Happy Birthday Marv!! - 9/30/2012

It was my good friend Marv's Kan'reki' celebration and I was really lucky to be able to help him document his Big day. The gathering was at Yoshiya Restaurant at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.  I notice that most Japanese restaurants were really dark so I made sure I brought along my flash and I was really happy I did.  The room we were in was really cool and had mat floor and these low chairs.  The only bad part was that the interior was mostly yellow so I was glad the flash was able to take some of the yellow out.  I then used Photoshop to de-saturate and remove more of the Yellow tones.  

Everyone has to remove their shoes and the worker there even arranged them neatly by the door. They even had house slippers you can use to walk to restroom.

There were beautiful red themed flower arrangement center pieces for the milestone occasion.

There was even a performance by a Koto Sensei and her student.  I got a close up look at the how intricately strung the instrument was.

We all had a great teishoku lunch.

I used Jalna's technique w/ the white background to shoot the favor we were each given at the luncheon. I even shot this a little underexpose to see if I can get more detail using PSE.

Then there was a Sunday brunch at Kahala Hotel HOKU's Restaurant.  They offered us with our meal these very interesting 'freshly squeezed fruit vegetable juice'.  This was the true colors of the juice.  The one on the left is Pineapple Cucumber.. and the right was Watermelon Strawberry with Bell pepper.. Yeah..they lost me at the bell pepper as a drink.  It was really fresh, but mine tasted really like what it described.. strawberry..check.. bell pepper.. check.. yum?  uh...not really...  I kept thinking that 'I coulda had a V-8'..

The lunch was REALLY delicious..but I'm ashamed to say that I was really messy when I piled my food on my plate, so no pictures.  I HAD to take a photo of the dessert.. Bread Pudding...my absolute fav and I also tried this sticky toffee pudding that was like a moist brownie and also this fruit tart in a waffle cone.  Yummmm!

My friend had the cute lemon tart and these hazelnut something or another and said it was as good as it looked..

I had a wonderful and enjoyable gastronomical weekend.. Thank you Marv for letting me enjoy the great food and to take photos!!! and... H-a-p-p-y  B-i-r-t-h-d-a-y  T-o  Y-o-u!!!

Friday Night Fireworks - 9/14/2012

This was a rough work week. But all of it was erased when I watched the Friday night fireworks at the Hilton Lagoon from a spectacular spot. I wasn't sure where the firework was going to be set off at and hoped I would be able to catch the entire burst.  It turned out to be a great spot.  I knew I had just seconds to get it right or I'd miss it entirely.  I started at 16mm to try capture everything, but I ended up having to crop out the black sky.

It was a good night for fireworks because it wasn't too windy ...I used bulb mode and I lost count how long I kept the shutter open.

I zoomed in a little since I notice I had a lot of black sky.

My friend noted the reflection on the lagoon so I zoomed out.

I wanted to get more of the lagoon so I left the shutter open longer, and then all the bursts started to go off.. although I got the little island in the lagoon, the fireworks got blown out and soon it was all over.. just like my horrible work week! Happy Weekend!

Okinawan Festival - 9/2/2012

Once again, it's the Okinawan Festival. I was able to stay most of Sunday for the entertainment and food.  Again, I was looking for great photo opportunites to enter the photo contest.  Unfortunately, I missed the shisaa performance and there was supposed to be a new addition this year. 

It was rainy in the morning and I found a bunch of these cute rain dolls (teru teru bozu).

We found a break in the entertainment and checked out the food booths.

I had to try the Champuru plate.

It was my friend's first time to the festival so she had to try the pigs feet soup.

We also had enough scripts for andagi.  I thought I had a great entry w/ this food shot of the andagi.. Great lighting that came from shooting into the white bag filled w/ andagi.. unfortunately, I checked the site, and it's already been done..

By the time I was almost finished with this huge shaved ice, I was feeling really stuffed. Since it was really hot, it melted FAST and I ended up getting some of it on my pants...soo sticky. 

Finally, Daiko performances..

The Naha Daiko group from Okinawa came to perform in the festival.

Also a singer from Okinawa performed for the first time in Hawaii.

Also this is the fourth time I've seen Mamoru Miyagi perform.  The crowd really likes him and a fan even gave him mango bread.

There was a dancer who had really expressive moves and it was facinating to watch. 

I stayed till the end of the festival when all the performers danced together.  It was a great festival.. hope I have some good shots that'll make the list for this year's photo contest.

Sushi Bistro - 8/23/012

To celebrate CD's BD, we all went to Sushi Bistro. I haven't been to a sushi bar for a long time so it was great to experience it again. I wasn't planning to take pics of the food so I didn't bring my Canon, but since everyone else started, I felt I'd miss out at capturing all these yummy food memories. I missed the Toro hand roll and some other sushi pic but I was able to catch the rest using my Lumix using Macro setting taken w/ available light and some small adjustment in PSE. I don't know half the fish i ate, but they were all really yummy.

I tried to keep my plate clean after each sushi so each pic would look good and I also learned to use the chopstick wrapper w/ the restaurant name from an avid FB blogger friend :-).

At first I thought this was fried Tofu, but turned out to be really soft Shoyu pork.

This is what it looked like.. YUM.

I forget what this was called but it was really soft.

I think this was some fish called Aji and is flown from Japan. This was my favorite.

The fried fish bone was really addicting.. it was like eating chips.

CD and I were really full so we split this unagi.

I was really stuffed after this california roll.

They gave CD this cool cream puff dessert and I got to taste it..  Happy Birthday CD!!

Duke Kahanamoku OceanFest - 8/18/2012

I was on my way home from my normal Saturday routine and I spotted a huge sign and stand on Waikiki Beach that read Duke Kahanamoku OceanFest. I checked online to see what kind of event this was and found out that there will be a lei draping ceremony at the statue of Duke at 5pm; so I decided to check it out. There were lots of people at the beach and I heard the announcement about a Kids surfing contest going on. I looked out and couldn't figure out which direction was the contest so I just took a few shots w/ my Lumix like a tourist. The shot out of camera was not as vibrant, but w/ a few level adjustments in PSE, it turned out like I had used a polarizing filter..:-)

The ceremony finally started after musicians started to play Hawaiian music. I was lucky to stand just behind the last row of chairs and it was good that the crowd was not as large.  I kept thinking I should've brought a longer lens because I wanted more closeup shots, but kept telling myself I just have to make my 16-35mm lens work.

During the speeches, it started to rain and I was wondering if it was worth it to get my camera wet.. but no one else was leaving so I just covered my camera and waited.  It was a good thing I didn't miss this part.  They draped leis onto the statue of Duke Kahanmoku one by one.  My wide lens even caught one of the photog's camera from the Star Advertiser.  Earlier I checked it out and saw that she used a Canon 7D :-D

After the short speeches by the mayor and councilmen, it was done.

When the ceremony was done, I went up to the statue to take a closer shot.

Suddenly, people started gathering around me.  Turns out the mayor and gang wanted a photo op in front of the statue and I ended up being in the crowd of photogs. So I decided to get in w/the other papparazzis..I guess it was a good thing after all that I brought my wide lens so I could get the closeups.