Sunday, Jan 21, 2008

This was my second Sunday at Redeemer OPC here in Oahu. Don't know what happed to my brain last week, but it never occurred to me to post any info about the day. So I'm going to try and make up for it this week.

I'm experiencing a small degree of deja vu. We don't meet at the YMCA as we did when Covenant first began, but we do meet at Pearl City Elementary School in the cafeteria. See the sign below.

After entering the door, which by the way is wide open to let in the balmy breeze (that wasn't nice, was it?), you see the cafeteria in all it's glory. At the far end is a stage with a section of very comfortable chairs set up, which is the "church".

We have a keyboard organist, Cheryl, who is just off to the side of these seats in the picture above and pictured below.

Unlike my church in NY, Redeemer conducts Sunday School first, what is up with that!!! (Don't get any ideas Tim) And like most churches where that's the case, SS is not as well attended as church.

Following Sunday School there is a break, and we too have a coffee bar, Chris!

Before SS begins and in between SS and church, people visit, watch the kids, drink coffee and have snacks, etc. This all sounds kind of familiar. As I said, deja vu.

In above photo, Pastor's wife, Sue Watson, is on the far right. She's very sweet.

In photo below, Pastor Doug Watson is on left.

When I get there, everything is set up and ready to go. But, just as at the YMCA, the people of the church have to tear down everything before we leave, even the soap and towels in the bathrooms. The hymnals have to be lugged home with the family who hosts the Sunday night Bible Study and dinner, the "coffee bar" has to be dismantled, the chairs have to be put away, the floor swept--those of you from the early days of Covenant know exactly what I'm talking about.

But Praise the Lord, there is a place to meet. There are all kinds of churches renting schools and other buildings because buying property and/or a building is so expensive here. Leah tells me that Doug did a lot of research and calling to secure this school.

As I left "church" this morning, I saw this one flower in the hedge right outside the door. Actually there might have been a few more, but not many.

Every Sunday evening there is a Bible Study at one of the homes. We meet a 5, and then eat at 6. Most people stay around for quite a while visiting. It seems like there are as many children as there are adults, although that might be an overstatement.

Many of the families are military, so they're young and just starting their families.

The woman who hosts these Sunday night get-togethers sends out an email in the middle of the week telling everyone what the food "theme" is, and people respond with what they're going to bring. That avoids repetition. This church rivals Covenant with the amount of food at one of these dinners.

Saturday, Jan. 20, 2008

Today was another georgeous day, sunny, breezy and around 80. I went to Waikiki to go to the Art Fest in Kapiolani Park. In order to participate in the Art Fest, you have to be a vendor who crafts his/her products in Hawaii using Hawaiian goods. It was quite large and the items for sale were very nice.

Then I went across the street to the beach, sat in the sun for a while for the first time since I got here, and then drove up along the east coast a way to a beach called, get this, Sandy Beach. One of the guide books says that it's kind of like calling a forest, Tree Forest.

Anyway, it was really beautiful, but probably better for sunrise than sunset. There were a lot of people there and it was almost sunset by then. The waves were pretty good for the boogie boards and the surf was full of boarders trying their luck.

But to back up a little. Yesterday I decided to go to Sunset Beach on the North Shore to photograph, yup you've got it...sunset. Another beautiful beach--well I haven't found one here that isn't.

I arrived there early enough to get some shots with full light but the sun at a low angle.

It so beautiful at time of day.

Even the sand looks better than usual with all the shadows and the beautiful yellow light.

Most of the swimmers and surfers are completely oblivious to cameras because almost everyone has one and you can't tell exactly where they're pointing. So it's easy to get this kind of image, especially with a long lens.

Once the sun gets this low, it's only a matter of seconds till it's gone, so you have to be ready. There were at least a dozen people lined up to catch this sunset. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that, but everyone was so spread out it wouldn't have been very effective.

I changed my position quickly and was able to include these palm tree trunks with the setting sun. There weren't many clouds, so once the sun was down, it was done. But...

when I turned around, there was the moon--not a full one, but impressive none-the-less. When it is this high in the sky, you can't make it look large without a super long telephoto. So actually, it was one of those days when the sun and the moon were in the sky at the same time.

Friday, Jan 18, 2008

I'm writing this a day late, but I didn't want to not write. Yesterday, Thursday the 17th, I just hung around the house in the morning. The plans were to meet Leah around 6 at her apt. for pizza and TV.


I decided to go to a Botanical Garden in Honolulu in the afternoon before going to Leah's place. It was really beautiful--everything is so different from what I'm used to in the northeast. There weren't too many flowers, but I managed to get some images of a few of them that I'm pretty happy with.

I don't know the names of the three flowers above because there were no name plates, but I thought they were really pretty. The bottom one, that looks like a white puff-ball, was in red also.

Strange sign to see in a Botanical Garden, but it was posted right in front of a, guess what, CannonBall Tree. Okay! Very interesting. I didn't see any fall while I was there though.

This is just a portion of the Cannonball Tree. It was quite large, and getting the whole thing in the photo would have diminished the effect of the cannonballs.

These red leaves were part of a huge hedge kind of plant. They were really beautiful--the color is so intense. No name for this either.

This image of leaves was my attempt at patterns. They were really beautiful too. Very sturdy and the bush/tree was quite large.

Well, after that (the Botanical Gardens closed at 4) I thought I'd go to a beach and get some sun. Well the traffic proved to be a real hindrance to that. While I was driving, Leah called and said she was stuck in traffic and what in the world was going on? I had heard that somebody had thrown a toddler off a foot-traffic overpass and they had closed the highway for 3 1/2 hours to investigate. Traffic everywhere was practically at a standstill.

So by the time I decided that the beach wasn't a good idea, it took me forever to get back to the supermarket, and by the time I was done there it was time to go to Leah's.

The incident was very sad. EVERYONE was talking about it. Some guy had abducted a toddler from his neighborhood and ... well I said it before.

Leah and I had a nice time. The pizza was good (even though it was frozen), and we had Caeser Salad and then ice-cream for dessert. Yum. The shows were re-runs, but they're my favorite shows so I didn't mind too much.

Will post today's activities in the morning.

Wednesday, Jan 16, 2008

Another beautiful day. Breezy and in the high 70s.

I was supposed to meet several other photographers and do a hike at Kaena Point, the western-most spot on Oahu. From the parking area it is approximately 1.5 hours each way. Unfortunately, the organizer contacted us yesterday to say he wouldn't be able to make it. When I emailed the other participant, he didn't get back to me.

So I drove up there myself today with two thoughts in mind. Maybe the other person would show up after all, and even if he didn't, I figured I could get some photos, see a place I hadn't been yet, and just enjoy the outdoors.

At the parking area there was quite a lot of shoreline to photograph. It was beautiful!! Lots of waves, and as each wave broke, it showed the most georgeous aqua color...

I got there early, so I did some shooting, then I waited for a while. No show. I still considered doing the hike, but decided against it since I was alone. I'll do it sometime when I have company.

Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008

The skys are cloudy and have been all day. Great breeze and it's about 71. Just about perfect. I decided to do some infrared photography today, so I got everything all ready and left all my other equipment home so I would be forced to shoot infrared. As I mentioned, it was cloudy and cloudy is not particularly good for infrared.

So I headed out to the store to buy some things, including groceries, thinking it might be better a little later. It was a great opportunity to practice hyperventilating... Some prices are comparable to the mainland, but others....WOW! (of course, it depends on where you decide to shop--Walmart, Costco, supermarket, etc.) I went to a supermarket because the Walmart I was in didn't have a complete grocery section. So, bananas are $1.09/pound, whole milk is over $8/gallon ( I didn't see exactly how much 'cause once I saw the number 8 I had to look away). Skim milk is just under $5/gallon. Boneless chicken is just about $5/pound, and on and on it goes. Gas, however, is just about a dime more than at home in NY.

Anyway, when I got done with that, it was still too cloudy to shoot so I just came home. I walked the dog and now I'm just puttering.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Today started out cool and breezy--just beautiful! I cleaned the lanai and raked some of the yard. Then some email business.

I decided to head toward the north shore and some beaches. There is a beach called Turtle Beach--yup, you've got it, there are often turtles there. Not today though. But the beach was beautiful and it was great being there.

In Oahu, the north shore and western side of the island are beseiged with winds and high waves in the winter. Often the beaches are closed because of the surf. But it's certainly a sight to see, and I haven't even seen the best of it yet.

Well, I didn't realize until after I published the post that two of the above images are the same, except for the exposure. I can't for the life of me, figure out how to delete one of them. Oh well, so you'll see the same image. Can't be that bad, it's a decent scene.

More tomorrow...

Friday night I was going to meet up with some photographers to do a sunset shoot. I decided to get there a little early to do some shooting on my own and to avoid the rush-hour traffic, which, by the way, is nasty. I went to Waikiki Beach which is where I thought they were meeting. I found out that that isn''t where we were to meet, but decided to stay and do some street photography.


This first scene is of some hotels directly across from Waikiki Beach. They get a great view from their balconies.

This next scene is looking down the lenght of Waikiki Beach.

After spending some time at Waikiki, I decided to head down to where I was supposed to meet the other photographers, since traffic was heavy and I didn't really know where I was going. The GPS I got for Christmas wouldn't help because you have to program it with an actual address and I didn't have one.

I arrived ahead of everyone else (without getting lost, amazingly), so I just took a few shots of the area. This one is of Diamond Head far off in the distance, with the marina in the foreground.

When everyone arrived, we walked to the other side of the park (Magic Island) to wait for the sunset. While waiting, I practiced getting silhouettes. This is just one of the series.

Much to our disappointment, the sunset wasn't too spectacular, but it was worth a few shots. The little bit of color was pretty, but it didn't seem to reflect off the clouds too well.

When everyone was sure they were done with sunset, we walked back to the original place I had been in order to wait for the fireworks.

When I took this shot, it was actually much darker that the image shows, but due to the long shutter speed, it looks like daytime. The blur in the image is a sailboat.

One of the hotels sets off fireworks every Friday night that last about 15 minutes. So, considering I've never shot fireworks and have never been very interested in shooting them, I wound up with two images that I'm pretty happy with. This is just one of them because the other is pretty similar.

We ended up around 8, and I headed for home. Altogether a good time.

It's Thursday morning and I finally arrived at about 10:45 last night, which meant that from the time I got up to leave for the airport at home, to the time I arrived here was just about 24 hours. Okay, quite the trip.

It's still only 10 a.m. so I'm going to get ready pretty soon to go out exploring. I have to go to the bank, and of course, Walmarts. I got a great car rental. It was an upgrade from a compact to mid-size. A white Ponitac G6 with only 5 miles on the mileage indicator. Makes me kind of nervous driving it--I've never driven such a new car.

Will post again later today with some photos of something I hope.

It's Wed, Jan 9 and I'm on my way. Right now I'm sitting in the Denver airport waiting for my seriously delayed plan. It's been so hectic so far, that I'm not sorry for the down-time.

To start with, I almost missed my plan in Albany, of all places. Long lines to get through security and when they paged my plane, the guard let any of us on that flight go through ahead of everyone else. But one good thing!!! I packed correctly this time, and remembered everything after it all went through the scanner. Of course I had to run like a banshee to get to my gate--I didn't know the Albany airport was SO big. Anyway, it was one of those little planes that you have to go down a flight of stairs to get out of the terminal and then go into the plane up an absurdly narrow flight of stairs. So I struggled with my carry-ons, totally exhausted, only to find out that it was the wrong plane.

It was the one right in front of the terminal gate, but mine was off to the side. So, down the steps I go, run across the tarmac, and struggle up another flight of steps about 1 1/2 feet wide. Whew.

Okay, that was done.

Let me back up though. When I was checking in in Albany, the machine wouldn't print my luggage tags. I'm not worried, the counter person will do it, right? She also doesn't know why they wouldn't print. Oh, you mean just because I only have NINE minutes to change planes in Seattle, the machine thinks that will be a problem? Go figure.

So the counter person re-routed me--God bless her. That's why I'm in Denver instead of Seattle. Works for me. So instead of arriving in Honolulu at 4:15, I'll get there at 6:15 unless the plane is delayed more.

Enough for now.

So it's 7:55 on Tuesday evening. I was going to go to Niskayuna to watch Scott play in a curling competition, since I haven't seen him play once since he began. I was too, humm, what?, stressed maybe? I hadn't even started packing by 5:30 when we were supposed to leave. So I humbly asked him if he would mind if I didn't go, and he said not at all. About an hour later, he called and said it was a good thing we didn't go because he wasn't on the roster to play. See! God works all things out. How frustrating it would have been to have gone for naught!

So I managed to get some things done, and finally get packed. The trick is keeping the luggage to under 50 lbs. I got the larger suitcase to 47--hopefully the scales at the airport will weigh the same as my home scale.

I discovered, when I finally looked closely at my itinerary, that I have exactly 9 minutes (yes, that's NINE minutes) to change planes in Oregon. I have a feeling I won't make it. I just never noticed it when I was purchasing the tickets last summer. Oh well, I've beseeched the Lord to delay the connecting flight. We'll see. It's all in His hands and it will work out perfectly for me and gloriously for Him.

Well, I'm going to see if there's any ice cream left. I'm feeling like I need some comfort food. The next time I post, I might be in Hawaii, so Aloha, Linda

Today is Sunday, and here in the Northeast it was another grey day, but the temp. was nice and there was no wind, so altogether it wasn't too objectionable. I said goodbye to all my friends at church, since I'll be leaving for Hawaii this Wed. and won't see them again until April.




I rescued my camera from my daughter's house this morning. Here's a group shot from our get-together yesterday. I treasure these photos that we take every year, but it's definitely a photographer's great example of how NOT TO DRESS when having a group photo taken. But no one in the group cares except me, and as long as I get some cooperation, I'm happy.

I started packing a little today. I'm shipping some boxes to save the weight in my luggage. They should have been sent a week ago, but I couldn't quite get organized enough. So I got the boxes ready to mail out in the morning.

Just two more days to go....

Well, this has been a busy Sat. It began with my shooting an engagement session in the morning. Then I unexpectedly ran into some friends at Partner's so I decided to stay and have lunch with them, even though I really needed to clean the house.

Our family Christmas was today, so the whole clan was going to arrive around 2. I finally got home in time to run the vacuum and straighten up a little. We had a nice time when everyone finally got here. The group photo went well this year. For a change everyone was fairly agreeable and cooperative. I love these photos, what a great way to see the way the kids change from year to year. Unfortunately, I left my camera at my daughter's tonight, so I won't be able to post the group photo until tomorrow.

After our get-together, we headed over to my daughter's in celebration of my grandson's birthday. She had a houseful too.

So, to say the least, it was good to get home and put my feet up.

Well, the countdown is 4 days--then I'm off to Oahu, Hawaii on Jan. 9 for almost three months. I started planning this trip last winter, so it's beginning to seem somewhat surreal the closer the reality of it gets. I feel so blessed that the Lord has given me the privilege to have this experience.







The weather here in NY has been intensely cold for the past few days, but the weather forcast is for a warming trend and it's supposed to be 51 the day I fly out. Sure! I'm glad I decided to wait until now to leave. It was good having the holidays here with my family and friends, and I've been able to tie up a lot of loose ends at the church office and here at home.



I don't have anything significant packed yet, but I know it won't take too long, so I'll concentrate on that on Monday and Tuesday. I think it's going to take longer to organize and pack my photography equipment than my clothes. Clothes are, summer clothes, summer clothes, and summer clothes. Camera equipment is, which lens? how many cameras and which cameras? how much film (what in the world is that), batteries and chargers, etc., etc. What goes in the carry-on and camera backpack?, what goes in the checked luggage? New rules all the time about camera equipment--Since Jan 1, you're not allowed to put loose batteries in checked luggage, (batteries in equipment are okay). They must go in carry-on, and if not in original packages or equipment, they have to have tape over the terminals. Yikes, one rule after another. It's hard to even keep up with the changes.



Every time I fly I seem to mess up somehow. Once it was a jackknife I forgot to take out of my camera bag and put into my checked luggage. Bye, bye knife! Once it was a liquid yogurt I forgot to drink on the way to the airport (and I was really hungry by then). Once it was a motel-size hand lotion that I didn't have in a zip lock bag. (That time the security person was a little nicer and he put it in a zip lock for me). Once I forgot to get my lap top after it went through the scanner, and only remembered it an hour later, and thank goodness, I was able to identify it to the satisfaction of the security guard.



My trip this time is NY to Chicago then Portland then finally off to Hawaii. I'll arrive there around 4:30 in the afternoon. Hopefully the weather will be calm throughout the country, but since I don't really have an arrival deadline, if I'm delayed it won't be too big a deal. I'll have my laptop, a book, crossword puzzels and playing cards with me and hopefully that will be enough to keep me occupied if I'm delayed.

We had an awesome time in Maine, the 8 of us. We couldn't have written a script for a week that was more fun. There wasn't a single thing that detracted from the good times we had. We shared a beautiful cottage in South Bristol, Maine. Just down the road, about a three minute walk, was S. Bristol Cove--a working cove that gave us the opportunity to photograph some of the boats leaving early in the morning. We even had fog two mornings... These images are in no particular order, just randomly placed in the blog.

This shot was just some practice with my infrared camera. Love the effect--anything green (that grows) turns a beautiful white. Clouds pop, the sky gets darker, grass looks snow-covered. It's just a beautiful, ethereal look.



In a lot of places, the overall view wasn't too picture-worthy, so it was best to concentrate on the details. This is just a little shanty on the end of a dock where you can rent kayaks and canoes. It was closed for the season since we were there during the last week of Sept. 2007

Another infrared image. This is really a favorite of mine. It is a small park area in Wiscassett, ME. In color it didn't look too inspiring, but I love the look of the infrared.

Using our trusty guide book of the coast of Maine, we concentrated on the area most closely connected to where we were staying. We managed to see and photograph quite a few lighthouses. This is Owl's Head Light. It's a short lighthouse because it is set so high on a cliff. There wasn't much vantage for taking photos of this one--unless I wanted to break the law and climb over the fence, and possibly break a leg by falling off the cliff--none of which I thought was particularly enticing.

Saw this sign post as we were driving around and just had to stop and get
a shot of it. Great colors!

This cluster of buoys was lying on one of the docks we were at. Great colors again,
and they way they were tied together caught my attention.

This is Marshall Light. I took many shots of this one from all different angles. Off to the sides, you're down on the rocks looking up at it, so unless there are some great clouds in the sky, it's kind of ordinary, if you can call a great, historical lighthouse ordinary. I like this shot best because of the low angle. I was actually lying on my stomach trying desperately to hold the camera still while supporting it with my elbows.

This is another view of South Bristol Cove.

South Bristol again.

The shoreline at Pemaquid Light. We spent a few hours here on the rocks on one of our last days in Maine. The weather was spectacular and it was just the right temperature to sit and watch the ocean.
This was just one of those vacations in one of those places that convinces you of the power and majesty of our great God. Certainly, an "accident" could not have put together all these elements in such a beautiful way. And an "accident" couldn't have put the 8 of us together to get along so well, laugh so much, and have such a good time. It was a great way to end the summer and have memories to hold onto until next spring.

Well, it's Feb. 25 and it's been quite a while since I've updated, but it's also been quite a while since I've done any shooting. Yesterday, a friend and I went to Troy and did some street photograpy. Yes it was cold! Yes it was windy! Yes we persevered! I used one camera with slide film in it for a competition at my photo club, but the rest of the time I used my digital camera. I'm happy with some of the images, at least enough to have made the fieldtrip worth while.


This first shot of the train station is along the Mohawk River, not in Troy. We didn't stay here too long since the wind was blowing with a vengeance...







These pigeons were interesting. They were
roosting on the roof of this apartment building. Every once in a while, as if on cue, they would all
take off, circle around in unison for a minute or two, and then land again on the roof.









We stopped at a hot dog diner for lunch. Before
we left we managed to take some shots of the
interior. I was intrigued by the folks sitting at
the counter. They paid no attention to me, as if
there were photographers there taking photos
every day. I'm glad they ignored me.






















These last two shots were taken in an alleyway.
I love the one with the lettering on the wall. The
phone number reminds me of the one I had when I was growing up. Two letters and five numbers...