A Hike in the (Wet) Woods

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Today two friends and I went for a hike, albeit a short one, to photograph a waterfall.  It's been raining a lot lately, so we knew the falls would be flowing pretty well.

We found it, set up our tripods, attached our cameras, staked out our spots, started shooting, and then....it began to rain.  Yikes.  

Fortunately there was a lot of tree cover, so we were pretty well protected but we still had to get out the rain gear for our bodies and for the cameras.  

My images of the falls itself aren't worth editing--I have a very difficult time maneuvering through/around/under/over plastic while dripping profusely and trying to avoid getting the camera wet.   So I concentrated on the lean-to and seemed to get results that I was happier with.

I did, however, spend some time on the smaller sections of the water flowing over the rocks.  The water was less muddy and I love detail-shooting anyway.

We stopped for lunch on our way home.  I won't say that's the best part of a hike, but it's a part that I really love.  The hike + food + the camaraderie = a very pleasant way to spend the day. 

Junior Prom

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This past Saturday night was junior prom night at my grandson's school.  I know I've said this kind of thing before, but I honestly can't imagine how this happened.  How, oh how, is he old enough to go to Junior Prom?  It just doesn't seem possible that 17.5 years have gone by since he was born.

But I digress.

My brother-in-law generoulsy volunteered to drive Mace and his date to all the pre-prom photo venues in his beautiful classic car.  I don't know what I was more excited about--taking photos of the car or the kids!  Silly me.

This next image is of just a small group of teens who went to a local bed-and-breakfast for a little while for a few photos.

Mace pulled me aside to do a "private" photo shoot.  I guess I trained him right when I started using him for a model when he was a baby...

Below is Mace with one of his good buddies and co-basketball team members.

And of course, the traditional "family" photo.  In a short 8 then 9 years, we'll be photographing Jacob then Lauren's proms.  Oi vey!

Another Random Day

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One of my last days in Hawaii was was just a random day spent traveling around with a couple of good photo friends, taking random photos.  We traveled up the leeward side of the island first, stopping whenever we saw something that piqued our interest.  

This first image was taken at a marina. I thought these boats looked interesting because they are so grungy but still hanging out at the marina, almost like they're waiting for their last hurrah.

As I've mentioned before, I love taking photos through fences.  This was a little more fence that I normally like, but I thought I'd try it anyway.  I kind of like it.

We never did see the rider of this bike, but I thought it made a nice contrast to the boats and water.

We took some side roads, you know, "the road not taken", and came across this sweet country church.

Traveling up to the North Shore, one of the ladies suggested we pull into Waimea Valley to see if we could see the peacocks that roam wild in the reception area.  When we first arrived, there were none to be seen, and then much to our pleasure we saw one.  He dawdled around, laid on the ground, preened himself and basically ignored us and the others hovering around to take photos.

After a few minutes the other people got bored and left, and it was just the three of us.  And then the show began!!  He spread out his feathers, and honest to goodness, it was like he was on the runway of a fashion show.  He stood there, then would turn a little and stand still, then turn some more and stand still.  He must have done 3-4 rotations in slow motion.  We got closer and closer, sat down, then laid on the grass, and still he performed for us. 

And then....the day I left.  So sad heartbreaking, really.  

The Basketball Court and Alligator Meat

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Yesterday a friend and I got together for some shooting and dinner.  We took her adorable grandson on a little hike.  None of my images of the hike were good enough to even begin editing, so all you get is a photo of this cute guy.

After the hike, we returned to my friend's house.  Several years ago I wrote about this home.  It was, once upon a time, a basketball court.  For real! What a kick.

Julie told me she was going to make stuffed-peppers.  When I affirmed that I like them, she said there was a catch.  She was going to use alligator meat instead of ground beef.  I thought she was kidding.  She wasn't. Gulp!  I cheerfully said, "oh that sounds interesting, it will be a new experience".

I tasted the alligator meat which was in the form of sausage before she stuffed the peppers.  It was quite good.  And below is the finished product.

A Great Photo Shoot

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Oh my gosh!!  Today I had the best time.  My friend's son is in the process of having a music cd produced and he needs some photos for the cd cover.  His mom and I spent some time with him this morning in China Town trying to get the "killer" image.  

He was a great model and we topped off the great experience with lunch at a local cafe.

These are some of my favorites from the session.  He will make the final decision after he sees all the images his mom and I took.  What fun!

 

But I Digress...

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A couple of weeks ago a photographer friend of mine began telling me about her newest endeavor of posting her images to flickr and she was encouraging me to do the same.  Well....I already have a flickr account, but I was only using it to post larger amounts of images so my friends and family could see them.  I wasn't using it as a marketing tool or a way to make contacts with other photographers.

So with my friend's words echoing in my ears, for the past week or so I've been trying to update my flickr site by adding a few more images and naming/tagging the existing ones.  I only post what I consider to be my best ones and I was pleasantly surprised to see the pics I posted from my trips to Italy and Ireland a few years ago.

So even though I'm still in Hawaii, I will digress this morning by posting a couple of my favorites from Tuscany, Italy.

Apparently when I posted them to flickr I reduced the dpi, so these can't be enlarged--but if you go to my flickr page you can see them a little larger as well as seeing the other images. Click on the address:

flickr.com/photos/intheimage

BTW, if you do go to the flickr address, leave a comment. Constructive critiques welcomed.