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

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.

Kualoa Sugar Mill Ruins and La'ie Point, 9/6/10

Charles H. Judd, Dr. Judd's son, helped expand the ranch in 1860. Three years later Charles Judd partnered with his brother-in-law, Sam Wilder, and bought the ranch from Dr. Judd to build Oahu's first sugar mill. After less than ten years of operation, the sugar mill closed as a result of insufficient rainfall at the time. Not long after this setback, Charles Judd began cattle farming as an alternative. excerpt from Kualoa Ranch embodies adventure,...

Across the way is Mokoli'i Island also known as "Chinaman's Hat" because of its shape.
I can't believe it - this is truly my first time to La'ie Point. Shun Wah and I are such townies, lol.


There are 5 little islands and this one is so cool with the opening. The next picture is a close up.

Thanks again Erick for the drive. It was so beautiful seeing the coast from Kaneohe to La'ie.

First Friday, 9/3/10

Tonight, Sunday 9/5, I am blogging about my weekend - in 3 parts. "First Friday", "Okinawan Festival" and "Foster Garden and Okinawan Festival"

First part is First Friday, 9/3.

Ruth, Lynn, Dennis O. and I enjoyed walking around Chinatown and Downtown. This was Lynn's First Friday.

No pictures, there were so many people, we tried 2 other restaurants before we got lucky to get a table at Epic. No regrets.

Next, we headed to Hawaii State Art Museum aka HISAM. Look closely these ceramic bowls have spouts to let the water flow to the bowls below. I was also trying to capture its reflection.
From the balcony I got this shot.
Here was Paula Fuga, a previous American Idol contestant. I am not sure which of the Hawaiian Islands she is from. Although we had dinner, we shared a mango cheesecake and drank beer.
As if we didn't have enough good eats, we finished the evening with these desserts (apple crisp, gelato sundae and Kona coffee gelato) at Murphy Bar and Grill.

I have to thank Richard, he was kind to let me borrow his Canon Rebel XT - my Canon 50D is with Canon to repair the exposure lock and basic tune up.

Okinawan Festival, 9/4/10

After a busy week at work, morning exercises and last night's First Friday, I actually stayed in bed until 11:30 am.

Shun Wah, Erick and myself met at Kapiolani Park for the Okinawan Festival. At the bandstand, we were entertained by such talent and beautiful ethnic outfits.

Karate is taken very seriously.



From Okinawa, Mamoru Miyagi - the next picture was one of his students.

Sometimes, I get distracted.
As I was looking around, I noticed the columns had these Hawaiian motives.
Around 5 pm, entertainment ended in preparation for the largest bon dance. Off to get Okinawan food - there were lots of food vendors to choose from.

I saw this drummer in the crowd. He let me take his picture. Thanks.


There were 3 Shishas - cross between a lion and a dog. Inside were 10 year olds. It was fun watching them perform. I did take more pics but messed up with my focus point. Uggh.






I think this was the largest crowd they ever had.

Foster Garden and Return to Okinawan Festival, 9/5/10

My last post for tonight.

Shun Wah, Hiromi and I met at Foster Garden. My attempt with my macro lens.

Since Shun Wah and I still had scrips for the Okinawan Festival - off we went. We had to have our shave ice.

In my previous post, Second time at Pacific Beach Hotel..., I mentioned Ramune Soda and how intriguing it is. I decided to document this. I removed the top part and separated the green part.
The top now exposes a glass ball.

I have to push the glass ball down using this green part.
The released ball creates carbonation.

Voila, I now can enjoy this fun carbonated soft drink.
I also purchased a 5 pack Okinawa Soba for $7.50.
Needless to say, it has been fun. Tomorrow - Erick and Shun Wah and I will be shooting landscape. Yay for 3 day weekends.