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Tulip or Amarillis?

This is part of the decor where I'm visiting.  It was purchased as what looks like a wrapped bulb of some sort with the guarantee that it would bloom around Christmas.  And bloom it did.

It's a beautiful red flower and is a great part 

of the house decor.

Waikiki in Black & White

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The other day my friend and I went to Waikiki with the intention of doing some street photography only in black & white.  We both LOVE black & white and I remember back in the day when the only  way to shoot b&w was to insert an entire roll of b&w film into the camera.

If you decided you wanted to switch to color halfway through the roll, you either had to stick it out and finish the roll or remove it which was pretty tricky to do.

Now....with digital, it's just a matter of switching functions. 

But shooting b&w is a different animal than shooting color.  You have to "see" differently and anticipate what will look good and what won't.  Sometimes it's easier to shoot in color and then convert to b&w on the computer.  Part of me thinks that's cheating.  Part of me thinks that's cool.

Shooting in a b&w function forces you to be more discerning--you know that the image has to stand on the merits of composition and contrast without the impact of beautiful color to grab the viewer's attention.  Of course, the digital darkroom can really enhance any image, as did the wet darkroom, so some images can be salvaged.

So we set our cameras on b&w and began shooting.

After we finished at the beach, we headed over to our favorite Starbucks.  We did a little practice with panning and slow shutter speed.  I didn't have my tripod and I was just trying to teach my friend how to do these techniques, so I really didn't anticipate having any keepers.  Most of the images I shot were deleted, but these next three appealed to me.  

(Although the camera was hand-held, I was resting the camera on a newspaper box)

Waikiki Vignettes

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It was a beautiful day in Waikiki today.  A little windy, but warm & sunny.  No big waves like the ones on the North Shore, but enough wave action for the beginning surfers.  I really admire the beautiful wave photos I see that are created by talented & dedicated surf photographers, but I seem to be continuously drawn to the action on the beach.  

There was, however, one surfer I couldn't resist photographing.  We watched her "catch" three or four waves and applauded her great efforts.  

We were ultimately rewarded with this great smile.  What a cutie!