Shangri-la, Doris Duke's home -- 01/17/2015

I've heard of Doris Duke and only had limited knowledge about her or her home in Diamond Head/Kahala area.  My friend invited me to join his group of friends on a tour of her Hawaii home she aptly named Shangri-la.  The tour was conducted thru the Honolulu Museum of Art and we had to meet there then shuttled to the home in Kahala.  We met the tour guide for the 90min tour at the end of a driveway.  The first spot was what's behind a large decorated door..the Mughal Garden.

At first, I was confused since this doesn't look or feel like being in Hawaii.  

You really get a sense that Doris Duke was really into the Middle Eastern Islamic Art.  We were not able to take any photos of the interior of the home where they showed us her bedroom, which was just opened to the public recently and her ornate bathroom that looks like some Middle Eastern bath house.  After the dining room they took us out to the patio. This is just a sampling of the tile work she has.  Her entire home is covered in tile work, some commissioned, some are antiques, and all were purchased from her numerous travels.  

The other side of the patio offers a beautiful ocean view of diamond head.  I only found out on this tour that the surf spot known as Cromwell's is actually the waters fronting her property and named after her husband, James Cromwell.

Here's a panoramic view I took w/ my iphone.   Here's the fencing they recently put up to prevent people from jumping off the walkway wall. 

Here is the pool house.

Here is the outside of her bedroom, the Mughal Suite. 

This is the panoramic of the ocean front home.

We were lead back to the living area thru another ornate doorway.

And so is the end of the tour.  This is her front door I wasn't able to get a photo of when we got there.  This was my last shot before we boarded our minibus back to the Honolulu Museum of Art.  Here's is the virtual tour website you can see the interior rooms that I wasn't able to take photos of.

Our tour included an all day pass of the Honolulu Museum and the Spalding House up in Tantalus so we went to check it out after lunch at the museum.  There was a Ikebana show and these were not your traditional arrangement as this one was huge.

Gingerbread at Princess Kaiulani Hotel - 12/27/2014

Every Christmas there is an awesome gingerbread village display in the Princess Kaiulani Hotel lobby. This year, it was moved to a different location and now they allow people to get really close to the gingerbread so I was able to get a lot of closeup shots. This year, there is even a chocolate Eiffel Tower. 

Study of the heart - 11/27/2014

As a continuation in Black and White, I've seen samples of these types of photos online and was interested in trying shooting something like this. Over Thanksgiving, I was able to enlist help w/ the setup. We found a book and used a wrist band and used an iphone flashlight app to back light the ring onto the book. 

It came out so cool that we found another smaller ring..this is an old flashlight cover that had turned yellow.. hence in the color of the shadow came out yellow.  Too bad we didn't have red filter..that would be more cool.

then we tried double rings..

Black and White 5 Day Challenge - 11/11-11/15/2014

I was invited to a Black and White 5 day challenge to post a shot every day on Facebook by Erick.  I started out w/ a single wine bottle that I shot w/ my iPhone when the idea for my first shot came to me.  I got inspired on the dark theme from the song "Chandelier" by Sia.  I was actually aiming for darker shots, but the exposure on some of the pics came out a little light so had more of a dreamy feel.  
Day 1 - This was my first and favorite shot taken w/ my iPhone.  It came out sharp and dark black and the lighting was just right coming from the florescent kitchen light strip above.

Day 2- My dreamy shot using my Lumix.  Since the shots are jpg, I could not adjust the exposure much.  This Shochu bottle are those you'd see at Sushi bars but you can't tell much from this shot. 

Day 3-This was taken using a white tall kitchen bag as back drop since I didn't have a white sheet. I decided to lay the 2nd bottle since it looked like things are in disarray to go w/ my dark theme.  I would've liked this more if it was darker rather than just being in shades of gray.

Day 4 - Found some black foam sheet so used that for background.  The bottle is frosted so it looks like it was iced.  I used a flash light to spot light the inside since I didn't want to use the flash on the Lumix. 

Day 5 - Same black foam sheet was used again. I was holding the bottle and shot from the bottom.. then while editing, I thought maybe would've been easier had I just laid the bottle down on the black foam sheet.  This was my "Bottom's Up" final challenge shot.

Some outtakes that I decided not to use since it was just one shot a day..the natural lighting actually added those cool looking lines on the neck of the bottle.

First, I tried using a white foam sheet.

This was not included because it didn't fit in my dark drink theme. I came up w/ this while staring a my keyboard thinking about my next shot idea.. I would've titled it "Lost for words"..

Sunset - 11/15/2014

It's been a while since I went out to check the sunset.  I've been discovering 'new' feature in my old P&S Lumix camera.  It's one of those presets like landscape, sunset, etc..  This one is called 'Pinhole'.  I discovered it while doing shots for the 5 day B&W  challenge.. 
The color comes out a little muted and has a vignette edge  and gives off a slight ominous feel..I think it is very cool.  Here are a few taken w/ the effect.  I did add a little more color in PSE..

This was taken shortly after the sun set below the horizon.

I turned the same photo to b&w to give it an incoming storm feel..It was fun discovering more settings in the camera that I've had for many years..

Work(ing) Garden Update - 10/03/2014

Another month has past and time for another update from the roof top garden. Even though I'm pretty sure there was no fertilizer other than the manure that was first added to the soil, the squash from the last post grew and got quite large.  There were actually a couple of them and two smaller ones that were harvested sooner since they said the larger they are the more seeds inside. 

Then, in late August, they expanded the garden to take over the entire planter and planted more plants.  Now there are Chinese cabbage that in one month have kind of overgrown.  I have not seen anything like this in Chinatown.  

Then there were these snow peas.  I've never seen it on a vine before.  So cute!  Unfortunately, after seeing these two peas, the plant has died.  Maybe it's the heat.

There is a Zucchi plant.  Apparently they only bloom in the morning. My co-worker took this around 7:30am in the morning.

After the blossom closes, it exposes the baby zucchini.

There are also carrots.  I have no idea how one knows when it is ready to harvest.

The cabbage looks really perfectly shaped.

"We got the beets!" 

I shot this 'blind' by reaching my camera to the plant 'cuz it's kinda farther in.  The angle of this shot came out really cool..look like the attack of the killer tomatoes.  They are actually a variety of grape tomatoes I think.

There's this lone red pepper.

The lemon grass is finally showing some progress.

Overgrown lettuce that needs to be harvested.

Here is one of the recent harvest that was given to a lucky garden volunteer.  

The garden uses the square foot method to plan out how the plants will be placed.  Strings are tied to chopsticks secured at the edge of the planter to form a grid.  Here is the beginnings of the zucchini plant along w/ what I think is the the remnants of steer manure that they mixed into the dirt..the secret ingredients..yuck!

In 1 1/2 month, you can see the difference.