Today I discovered that there really is a 5 o'clock in the morning! Who woulda thunk it. No seriously, I know there's a 5 a.m., I just don't particularly like being awake at that time. But because several other photographers and I deceided to do a sunrise shoot today, being awake and ready to go by 5:30 wasn't an option.
I stayed overnight at Leah's place since she is 30 minutes closer to our meeting spot than I am. We watched a little TV, then she went to bed and I tried to go to sleep. As usual, the minute I laid down on the fairly comfortable, but way too short couch, I woke right up and my mind started running 100 miles/hr. What's that all about? (I know I'm not the only one that happens to.) I kept thinking I should just put the TV back on, but again, I persevered. I eventually got into a somewhat comfortable position and fell asleep.
Leah's apartment is right in the city. The streetlights and the lights from the other apartments, plus the almost full moon made it seem like daytime. Then there were the inevitable trips to the bathroom. Yesterday, when I was doing my honu volunteering, I managed to stub one of my toes pretty badly, so by the time I was trying to sleep it was throbbing a little. Every time I got up to use he bathroom, I was hyper-careful not to stub in on the furniture, and that concentration woke me up a little more than I normally would have.
So, at about 4:30 (mind you, my alarm was set for 5, and there's always that little niggling concern that the alarm won't go off, and after all the preparation you won't make it to the event after all cause you'll then fall soundly and blissfully off to sleep until some ridiculous time like 8 a.m.), the roosters started their noise. Honestly, it's like living in the country. Even in Glen we don't have roosters. Well, then a few minutes later the dogs in the neighborhood began their chorus.
By then I was thinking that I should just get up because I didn't want to fall asleep and miss the alarm and not meet up with everyone--like that could really happen--but I just waited. Sure enough, the alarm went off, I did hear it, I didn't fall back to sleep and I arrived at the meeting point about 20 minutes early because I had misjudged the traveling time.
So here's the really amazing thing. At 5:45 a.m., in the pitch dark, 5 other people showed up ON TIME! We can't get people to arrive for Church on time, or a church dinner, but there were the 6 of us, freezing our little shutter-release finers off, I might add--it's was darn chilly this morning--ready and waiting to go. So we got in our cars, drove to the sunrise spot and started shooting.
The light was really beautiful. I haven't done a sunrise in a long time, so I was pretty psyched at the results I was getting.
Below is the root section of a palm tree. Pretty interesting.
Framed in the tree below is a small island called Chinaman's Hat because of the shape of it.
So by the time the sun had been up for a few minutes, we were all ready to go to our next spot. Once the sun gets above the horizon, the light is nowhere as pretty--we wanted to be on our way. The next stop was a Japanese Temple, located in the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. According to the brochure it was "established on June 7, 1968 to comemorate the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaiil. The Byodo-in Temple was built entirely without the use of nails." It's a replica of a temple in Japan that was constructed more than 900 years ago.
Inside the building is an 18 foot Buddha, which is said to be an original work of art carved by a famous Japanese sculptor. "When the carving was completed, it was covered with cloth and painted with three applications of gold lacquer. Gold leaf was later applied over the lacquer finish.
This photo doesn't really give a good idea of the size of it, since I zoomed in close. But besides being 18 feet high itself, it was located on a raised platform of about 5 feet.
This is, obviously, the group.
This bell was "cast in Osaka, Japan from a mixture of bronze and tin, by permission of the government of Japan. ...The resonant sound of the bon-sho (sacred bell) creates an atmosphere of tranquility for meditation that travels for some distance. The bell is customarily rung before one enters the temple to spread the eternal teaching s of Buddha."
There were a few streams around the property as well as the pond directly in front of the temple. They were well stocked with beautiful koi. They were almost tame, and in one spot they kept coming to the surface, almost like they were waiting to be fed.
Yesterday, while I was busy stubbing my toes on the beach, I was also busy trying to photograph yet another sunset. But this time I had the idea to make an image every minute or so and then put them together as a slide show. If you'd like to see the results, go to my website, click on "galleries", then click on "sunsets" and then "slide show". It isn't the most exciting sunset ever, but it's kind of cool to see it progress through still images. The website address is http://www.intheimagephotography.com/ . You should be able to click on the address. If that doesn't work, you'll have to cut and paste the address.
Aloha for tonight
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