Moving Day (Friday, Jan 30)

My friend, Chelsea, moved today. A couple of her friends showed up to help, while I babysat for the day.

The new kitchen.

Living Room

Some Random Scenes

This is not today's real post. I made these images yesterday, but didn't have the time to post them yesterday. I wanted to share some with you. The first two images are from Sunset Beach. I went there because I heard the waves were supposed to be pretty good, and therefore there would be a lot of surfers. Well, take my word for it, my surfing images leave A LOT to be desired. So you get, instead, a couple of beach shots.

After leaving Sunset Beach, I stopped at Shark's Cove. When Leah came to Hawaii for grad school, we stopped here one day and did some snorkeling. It was beautiful. Even without snorkeling, it's beautiful.

On my way home, I had to make one more stop at Laniakea Beach, where I turtle-sit occasionally. There were three turtles on the beach and no monk seals. I stayed just a short while and then headed home for dinner.

My Friday post will come later, as it's only 9:30 am here.

Thursday's Assignment
(compliments of Steve)

"The assignment is....... EYE LEVEL You need to shoot an image (object, room, whatever) at EYE LEVEL from the perspective that you see that image daily. If you are sitting on the couch, standing as you cook, eating dinner at the table, wherever you are doing whatever you routinely do, shoot an image from where your eyes are at that time. With the image, also explain where you are and what you are doing when you "see" this image most days of your life. You can zoom in, out, blur, photoshop, etc., but the camera has to be at your eye level."

All I have for a calendar is my small jewel case calendar which sits on a shelf and leaves no room to write. I also have a pocket calendar which is always in my purse. So in order to remember the things I have to do/want to do, I came up with a Post-It solution. (Gotta love those Post-Its--next best thing to velcro and zip lock baggies.)

I write the events/dates on Post-Its and stick them to the closet door, which happens to be a mirror. I have to look right at the door, and walk past it every time I leave my room, so I figured this would be a good way to keep my "schedule" in front of my face. In my life, if it isn't written down, it usually doesn't exist. This system has been working well so far.

Posted at 1:15 pm on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009

Got It Back!

Two days ago, I received the sweetest email.... The Canon repair center notified me that my camera was ready to pick up. Eureka!!! Well, I couldn't go down yesterday because I was babysitting, but I was able to get there today. What a relief. This first image is the first one I took with my newly repaired camera. Pretty exciting, huh?

Since I was so close to the beach, I headed over to Magic Island again where the outrigger canoe practice takes place. I took many more shots than this, but it would probably just seem redundant to you, so this is one that is just a little different.

When I crossed the road to get into my car, I noticed this lovely scene. I don't usually park on that side of the road, so it was a fairly new sight to me too.

A friend from church has a son who loves to play ice-hockey. Yes, I really did say ice-hockey. There's a rink called "The Ice Palace" and according to my friend it's the only one of its kind in the entire state. Whoever decided to build an ice rink in Hawaii is probably a very, very rich person right now.

Anyway, Yuji, the son, has been playing since he was 14. It's a military family, so they were on the mainland when he began the sport--he's about 20 now.

We had made plans for me to meet them at their house so I could ride with them to the game. It was about 5 pm (rush hour) when I got in my car for the drive to their place. Good timing on my part--remember what I said about rush hour in Honolulu???? A nightmare!!! At some points, the freeway is 6 lanes wide in each direction (do the math--that's 12 lanes total), and traffic is practically stopped. I guess I'll learn/remember that at some point.

I did manage to make it there in time for dinner--then we bundled up--Yes, ladies and gentlemen, "bundled" up. I wore jeans, sneakers and socks, a long-sleeved shirt AND a sweater, oh. my. gosh. I couldn't believe I was doing that, but my friend assured me that it was absolutely freezing in this place and that I'd better be dressed for the arctic. I even brought a comforter just in case.

The game was fun--not like RPI games where they're out for blood. This is a "no-contact" game. It was my first ever hockey game and I loved it. AND, Yuji scored two goals and his team won. AND I got some fun shots. So altogether it was a pretty darned good day. (of course, I consider almost any day without snow a good day) Yuji is in the white jersey in this first image.

Yuji with his back to camera--I tried hand holding, slow shutter speed and zooming. Oh, I LOVE my SLR!!

Just some random players. I was panning for this one.

Posted at 11:30 on Wed, January 28, 2009. Whew, just made it!

The Islands

I wanted to do something else with the blocks after my post from yesterday. I had a very short window of time while the baby was sleeping, so this is what I came up with.

I'd love to try something like this again with some Island accents. ie. flowers, lei, photos etc.

Posted at 6:15 pm on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009

Baby Blocks

As I mentioned before Christmas, I love wooden alphabet blocks. This was another day that almost got away from me, photographically speaking. When I took the baby for a walk, I took my camera too, but this is a really boring neighborhood. After putting the baby to bed, it occurred to me that I still didn't have a post. Sigh.

Then I remembered that I had these borrowed blocks in my car. So out to the car I went, and this is the result. I hated using the flash, but it's dark already, so flash it is. I wanted to make some creative adjustments to the image, but since I'm using a new version of Elements and I don't yet have the instruction manual, and I didn't want to spend all night trying to find the right buttons to push, those adjustments will have to wait.

Posted at 7 pm on Monday, January 27, 2009

Cooking

Another busy day with the baby, and I'm running out of time for a post. Earlier today I noticed that Chelsea has this neat little gadget to hold open a cookbook while making a recipe. I love it! I'm going to have to find one for myself.

Posted at 7:50 pm on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009

Chinese New Year Parade

Today was a big parade in Chinatown. It was a beautiful day. I met up with some other photographers, and then unfortunately we all went our separate ways and I didn't see them again for the rest of the afternoon. As crowded as it was, it was probably a good thing that we didn't try to stay together.

We did, however, head to a less crowded spot to take a group shot before we separated. When I crossed the street, this little boy getting a haircut was the first thing I saw. I just couldn't resist.

This beautiful little girl had a handful of those Pop It fire crackers and she was really concentrating on getting just one at a time to throw on the ground.

This is the mayor, (of Honolulu I guess) and the girl standing next to me brought him over so she could have her mother take a photo of them together.

And who could resist these two???

And then here's the group shot we began the afternoon with.

Posted at 8:20 pm on Sat, Jan 24, 2009

Late Post for Friday, Jan 23
(9 am Sat)

So....here's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I borrowed my friend, Chelsea's, SLR. On the beach I was happily clicking away, but the "remaining image" count didn't seem to be correct. Then I finally realized that I was shooting in RAW. And of course, I couldn't figure out how to change the setting. I also knew that it takes for. ev. er. to download RAW onto my computer. Sigh.

Then, later in the afternoon I promised Kristine I'd take some photos of an event she was hosting at one of the schools.

We didn't get home until later in the evening and by the time I finally got the images on the computer and changed them to jpegs (it took hours), Kristine had turned off the internet and gone to bed. So no post last night.

Honest and true, I took these on FRIDAY.

That's a turtle in front of the lady with the red shirt.

Just some people on the beach.

Another turtle. There were only two on the beach yesterday.

Then we really had a treat. A monk seal came up to bask. We watched it (couldn't determine gender) come out of the surf and make its way up the beach. Once it reached where it wanted to bask, it was like watching grass grow--no activity at all. So I'm glad I was there when it first came out of the water, which was only about 15 minutes after I arrived--good timing!

PS. There's a slim chance that the same thing might happen today with my post. I'm going to an event this afternoon and I don't know when I'll get home, or if I'll have time to post before the internet gets turned off. I will not, however, be shooting in RAW--that is if I can understand the manual enough to change to jpeg.

Self-portrait

The assignment for today is a self-portrait with either your significant other, or with a pet. Since my significant other is in NY and I'm not, and since my pets are there too, I had to borrow a pet. He was pretty agreeable about the whole thing--I'd say a lot more agreeable than most of the people in my life. So here's what I got.

And here are a couple of out-takes.

Posted at 11:10 am on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009

The Barracks

Every day, while out walking the baby, I pass this building, an old, abandoned barracks. There are several in the area, but this is the one I pass close by. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I approached the building so that I could take some photos. When I get my SLR back, I may try some shots for HDR.

When I was just about home, I was looking at my sunglasses wondering what kind of shot I could get with them. Then the lightbulb went on, not that the image is fantastic. But it is kind of cute. He's stylin'.

Posted at 6:15 pm on Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Backyard

The baby was pretty fussy today. But he did nap several times. During one of his naps, I took my work out into the back yard to appreciate the beautiful breeze and temperature. These images are from the backyard. This is about as much of a garden as I could handle. Less is more in this case with my "black" thumb.

This is inauguration day. I'm speechless.

Posted at 6:15 pm on Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Oh, by the way, tomorrow (Wed, Jan 21) I'm beginning an online course for Writing for Magazines. I couldn't find a course for Writing for Newspapers, so I thought this would be the next best thing. My goal (as if I need another goal in my life) is to apply for a stringer position with the local newspapers when I get back to NY. I know that papers and magazines are more likely to accept images if they're accompanied by text. Ergo, the writing course. In honor of that, I've begun another blog... check it out once in a while. It's www.trainingawriter.blogspot.com

Dinner

Another day with the baby. No time for taking photos, no time for even thinking about taking photos. This was dinner. Yum.

Posted at 7:30 pm on Monday, Jan 19, 2009

Sunday Afternoon

Sunday afternoons is for Bible Study and a fellowship dinner.

First some singing.

Lots of children and babies.

Then some dinner and conversation--no pics of that.

Posted at 9:30 pm on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009

My First Turtle Watch

Today was my first scheduled shift at Laniakea Beach to guard the turtles (honu). Because of the recent storm, the surf was very rough and the turtles hadn't been on the beach for three days. They probably stayed out to sea to avoid being smashed against the rocks. So it was a great day for people watching and photos.

Half the fun of being on this beach is watching the people take photos of their friends and families. Tour buses often stop here because of the turtles and when they do there's a large group of people descending on the beach. Often the people are Japanese, and that doesn't really have anything to do with anything, except that they're so darned cute. They get so excited about seeing the turtles and then they really get "into" their group shots.

If there are turtles on the sand, they pose with the turtles in the background, making peace signs or shakah signs with their hands, and they just have a blast. It makes me laugh... Here's a group posing and in the next photo, two girls jumping in the air. I bet the "photographer" of that shot got a great image.

Another Honu Guardian and her daughter checking out the surf.

And finally the sunset. Take note of where the sun is setting compared to the little mountain. By the time I leave in April, the sun will be setting about as far to the right of the point as it is to the left right now. Pretty dramatic.

Posted at 8:30 pm on Saturday, Jan 16, 2009