Beautiful Morning at the Beach

8/365

I decided to finally get going to a beach this morning.  I only have about 30 more mornings to do that before I head back to NY, where my toes will not touch sand for the next 9 months when/if I return to Hawaii next year.  Insert sad face.

My beach of choice was Ko Olina.  It's close, it's beautiful, and the weather there is usually wonderful even when it's pretty stinky elsewhere on the island.  I packed a book, my camera, a snack and a drink...

Ko Olina is home to Aulani--the Disney Resort.  After grabbing some rays and then walking around to get some photos, I took a walk through the grounds of Aulani.  It's one of my favorite places to be.  I know it's a tourist trap, I know it's crowded, I know it's not what you think of when you imagine Hawaii, but I love it anyway.  

It was designed with an Hawaiian cultural advisor on staff  and it's so NOT hokey.  I lucked out again and saw one of the characters, Stitch, wandering around looking for photo ops with the children.

I.   WANT.   TO.   WORK.   THERE!!

It will never happen, but it tugs at my heart every time I'm there.

Anyway, after several hours at the beach, I packed up, drove to the Y and swam my laps.

It was a really good day, praise God.

A Day in Haleiwa

8/365

My friend and I spent the day in Haleiwa.  I wasn't too excited about it when she suggested it, but I agreed because I haven't been out shooting much lately and I needed the diversion.  Once we got there, I decided to put some effort into it.

It was hot and I'm not a big fan of hot-weather photography.  But unlike hot weather in the northeast, there are always chances to cool off by getting into the shade or when the trade winds blow, so it was fairly tolerable for me today.

I'm pretty happy with some of the images I brought home.  

So I give thanks to my friend, Jackie, for giving me the impetus to get out there, for the stimulating conversations we had and for the great ideas for some creative uses for my images.  

Bellows Beach

7/365

Last Saturday we went to Bellows Beach for the first time since I arrived in Hawaii.  It's one of THE most beautiful beaches on the island.  When driving down the road on the approach to the beach, there's a spot where, when you see the beach, you want to sing the Hallelujah chorus.  It's that glorious!

Anyway, we took Betty's grandson with us, and once there's a toddler in my viewfinder I'm a goner.  So, of the 150 shots I took, probably 100 of them were of the baby.  But, reason prevailed and I cut it down to a reasonable number for the photos I'm giving Betty....

....and even cut it down to my absolute favorite of the entire bunch for this blog. 

Some More Photoshop Playing

6/365

I mentioned that I was taking an online photoshop elements course for digital scrapbooking.    This is one of the composites I created using one of my images of the Pow! Wow! event, gradients, frames, layers, and the different text functions.

Very fun.

Practice in Layers

6/365

I'm taking an online Scrapbooking Course in order to learn more about layers and the capabilities of Photoshop Elements.  This is one of my first creations.  Very fun.

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)

POW! WOW! Again

4/365

I finally got back downtown after the artists were done with their creations.  Some of the work was kind of creepy and some of it didn't make sense to me, but it is what it is. 

 I didn't get there during the week for any of the events, but when I did go it was great because there were hardly any people around, so I could photograph to my heart's content with hardly any interference.  

This artwork will stay on the buildings until next year when the artists return to do new work.

POW!  WOW!

3/365

"Centered around a week-long event in Hawaii, POW! WOW! has grown into a global network of artists and organizes gallery shows, lecture series, schools for art and music, mural projects, a large creative space named Lana Lane Studios, concerts, and live art installation across the globe.  The central event takes place during Valentine's Day week in February in the Kaka'ako district of Honolulu, and brings over a hundred international and local artists together to create murals and other forms of art." (copied from the website)

Today I took a walk around downtown to find some of these artists.  It was a very cool experience.  Most of them began painting on Monday, and since it is only Wednesday, they were only part-way through their projects.  It was interesting to see how they were creating works of this size.  Many of them were using pictures on their phones as reference. 

A Fresh New Day

2/365

For the past several weeks I've been dealing with some serious pain in the leg where I had my hip replacement last year.  It always takes me by surprise how constant pain can drain a person.  It's somewhat under control with the use of ibuprofen, but it's always there.  I finally had some blood work done and am awaiting the results to see what further action needs to be taken.

For the past 2-3 days the weather has been oppressive too.  Cloudy, rainy, cool--conditions that make one want to grab a book and a beverage and curl up on the couch even when feeling well.  So by the end of yesterday I was dealing with not only pain and apprehension but a serious case of cabin fever.

I say all of that as background for today.  It was a fresh, new day.  It dawned clear, sunny, beautiful & warm.  So off we headed to Ko Olina, one of the most beautiful areas of the island, to show a visiting friend the glories of the Ihilani & Aulani Hotels.

Pool at Ihilani

Ihilani Hotel

Aulani Disney Resort

Beach at Aulani

Aulani

Mickey posing for photos

Waikiki Vignettes

1/365

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!