142/365

Kids playing on the Beach

Dunedin, FL.  No other words needed.

My heart is grateful for:

Sunshine

137/365

Sunset at the Beach

After walking through town and having a delicious ice cream, we wandered down to the beach and saw this beautiful sunset.  I've never been good at photographing sunsets, but I tried again.  

This is just an average image, but being near the ocean soothes my soul.

My heart is grateful for:

the opportunity to spend some time near the ocean with a good friend 

80/365

Under the Pier

I made this image many years ago and just rediscovered it in my files.  It's a pier on the east side of Oahu, Hawaii.

How I love the ocean and miss Hawaii.

My heart is grateful for:

the opportunities I've had to travel

Another Trip to Chinatown

8/365

My friend, Jackie, and I decided to make another trip to Chinatown today.  We got there pretty early while it was still cool and not too crowded.  We both did a lot of random shooting.  It surprises me that every time we go there, we manage to find something interesting to shoot, but I think that's pretty true of any street photography--things are different minute by minute and all you have to do is keep your eyes open and be aware of what's going on around you.  

We found a couple of very colorful doors.  We just stood on the street across from the doors and waited for people to walk by.  I've only posted a selection of the ones I took of this green doorway because I didn't want to overload you with such similar images.

After making our usual stop at our favorite Starbucks we drove over Magic Island just to see if there would be anything interesting.  Usually there isn't in the middle of the day, but we took a chance.  There were 4 different bride/groom couples having their photos taken.  This couple was really fun, but I think it was partly to do with the photographer--he kept giving them suggestions for fun things to do.  

Photo Shoot

9/365

It was supposed to be sunny and beautiful that day.  Even the weather announcer on the radio seemed a little surprised that the clouds weren't cooperating by going away.  I was relieved though.  

Clouds mean the lighting is even (sometimes a little too even to be a little flat). They mean there's no need to squint. They mean slightly cooler temps.  They mean the photos can be taken in any direction.  So even though the lighting is not as creative as when the sun is shining, it makes the session a little more pleasant.

It turned out pretty well and everyone seems happy with the results.

Waikiki in Black & White

5/365

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)

 Not Much to Say...

Last Friday a group of us from the Oahu photography meetup ventured down to Magic Island.  The goal was to photograph sunset, fireworks and full moon.  Well, the sunset didn't inspire me, and the full moon never made it's appearance while I was there--mostly, I think, because there was a huge bank of clouds at the eastern horizon, and I didn't want to stay long (late) enough for the moon to rise over the clouds.  Besides, by the time it was up over the clouds, it would have looked too small and the sky would have been too dark.

But we did manage to capture the fireworks.  The Hawaiian Hilton puts on a fireworks display every Friday night.  It only lasts about 10 minutes, but it's very nice and there are a lot of oooohs & aaaaahs. 

Photographing fireworks is always an exercise in experimentation, even if you really do know what you're doing, which, by the way, I don't.  So, hopefully, I'll get back there another Friday night and have another go at it.   Bring a chair, something to drink and a friend and you're good to go. It's not a bad way to spend the evening.

Rain

It rained today. All day. A lot.

The dreary weather didn't seem to bother the tourists who were out in full force inbetween the downpours. There were three turtles on the beach today. The tourists were happy.

Even with the adverse weather, the beach was beautiful. Even though I was huddled under an umbrella, getting sprayed with the blowing rain, it was great being at the beach--hearing the waves break, watching the surfers, seeing the turtles romp in the surf, once again teasing the few tourists who braved the less than perfect conditions.

The ocean has a strong pull.

Posted at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, March 31, 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.