Taiko Drummers from the Manoa Bon Dance. :) :) They are a little loud but tons of energy and a great crowd pleaser.. :) :)

Bon Dance this evening... As you can see it is a come as you are event.. anything goes even jeans and a t-shirt. Main thing I learned at the bon dance... You have to come to have fun, which they all do... and they line dance to "Elvira" How funny is that!!! :) :) :)

The DOG Signing!!! Ha ha ha ha ha :)

"You Can Run but You Can't Hide"... A catchy name for a book.... LOL LOL LOL .. :)
Oh my gosh... I never go to events like this so sorry to bore my blogging friends with this story. As I sat this evening chatting with my mom on the phone (she is on the mainland) I was laughing at an article in today's paper which said Dog the Bounty Hunter wrote a book and would be doing a book signing this evening at 7pm at the local mall!!! I couldn't believe it... I mean really a guy that calls himself "DOG" oh please.... My mom on the other hand thought that was way cool... I couldn't believe that either.... So she said that she would love a signed book.. I told her she was crazy and why would you want that book... well it seems that Dog the Bounty Hunter is a big hit on TV... I knew that really I did... :) :) He is occasionally on the front page of our local paper since he does live here in Honolulu, but have never watched his show I must admit... So just to make my mom happy and to satisfy my curiosity about this Mr. Dog off to the mall I went.. and to my dismay so did hundreds.. I mean hundreds of other people. I was stunned, amazed, couldnt believe it... (I don't think Dog could either.. Bet he wished he was out tracking down criminals vs signing books for that crowd.. I wouldn't have blamed him at all).. But he hung in there for 2 hours....Anyway, I went to purchase a book for signing...... the bookstore said they were sold out!!! Can you believe it!!! But... maybe... perhaps they might have a few copies left downstairs where the mass of humanity stood flashing their cameras and awaiting a signature from Dog.... When I finally located the portion of the mall that was selling the books they were SOLD OUT, but I could purchase one of 3 DVD's... Hmmmmm I pondered a moment and thought Nahhhh.... Sorry mom.... so I went and did the next best thing that you can do at the mall.... Go shopping!!! :) :) So after I purchased a new outfit .. darn mom see what you made me do...... :) :) :) SO, then... I figured on the way back to the car I would wonder back to middle of mall to see how many people where left.. OH MY GOSH.. there was still quite the crowd.. but I figured I could perhaps, just maybe, get a shot of him and send that to my mom to substitute for the book!!! A poor substitute I know!!! :) :) Well, as I was slowly creeping my way towards the stage that he was set up on, I was stopped almost right in front of him,, that was as close as I was getting since of course there is always those who tend to push you aside...Anyway,,, as I stood there and waited for someone to move the girl that works for the bookstore stood right in front of me blocking my view and said: "I have two copies of the book left"... I could not believe what I heard.... How amazing is that!!!..... I said, I would love one for my mom and the guy next to me gobbled up the other copy.. I was stunned to say the least but had to laugh.... So, I got my mom her signed copy... By the way he signs.... THE DOG....... I will be mailing it off to her in the morning. Have you heard of The Dog??? His real name is Duane "DOG" Chapman. (Not sure that the Dog part is real but that is what the front cover of the book says)!!!... He seemed like a nice enough guy but looked totally exhausted. I know I would have been after all of the books that he signed!!! It turned out to be a fun evening after all.... :) :)

A fish eye view of Waikiki from Ala Moana Beach Park, Magic Island. I still love playing around with that fish eye lens. One of these days I will just have to break down and get one of my own!!!

An overexposed moon... Oh well I took it super quick from my lanai... :) :) Saw the moon from the kitchen window and ran out to the lanai, darn the tripod was in the car.. Shucks... :) :) Then snapped a few shots before it went up into the clouds.. :) :) Have a great week..

Moli’i Garden, a terraced garden overlooking a 125- acre ancient Hawaiian fishpond, the largest and most well preserved fishpond in Hawai’i. Located on the Windward side of Oahu.

OK I am tired of all those sunsets and perhaps just a bit tired of landscape shots but alas another landscape... Now you have to use your imagination a tiny bit but really this is Diamond Head at sunset... .OH NO another sunset shot.. darn... with a lot of camera motion... I mean lots!!! HA... Have a great Wed.. Aloha, Renee :)

Another sunset shot from Magic Island - Ala Moana Beach Park from last week.... Check out ~Annie~ "Annie photo a week" link to the right for a closer view... Go Annie.. Love your shot better than mine!!! :) :) :)

Magic Island - Ala Moana Beach Park Sunset :)

Prince Lot Hula Festival- Moanaulua Gardens -
Photo of Halau "Pupukahi I Ke Alo O Na Pua" Kumu Hula Michael Casupang. With a little artsy feel to it :) :)

A little about the Festival that I found ..........Prince Lot, who later became Kamehameha V, King of Hawaii from 1863 to 1872, was noted for his energy and strength of will. One of his interests was to promote and preserve Hawaiian culture, especially the hula. He did this by holding hula performances at his cottage in Moanalua. In appreciation of Prince Lot's efforts to preserve Hawaiian culture, the Prince Lot Hula Festival was established in 1978. Each year na halau (hula schools) come to the festival to perform at Moanalua Gardens in Honolulu

A little stormy looking out on Thursday evening at Ala Moana Beach Park.

Waikiki Hotel lights and Diamond Head just a little after sunset... Used Annie's fish eye "thank you Annie" to be able to catch those last few fisherman still out for that last catch of the evening :) :) Click on image to view larger version!! :) :) :)

Pink Ginger. We always called it Torch Ginger but when I looked on the internet for confirmation it showed a different ginger plant. Oh well. :) :) It is of the Ginger Plant Family I guess you could say and is used in lots of flower arraignments since it lasts a long long time. :) :)

Windward side of Oahu from Makapu'u Lighthouse.. :)

A late Saturday afternoon walk thru downtown Honolulu. It is amazing the different types of architecture that you can find within just a few blocks. I know it is a weird combination of images and colors...Oh well... :) Thanks Jeff ( http://zenweek.blogspot.com/ ) for my middle shot... I know I stole your shot!!! :) :) I am sure that yours turned out much nicer... :) :)

The end of another day.... OK I know everyone is getting tired of sunsets!!! :) :) Have a wonderful Aloha Friday.. :)

A small fruit stand on the windward side. I was thinking of b & w or sepia but then when I tried it I just thought hmmmmm.. SOoooo, I went with the color version since driving past that is what really catches your attention... It is soooo cute and the fresh fruit that you can buy is out of this world. Literally ice cold papaya ... Oh how refreshing was that!!!! Fresh coconut macaroon cookies... YUMMY!!! The lady that runs the stand is soooo nice.. :) :).. Really, where else would you find fresh picked bananas hanging from an extension cord!!!! Fresh pineapple, shell lei, local fruit jellys, hats, along with dream catchers for sale. It was sooo fun to stop by!!!

Water Lily at the Macadamia Nut Farm on the windward side. OK.. I know this is not a mac nut.... :) :) :) Didn't bring out my trusty polarizer cause I was just to lazy to walk back to the car!! :) :) We didn't want to pay the $12.00 for Ali'i grand tour... So it is water lily's vs Mac... :) Nuts!! :) :)

Sunset this evening out at Ko'olina Resort.

Chinaman's Hat or Mokoli'i Island - This island off the coast at Kualoa Beach Park (Windward side of Oahu) is known as Chinaman's Hat because of its shape. It sits about 600 yards offshore and it is about 12.5 acres in size. It has a lovely little cove with a tiny sandy beach that is privately located on the opposite side from shore. The island has three small palm trees, is cone shaped but it is not a separate volcanic cone. It is part of the old Koolau volcano that was separated form the main mass by erosion and left standing as a tiny island or sea stack. It is approximately 37 acres in size and about 213 feet tall at its highest point.

Hawaiian legend tells a different story about the formation of Mokoli'i Island. Pele's younger sister Hiiaka encountered a lizard like dragon called a Moko when she was traveling on the windward coast of Oahu. She fought and killed the dragon. The flukes on the dragon's tail is suppose to have formed Mokoli'i Island. Info gathered form various web sites. :)

A Maui Sunset. If you look really really close you can just barely see the outline of Molokai on the horizon just below the sunset.. :) :) Wishing everyone a wonderful week.. Aloha, Renee :)

Lots of Blogs had red today so I found something red and decided to post it just for fun.!! Kind of weird I know!!!! :) :) I also noticed that today was Canada Day.... SO... Happy Canada Day!!!!!

Honolulu and the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor. Taken from Punchbowl lookout. :)

The Center for Korean Studies at the University of Hawaii - Manoa Campus.
The buildings that house the Center for Korean Studies were designed by two Korean architects, Chong In-guk and Na Sang-gi, with modifications and final blueprints by two Hawai'i architects, Jo Paul Rognstad and Vernon Kim. Ground was broken for the start of construction on July 1, 1974. The building was completed in December 1979. An extensive exterior renovation was carried out from 1998 to 2001. Above is some of the detail in the top portion of the building. The designs and colors are amazing.

Lanikai Beach looking out to the Mokes. I know.. I know the footprint is centered. But I thought it looked cool with the fisheye!!! :)

Waikiki just before sunset... A very nice evening out... :) :)

King Kamehameha Statue. Every year in honor of King Kamehameha the statue is draped in lei. It is amazing how long those lei are and how beautiful they look... This year again the sky was cloudy and overcast. Darn was hoping for some nice puffy clouds behind the Statue.. Oh well..It was still a beautiful site. Aloha, Renee :)

Graduation Hawaii Style. It was a fun evening on Monday nite at my daughter's graduation (middle of the front row). The last image is after the graduation ceremony when you receive lei from friends and family.... As you can see you can end with lots lots lots and lots of lei... Oh my gosh... They can really get heavy after awhile so we had to take them off her several times since they just kept piling up.. It was just tooooo funny...
AND...Thank you everyone for your well wishes and kind comments. It is nice to have a free moment to say HI and post again. Aloha, Renee :)

Hi everyone... I think that I have time now to post some of my recent images.. With traveling to Wisconsin for a last visit with my Grandmother before she passed away and then my daughter getting college stuffs done and graduation being last nite.. relatives coming to Hawaii arriving in Hawaii for graduation.. Oh and we can not forget about work... I think.. just maybe I will have a little time now. One can always hope.. :) :) :)
This is my DPC entry that ended today so I finally can post it to my blog. I wanted to post it last week but thought better of it.. :) The image is from the Lantern Festival at Ala Moana Beach Park. It is an amazing site. Hundreds of people release these paper lanterns with candles in them to float out in the ocean at sunset. Very touching and totally beautiful. It was a nice evening with little wind and a very nice sunset. The only difficult thing is to try to beat off all of the other hundreds of photographers that come out to this event. WOW.. I had no idea that there were that many people in Honolulu with Canon cameras/gear :) :) :)... It was fun but you had to be willing to get into the salt water with your camera, lens and monopod. Boy was I holding tight to everything.. :) :) Then of course there is the salt removal/clean up after you get home... Salt water does mean things to camera gear... ~Annie~ my mentor/shooting partner :) :) was off on a business trip on the mainland and kept calling me to enter the challenge.. I wasn"t going to enter but then figured OK OK ok ok ok Annie... I will send in an image.. :) :) :) Thanks.... Annie... glad you encouraged me since it is my highest scoring image to date!! :) :) Well,, tomorrow I will be posting a few images from my daughters graduation which took place last nite!! It was awesome.. :) :) Aloha, Renee :)

Rose :)

Playing around with Annie's new fisheye lens last Friday nite at Ala Moana Beach Park. Tons of fun... Thanks for sharing Annie :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Last night was Sr. Prom. Took some semi formal shots along with some not so formal ones!!!

An Afternoon Latte with a White Chocolate, berry, lemon cake. YUM.. :)

HAPPY EASTER
An ice cold cup of water Waikiki Style. With bunny ears of course :)

A golden California Sunrise. Quite different from our Hawaii Sunrise's... :) But still very spectacular :)

It is a real long ways down to the lake :)

Mainland Daffodils.. Wow they grow everywhere :)

Today at Kapiolani Park there was a Scottish Festival. Got a couple of shots of the mini battles. Since it was really overcast thought I would convert to B & W and blur out the background for a dreamy kind of sort a effect!!! :)

Driving around the mainland is quite fun. Never know what will appear. Thought that this small building with the reflection in the pond was cute. :) We are back home again but will post some images from the mainland until I get out and take some Hawaii shots.. :) :)

Above is with my 70/200 with Phil's 1x teleconverter.. and below.... same location but after the sunset with a 1000 lens.. Oh my :)

I had the pleasure of meeting an awesome photographer this evening in Waikiki at sunset. He allowed me to take a few shots with his 1000 lens. Yup!! 1000 with 2x teleconverter.. OH WOW.... :) :) It was awesome. My images didnt turn out super clear (cause of me not the lens) but it was really fun and so exciting. Thank you kindly Phil for sharing :)

Good Morning :)

The "gang" so my daughter calls them thought that a test photo shoot for senior pictures sounded good. Very last minute. They even made their own backdrop!!.. It was fun and they all enjoyed themselves just a tiny bit :) :)

A sunset Sail.

Never tried a panoramic shot so I figured I would give it a shot :) .. Stitched together in photoshop. It was a fun.. :) :) :)

Just a little sun light :)