Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Kaneohe Bay Airshow, 9/26/10

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It was an amazing day at the Kaneohe Bay Airshow. When we got there, we split up - Milton S. and Derek - Audrey and myself. We had fun looking at all the planes prior to the airshow. This was my favorite plane.


I took this shot because of the cute dog on the tank.

There was also a car show. One person had customized Big Dog motorcycles. The food vendors were plenty. I had my Maui Taco.

I am also always amazed with the beauty of the Koolau mountains.
This is one of the two parachuters who got the airshow going. Most of these shots were not cropped, I'll identify which ones were cropped. I want to show you what my camera can capture as well as the perspective of the airshow.

Tim Weber can't get enough flips. These are 2 consecutive shots.


This was cropped. Out of this plane are the following shots of the skydivers. It was amazing how they too were able to create formations. They released something so that we could see their paths.



This was cropped, even this helicopter was able to fly upside down. Notice the blades of the helicopter - it appears like it isn't moving that is because my shutter speed was 1/1000 of a second.
The announcer warned us we will feel the "heat". No joke!


This F-22 preceded the Blue Angels.

The main show:

There were so many people that it was sometimes hard to avoid their heads, umbrellas and kids on top of father's shoulders. Someone who attended both days, felt there were more people on Sunday.
Sometimes, I had to rely on my Panasonic Zs3 (Point and shoot) to get the shot. The planes disappeared too quickly out of my view finder. Sometimes it was hard to focus so my DSLR was unable to get the shot. My focus point has to focus on something but with their speed, no dice. Also there was no time to manually focus.

Therefore some of following were with my "point and shoot".
Point and shoot.
See how fast they go.
Point and shoot.


Notice the top 2 are upside down. Just incredible.
Mahalo to the following for an awesome show!
Aerobatic Performances by:

Tim Weber - Geico Extra 300S
Greg Poe - Fagen, Inc. ethanol-powered plane
Jacquie B. Airshows - "Red Eagle" Pitts Biplane
Hank Bruckner - CAP-10C
Clint Churchill - Extra 300L
Chuck Aaron - Red Bull BO-105 helicopter
The Flying Leathernecks - Skydivers
US Navy Blue Angels - Boeing F/A-18 Hornet

Demonstrations by:

F-22

USCG C-130

SH-60

H-65

C-17

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Moon Shoot at Hilton Hawaiian Village Lagoon, 9/22/10

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I got worried if our moon shooting would be raining based on what the morning looked like.

I work at an elementary school and the students were commenting how low the clouds were. Luckily I had my trusty Panasonic ZS3 and took some shots.
By 5:45 pm, when I got to the Hilton Hawaiian Village Lagoon, the weather was perfect.

Due to the curvature of the walkway, this might look like a fisheye shot. I set my wide angle 16-35 to 16 to get as much as possible in the frame. The shadows were Terry and myself, we both were waiting at the wrong spot.
Believe it or not, it was only 6:12 pm. I got this effect using a small aperture f/22, shutter 1/1000, ISO 100. I was enjoying getting star effects.
6:17 pm

I think 30+ showed up for this Harvest moon shoot. Thanks Milton H. and Ed for arranging this.
6:27 pm
Instead of "Where is Waldo", this is "Where is the moon?" Lol, can you find it?
7:14 pm, Since I wasn't very successful with my moon shots, I decided to try different effects. I used my camera's flash. I am not sure what that small white dot is. This dragon is part of the canoe used for the Dragon Boat Race.

This was the same shot as the above. I did something with photoshop, I am not actually sure what I did but was happy with the effect.

8:03 pm
I stayed longer trying something, but uggh it didn't work out. Luckily when I gave up, I saw 2 other die hards, Debbie and Donna. Later Gary and his wife drove through the parking lot and was surprised that Donna and I were still there. Thanks for making sure all was safe.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Gary's class & Little get together, 9/18/10

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Much appreciation to Gary Nakanishi of Eyes of Hawaii who graciously set up a class on digital SLR at his condo's meeting room. We then went out to the grounds of his condo and put to practice what we learned. It was fun to share our camera lens with other members.

Can you tell what lens I got to borrow? Yes, the fisheye. Thanks Milton H.



While I let others borrow my 70-200 and 16-35, I also got to borrow Bryan's 24-70. I decided to shoot this hoop looking up
and looking down.

Later, I joined my friends at Waikiki by the Natatorium War Memorial. It is quite an elaborate memorial.I thought it would be cool to shoot this scene from one of its openings.
I am amazed I was able to zoom from the same wall and get this with my Panasonic ZS3. Since I walked to this place, I left my heavy duty camera at home.
All in all it was a fun day.