was SOOOO cool..the zoom was so quiet and smooth and wow..SO SHARP!!..I took a couple of shots.. Thanks for letting us test drive the lens!  Time for an upgrade!??!  ha! ha!

We were waiting around and I saw this huge cargo ship being towed out by a tiny tug boat.

Turns out the large ship is Hong Kong based liner.

I also took some zoom shots using the Lumix.. not bad for a tiny camera.

We waited until 3:15pm and were told that the Demo was cancelled because the coast guard was called out on a real rescue.. Oh well.. I guess I'll have to come again next year.

Test Picasa Slide Show - 10/9/2011

Here's my Test Picasa Slide Show..Ok..this seem to work with Internet Explorer 9 and also works w/ FireFox 6.0.2.  Not sure if it will work on Safari..so you may not see anything below. It sure takes a while to load..

Rice Festival - 9/11/2011

Between the two Fashion shows at Ala Moana, I had almost 2 hours to kill so I decided it was a good chance to walk to Magic Island to check out the 2nd Annual Rice Festival and the record breaking Giant Musubi.

When I got there, they were starting to wrap up the musubi, which was shaped like a twin size matress.

upon closer inspection, it was covered w/ a layer of Spam.

I checked out the taiko group performance.  The sun was super strong.

I also happen to also catch Bruce Shimabukuro's (Jake's brother) performance.

I was planning to leave and then I saw people start to measure the musubi.

It looks like it's almost 69 inches long.

I even saw Mr. Gohan who was 'hamming' it up for the camera....or maybe 'spam'?

On my way back to the mall, I wanted to take some shots for 'things are looking up' theme.

It was hot!!

By the way, my 50D was in for repairs because I was getting the Canon version of BSOD ('Blue Screen of Death'..hmm, I wonder why the screen of death is always blue anyways?).  It cost me $188 to repair and I got it back within 2 weeks.

Fall Fashion Event (Part 2) - 9/11/2011

After about a 2 1/2 hr break, I came back to check out the "Face Forward presented by Modern Luxury" show.  I had no idea what kind of fashion show it was since the title wasn't too descriptive. I was intrigued because the whole stage area was sectioned off for this 'invitation-only' event.  I happened to bump into Erick and he had no idea what this was either.   I thought maybe it was some kind of make-up demo session from the sound of the title.  They had nice upholstered chairs for the 'guests' and then I saw finger foods and drinks (non-alcoholic) being served.  After everyone settled in, the show finally started, albeit a little behind schedule. What WAS cool was that Erick and I waited behind the roped off area where the sound guy was and he told us if there no other photogs show up, then he'd let us stand in that area to get a closer view.   I figured cool..I can get better close up of their models' faces.

The show started.  I though this was some unusual fashion....not your ordinary day-to-day fashion.  but the model was sure 'making it work' with the giant sun flower.

The next model also had another flower motive.  This was super colorful and cool .. I figured that this was a costume fashion by a dance troupe.

After a while, the sound guy motioned us so we got closer and I got some head shot.  The models were all very expressive with accordance to their costumes.

Since they didn't do the usual stop and pose like the runway show, it was hard to spot when they'd look our way.

There was this cool peacock costume..darn my lens is not wide enough..

There were super vibrant colors in all their costumes.

She was some spunky funky octopus.  In the 40-45 mins show I took lots of photos.  I'm so glad it was all digital.

During the show, servers would pass by and server food/drinks.  It was kinda distracting watching the show and looking at all the finger foods going around..so I started to take  food shots...

They served water, juice and coffee.  After the show, one of the server guys came by and offered us some of the left over coffee.. this was REALLY good coffee!

It was a really tight trying to focus so close w/ my zoom lens.

After the main show, there was a fashion makeover of the leaders at some local non-profit organizations.  They strutted their new looks but they walked so quickly, I could barely find focus.  I decided to turn it B and W to hide the out of focus areas. 

Afterwards, I was marveling at the professional photographer who was taking photos of them with the studio lighting setup.  She then posed everyone for a group shot.